Dak Lak, Vietnam (VNA)- Tay Nguyen (Central Highlands) of Vietnam is not only recognized for its gong culture, but also for its wooden statues, as rustic and simple as the people of this region.
The art of sculpting wood It has interested folklorists because it vividly shows the culture of that area and the rich spiritual life of the ethnic groups living there.
For the ethnic groups of the Central Highlands, the Bo ma (leaving the grave) is the biggest and happiest festival and the one that best showcases the culture and high sense of community of the Central Highlands region.
In this festivity the popular art of architecture and sculpture of the ethnic groups of the Central Plateau originated, represented by statues in tombs.
For the locals, a tomb is not a monument, but a home for the dead, which must contain everything necessary for the next world.
The Bo ma festival is considered the time when the living and the dead part. After the party, it is believed that the dead go to the other world, taking with them everything that the living have prepared for them.
A tomb in the central highlands includes a house and surrounding fence. The house not only covers the underground tomb and contains the things that the living have given to the dead, but also serves as a frame where colorful, mysterious and vivid decorative sculptures and drawings are placed.
When visiting tombs in Tay Nguyen, it seems that you walk through a labyrinth of wooden statues of various shapes and expressions, but with one thing in common: the image of fertility, reproduction and growth.
Illustration photo (Source: VNA)–
The diversity of statues in a tomb represents the next life of the dead after the Bo ma festival.
Fortunately, when Tay Nguyen’s woodcarving art was beginning to fade, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam issued a resolution in July 1998 to build “an advanced culture deeply imbued with national identity,” which was a timely lifeline. for this artistic aspect.
The few remaining artisans have also been invited to Hanoi to display their art at the Vietnamese Ethnic Group Cultural Village and the Museum of Ethnology. In these places, wooden sculptures of Tay Nguyen have been restored and presented to the public, which are also a kind of guide to take tourists to the legendary and wild central highlands./.
VNA
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