A troupe of Gong performers at village K2, Vinh Son commune

To Bana Kriem ethnic people at Vinh Thanh, the gongs closely attach to each of person from his first presence in this world to his official membership of the community via ceremonies of ear blowing. He grows up with sound of the gongs in festivals of crop harvesting, buffalo fighting, wedding, etc. The gongs also resound when he departed this world to join the Heaven. The gongs make their deep roots into lives of each person, uniting the whole Bana community.

A Bana troupe of traditional gong performers always has a chogut drum player. He leads the troupe and beats the drums hanging on his chest with hands, not with drumsticks. The sounds of chogut drum are very animated and warm because the drumhead is often made of wild goat or cow skins. Chogut drum beating is a complicated art which requires high skills because it guides the whole gong performance. Village girls gently dance with the animated drum beats.

The performers often moves in reverse direction of clock, around a bamboo tree set up at a front yard or in front of the village’s communal house. Precious set of gongs must satisfy all criteria of beautiful sounds with resounding high pitches and pleasant low pitches. The gongs shouldn’t produce cracked or broken sounds in spite of uninterrupted beating in couples of consecutive days and nights. Each of such gong sets is worth 50-60 big buffaloes, said the village patriarchs.

Vinh Thanh’s Ethnic Minority Boarding School is taking the lead in preserving and promoting gong values. It established a troupe of gong performers and dancers in 1990. The troupe now has 13 male gong performers and 15 female dancers. All are young and enthusiastic in presenting “professional” performances at Vinh Thanh. Unfortunately, Vinh Thanh doesn’t have such many troupes.

Bana ethnic people play gongs in various festivals, particularly in the festival of buffalo sacrifice. On this occasion, the villagers offer sacrifices to heaven and earth, and to gods. This is also a music festival, revealing customs, beliefs and spiritual strength of the community.

Although the gongs of the Bana Kriem ethnic people at Vinh Thanh play such important role and possess a great cultural value, they become lesser and lesser in amount while the gong performances get worse and worse in quality. The gongs are giving way to invasion of alien cultures.

The number of gong sets which is still available at the Bana Kriem villages is both small and incomplete. Most of the gongs are odd objects, unable to match together and easy to be purchased. There are almost no campaigns to raise the villagers’ awareness of the gong value. So is the assistance for the villagers to preserve and promote the gong value in their lives.

The gradual absence of the gongs in the cultural and spiritual lives of the Bana Kriem ethnic people leads to unpredictable consequences. Yet, the local authorities and relevant agencies don’t really seem to understand this.

• Long Vu