25th August, 2012.
The Viet Nam Museum of Ethnology, opened in 1997, focuses on the 54 officially recognized ethnic groups in Viet Nam. It is located in the Cầu Giấy District, about 8km from the city centre. It is widely considered to be the finest modern museum in Vietnam.
The exhibition building was designed by the architect Hà Đức Lịnh, a member of the Tay ethnic group, in the shape of a Đông Sơn drum.
Đông Sơn drums are bronze drums fabricated by the Đông Sơn culture in the Red River Delta of northern Viet Nam. The drums were produced from about 600 BC or earlier until the third century AD, and are one of the culture's finest examples of metalworking. Picture from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dong_Son_drum
Viet Nam Museum of Ethnology, looking like a Đông Sơn drum.
Picture from http://www.google.com.au/imgres?
The Museum is divided into two parts: an indoor and an outdoor exhibition. The indoor collection encompasses 54 collections of each individual ethnic group. Functionally classified, there are collections of clothing, jewellery, agricultural tools, fishing instruments, weapons, household utensils and musical instruments. In addition, there are collections of artefacts related to the various religions, beliefs, wedding ceremonies, funeral ceremonies and other social and spiritual activities.
The outdoor exhibition highlights different types of houses in all parts of Viet Nam.
There were some groups of school children at the museum, having fun.
Nobody here was going to get lost. How cute!
Bahnar communal house.
Houses of diverse ethnic groups in Viet Nam have been built in the grounds by artisans from the villages where these houses are traditionally designed and built.
This spectacular 19 metre high communal house of the Bahnar was built in 2003 by 42 villagers from Kon Rbang village, Kontum town, in the Central Highlands of Viet Nam. According to the Bahnar, the communal house is the symbol of the skill and strength of the villagers.
It also took a degree of skill and strength for us, not to mention balance, to negotiate the front steps, which were literally solid wooden poles with chunks cut out of them. Getting down again was interesting as well.
Once you had negotiated the stairs, if you wanted to go into the Bahnar House, you had to either take off your shoes or put on some shoe covers. Here is Pat modelling the very fetching shoe covers.
The Ede Long House had steps for women and steps for men. Here is Pat carefully going up the men’s steps.
And here is Pat beside the ladies’ steps of the Ede Long House.
I have just climbed up the ladies’ steps of the Ede Long House. You can see the Bahnar House behind me.
The Gairai Tomb, covered with tightly plaited bamboo matting, was built for the museum in 1998 by five Giarai Arep villagers. The most prominent decorations on the Gairai Tomb are large wooden sculptures carved from tree trunks using adzes, cutlasses and knives, representing, er, fertility.
Inside the Cham traditional house.
The Cham house was being used as the setting for some wedding photos.
Wedding guests at the Cham house:
In the grounds of the museum, there was a water puppet show in progress, but this little girl was more interested in having a drink – not that I blame her, as it was very hot.
Meanwhile, this little soul, with a promising career as a model ahead of her, was professionally posing for her Daddy to take pictures of her.
No comments:
Post a Comment