Basic HTML Version
The people witnessing the ritual
always feel a strong, holy atmosphere
around them and they join hands to
pray. “I feel reverent and purified in
my heart when thinking back to the
history and deities who made it,” says
Truong Thi Hoa, a 26 year old women
who attended a rite in a temple in
Hanoi.
As the medium switches between
one deity and another she needs sev-
eral assistants to help her change cos-
tumes. Once a veil is taken off, they will
dance to depict the actions of the deity.
At the end of the rite, the medium
will throw money and other offerings,
such as sticky rice or cake to the crowd.
Sometimes, this causes a chaotic and
noisy situation, with many people clam-
ouring to catch the lucky money.
There are 36 deities and each rite
has between six and twelve incarna-
tions, so the dances are very diverse.
Mediums may incarnate a brave com-
mando dancing with sword, or a moth-
er goddess dancing with flag. The in-
carnation of princes and princesses can
entail very mischievous dancing.
The melodies vary from fast to
slow, with calm, smooth sounds flow-
ing into more strong and joyful tunes
with the sounds of tambourines, casta-
nets, lutes, the two string Vietnamese
dan nhi
and other instruments.
The variation of the musical flow
means the singer faces a tough chal-
lenge and needs a huge amount of en-
ergy and talent to fulfil the task during
the rite, which can last up to eight hours.
As well as improvising to the ac-
tions and emotions of the deities, a
chau van singer has to follow the pitch-
es and beat of the music.
Chau van
singing is considered the
vital element which makes the religion
of the Mother Goddess unique. While
other faiths rely on a bible or a system
of tenets, chau van is the central aspect
of the Mother Goddess religion.
According to professor Ngo Duc
Thinh, of Vietnam’s Religious Culture Re-
search and Preservation Center, some
professional artists cannot make it as a
chau van
singer. This is why famous and
prestigious mediums choose their own
singers and musicians. Otherwise un-
known groups who perform in local tem-
ples are paid several million dong per
ceremony, while the more renowned
groups can be paid massive sums.
Vu Nguyen, a
chau van
singer in
Hanoi, says that his group was paid
VND70 million for one performance in
Dong Cuong temple. Nguyen Thi Nguy-
et, a medium from Dien Bien province,
went to a rite in Bao Ha temple in Lao
Cai province where a group of five was
paid VND120 million.
Ngo Duc Thinh was a member of
Hanoi’s first
Chau Van
Rite Festival’s or-
ganization board. Held from September
25 to October 5, the rites took place in
selected temples in Hanoi. Of these,
the ten best were chosen to perform on
stage at The Worker Theatre.
According to Nguyen Khac Loi, dep-
uty director of the Hanoi Department of
Culture, Sport and Tourism, the festival
was a way of respecting the regional
distinctions of chau van.
“
Chau van
singing is a valuable
religious form of art that needs to
be preserved, promoted and intro-
duced to the public, both at home
and abroad,” says professor Ngo Duc
Thinh. “
Chau van
singing has quintes-
sential, folk characteristics, so it has all
the factors it needs to be recognised
as one of the world’s intangible cul-
tural heritages by UNESCO.”
timeout
13
CULTURAL WINDOW