Over 1,000 artisans to join gong cultural festival

Gia Lai (VNA) – More than 1,000 artisans from five Central Highlands provinces will perform at the 2018 Gong Cultural Festival scheduled to take place from November 30 to December 2 in Gia Lai province.

The event will feature many traditional festivals and rituals in the region, along with special regional dishes.

During the festival, visitors can engage in community-based tours to explore daily life of local people and beautiful landscape in Gia Lai.

The festival is expected to welcome between 25,000 and 30,000 visitors along with 300 invited guests from ministries, sectors and UNESCO Vietnam, foreign embassies and consulate generals in Vietnam. 

Nguyen Quang Tue, from the provincial Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, said more than half of over 10,000 sets of gongs in the Central Highlands are now being preserved by Gia Lai province.

The Cultural Space of Gong of Tay Nguyen was recognised by the UNESCO as a masterpiece of the oral and intangible heritage of the humanity in 2005. It is closely linked to the daily life of local people. Their belief systems form a mystical world where the gongs produce a privileged language between men, divinities and the supernatural world.

The Central Highlands region comprises five provinces of Lam Dong, Gia Lai, Dak Lak, Dak Nong and Kon Tum.-VNA