Nguyen Quang Tue (right) often makes field trips to Ba Na villages to record old people singing epics (Photo VNA) Hanoi (VNA) - Researchers fear theepics of ethnic minority groups in the Central Highlands might get lost intooblivion. So they are spending their time and energy to visit the elders inlocal communities to record epics, and are even hiring people to translate andprint the lyrics for preservation.
Epics are stories describing the early days ofan ethnic group. They talk about the valour of the group’s ancestors infighting with adversaries and struggling to survive in the wild. The storieshave both good and bad characters, with the good folks winning at the end.Epics are either sung or read out loud like stories. Community elders can singnight after night. In the past, the Ba Na used to gather at the villagecommunal house to listen to epics recited by elders.
The epic of the Ba Na in Gia Lai province wasrecognised as the National Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2014.
Dedication to preserve heritage
Nguyen Quang Tue, head of the Culture HeritageManagement Department under Gia Lai province’s Department of Culture, Sportsand Tourism is a dedicated staff.
He is a member of the Kinh majority group thatis highly respected by the local Ba Na people. He is often found at the housesof epic reciters to listen to their songs and record them.
Ask him about his work, and he will answer witha smile, “The task chose me, and I love it.”
For Tue, the traditional epics of ethnic groupsare like priceless gems. “Ba Na people’s epics have been vocally handed downthrough generations and are recorded in the minds of the group’s elders. Sadly,the young ones are not interested in learning the epics. I love the traditionalcultural stock and will be very sad if the epics disappear. So, I want torecord them and print the lyrics to popularise them,” Tue said.
He started his travels to record Ba Na artistssome 30 years ago, setting out with a backpack.
“Their houses are often located in remote areas.One person lives hundreds of kilometres away from another,” Tue said. “Theroads are often difficult to travel on. When I started, it was not easy to buya recorder. I saved for a long time to buy a cassette.”
“Each epic lasted long, as the elders could notsing non-stop. So I had to record and wait for them to rest. Sometimes it tookme several days to record an epic,” said Tue.
He started by recording epics on cassettes andstored them in styrofoam boxes. Later, when he had enough money, he bought arecord player and camcorder, which made the task easy for him. But therewere still challenges.
“The tapes would get spoilt by humidity, so Idecided to get them translated into Vietnamese and print them,” Tue said.
He chose translators who were fluent in bothKinh and Ba Na languages.
So far, Tue has printed 10 books of Ba Na epics,some paid for by the Government and some by himself.
He printed 500 copies of the latest epic book ata total cost of 60 million VND (2,640 USD). He has been able to pay only 15million VND so far; the rest, he said, he will need to loan.
Two years ago, Tue initiated a charity programmeto support old reciters who could no longer work.
To date, he has raised a fund of 105 millionVND. He uses this money to pay the monthly salary of eight old reciters in GiaLai and Kon Tum provinces. Each of them receives 300,000 VND every month. Allof them are more than 65 years old and do not enjoy any privileged policies.
Carrying on a father’s legacy
In the house where renowned late artist Dieu Kauof the M’Nong ethnic group used to live in Dak Ndrung commune in Dak Songdistrict, Dak Nong province, all material that he had collected, compiled andtranslated into Vietnamese language have been neatly arranged by his daughter,Thi Mai.
Mai, now 43, is the only person in her communitywho knows to recite and translate Ot Ndrong (epics of M’Nong group)into Vietnamese.
She is trying to complete what her father hadstarted, and wants to run a school someday to teach Ot Ndrong toyoung M’Nongs.
“These are all my father’s treasures,” she saidwhile giving out the M’Nong - Vietnamese Dictionary, M’Nong Stock ofOld Sayings and Verses, M’Nong Folk Songs and M’Nong FamilyAnnals to reporters.
“Before my father passed away, he was stillcollecting old sayings, folk songs and family annals of the M’Nong who used toand are still residing from Binh Phuoc to Dak Lak and Dak Nong,” Mai said.“These are works that my father had spent lots of time and energy on andcollected during field trips to other M’Nong villages.”
“He was left with translating two epics andrecording 50 others,” Mai said.
Thanks to her father’s hard work, as many as 120epics have been recorded, 40 of which have been written in M’Nong language andare ready to be translated into Vietnamese.
“My duty is to continue to write down and translatethe remaining 80 epics,” Mai said, “What I am worried about is that there are20 epics that have not been recorded. K’Lung, in his late 70s, the only elderwho can sing them, is growing weaker day by day. His eyesight is deteriorating.If we do not record urgently, we may never be able to do so if he passes away.”
Mai said the Culture Research Institute staffhad asked K’Lung to sing for them in 1995 for the purpose of recording and hadpaid him 150,000 VND per tape.
“My children are young and I am busy with dailychores. I have no budget to record him. I hope the concerned agencies help mein this regard and also open courses to facilitate teaching M’Nong epics to theyounger generation so that I can fulfil my father’s dream,” Mai said. - VNA
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