A street festival during the 2018 Tay Nguyen Gong Culture Festival (Photo: VNA) GiaLai (VNA) – The 2018 Tay Nguyen Gong Culture Festival wrapped upwith a colourful closing ceremony held in Pleiku city, the Central Highlands(Tay Nguyen) province of Gia Lai, on the night of December 2.
Thehighlight of the closing event was a gong and traditional music and danceperformance typical of the cultures of the Central Highlands, home to manyethnic minority groups.
Addressing the ceremony, Chairman of Gia Lai provincialPeople’s Committee Vo Ngoc Thanh said the festival was a big feast of not only wonderfulgong performances by excellent gong artists but also traditional music of otherlocalities in the country.
“The2018 Tay Nguyen Gong Culture Festival sends the message for all people to joinhands in conserving and developing the cultural values of the gong, which hasbeen recognised by UNESCO as a masterpiece of theoral and intangible heritage of the humanity,” Thanh said.
Takingplace from November 30, the festival’s main activities includedtraditional rituals, folk wood sculpture, brocade weaving, epic recitals, photoand document exhibitions, and conferences on the preservation and promotion ofgong culture legacy of ethnic races in the region, among others.
The gong is closely linked tothe daily life of local people in Tay Nguyen. Their belief systems form amystical world where the gongs serve as a privileged language between men,divinities and the supernatural world.
Currently, Tay Nguyen has more than 10,000sets of gongs, over half of which are kept in Gia Lai province.-VNA
VNA
