Bau Chinh ethnic cultural house in Kim Long commune, Ho Chi Minh City

The project was first built in 2002 with simple bamboo and rattan. After many years of deterioration, at the end of 2016, Chau Duc District People's Committee invested more than 14 billion VND to rebuild it on an area of ​​6,000m2, inaugurated and put into use from November 2018.

The current cultural house area includes: traditional stilt houses, executive offices, libraries, sports grounds and exhibition spaces for artifacts associated with the life of the Cho Ro people. This is both a place for community activities and a center for spreading the spirit of solidarity and preserving culture.

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Gongs and artifacts associated with the life of the Cho Ro people are displayed inside the traditional stilt house.

Sharing with VietNamNet , Ms. Duong Thi Trien (46 years old, Cho Ro ethnic group), Deputy Director of Bau Chinh Ethnic Cultural House, said that the Cho Ro ethnic group mainly lives in Ngai Giao town, Da Bac commune, Bau Chinh commune and Binh Ba commune (former Chau Duc district). For the Cho Ro ethnic group, the cultural house is not only a place to organize traditional festivals, but is truly a common home that nurtures community solidarity.

The Chau Ro people have many big festivals throughout the year, typically the rice god worshiping ceremony (Yangri) in the third lunar month and the forest god worshiping ceremony (Yangva) in the eleventh lunar month. This is an occasion for people, even those who work far away, to return home to reunite. In addition to the ceremony, the festival atmosphere is also bustling with folk dances, singing, and musical instrument performances, creating a unique community activity.

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Ms. Duong Thi Trien introduces traditional costumes of the Cho Ro people.

Preserving identity, passing it on to the younger generation

Ms. Duong Thi Trien said that inside the cultural house, there are currently many artifacts related to the people's lives such as gongs, costumes, baskets, crossbows, trays, Goong Kla musical instruments, gourd trumpets, leaf trumpets, bamboo trumpets... along with many images of cultural activities. These artifacts help the younger generation and tourists understand more about the lifestyle and customs of the Cho Ro people.

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Cho Ro ethnic children are instructed and taught how to play gongs.

Not only organizing festivals, the cultural house also regularly opens classes to teach gongs, musical instruments and folk dancing to young people.

“We also cooperated with the provincial Ethnic Boarding School to open a class to teach reading in the Cho Ro language, and established a gong and folk song club to help the younger generation love and be more proud of their ethnic cultural identity. Many children who were initially shy are now confident in performing at major festivals, becoming a bridge for the continued transmission of ethnic culture,” said Ms. Trien.

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lễ hội của đồng bào chơ ro.jpg

Not only preserving the identity, Bau Chinh Ethnic Cultural House is also a place to organize mass sports and cultural movements, contributing to improving spiritual life. Art competitions, volleyball and badminton tournaments take place regularly, creating a useful playground for young people.

The leader of Kim Long Commune People's Committee said that Bau Chinh Ethnic Cultural House not only serves daily needs, but is also a center for launching and implementing movements, especially the movement of "all people unite to build a cultural life". This is a place for the Cho Ro ethnic community to gather, bond and develop.

Currently, Bau Chinh Ethnic Culture House has become a destination for many tourist groups and researchers who want to learn about Cho Ro culture. This space is both the pride of the people and contributes to enriching the cultural identity of Vietnamese ethnic groups.

According to Vietnamnet.vn