Participants at the workshop (Photo: VNA)

Hoa Binh (VNA) – An international workshop on the role and value of Mo Muong - a unique cultural heritage of the Muong ethnic group in the northwestern province of Hoa Binh, is being held in the locality on January 5-6. 

Jointly organised by the Vietnam National Academy of Music (VNAM), and the provincial Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the event offered a venue for scientists, researchers and artisans to discuss and give analysis to clarify more about the role and value of Mo Muong, and propose measures to preserving the cultural heritage. 

Deputy Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Hoang Dao Cuong emphasised that the organisation of the international workshop was an important requirement for preparing dossiers for Mo Muong to be included in the UNESCO List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding. 

He underlined the need to promote activities to popularise the unique values of Mo Muong heritage, and update information on religious rituals similar to the heritage in the world, and propose measures to preserve Mo Muong on the basis of local and international experiences in preserving similar heritage types in the country and in the world.

Director of the provincial Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism Bui Thi Niem said the event aimed to stress the significance of Mo Muong in the cultural and spiritual lives of the Muong people in particular and for the richness of the Vietnamese cultural heritage in general. 

She affirmed that sectors and agencies in the locality will work hard to raise public awareness of the value of Mo Muong, thus promoting the preservation of the heritage. 

Mo Muong is a job and also a performance practiced at funerals, religious festivals, and life cycle rituals by the Muong ethnic group. The art consists of Mo prayers and performances, by Mo practitioners, or Mo artisans.

Through generations, Mo prayers have been passed down verbally in the community. When they’re collected, translated, and published in books, however, they begin to exist separately from people.

These days, most Mo prayers are called Mo Muong. They are a collection of verses recited at traditional Muong funerals. 

Each Muong community has its own version of Mo, but they are all fairly similar. The existence of various versions of Mo has helped expand the heritage and spiritual life of the Muong people. 

Mo Muong has a long life, spanning centuries, as it has always helped to nurture the characteristics and the souls of the Muong people. It is the essence of labour, production, cultural behaviour and the philosophy of the Muong people, reflecting their love of life and home villages.

Mo Muong has been practised in the northern mountainous provinces of Hoa Binh, Son La, Phu 🉐Tho, and Ninh Binh, the north central province of Thanh Hoa, the Central Highlands province of Dak Lak and Hanoi./.&nbs෴p;