Dien Bien (VNS/VNA) - Tong Van Han has spentmore than 20 years researching and preserving the cultural values of theThai ethnic minority, particularly the Black Thai.

The 47-year-old from the northern mountainousprovince of Dien Bien is of Thai ethnicity and understands thatcultural preservation has become an urgent task amidVietnam's globalisation and development.

Han, an active member of the Vietnam FolkArts Association since 2009, said the beauty of Thai culture has interested himsince he was a teenager and when he entered high school, hestarted researching traditional Thai customs.

“The more I worked on researching, the more Iwas attracted to it. I have found the Thai cultural treasures are vast,fruitful and unique compared to other ethnic groups,” Han said.  

Along with researching and collecting culturallysignificant items, Han also wrote articles for newspapers and magazines.

His stilt house in Lieng village,Noong Luong commune, Dien Bien district is filled with items relatedto Black Thai ethnic culture.

Around him on the wooden floor and on hisworking desk are piles of books, manuscripts and Black Thai traditionaldocuments including those about customs, festivals, music and folk songs, andknowledge in the process of building the Thai community.

Currently, the man is also doing research andanalysis on a book titled The Ancestor Worship of the BlackThai written in Thai language on the do (poonah) paper, which he inheritedfrom his grandfather.

Han said he became a professional collector andresearcher in 2003 after he focused on a methodical and intensive way ofworking.

“First, I focused on the religious practiceof the Black Thai people because I thought in the concept and mind of the BlackThai people ‘everything has a soul or spirit’. That means all things andspecies which have been identified have their own immutable souls, thusthose things such as forests, fields and houses have a spirit (God) to governthem,” said Han.

The researcher said during the process ofmigration, land reclamation, farming and setting up their community, Black Thaipeople have a culture of behaviour, interacting with nature with folkrituals that had been passed down through generations.

“Therefore, their knowledge of religiouspractices is a vast, colourful and unique domain. However, such religiouspractice is strongly influenced by a process of the community livingconditions, cultural interference and the fluctuations and impacts of modernlife that have led to the fact that their original own values are changing andcould even be lost," Han said.

Since becoming a member of the Vietnam Folk ArtsAssociation in 2009, his talent in the field of national cultural researchhas begun to show.

He published a project in 2012 about aBlack Thai traditional game with qua con (sacred ball) as the keytarget. The project was his initial success in researching Black Thaiculture.

With a rich knowledge about the Black Thaiaccumulated over the years, Han surprised many people with his researchinto the meaning of qua con, an object in shape of a ball madeof colourful pieces of cloth and commonly used in the game called nemcon (throwing a sacred ball through a ring) of Thai people in thenorthwestern region on special occasions.

Through his research, qua con he foundalso has a spiritual life as it comes through processes of forming,developing, carrying a soul and personality, conveying the narrative andemotional message of the ball holders who participate in the game.

The ball is also regarded as a "guaranteeof love" at a wedding, a sacred object in the rituals of the Black Thai.

Following his first success, Han published twomore books. One about the culinary culture of Black Thai in Dien Bienprovince published in 2012. The other was about the cross culture of the BlackThai in Dien Bien's Muong Thanh ward, published in 2014.

The two works are used by businessesrunning community tourism enterprises in Dien Bien province to enrich theirmenus to attract tourists to their homestays.

On his difficulties at work, Han said travellingis one of his biggest issues.

“To reach the most convincing, true and livelysamples and materials of the Thai culture, I have to go to many places lookingfor artisans and the elderly who have folklore knowledge in villages. Itsometimes takes a whole week for a trip but I could get nothing, I havefaced misfortune after many trips because I could not get thenecessary subjects or meet the right person.

"Time is passing and some festivals mighthave lost their origins. To revert them to a unified and complete work, Inote things down, record everything I have collected then compare andfilter before writing a logical and truthful book,” Han said.

The researcher reveals another challenge hefaces is the translation from ethnic Thai language into Vietnamese.

He said if translators can not understand thelinguistics and the original "beauty" of Thai language, they willsignificantly reduce the original value of the language and the meaningwill also be narrow.

For nearly 20 years of researchingBlack Thai culture, Han has travelled through every village where Black Thaipeople live with his backpack containing just a cell phone, a recorder,pens and paper. In his backpack, Han also has some gifts to offer to theelderly.

Han has published 12 works about Thai cultureand communities up to now. These books have helped revive part of thetraditional cultural treasures of the Black Thai ethnic community in DienBien and the northwestern region.

Han also studies other ethnic cultures in DienBien such as those of the Cong people.

At a national contest to promote studying andfollowing President Ho Chi Minh’s ideology, morality and lifestylein 2016-2020, Han won second prize with his work about Thai folk songs inMuong Thanh./.