Chau Van Singing - A Unique Feature of Vietnamese Culture

Hau dong and Chau van singing are often performed at temples where saints are worshiped.

In order to preserve and promote the art of Chau van singing, the French Cultural Centre in Hanoi and Vietnam’s Chau van Singing Preservation Club recently organized a two-night Chau van singing performance, drawing much attention from the public

Chau van, also known as Hat van and Hat bong, originates from the Red River delta and mainly the northern province of Nam Dinh. It is a religious form of art which combines singing and dancing that is often performed in the Hau dong(mediumship) rite of the religion of the “Four Palaces” or the Mother Goddess and Saint Tran (Tran Hung Dao). The lyrics and verses of the songs in Chau van singing focus on extolling the merits of beneficent deities or national heroes. Therefore, the melodies are smooth and attiring and then quick, strong and joyful in the fuss of tambourine, castanets and cymbal noises that always give the performance an animated atmosphere.  

The medium is considered “a bridge” from the spiritual to the real world.

The book entitled “Kien van tieu luc” by scholar Le Quy Don (1726-1784) says: “In the Tran Dynasty (1225-1400), there was a style of singing in the kings’ presence, called Chau signing”. Chau van singing consists of different forms, including Van thi or Hat van (competition singing), Van tho or Hat tho (worship singing) and Van hau or Hat len dong (singing at the Hau dong rite).

Hat thi is often seen at competitions and only one person performs while Hat tho is performed on the first and fifth days of the month according to the lunar calendar and on festive days of saints’ parties. Hat len dong plays an important role in the rite of going into a trance. During the rite, the spirits of saints incarnate into male and female mediums who then dance and enjoy songs performed by Cung van (singers and instrumentalists).

The medium performs at  Hau dong rite.
The verses of songs in Chau van singing focus on praising the merits of saints.
The Hau dong rite is highlighted by Chau van singing and dancing for extolling the merits of 
A dance at the Hau dong rite. 

The verses of songs in Chau van singing focus on praising the merits of saints.

The two-night Chau van singing show at the French Cultural Centre in Hanoi not only introduced to the audience the history and development of the unique artistic genre, but also presented the space of Chau van singing performance with the popular scenes of temples and palaces.

The show attracted the participation of famous artists who have been a part of Chau van singing for years, including Duc Hai (clarinet), Van Khai (two-string Chinese violin), Thanh Ha (zither with 36 brass strings) and Xuan Dung (flute). The artists brought the audience unique performances like “Quan Tam Phu”, “Quan Tuan Tranh”, “Chau De Nhat” and “Chau De Nhi”.

Prof. Ngo Duc Thinh, Head of Vietnam’s Chau van Singing Preservation Club, said: “Chau van singing is a valuable religious form of art that needs to be preserved, promoted and introduced to the public both at home and abroad. Chau vansinging has acquired over the centuries both quintessence and folksy characteristics so it has all factors to be recognized as a world’s intangible cultural heritage.

VNP

Cat Ba National Park

Cat Ba Island was recognised by UNESCO as World Biosphere Reserve on 19 December 2004. Nowadays, Cat Ba still attracts visitors by its pristine beauty and legends of its history and culture.

Situated on Cat Ba Island, 50km to the east of Hai Phong City, in Northern Viet Nam, Cat Ba National Park now comprises of 15,200ha in total including 9,800ha of mountain area and 5,400ha of marine area. 

Many archaeological sites, Ha Long cultural vestiges and the marks of the old Vietnamese were found here. The plant system consists of 620 species including 123 valuable families; the fauna system comprises of 20 species of mammal, 69 species of bird, 20 species of reptile and amphibian, especially Trachypithecus poliocephalus ( Vooc dau trang) living in cliffs. Cat Ba Sea contains 300 species of fish, 500 species of mollusc and crustacean, among which a number of species are used to make valuable handicraft products.

Cat Ba Island was recognised by UNESCO as World Biosphere Reserve on 19 December 2004. Nowadays, Cat Ba still attracts visitors by its pristine beauty and legends of its history and culture.

Tam Cung - a magnificent grotto in Ha Long Bay

Situated in the centre of Halong Bay, the Tam Cung grotto is divided into three parts; after threading the stone cracks, you find the first chamber. Many beautiful forms can be garnered from the rocky shapes

Tam Cung Grotto is located in May Den, a luxuriant island nearly isolated from other islands. May Den cliffs are extremely vertical while its forest is flourishing. 

Entering its first chamber, one can hear the sound of t’rung or stone musical instrument from near and far. Pushing further inside, tourists meet a “fairy” whose white beard flies in the wind climbing the mountain. High in the wall of the chamber there stand three statues representing prosperity, happiness and longevity, looking down at the earthly world. From the ceiling falls down a stalactite which resembles the bud of a hydrangea among a garden of stone flowers.

Passing through a narrow passage, one comes to a natural museum of lively animals such as: lions, seals, even god of the sea. In the middle of the second chamber lies a stream murmuring all year round, making the two surrounding cliffs rustle. In the last chamber, tourists can find an imposing bas-relief in which are carved elaborate strange images, lying layer after layer in a harmonious layout. One can figure out flowers, bamboos, stone curtains...

Source: VNAT

A temple is the middle of Sword Lake in Hanoi

Once you have time to visit Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam, you should come to Ngọc Sơn Temple, which is a small museum covering many precious relics from different historical eras of Vietnamese history, it will help you understand a part history of the country.

Ngoc Son Temple (Đền Ngọc Sơn) is located on a small islet at Hoan Kiem Lake in the City of Hanoi. The temple was founded in the 14th century but most of its current structures were built in the 18th century.

Ngoc Son Temple is also a small museum covering many precious relics from different historical eras such as the stele writing entitled Ngọc Đế Sơn, (complied by Dr. Vũ Tông Phan in 1843), and about 1,156 valuable carved wooden blocks for printing books on literature, medicine, and linguistics.

On the walls and pillars there are parallel sentences and large letters and fantastic poems by many famous Confucian scholars who came here as sightseers. In particular, there is a specimen of a rare Hồ Gươm (Sword lake) turtle 2.1m in length, 1.2m wide and weighing 250 kilograms, which was found in 1967.

The temple is made more beautiful and sacred by being placed on Sword Lake and relating to the legend of Lê Lợi returning the sword to the magical tortoise after gaining independence for the nation in 15^th century.

Although the Temple is located at the centre of a developing city, but this site still maintains a sense of the poetic atmosphere of ancient Thăng Long. The Huc Bridge and Ngoc Son Temple have symbolized Thăng Long–Hà Nội for years.

These are some photos of Ngoc Son Temple. 

Morning Sunlight Bridge (Thê Húc)

Thap But - mean to write on the blue sky

Ngọc Son Temple

The Temple has three main sections: the external one is the bái đường (kowtowing place), the central section is Văn Xương (for worshipping) and the end section is dedicated to Trần Hưng Đạo (A figure of almost legendary proportions in Vietnamese history, a brilliant military strategist who defeated two Mongol invasions and became a cultural hero among modern Vietnamese).

Hồ Gươm (Sword lake) turtle

HT

(Collected)

Khmer Traditional Ceremony lured Thousand of People

 Ok-Om-Bok ceremony, one of the Khmer people’s three biggest festivals, lured thousands of people from some provinces gathered in Tra Vinh City’s Ao Ba Om area. The ceremony was held on the evening of November.

Khmer ethnic minority Ok-Om-Bok ceremony  attracted thousands of people from several locations gathered in Tra Vinh City’s Ao Ba Om area on the evening of November 28.

Ok-Om-Bok Ceremony

Despite the Khmer traditional ceremony only, attendants from other ethnic groups paid attention to the celebrations.

The ceremony started at 8pm but people arrived at the festival site from early afternoon. The Ok-Om-Bok ceremony or Le Cung Trang worships the moon. It is often held on the 15th day of lunar October annually. This is one the Khmer people’s three biggest festivals.

People hold the ceremony to pay tribute to the moon for their harvests and good forthcoming crops.

If tourists in Vietnam travel come to this area on the occasion of ceremony will have chance to take part in this interesting event. You will understand about one of the annually biggest festivals of the Khmer people.

Followings are some wonderful photos taken from the ceremony:

Sparkling Ao Ba Om

The moon adds to the beauty of Ao Ba Om

Khmer dancing

A girl portrays the moon

People are paying the tribute to the moon

Feeding the little boy with the hope of a new abundant crop

source: vietnamtourism.org.vn

XQ Embroidery Painting in photos

 Hand embroidery painting is a big part of the Vietnamese culture; traditionally, girls are expected to know how to decorate pillowcases, curtains and tablecloths with hand embroidery.

If you have a opportunity to visit the Su Quan Embroidery Village which spreads across a large wooded area overlooking a lush valley in Dalat city of Khanh Hoa province, you will see the ambient complex features spacious showrooms dedicated to stunning embroidered paintings; a variety of temple-style shophouses selling silk garments; landscaped rock gardens with small ponds garnished with orchids, sculptures, ferns and stonewalls embellished with colourful flowerpots and ancient Chinese calligraphy.

A showroom of hand embroidery painting

A couble of fishes is swimming in the water.

The beautiful rose flowers

Wish my son peaceful

Rice fields in Vietnam

Fishes are swimming in lotus pond

HT

(Collected)

Ganh Da Dia – Cliff of Stone Plates

Ganh Da Dia, in Tuy An district’s An Ninh Dong commune, is around 40 kilometres from vibrant Tuy Hoa city. At around 50m wide and over 200m long, Ganh Da Dia is an unparalleled venue in Vietnam.

 

Here, shiny black stones stand upright in columns. Linked tightly together, each stone has a hexagonal or octagonal-shape and is half underground and half floating in the whispering blue of the sea water.

Contiguous to Ganh Da Dia is a three kilometre beach fronted by clear blue sea water – an ideal place to set up an ocean-front upscale resort. Ganh Da Dia has a wild beauty and a pure environment, not yet affected by tourism operators.

Source:vietnamcharm.com

Xoi gac - An essence of Vietnamese tet

Gac Fruit has many other names such as baby jackfruit, sweet gourd or cochinchin gourd. This dish is usually served at many special occasions as Engagements, Weddings and even in Lunar New Year. If you love Vietnamese Food, this is one of dishes you should not miss.

Growing up, our parents used to have us scrub down the entire house the days leading up to Tết. It was one of the many important traditions we used to follow to ensure a prosperous and lucky new year.

It’s hard to believe that Tết, Vietnamese Lunar New Year, is just a few days away.

Then, the entire clan would come together, cook up a feast of goodies, offer ancestral prayers at the alter, hand out lì xì (lucky money in red envelopes) to the kids, eat, drink, laugh, and well—gamble and play cards! Needless to say, it was always a fun time.

One of the traditional dishes often found around Tết is Xôi Gấc which is essentially, glutinous rice (sticky rice) that has been steamed with coconut milk and Gấc.

This is one of those Vietnamese dishes whose name just doesn’t translate well into English. The first challenge is “Gấc”.  It has several English names such as Baby Jackfruit, Cochinchin Gourd, Sweet Gourd, Momordica Charantia Fruit, and my least favorite–Spiny Bitter Gourd. I mean, c’mon now…… How unappetizing does Spiny Bitter Gourd sound? You might as well throw in some other funky words like gelatinous and congealed and call it a day.

But I digress…..

Since I’ve seen Gấc more often called “Baby Jackfruit“—–I’m going with it. But for the record, it does not taste like regular jackfruit or even “young jackfruit”. Could I BE more confusing???

The flesh of the Gấc fruit is deep red and is well suited to not only flavor Xôi (sticky rice) but also naturally dyes the grains of rice to an intense orange-reddish hue. It’s because of this that you’ll find Xôi Gấc served at celebrations such as Tết and weddings since the color red is considered to be very lucky.

Although fresh Gấc can now be found in many large Vietnamese grocery stores this time of year, I couldn’t convince myself to make the trek to Orange County to pick some up. I resorted to using frozen Gấc puree that my local Vietnamese grocery store has stocked year round.

If you can get it, I would HIGHLY recommend using the fresh fruit over frozen as you won’t be able to get the same rich and vibrant hue if you use the latter. Truthfully, my finished Xôi Gấc looked a tad anemic because I used the frozen puree—but it was DARN TASTY all the same.

Oh—and if being healthier is one of your New Year’s resolutions….the Gấc fruit has a supposedastronomic amount of beta-carotene and lycopene.

Since Xôi Gấc has a slightly sweet profile to it, it’s best served alongside something savory like roast pork or Chả lụa (pork sausage). But it can also be enjoyed as a breakfast item as well.

And with that Dear Friends, I better get back to cleaning my house before Tết is here. But before I sign off, let me wish you and your loved ones a joyous, adventure-filled, and delicious Year of the snake!

Internet

Dalat -a undoubtedly beautiful tourist town

Dalat is undoubtedly a beautiful tourist town. The vast majority of visitors are both domestic and foreign tourists on short package tours, drawn by the scenery, vivid blue skies, fresh air, flower-filled parks, and local edible treatment.

Da Lat is extremely famous for mild weather. Thanks to the advantage of height and enclosing pine jungle, the town is featured with temperate climate, with an average temperature of 18oC – 21°C, highest as 30oC and lowest as 5°C.

What is more, Da Lat has two distinct seasons, the rainy and the sunny ones. The former is from May to October, and the former from November to April. Tourists should be prepared for sudden rains in sunny season, sometimes rocky ones.  Never in Da Lat could we ever catch a storm, which make it favorable for tourists to take any daytime leisure walk.

This pure land of romance was discovered by the French during their invasion in southern Vietnam. Before 1893, Lang Biang highlands, an extremely cool and fresh aired area, was the accommodation of the Viet highlanders. Yet there came the day the French would like to settle a convalescent zone in a European weather-like land in 1899. Of course, they could not miss Lang Biang Highlands then. Ever since the significant choice, Da Lat was later on built with all required French-style houses, villas, treatment places, and temperate flowers & plants, etc. This has step by step formulated today’s romantic and glamorous Da Lat, a clear mountainous air zone for escaping the heat and humidity of the coast and Saigon, or the today’s Hochiminh City.

It’s no easy at all for travellers to choose the initial visiting place in Da Lat for its widespread covering beauty. On a whole, Da Lat looks like a cross between Vietnam and the French Alps. As mentioned, most of its hotels and houses were built in French style. The town spreads across a series of pine-covered hills, with a small lake in the center, while surrounded by high peaks, creating a lovely scenery quite different from the rest of Vietnam. Temperatures are pleasantly warm by day, and quite cool at night, down to perhaps 10oC.

Today, Dalat is undoubtedly a beautiful tourist town. The vast majority of visitors are both domestic and foreign tourists on short package tours, drawn by the scenery, vivid blue skies, fresh air, flower-filled parks, and local edible treatment. Dalat is a favorite destination for company weekend outings, family get-aways, and most of all, honeymoons. For overseas visitors, it offers a chance to cool down, view a bit of the French legacy, and enjoy the atmosphere. Also, Da Lat is surrounded by some of the best mountain biking, hiking and canyoning opportunities in Vietnam. Da Lat’s high altitude of 1,500-2,000m and fertile landscape make it one among Vietnam’s premium agricultural areas, producing a variety of fruits, vegetables and flowers that do not grow in the lowlands. In markets as far north as Hanoi, vegetables and flower vendors will tout their “made in Da Lat” produce.
Whoever has come to Da Lat could never forget Xuan Huong Lake (H? Xuân Huong), which is located in center of town. Xuan Huong lake is now one of the main draws of Da Lat, and also where we can see honeymooners and locals strolling its banks. Side by side Xuan Huong Lake is Top-peg Hill (Ð?i Cù), where has grown up a vast golf ground. If you are fond of fresh flowers, Da lat Flower Park is your accurate choice. The park, around 7,000 sq.m2, is situated on top of the Top-peg Hill, northern bank of Xuan Huong lake, and full of species of beautiful colored flowers to be extremely well-fed by planters. Tourists are all interested in the Da Lat’s flower festival, bringing them to a flowerfully fresh heaven!

For couples, Valley of Love (Thung Lung Tình Yêu) is the premium place to go. Its special name derived from its romantic view of silence, grace and green. The other choice is Lake of Sorrow or Lake of Sighs (H? Than th?), whose name came from a tale of two lovers, one of whom committed suicide after the other was called up to serve in the army. The romantic and beautiful Tuyen Lam Lake (H? Tuy?n Lâm) (the lake where rivers, springs and forests meet), Prenn Falls, or Pongour are also worth visiting for their beauty and fun.

On the other hand, Da Lat is popular for French-style architecture. Examples are King Bao Dai’s Palace, Ngo Dinh Diem and Nguyen Cao Ky’s villas, Hang Nga villas, and so forth. All of those should really be visited since they demonstrate the deeply special beauty and somehow culture of the old French.

Unique fruits for lunar New Year

Watermelons in the shape of four-seat cars, with the letter "Phuc" (blessing) on the
hood of the car, are offered by a gardener in the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho at the
price of VND10 million ($500)/ pair

Watermelons in the shapes of cars or gold bars, thousand-finger citrons, grapefruits in the shape of wine gourds… are among the unique fruits for the Lunar New Year 2013. However, these prices are towering high.

There are two types, green and yellow

Gardener Tran Thanh Liem, from Binh Thuy District, Can Tho City, said, to create this
kind of watermelons, he spent three years to research and test.

Watermelons in the shape of gold bullions are also sold at very high price because it
is very difficult to make the mold and to “force” watermelons in the gold bullion shape.
The successful rate is only about 35%. A pair of watermelons of this kind is priced
over VND3 million ($150).


Square-shaped watermelons are offered at VND2-3 million per pair.

A field of wine-gourd shaped watermelons.

Each watermelon of this kind, with “embossed” letters are priced between VND1.5-2
million.Watermelons of this kind are only available for the lunar New Year.


Wine-gourd shaped grapefruits are priced VND3 million a pair.

Finger citrons are arranged on the altar during the lunar New Year to wish for luck in the
new year, prosperity of wealth and health. For this fruit, the bigger it is, the higher number
of fingers it has, the value is higher.

 Source:VNE