Highlands plan effort to preserve gong culture

DAK LAK — The People's Committee of the Central Highlands province of Dak Lak has set up a project to preserve and develop the gong culture through 2015.

The province estimates a budget of VND49 billion (US$2,450) to carry out the project. It will hold classes to teach people to play gongs, restore traditional festivals, collect and preserve different songs played by gongs in important life rituals, and publish books and CDs of gongs.

The province is home to 393 artisans who know how to repair gongs and 2,307 gongs of different ethnic groups, of which the E De group owns the most (2,064 gongs).

In 2005, UNESCO recognised the cultural space of the gong in the Central Highlands as a "Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity". — VNS