The Chăm folk music and dance is featured at the 2025 Po Nagar Festival at Po Nagar Temple in Khánh Hòa Province. — VNA/VNS Photo Đặng Tuấn

KHÁNH HÒA — Khánh Hòa Province is seeking ways to preserve and promote Chăm folk performing arts, which are mostly performed in religious rituals and festivals.

Nguyễn Tấn An of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism said that in recent years, Khánh Hòa has launched temporary performances by the Chăm people at relic sites, such as the Po Nagar Temple and Po Klong Garai Temple, to bring unique cultural experiences to tourists and provide them with a deep understanding of the Chăm folk performing arts.

An said the province needed a special programme featuring Chăm folk performances, combined with modern sound and visual effects, to serve tourists.

He added that local tourist areas and resorts should organise shows to promote Chăm folk performing arts and cuisine, contributing to the spread of the Chăm people's traditional cultural values.

The Chăm population in Khánh Hòa is 106,222 people, accounting for 4.75 per cent of the province’s population.

Their arts are practised at special occasions, such as the Po Nagar Festival, also known as the Holy Mother Festival, the Katê Festival, and Ramưwan, the centuries-old traditional New Year of the Chăm Bà Ni ethnic people.

They use traditional musical instruments, including ghi năng drum (cylinder-shaped drum made of lim or cà chít wood trunk), paranung drum (single-headed frame drum), saranai trumpet, ceng (gong), grong (tambourine), seng (cymbal), and kanhi (two-stringed bowed instrument) to perform their music accompanied by folk songs and dances.

They have a sacred dance to give offerings to the gods and a daily dance to express emotions or recreate working activities, while folk songs reflect worship, love and joy of work

Meritorious Artist Đàng Năng Đức of the Khánh Hòa Traditional Arts Theatre said the Chăm folk performance art is unique, imbued with ethnic identity, and popular among the people.

Đức emphasised that practising the art is a link between the past and the present, and people and the spiritual world. — VNS