Vietnam Seeks UNESCO Recognition for Ethnic ‘Then' Singing

The Vietnamese Prime Minister has approved a plan to seek The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)'s recognition of “Then” singing. The compilation of the dossier will be summit to UNESCO before March 31st, 2017 and the consideration process will be in 2018. The UNESCO committee requires that the participants be local people. However, as no northern mountainous art forms have been recognized by UNESCO, the filing process has faced many challenges, according to Rector of the National Academy of Music Nguyen Binh Dinh. Then singing is a form of art combining literature, music and dancing that has long been a religious and cultural practice of Tay, Nung, Thai ethnic groups in the northern mountainous area of Vietnam. One of the advantages of the filing process is that many major factors of the heritage are still being preserved. These factors include local “thay then” (Then Master), religious rituals related to then singing; artifacts and documents in Tay-Han language. Besides, translating then songs from Tay ethnic language to Viet language also poses a difficulty, because even those who can speak Tay language can hardly translate these songs. Many lyrics use old Tay language while translation also requires certain level of understanding and knowledge of religion, ritual, ethnicity, said Dinh. The form of singing is practiced in five northern provinces of Cao Bang, Bac Kan, Lang Son, Tuyen Quang and Ha Giang. The Tay, Nung and Thai ethnic groups sing then in special occasions, such as village festival days. (kinhtedothi.vn Mar 29)