describe some distinctive cultural aspects in Phu Tho province, Viet Nam

1. LAND’S Culture
THE ANCESTRAL
Phu Tho Province
Discover the distinctive cultural
aspects of Phu Tho province
Issue 1|
|
November, 2014

2. CONTENTS
An Overview
History
Demographics
Topography
Climate
Festivals
Hung Temple Festival
The triplets of animals offering ceremony
The Chung and Day Cakes offering ceremony
The Pilgrimage from Gieng to Thuong Temple
Tich Dien Festival
Art
Xoan Singing Performance

3. AN OVERVIEW OF PHU THO
THO Phu Tho is a province in the
northern of Vietnam. This name
was derived from Sino-Vietnamese
and its capital is Viet Tri, which is
80 kilometers from Hanoi and 50
kilometers from Noi Bài
International Airport. The province
covers an area of 3528.1 square
kilometers and, as of 2008, it had a
population of 1,364,700.
HISTORY
Iron Age: This period had
many civilizations. It was the
beginning of the career of building
up our Nation. Phu Tho was one of
the typical places that had process
of cultural development in the
early period, which include Phung
Nguyen’s culture and Go Mun’s
culture.
Hung King Period: There
were 15 tribes living mainly in
midlands. Van Lang tribe was the
most powerful with the territory
extended from foothills of Ba Vi
Mountain to the slopes of Tam Dao
Mountain. In this period, the
economy began to develop,
including the Wet rice civilization
was decisive.
Prehistory Period:
Archaeologists found that it had
primitive tribes and clans living in
the old Red River alluvial, Lo River
and Da River. The evidence
remains are fossils trace in Horse
Cave (Thanh Son – Phu Tho) and a
lot of stone tool of Son Vi’s culture.
Hung Kings chose the
confluence of three rivers: Da
River, Red River and Lo River (Viet
Tri – Phu Tho) as the capital of Van
Lang. Phu Tho was considered to
be the original land of Vietnam.
DEMOGRAPHICS
With a capital, a township
and 11 districts devided into 275
communes, this provice has
approximately 1.4 million
inhabitants. Ethnic Viet (Kinh),
Muong, Dao and San Chay are the
dominant ethnic groups living in
Phu Tho
An overview| 3

4. The area of the province is
3,528.1 square kilometers. Located
in northern Vietnam, it is situated
at the head of a triangular
formation of the Red River Delta in
the northern mountainous region.
TOPOGRAPHY
It is delimited by the provinces
of Tuyen Quang and Yen Bai to the
north, Son La and Hoa Binh to the
west, Ha Tay to the south, and Ha
Giang and Vinh Phúc to the east
These provinces are
connected to Hanoi, the capital of
Vietnam. Phu Tho province, due to
its strategic location, is often called
the “West Gate of Hanoi”. Its
location is at the confluence of two
large rivers namely, the Red and Da
Rivers.
CLIMATE
Phu Tho is located in the
tropical monsoon region, with a
cold winter. The average annual
temperature is about 23.5°C. The
average rainfall varies between
1,600 and 1,800 millimeters.
Humidity is high during the
monsoon season from May to
October with the annual average
figure of 85%.
Phu Tho province links the
northern provinces of the Red
River delta with the country’s
mountainous provinces and also
the two Chinese provinces of
Guangxi and Yunnan.
4|An overview

5. Festivals| Hung Temple Festival| 5
Festival is a cultural event commonly
relating to rituals, religions and held by the
public, presents the characteristics of a
community and originates from the needs of
a community in life. It includes practices
expressing the community’s respect to the
gods or their plausible dreams that haven’t
come true.
HUNG TEMPLE
FESTIVAL
Hung Temple Festival is a traditional
anniversary held annually on March 10 on
the lunar calendar in Hy Cuong commune,
Viet Tri city, Phu Tho province by the
community of residents here relating to the
worshipping ritual of the Vietnamese in
common and of residents originating from
Phu Tho in particular. This festival is the
time for people of the Vietnamese’s
homeland to show their respects, their deep
gratitude to Hung King who founded the
government system “Van Lang” (from
around the 7th century B.C to the 3rd century
A.D).

6. THE “TRIPLETS OF ANIMALS” OFFERRING CEREMONY
The triplets of animals
offered to the gods are a pig, a
goat and a young buffalo. In the
ceremony, people prepare a set of
these offers by wiping out the
organs and keeping the whole
bodies. The offers may be kept
fresh or roasted. However, people
commonly roast them to make to
that they will not be rotten and
smell during the ceremony.
The value of this ceremony
lies in the cultural meaning of
these animals. They are
considered as symbols of some
valuable meanings in the local
culture, in the Vietnamese culture
as well as in the Oriental culture.
The pig in the Vietnamese
culture: The pig has been an
animal closed to Vietnamese
people for a long time. Pigs
symbolize the fertility, sexuality,
leisure and wealth. The goat: of all
the animals, the goat has its
spiritual meaning and high
symbolic values. Apart from
symbolizing the fertility like the
pig, the goat is also the symbol of
the benign, gentleness as well as
cuteness. In addition, the goat has
known as the symbol of sacrifice.
The last offer is the buffalo.
The buffalo is very popular with the
Vietnamese who are so familiar with.
Vietnamese agriculture. The buffalo
presents the diligence and the
extremely good health of farmers.
Now, it symbolizes the extremely
good health of everybody.
By offering “the triplets of animals”
to the Gods, people believe that they
will be blessed by them. The Gods
bless the community to receive
fertility, leisure, wealth, cuteness and
good health, which is very important
to make the community develop
well.
6| Festivals| Hung Temple Festival

7. CHUNG & DAY CAKE OFFERING CEREMONY
When people offer the triplets of
animals to the Gods in general, people
A Phu Tho province always offer
Chung and Day Cakes to Hung King on
important anniversaries. On Hung
Temple Festival, people make big
Chung and Day Cakes and offer them
to Hung King. After the offering
ceremony, it’s time for people to share
the offering by taking a small part of the
cakes and eating. This is an exciting
activity in Hung Temple Festival.
The reason why people use
Chung and Day Cake as the special
offerings to Hung King is related to an
ancient legend. Lang Lieu or Tiet Lieu,
the 18th son of Hung King VI, dreamed
about a god telling him how to make
Chung and Day cakes to offer to Hung
King and explained their meanings.
Tiet Lieu happily and gratefully
followed the God’s suggestion, made
the cakes and offered to Hung King VI.
Hung King was very satisfied. Later,
Lang Lieu became the heir and then the
King.
Chung Cake is Vietnam’s traditional
special dish made of sticky rice, green
peanuts and pork and covered by dong
leaves, a kind of green leaves which are
large and long. Chung cake is a square-shaped
type. It symbolizes the Earth.
Besides, Day cake is a rounded type,
which is also made from boiled sticky
rice. People pound boiled sticky rice until
they become a dollop then people make it
round by hands or rounded shape. While
Chung Cake presents the Earth, Day cake
symbolizes the Sun because of its
rounded shape. Chung and Day, when
getting together as a couple, is the symbol
of the Milky Way. Moreover, this
presents the appreciation to the paddy
rice, a traditional crop of Vietnam up to
now. It is supposed that the 18 Hung
Kings could see their deep thanks to their
common ancestors and bless them the
good things, bring them new fortunes
during the year. About eating the
offerings after the ceremony, it' s strongly
believed that people could have a good
health if they eat them even a tiny piece
of cake is enough to satisfy them.
An overview| 7

8. THE
PILGRIMAGE
FROM GIENG TO THUONG TEMPLE
The architectural ensemble of Hung Temple
consists of 4 main temples in turn Gieng, Ha, Trung and
Thuong located on Nghia Linh Mountain. Apart from the 4
mentioned temples, there are 2 more temples belonging to
the ensemble which are Au Co and Lac Long Quan temples
separated from the 4 main temples. When taking part in
the festival, local residents as well as visitors from other
areas can’t help joining the pilgrimage from Gieng to
Thuong Temple because they have been expecting that by
doing this, they can express their most honest respect and
gratitude to the Kings and to the worshipped. In addition,
people consider this activity a chance to improve their
health because they have to go over the really high
mountain on foot among lots of human beings.
8 | Festivals| Hung Temple Festival

9. THE JEWEL
WELL
At the beginning of the pilgrimage, people drop in
Gieng temple. Similar to other traditional festivals in
Vietnam, people practice several ritual activities to pray
for good luck during the year. Besides, residents and
visitors, when going to the Gieng Temple, share a very
distinctive belief. If you pay attention, you can see lots of
people trying to look into an ancient well inside the
temple which was used as a mirror by the two beautiful
princesses Tien Dung and Ngoc Hoa, the 2 daughters of
the 18th Hung King once upon a time. They are trying to
see their face reflected there. People said that the two
princesses, when going on an excursion with King Hung,
mirrored with the water surface because it was so pure
and crystal. “If you can see your face in the well, you will
become more beautiful”, old people said. That’s why
those who want to become beautiful, especially
teenagers or the youth, always take this action when
taking part in the pilgrimage.
Festivals| Hung Temple Festival| 9

10. THE DRAGON
WELL
Up the mountain, people visit Ha and Trung temples.
However, there are a few of activities here. Continuing the
journey, people visit another ancient well on the way to
Thuong Temple. To distinguish between the well in the Gieng
Temple and this one, people call the well in the Gieng temple
the Jewel well and the latter is called the Dragon well. It’s a
large well nearby the Ha temple. It’s said that after Au Co gave
birth to her offsprings, her children (included Hung King I)
were bathed with the water from this well. Nowadays,
when passing by the well, people are always throwing
their money into the well with a view to getting far more
money and good lucks in life,especially in their business. It’s
believed that you will make afortune during the year as long
as you can throw your money into the well without
crumpling or folding it up. Though this is a cultural practice,
we must say that praying for fortune bythrowing money into
the well is not a really good practice. Asa result, the local
authorities and managers have been carrying out the
rule that bans people from doing thispractice.
10 |Festivals| Hung Temple Festival

11. Tich Dien
Festival
Tich Dien is the most well-known traditional festival in Minh Nong
commune, Viet Tri city. This festival is held to celebrate the event that Hung king
taught his residents how to grow rice and do farming.
Minh Nong commune is located near the lower reaches of three big rivers:
Thao - Đà - Lô, so it has a great amount of silt every year with many vast paddy
fields and warps spreading along Thao River, which makes Minh Nong become the
native soil of rice – growing with the appearance of dense population long time ago.
According to the Hung King legend, in the old days, the residents here didn’t know
how to cultivate rice for food. They mainly lived on hunting wild animals and
collecting fruits and vegetables in the forest. Every year, the riverside land became
fertile when the water level rose highly. Hung king knew that, so he appealed his
people for damming up to keep water.
Festivals | Tich Dien| 11

12. Tich Dien festival associates
with the legends derived from the dawn
periods of history when the Hung kings
founded the country. As a result, this
festival contributes the hallowed color to
Hung kings festival and forms the
spiritual highlight in the cultural treasure
of Vietnam. The festival is organized
with two main ceremonies: “Offering
ceremony” and “rice – transplanting
ceremony”. In offering ceremony, the
notables and villagers prepare an offering
to the village gods and the Hung kings in
the hope of getting an abundant and
flourishing crop. This ceremony is held in
Tich Dien shrine built from laterites,
having a tiger statue inside and an incense
– burner placed on a long pedestal in the
center. This ceremony is held in Tich
Dien shrine built from laterites,
having a tiger statue inside and an
incense – burner placed on a long
pedestal in the center.
12 | Festivals| Tich Dien
To the local custom, the villagers choose an oldest man
looking hale and hearty, good at doing farming, having
a good family tradition and prestige in community to
become the officiating priest because they believe that
the good characteristics of the old man will make the
rice multiply rapidly so that they will have the good
crops. When the ceremony is started, together with the
thunderous sound of drum and gong, the officiating
priest reads the funeral oration to express great merit
of Hung king who had formed the farming career that
helped his people have a life of comfort. In the “rice -
transplanting” ceremony, the chosen old man takes the
role of Hung king to transplant rice on the field near
Tich Dien shrine together with the other eighteen
young women acting as Hung king’s princesses.
After that, the man pitches a “nêu” tree (a bamboo tree
with a circle on the top) in the hope of driving away
evils. Then, all villagers continue transplanting rice on
that field with a view to getting a crop more abundant
than usual. Tich Dien festival is one of the extremely
typical custom of Vietnamese farmers. Having been
derived from the legends in the early periods of
history, this festival reflects the special belief of the
rice – growing residents in Phu Tho province. The
ceremonies during the festival explain the initial
history of rice –growing career formed in Hung kings
era.
TICH DIEN FESTIVAL

13. Art | Xoan Singing Performance| 13
Xoan
Singing
Performance
Xoan singing is called "Hat Cua Dinh"
in Vietnamese. That form of art performance
originated in Phu Tho and then spread to
some neighbor provinces in Northern
Vietnam. In the past, Van Lang people held
Xoan singing performance in the spring to
welcome the new years. Hung Kings Temple
Festival in Phu Tho Province: usually held
from the 5th to the 10th days of the third lunar
month. On the ancestor's death anniversary,
Xoan singing will be carried out. This is a
very important and unique ritual. In addition,
during the festival, programs of Xoan singing
of ancient villages are always organized for
pilgrims to the ancestor land.

14. 14| Art| Xoan singing Performance
Legend is that “Xoan” singing
has existed for more than 2000
years since King Hung’s Dynasty
and was a form of art performance
to serve at special events in royal
palace. “Xoan” singing was also
part of traditional liturgies.
Xoan singing is associated with
the stories about the era of the
Hung King’s national
establishment. The xoan singing
original villages are ancient
villages located in the center of the
old country of Van Lang, present-day
Viet Tri City in Phu Tho
Province. They are An Thai, Phu
Duc, Kim Doi and Thet in Kim
Duc and Phuong Lau Communes.
This art has retained many ancient
cultural features from the time
when the Hung Kings built the
country.
Traces of the ancient music of the
Vietnamese people still contain in
Xoan singing after 4000 years.
It is also the first professional
musical genre with a rather close
organization. Most of its members
in a Xoan singing group are close
relatives.
The head of the group is
responsible for bequeathing the
singing and organizing the
performance. Dancing and singing
are two components of Xoan
singing. The performers use dance
to illustrate the lyrics.
In the early spring of the old
days, the Xoan – singing groups
performed at temples or
communal houses of the village.
On the 5th day of the lunar New
Year, there were Xoan singing
performances at Hung King’s
Temple. The traditional custom of
Xoan singing at the communal
house aimed at wishing each other
good luck and praying to the
genies.

15. Art | Xoan singing Performance| 15
Besides, it also gave
people in different villages an
opportunity to interact with each
other. As a rule, the groups
organizing the performance were
considered older brother and the
groups coming from another
village were considered younger
brother. Once these villages came
together, boys and girls of both
sides were forbidden to marry
each other because they were
considered siblings.
Xoan singing is an
invaluable intangible cultural
heritage. However, over time, it
has become at risk of falling into
oblivion because of the negative
impact of modern society.
According to surveys, the old
Xoan songs are now preserved in
only four original Xoan-singing
groups in Phu Tho, including An
Thai Village (Phuong Lau
Commune) and Thet, Phu Duc
and Kim Doi Villages (Kim Duc
Commune).
Phu Tho Province has
only 69 Xoan singing artisans, 31
of whom are from 80 to 104
years old, and only 8 people can
teach singing. There are 81 Xoan
singers but only 49 of them can
sing fluently. Of the 30 relics of
temples and shrines which were
places for Xoan performances,
only 13 remaining relics have
been preserved, two relics have
been extremely degraded and 15
relics have completely
disappeared.
Obviously, these figures show
that the teaching of Xoan singing
to younger generations has many
difficulties. In the past, Xoan
singing was popular and
performed at all festivals of the
villages in Phu Tho, but with
changes over time the number of
Xoan singing artisans has been
on the decline.

16. 16| Art| Xoan singing Performance
Facing the fact that Xoan
singing is at the risk of becoming
lost, Phu Tho Province
collaborated with the Vietnam
National Conservatory and the
National Cultural Heritage
Department of the Ministry of
Culture, Sports and Tourism to
carry out surveys. They organized
many domestic and international
workshops to assess the actual state
of Xoan singing so as to prepare a
dossier to submit to UNESCO for
being recognized as an intangible
cultural heritage in need of urgent
protection.
On November 24, 2011, in Bali
(Indonesia), UNESCO officially
recognized Phu Tho’s Xoan
singing as an Intangible Cultural
Heritage of Humanity that needs to
be urgently protected. This is not
only good news for the people and
authorities of Phu Tho Province,
the birthplace of a unique type of
singing, but also a great honor for
all Vietnamese people..
REFERENCES
1. Intangible Cultural Heritage: “Xoan
Singing in Phu Tho Province”,
Vietnamtourism.com. Accessed 2014
2. "Hung Kings' Temple Festival - A
Pilgrimage to the Sacred Land of
Vietnam's Ancestry". Embassy of
Vietnam in USA. Retrieved 2009-05-17.
3. Van Hoa: “Noi Vua Hung Day Dan
Trong Lua”, Vinhphuctv.vn. Accessed
2014
4. News: “Noi Vua Hung Day Dan
Trong Lua”, Archives.gov.vn.
Accessed 2014.
5. Dang Dinh Thuan (2014): “Le Hoi
Truyen Thong Vung Dat To”.
Retrieved 2014.
6. Vietnam – info: “Phu Tho
Province”, Offroadvietnam.com.
Accessed 2014
7. Dulich: “Du Lich Phu Tho”,
Dulichphutho.com. Accessed 2014.
8. Hung King Temple Festival.
Vietnam - beauty. Retrieved 10 August
2011.

17. The Ancestral Land’s Culture
--------------------Phu Tho Province-----------------
Director
Nguyen Van Manh
Secretary
Ha Hai Yen
Ha Thu Phuong
Nguyen Thi Hong Nhung
Designer
Nguyen Van Manh
Nguyen Hoang Yen