However, traditional Rong houses are becoming scarcer and scarcer due to the gradual disappearance of forests resulting from the industrial development.
“If we want to set up a Rong house, we have to go very far to find big tree trunks because forests near our village have been cut down,” said A Kiui, patriarch of Kon Gur village in Kon Tum province.
Patriarch A Kiui said he was proud of the village’s biggest and most beautiful Rong, but worried that villagers will not be able to find good materials to repair the house if it is damaged, and that young people in modern time are less concerned about the communal house.
While the Rong house of A Kiui’s village faces risk of being degraded, many of other villages in the Central Highlands region have already broken down. In recent years, a number of concrete Rong houses have been constructed.
The biggest concrete Rong house in Giai Lai province was built in Gao commune with total investment of nearly one billion VND ($56,000). However, like many other concrete Rong houses, it has never fulfilled its duty as a communal house, but is always empty and covered with dust.
Ro Cham Ngok, patriarch of Brut Ngol village, said: “We have received the concrete Rong house from local authorities but it is not the same as traditional houses we used to have. A true Rong house no longer exists in this village. After the festival held in the new house’s inauguration, no more activities have been organised there.”
Among over 700 Rong houses, more than 200 concrete ones are fallowed, according to the latest data of the provincial Department of Culture, Sport, and Tourism.
Nguyen Quang Tue, deputy director of Gia Lai Museum, said that the materials used to build modern Rong houses are not appropriate because cement walls and corrugated iron roofs make them become ovens on sunny days. Cement floors are also inconvenient for people to drink ruou can (wine drunk out of a jar through bamboo pipes) at parties, he added.
Nguyen Thi Kim Van, an official of the department, said that modern concrete Rong houses are very important, complementing weaknesses of traditional houses, but local authorities should try to use them effectively, such as disseminating information to ethnic people instead of closing all year round.
Duy Ngoc – Le Diem (The Vietnam Nation) |
