What is the role of bamboo in Vietnamese military history?

During Viet Nam's 3,000-year history, Vietnamese have employed bamboo as a major means in fighting foreign invaders. Bamboo weapons helped determine Vietnamese success in the thirteenth century battle against the Mongols on the Bach Dang River.

In 1789, Quang Trung's army marched to Thang Long (now Ha Nei) from Hud in record time because the soldiers traveled without stopping. They divided themselves into groups of three, with two members of each group carrying the third one, who slept in a hammock tied to bamboo shoulder poles. Quang Trung defeated the 200,000-strong invading army of the Qing Dynasty.

Between 1886 and 1887, Vietnamese patriots used bamboo walls and spikes at the Ba Dinh Fortress in Thanh Hoa Province to resist fierce French attacks.Vietnamese fought the French for nearly sixty years. In early 1945, the Japanese toppled the French colonial administration. In September 1945, He Chi Minh declared Viet Nam's independence in Ha Nei. However, the French were already landing in southern Viet Nam. Vietnamese guerrillas fought back with bamboo weapons, including bows and arrows, stakes, and traps. The war, which soon spread to the entire country, lasted nine years.

The collapse of the French stronghold at Dien Bien Phi] on 7 May 1954 shook the world, sounding the death knell for colonialism. Thousands of Vietnamese used bamboo shoulder poles to carry rice, salt, and weapons in bamboo baskets. They attached platforms to pack bicycles and pushed hundreds of kilos hundreds of kilometers to Dien Bien Phil. The Vietnamese used bamboo baskets as their earth-moving equipment when building roads. Vietnamese soldiers crossed rivers on bamboo barges. They used bamboo ladders to climb steep cliffs and then used bamboo ladders to cross the perimeter and enter the French base. Vietnamese immobilized broken bones with bamboo splints and carried their wounded on bamboo stretchers. The military band welcoming the Dien Bien Phil victory included forty bamboo flutes.

During the American War, Vietnamese patriots used the same techniques with bamboo on the H6 Chi Minh Trail. They shipped military supplies in bamboo sampans on the H6 Chi Minh Trail on the Sea.

What is the most popular folk tale about bamboo?

Once there was a man as rich as he was evil. He never missed an opportunity to exploit his servants. His avaricious practices enabled him to amass the largest fortune in the region. The master's youngest child, a daughter, was not married.

Khoai, one of the servants, had no family and had worked since his childhood for the rich man. The master feared Khoai might leave and find work elsewhere. When Khoai was almost eighteen, the master called him aside, saying, "If you work hard from morning to night, I'll give you the hand of my youngest daughter."

Khoai, as naive as his master was crafty, worked eagerly for three years, tending to all the household tasks. Meanwhile, the master's daughter, Ut, grew more beautiful by the day. A very rich district chief asked for her hand in marriage for his son. The rich man forgot his promise to Khoai, which he'd never intended to keep anyhow, and quickly agreed. The two families began to prepare for the ceremony.

Khoai reproached the master for breaking his word. The master wanted to give his servant a good thrashing but instead said to himself, "Khoai can still be of some use to me." Once again, he thought of a ruse. "It's true that I'm preparing Otis wedding," the master said. "But if you really want to marry her, go to the forest and bring me a piece of bamboo with a hundred nodes. We'll make the most beautiful chopsticks in the world. Then you will marry Ut."

Khoai left for the forest. He looked and looked but couldn't find any bamboo with a hundred nodes. Discouraged, he sat at the foot of a tree and wept.

Suddenly a venerable old man appeared. "Why are you crying, My Child?" he asked. Khoai told him his story. "Go and cut bamboo!" the man said. "Count a hundred sections and bring them to me!"

Khoai went away, brandishing his axe, and soon returned with the hundred sections. The old man bent down, murmuring, "Unite at once. Unite at once." Scarcely had he uttered these words when the hundred bamboo sections, which lay scattered about, rolled into a line and joined, forming a piece of bamboo with a hundred nodes.

Khoai wanted to throw himself at the old man's feet, but the Buddha - for it was he - had already disappeared. Khoai set his bamboo pole on his shoulder. But how could he carry such a long trunk through the thick woods? Once again, he sat down and wept like a youngster.

Once again, the old man appeared. "Why are you crying?" he asked. For a second time, Khoai told him his troubles. Spreading his hands over the bamboo, the old man repeated softly, "Separate at once. Separate at once."The bamboo broke into a hundred sections. Khoai loaded the pieces into two bundles and carried them back to his master's house.

When he arrived, he found the two families enjoying a wedding feast. Mats covered with   dishes and presents awaited the bride. Angry, Khoai went to his master, who reproached him, "I didn't ask for a hundred separate nodes but for one bamboo with a hundred nodes!" The guests, their chopsticks in mid-air, burst into scornful laughter.

Khoai bent down, whispering, "Unite at once. Unite at once."

The bamboo pieces joined instantly, entwining the master, who struggled to free himself. The district chief and his son tried to help, but the giant bamboo entwined them, producing howls of pain. The guests turned pale with terror and remained rooted in place. Finally, they knelt before Khoai, begged forgiveness, and asked him to release the culprits.

Khoai paused, looked around the courtyard, and then murmured, "Separate at once. Separate at once." The bamboo fell, releasing the men. The district chief and his son fled without asking that their bridal gifts be returned. Defeated, the master gave Khoai his daughter's hand in marriage.

How is bamboo part of Việt Nam's artistic tradition?

Mr. Nguyen Kim Xuan's eyes light up whenever the conversation turns to bamboo. He studied forest product processing in Prague during 1972 and returned to Viet Nam to work in a factory making wooden furniture. He talks about the bamboo groves of his childhood, the village hedges, the thatched roofs, the furniture, and the window screens. All his life, Mr. Xuan has wanted to work with bamboo.

Mr. Xuan lives outside Ha NOi on a side road bordered by a dike, green fields, and the Duo:Mg River. The ambiance is rural although the site is only a ten-minute ride from the city. His gate leads into a courtyard with his house and two buildings, one of which is a large art gallery with nearly a hundred lacquer paintings. Lacquer ware has existed in Viet Nam for nearly 4,000 years. Sometimes artists paste egg shells, sea shells, or gold under the lacquer. Bamboo, an age-old symbol of Viet Nam, would seem a natural decorative material. However, Mr. Xuan was the first person to think of combining traditional lacquer and bamboo.

Lacquer

Mr. Xuan made his first lacquer painting with bamboo in 1988. "I thought that lacquer was a traditional Vietnamese art form and bamboo was a traditional material, so it seemed natural," he said. After Mr. Xuan tried a few different pieces on his own, he invited other artists to join in the process. Mr. Xuan studied thousands of bamboo samples to develop a method of treating the bamboo to resist termites and preserve its natural colours and textures.

Ha N(ii's Department of Science and Technology learned of Mr. Xuan's skills in 1994 and backed him with their project, "Developing Techniques for Manufacturing Bamboo Products for Export." The department helped him focus on scientific aspects of his artistic technique. Mr. Xuan managed the project himself and has spent the past few years perfecting his craft.

Most of the young people in Mr. Xuan's workshop are orphans or disadvantaged children. His initiative has given them a vocation and a place to live. He has also trained craft workers from other areas. Recently, Bic Can Province sent him twenty youths for training so that Bic Can can develop its own lacquer crafts with inlaid bamboo.

Today, Mr. Xuan supports a team of fifty artist-technicians, who cut the bamboo and fit it into mosaic grid sketches for the final pictures. Six artists design the scenes and supervise the work. Pictures portray traditional Vietnamese images, such as the rat's wedding, picking coconuts, banyan trees, river wharves, and communal houses. Mr. Xuan sells lacquer art with bamboo in more than sixty countries.

How are bamboo instruments used in religious ceremonies and in festivals?

The Gia Rai, Ede and Gie Trieng ethnic groups use two types of dinh tut (aerophone), one for female players and one for males. The women's instrument is smaller. People play the dinh tut only in their fields or communal houses, for they believe the instrument wakes up the soul of the rice and makes the rice grow fast and well. The rice soul is female. If a male player performs the dinh tut, the rice soul will awaken and flee because of shyness. Thus, a man playing the dinh tat must disguise himself as a woman.

The Kloong put

The kloong put is another wind instrument with five big pipes of various lengths made from ni'ia, a naturally thinner bamboo, which gives the instrument its clarity of sound. Pipes made from other bamboos must be thin-walled with a diameter of five to eight centimeters and a length of sixty to 120 centimeters. Performers place the kloong put parallel to the floor and clap their hands in front of the tubes. Air pressure released during the clapping creates the sound. Only women play the kloong put. Local people believe rice will grow faster if a woman plays the kloong put on the cultivated land.

The Gia Rai ethnic minority may have made the first t'ru'ng, which is similar to the xylophone and is also very popular among the Ba Na, Xo Dang, Ro Ngao (of the Ba Na group), Gie Trieng, and Ro Mam, The titling, which is often called a klang and kldi, has several big bamboo pipes with lengths ranging from forty to seventy centimeters.

The popular t'rong has five pipes bound into a set and two sets of strings. The performer ties the two string ends at the shortest pipe to the base of a tree or a post and the other two ends to his body. He then knocks on the pipes with two pieces of wood to create sounds.

Only men play the eru'ng and only in the fields, never in a residential area and never in a house. Local people believe each pipe of the ening shelters tiny spirits, who drive away pests and protect the crops. Similarly, people believe that a Ming played in the house or residential area will frighten the livestock, hampering their growth and reproduction.The sic ngang, a horizontal flute of the Kinh (ViO) people and other ethnic groups, has one hole for blowing and six finger holes. The sic) ngang produces a joyful, melodious, and resonant sound that conjures up the image of a vast countryside. It has a variety of uses in everyday life and is played while tending buffalo in the meadows, while whispering to a lover in the moonlight, and while entertaining others at festivals. The Ca Tu ethnic group has a similar horizontal flute, which musicians play when resting or speaking of love.

The flute

The Ba Na minority group makes its alal flute from a small nila bamboo pipe that is open at both sides and has a diameter of one and a half centimeters and a length of approximately twenty centimeters. The Ba Na cut a small, rectangular hole at one end and seal it with a thin copper plate to make a reed. The performer holds the alal horizontally and puts it to his mouth in such a way that the reed is totally in his mouth. In this way, all the air blows continuously through the pipe. With one hand, the player rapidly closes and opens the other end of the alal to create alliterating sounds.

The awl is twice as long as the alal. One end is closed, with the reed in a hole in the sealed end. The avol has between two and four holes at its base. The performer plays it like the a/al and covers the holes to create the desired sounds. Only men play the alai and the awl. They commonly play them in alternative singing.

The khen, the well-known panpipe, is popular among most of Viet Nam's ethnic groups. Its name and construction vary slightly among the groups. The khen be has an even number of pipes (from six to fourteen) divided into pairs with each pair a different length. The pairs are arranged in adjacent lines and run through the khen box, which is made of soft, light wood. Pipes of different lengths create different sounds. The overall effect of the khen be is a crisp, thin sound.

The H'mong have a khen with six thick-walled bamboo pipes set in a wooden box. One pipe is three centimeters in diameter and has two reeds. The E de have another variation of the khen called the dinh nam, which they play at Grave-Leaving Ceremonies. The Xa Pho have the khen ma nhi. The Royal Orchestra of the Old Viet had a type of khen known as the sinh or senh. Traditionally, in all these cultures, men play the khen to accompany singing or alternative singing at festivals.

The Khen

Many instruments made of bamboo have been preserved and promoted in Viet Nam. Artists have studied preservation techniques and different methods of treating bamboo for higher durability. Vietnamese musicians are experimenting with improving the sound quality of bamboo instruments and increasing the musical range so they can perform more  complicated music. Musicians using instruments such as the kloong put, t'o'ng, H'mong flute, sao ngang, and the khen now perform folk music with more complex melodies, thus appealing to a wider audience.

The musician and a bamboo instrument are just one example of how people and nature are intertwined. Vietnamese from many ethnic groups say that bamboo harbors a god who helps human hands create instruments with mystical voices so that people from Viet Nam's various ethnic groups can express their desires and laments.

What does bamboo feature among some special musical instruments of Viet Nam's ethnic minorities?

What does bamboo feature among some special musical instruments of Viet Nam's ethnic minorities?

Viet Nam has fifty-four different ethnic groups, with the Kinh representing about eighty-five percent of the population. Each ethnic group has its own language and culture, including its own music.

The Mon-Khmer of Trutrng San Mountain Range and the Central Highlands play all four types of musical instruments. Their idiophones include many types of wooden bells, bronze gongs, cymbals, and wind chimes made of thin sheets of bamboo as well as prehistoric rock drums and the riling, which is made of bamboo tubes. Their membranophones made from skin stretched over a wooden resonator are smaller than those of their Austronesian neighbors. Aerophones include the kloong put, various kinds of mouth organs, the side-blown horn, the flute, and side-blown flute. They played chordophones with fingers or a bow.

The Mt_Ong people possess a rich musical tradition and a great variety of musical instruments. These include side-blown flutes, panpipes, oboes, two-stringed violas, bronze bells and drums, and percussion instruments. They play their instruments alone or accompanied by songs and dances in three types of ensembles. The first has a side-blown flute, panpipe, oboe, two-string viola, three gongs, and a bronze drum and plays for festivals, in particular for Te't (Lunar New Year).

The third has twelve girls who play twelve gongs - two chat gongs (high toned), six boOng beng gongs (middle toned), and four dam gongs (low toned) - for the Xec Beta Festival in the spring. The dam gongs provide the rhythm, while the boOng beng and chat gongs carry the melody. The musical instruments of the Tibeto-Burmese people in Wet Nam are also diverse and unique. Their wind instruments are the most unusual. One such instrument is made from a simple guava leaf, which is rolled inside a piece of tapered bamboo. Young Ha Nhi girls often play a bamboo flute that has two joined reeds and five or six holes. They also play the am ba, a piece of thatch split at the end with the hands serving as a resonator.

Among the L6 L6, men usually play the two-string viola and the two-string violin, which has a round resonator. Among the Ha Nhi, men play the tri-chord and use a sound amplifier made from a hollow tree trunk covered with thin sheets of polished bamboo. They also use skin-covered drums, cymbals, and gongs and play bronze drums at funerals. Only bachelors or men whose wives are not pregnant play these drums. The performers keep the drums underground and take them out only for funerals.