The Museum of the Cultures of Vietnam’s Ethnic Groups

Location: Located in centre of Thai Nguyen City.
Characteristics: The museum is a repository depicting the culture of ethnic groups living throughout the Vietnam.
The Museum of the Cultures of Vietnam’s Ethnic Groups was established in 1960 in an area of 39,000m2 of which 3,000m2 is used for exhibition. It contains more than 10,000 documents, and artifacts belong to the cultural heritage of 54 ethnic groups of Vietnam. The museum also presents an extensive collection of agricultural, handicraft, and hunting tools. Typical ritual clothes with bright colors and decorative motifs of different ethnic minorities are also exhibited. The unusual costumes of the Tay and Nung ethnic groups used for worshipping their sorcerers are embroidered with lines and designs that supposedly perceive magical sounds.
The Viet-Muong showroom presents nearly 500 documents, objects, and photographs illustrating archaeological articles discovered in Phung Nguyen, Dong Dau, and Go Mun in the North of the country. Exhibits of Vietnamese national agricultural and handicraft productions and brocades woven by Muong ethnic minorities are also displayed. Exhibited in the Tay-Thai showroom are nearly 500 documents and artifacts related to the slash-and-burn agricultural technique and traditional trades of minorities, such as the Tay, Thai, Lao, and Lu. Women's clothes and musical folk instruments such as the tinh string instrument, the flute, as well as displays of the traditional ceremonies of several minorities are also exhibited.
The H'mong-Dao showroom displays approximately 600 documents and artifacts reflecting the agricultural practices of the H’mong, such as slash-and-burn farming, terraced rice fields, hunting weapons, and clothes of the H'mong-Dao ethnic group. The Museum of the Cultures of Vietnam’s Ethnic Groups is a repository depicting the culture of ethnic groups living throughout the nation. It is also a place for people to learn about the origins and traditional cultural identities of every ethnic group in Vietnam. The Museum of the Cultures of Vietnam’s Ethnic Groups is open Tuesday to Sunday from 8 to 11 am and 2 to 4.30 pm. Entry costs VND 10,000.