Scholar unveils value of the spiritual art

Hau dong is regarded by some as a superstition, but the Institute of Culture and Arts of Viet Nam has asked UNESCOto nominate it as part of its respected cultural heritage project. Prof Ngo Duc Thinh, Vice President of the Asia Folklore Association, who has published two books on hau dong, talks about hau dong’s value.
Many people have debated the values and characters present in hau dong. Having spent many years studying the ritual, how would you generally define it?
Hau dong, a ritual used to worship Dao Mau, contains many unique cultural values. Vietnamese people utilise hau dong to create a connection between practitioners and deities, with whom they attempt to communicate.
So, what kind of beliefs does the hau dong ritual include?
People believe that gods can enter into the bodies of psychics to give instructions, to root out evil spirits, to cure diseases and to bless believers. When the gods engage with the psychics, these people are no longer themselves, but become the embodiment of the gods. The Hau dong ritual details actions and stories about the gods.
Hau dong is a collective ritual and performance that includes several different aspects of folk culture. It contains literature, including many poems and tales that are recited during the performances. Chau van singing is typically used in hau dong rituals along with dance, fine arts, folk festivities and other performing arts. In terms of dancing, researchers have described several of the dances that are performed in hau dong that involve swords, flowers, fans, horse abuse, fencing and weaving. It’s a style of psychic dance that claims to respond to the occult powers and expresses the will and orders of super-natural beings. The dances are soft, feminine and respect women’s power. Hau dong also helps preserve the heritage of fine arts and architecture through maintaining the objects used during worship.
Hau dong has attracted many foreign researchers’ attention. I attended an international workshop on hau dong, where Dr Frank Proschan, of Smithsonian Institution Centre for Folklife and Cultural Heritage from the US, affirmed that the ritual is a treasure of traditional Vietnamese culture.
Have original values and characters of hau dong been maintained so far?
In the past, the people who held hau dong rituals wore a red head covering and used fruit as offerings. Nowadays, each act of hau dong performance requires a set of sophisticated clothes. Money invested in the performances. For buying offerings and bestowing its followers may be more than one thousand dollars.
In the 1940s, music at hau dong rituals was performed by professional musicians and singers. Chau van singing is a professional art. Prof Tran Van Khe consideres chau van and ca tru, the ceremonial songs, as two valuable pieces of musical heritage in Viet Nam.
Chau van singing is accompanied by dan nguyet (moon-shaped guitar), drums and castanets. the lyrics do not really mix with other types of music.
Nowadays, most chau van singers are amateurs. Some tuong, cai luong and cheo singers perform chau van on the side to help earn a living. These singers tend to infuse other musical styles into chau van.
Many researchers have warned about the degradation of hau dong. What’s your opinion of this issue?
No religion exists that teaches people to do bad things. Some people just take unfair advantage of religion for their own purposes.
The original characters in hau dong were meant to be religiously, spiritually and culturally significant, but it has been exploited. In some cases, fake mediums may corrupt the use of hau dong to seek profit from followers. The ritual is at risk of becoming a profit-driven scheme.
In the past, all mediawere considered to posses special power to communicate with gods. The rites were rooted in the people’s spiritual life and were organised with the deepest respect to the proper order and manner of the ritual.
The people should be equipped with judicious knowledge on the religion and the ritual activities. When they understand the origin and substance of hau dong, I believe that they will do it in the correct way.
Hau dong seeks to be nominated by UNESCO to be recognised as part of the world’s cultural heritage. From the point of view of a scholar, what’s your opinion?
We shouldn’t nominate hau dong too quickly. Before asking the world to recognise hau dong, we must ask the Vietnamese people if they recognise it.
It would be very good if hau dong were to be recognised by the world, but the most important issue is how we preserve the heritage here.
First, we need to research and acknowledge the characters and values of the ritual. We also shouldn’t be in a hurry to show it off as a performance, when hau dong’s value within all of Vietnamese society is still debated.