International Gong Festival kicked off last night, November 12

Sixty gong troupes from five Asian countries and 24 cities and provinces in Viet Nam kicked off the first International Gong Festival in the Central Highland province of Gia Lai last night, November 12.
The four-day festival, organised by the provincial People's Committee and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, has attracted thousands of local and foreign visitors.
Taking part are some 1,000 performers of 11 ethnic minority groups from the provinces of Kon Tum, Dak Lak, Dak Nong, Lam Dong, Nghe An and Hoa Binh as well as troupes from Laos, Cambodia, Indonesia, Myanmar and the Philippines.
The festival will include religious ceremonies accompanied by gong orchestras, a buffalo festival, tomb abandonment ceremonies, seminars on preserving gong music, and exhibitions on ethnic minority cultures.
Provincial ethnic groups, including the Jrai, Ybrom, E De and Bahnar, will take part in rain worship and New Year ceremonies.
Many of the performances will be held in the city's parks and tourism areas.
The festival aims to preserve the region's unique gong culture recognised by UNESCO as an oral and intangible heritage of mankind.
Gongs have been used for more than 3,000 years in Viet Nam and have played a key role in the ethnic communities' culture.
Because it is seen as a tool that helps connect them with heaven, gong culture is an inseparable part of the ethnic minority people's spiritual life.
Gia Lai, which has 5,655 sets of gongs owned by various families, has the highest number of gongs in any of the Central Highland provinces. The nearby province of Dak Lak has 300 sets, and Kon Tum has 1,800.
Gongs are played to celebrate special occasions, including housewarmings, the birth of a baby, weddings, ritual parades and funerals.
Speaking at the festival yesterday, chairman of the People's Committee of Gia Lai, Pham The Dung said the International Gong Festival aimed to honour the gong culture of the Central Highlands.
"Gongs are an precious and important example of the tangible cultural heritage of the Central Highlands," Dung said. "They are also a symbol of power and the prosperity of ethnic groups. This cultural practice was recognised by UNESCO as an Oral and Intangible Heritage of Mankind."
"The festival is an event in the run-up to the 1,000 anniversary of Thang Long-Ha Noi capital city next year. I do believe that the festival's gong playing will reverberate around the world."
Attending the ceremony, head of the Party Central Committee's Commission for Mass Mobilisation Ha Thi Khiet said that gong culture united Southeast Asian nations.
"Gong culture is not only an invaluable property of ethnic groups in the Central Highlands, but for all Southeast Asian nations," he said. "We have to preserve and promote it for future generations in Southeast Asian region and around the world.
"The festival plays an important role in preserving this culture as well as in uniting Southeast Asian nations."
The festival in Pleiku City yesterday attracted visitors from across Viet Nam and from many foreign countries.
French tourist Jean Michel said the festival was worth a visit.
"I've visited Viet Nam many times, but this is the first time I've been to Pleiku City, where I was lucky enough to see such a magnificent display of culture at the festival," he said.
Many locals also flocked to the celebrations to take part in gong performances. Rahlan Hloih said that despite his old age, he continued to play the gong.
"I'm 60 years old now but I still like playing the gong with the young people from my village. I often teach my children how to play the gong," he said.
"It's the first time I've seen so many foreigners joining in and playing gongs with US."
Photo exhibition
A special photograph exhibition featuring the late war hero Dinh Nup opened yesterday, November 12, as part of the 2009 International Gong Festival, hosted by Gia Lai from yesterday through Sunday.
The event includes 150 photos shot by amateur and professional artists across the country.
All of the works highlight the life and work of Dinh Nup, also known as hero Nup by his fellow villages.
Born in the Ba Na ethnic group in Kong Hoa Village in 1914, Nup led local villages against the French colonialists for years.
Nup was the first member of an ethnic group to be awarded the title "Hero of the People's Armed Forces". He died in 1999.
He was a leading character in Dat Nuoc Dung Len (The Village That Wouldn't Die), the first literary work by author Nguyen Ngoc, and winner of the 1956 Viet Nam Writers' Association prize.
The literary work features the beauty and bravery of the Ba Na people in the Tay Nguyen (Central Highlands). The book has been republished many times and has attracted millions of readers of different generations..