selected bahnar epic and its fate in the contemporary society

INTRODUCTION
1. Reasons for choosing the thesis topic
Bahnar1 ethnic group has an unique culture with various forms of art
including epic (h’mon). Being an achievement of a group of age-old inhabitants
in Indonesia, h’mon is imbued with indigineous characteristics, less or not
affected by foreign factors like a large proportion of epic of other ethnic groups
of Southeast Asia. Therefore, leanrning about the relationship between h’mon
and Bahnar society in the past will help us beware clearly typical endogenous
art products of the ethnic people.
The changes in many aspects of economy and society, and impacts of the
wave of contemporary culture in the past few decades have led to the
dissolution of Bahnar traditional cultural structure at different degrees in areas.
The existence of h'mon in particular and of epics of other ethnic groups in
Highlands in general has faced many challenges in the new context. What the
future of h'mon is merits consideration.
However, researches on above mentioned issues, that is, finding out about
Bahnar epic in the past and current political and socio-economic context, or in
other words, putting it in the angle of interdisciplinary approach of culturology,
have not been carried out systematically. Thus, additional appropriate
researches are necessary to fill this gap. With the above-mentioned reasons and
my desire to contribute my voice, we selected Bahnar epic and its Fate in the
contemporary society as our research topic.
2. Definition, research purposes, research objects and research scope
Definition: 1) Bahnar epic: Oral narrative works of Bahnar people mainly
revolve around a hero named Dam Giong who is considered to be a symbol of
the community of the ethnic people in the history; 2) Fate: life; 3) Contemporary
society: the society of Bahnar people since after Renovation (1986).
These definitions are presented based on definitions of Vietnamese
Dictionary published in 2003 by Da Nang Publishing House and
1

The topic uses Bahnar instead of Bana or Ba Na, etc., because it is the familiar name commonly-used by Bahnar people
and in the phonetic aspect, this word is more accurate than other words. For those materials that use other words instead of
Bahnar, we would like to replace them with Bahnar.


Lexicography Center. Epic:“A big work of narrative literature describes the
career of heroes and major historical event“ – basically, this definition is
consistent to that of some dictionaries/ encyclopedias that currently catch
attention in the world such as Merriam Webster’s Encyclopedia of
Literature (1995), A Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory
(1998), Encyclopedia of Literature and Criticism (2000)...; 2. Fate: “Life,
existence given for each person and each thing”; 3. Contemporary: “of the
present time”.
Research purposes: Specify the essence of h’mon as a work of a
specific historical context, wherby identifying its fate in the contemporary
life.
Research objects: 1) Contents, forms and roles of h’mon as the results of
the interaction between the work and the historical context that formed this
work; 2) Life of h’mon in the community of Bahnar people at present.
Research scope: H’mon and its life in Tay Nguyen before and after
Renovation. Research areas are Gia Lai and Kon Tum where basic h’mon is
collected and subject ethnic people reside. These two localities, especially
Gia Lai, also keep Bahnar traditional cultural imprint relatively clear. In
addition, they are also where changes in all aspects of the ethic people today
are obviously shown. To ensure representativeness, research points include
rural, urban and mixed areas.
3. Contributions of thesis
This theme systematically studies Bahnar epic under cultural perspective
in order to determine the nature of the object in relation with the historical
and social context that created it and point out the fate of this unique cultural

form in a contemporary society.
In terms of theory, through addressing issues, the study theme gives
proposals for a more precise application of a theory that has been used for a
long time in epic studies in Vietnam but this application remains many
shortcomings.
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In terms of practice, the theme proposes solutions to Bahnar epic and
works that belong to intangible cultural heritages of the Central Highlands,
attract the public’s undivided attention, and act as reference materials for
policymakers.
4. Structure of the thesis
In addition to Introduction, Conclusion and References, the thesis consists
of three chapters.
CHAPTER 1
OVERVIEW OF ISSUES RELATED TO THE RESEARCH TOPIC
1.1. Some characteristics of the ethnic people of Bahnar 1 epic
1.1.1. Historical process of the ethnic people
Bahnar people belong to Indonedien type. It is the ethnic group ranking
second in speaking Mon-Khmer language in Vietnam and living in the longest
period in Tay Nguyen.
History of the Bahnar people connects closely to that of ethnic groups of
Tay Nguyen. After centuries of self-rule, land of the Bahnar people was more
or less affected by external political and military forces in the period from the
twelfth century to the early twentieth century. However, traditional socioeconomic structure until before 1945 was quite sustainable. After 1975, the
Bahnar ethnic group became a member of the great community of ethnic
groups of unified Vietnam.
1.1.2. Charateristics of natural environment of the residence
Residence of Bahnar people was created by valleys, highlands and

mountains. Land of the area includes three groups: bazan, alluvium and granite.
The climate in the residence of Bahnar people is humid tropical monsoon with
differrent sub-areas. Water resources including rainwater, surface water and
underground water are a big potential for production activities.
1.1.3. Socio-economic life
1

In this part, the writer has referred to information from the work named Folklore Bahnar with To Ngoc Thanh being a chief
editor, published in 1988 by Gia Lai Department of Culture and Information and the work named Bahnar ethnic group in
Vietnam with Bui Minh Dao being a chief editor, published in 2006 by Social Sciences Publishing House.

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1.1.3.1. Economic life
Main activities to earn a living of Bahnar people are cultivating, breeding,
doing crafts, exploiting and exchaning natural resources.
Bahnar people are residents making their living by cultivation on burntover land. In addition to rice as the main crop, they also cultivate a lot of catch
crops. In the past natural conditions, with the closed technique of nomadic
farming, burnt-over land of Tay Nguyen is assessed to be a sustainable farming
system. Currently, due to population pressure, open alternative plots of land of
Bahnar people, that is, continuous cultivation on a piece of field is replacing
closed alternative plots of land. However, dry fields and wet fields are currently
paid more attention to develop than before. Notably, self-sufficiency
polyculture gardens of households in many localities have been transferred into
industrial tree plantation gardens.
Breeding is one of important production activities of Bahnar people. In
the past, livestock and poultry were often raised without being caged but being
let wander freely or both with caging and without caging, while at present,
breeding is increasingly becoming a commodity production activity. Old

techniques of breeding have been replaced with new ones (caging, inoculating
against an epidemic, feeding according to a stable diet, etc.).
The most familiar handicrafts of Bahnar people are bamboo weaving and
fabric weaving. Bamboo weaving products are made from materials such as
rattan, bamboo, neohouzeaua, etc. Fabric is weaved from cotton yards which
are grown in the moutain field. Handicrafts are currently in recession, partly
because of lack of materials and partly because of the advantage of industrial
products.
Bahnar people previously exploited resources from the nature such as
hunting, fishing and gathering vegetables. The birds were usually hunted in the
dry season. The fishing took place all year round and provided food sources
more often. People also found and picked vegetables and fruits, and dug starchy
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tubers in the forest in order to meet the needs of a meal. Currently, due to
changes in the natural conditions, the hunting and gathering are lost in oblivion.
Several decades ago, the trade of Bahnar people did not develop as they
earned their living mainly by cultivating on their burnt-over land. There was no
paper money and barter and exchange one thing for another was common.
Exchanged things were livestock, poultry, food, woven products, gongs, salt,
ironwork, etc. Due to the decrease in the natural resources meeting the closed
life and impacts of the market economy and transport development, selling and
buying services have been expanded.
1.1.3.2. Social life
Villages of Bahnar were previously managed by a village chief and a
board of patriarchs who were experienced elders. Duties of the village chief
were to deal with general issues related to internal and external affairs. Each
village also had a military leader responsible for commanding young people in
case of occurring conflicts within the village or with other ethnic groups. At

present, the village is no longer a unique social organization. Roles of the
village chief and board of patriarchs have been narrowed.
The family of Bahnar people is form by members who are descendants of
an ancestor within his 5 or 6 generations. A family of Bahnar people is former a
family of different generations before transferring into the small family model.
In addition to the disappear of some traditional marriage forms, the trend that a
couple has a private life after marriage instead of taking it in turns to reside
according to the bi-generational marriage form has become more popular.
Economic functions of a household are changing according to the direction of
decreasing self-sufficiency activities and increasing the commodity production.
Meanwhile, educational functions are shared with the society.
1.1.4. Culture
Bahnar people previously followed the animistic belief. Their belief was
shown in different rituals and taboos. Main rituals of Bahnar people were
agricutural ritual, ritual of a life cycle and community ritual. They also
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performed quite a lot of taboos that were strictly stipulated in production,
fights, village establishment, house construction, pregnancy, birth-giving,
sickness, funeral, etc.
Bahnar folk art is imbued with the identity of the ethnic group. Bahnar
music is diverse both in instrumental music and in vocal music. Musical
instruments is assessed to be more abundant than those of other ethnic groups
in Vietnam. Bahnar dances are usually performed in community festivals, and
more or less represent the production and natural exploitation. Sculpture and
decoration art of Bahnar people are inspired by the landscape of the rainforest,
and shown at the communal houses, grave houses, as well as on woven fabrics
and weaving products. Bahnar literature includes many epic genres, fairy tales,
folk songs, proverbs, riddles, etc., but the most prominent is epic - the major

works depicting the heroic deeds.
Like in many other ethnic groups of Tay Nguyen, the culture of Bahnar
people currently witness major changes. Polytheistic faith has faded. The
traditional art forms such as dances, folk songs, grave statutes, epic telling, etc,
are all in a gradual recession, especially in areas with many religious people.
Along with the explosion of modern mass media, the import of new cultural
waves has made significant changes in the demand for the spiritual life of the
local people.
1.2. Research situation of Bahnar epic
1.2.1. Some features about the research situation of Tay Nguyen epic
After a relatively long period of learning about Tay Nguyen epic, there
are certain findings. Generally, researches aims to generalize epic of the whole
region or of a specific ethnic group other than a particular epic. This suggests
that identifying Tay Nguyen epic with its system in recent years has still been a
matter of concern. However, these research works relatively lean on surveying
the aesthetical aspect of the research object, whilst epic is not only an art form
but also an overall cultural phenomenon that should be studied more from the
interdisciplinary perspective.
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1.2.2. Research situation of Bahnar epic
H’mon has become a research object of related scientific sectors in the
past 30 years. Although epic works of one of ethnic groups living in a longest
period in the Highlands have attracted the interest of the scientific circles, the
number of works surveying these epic works in fact is limited, especially works
of large volume.
In general, except for those articles that introduce the works in the Project
of Surveying, collecting, conserving, translating and pulishing the Tay Nguyen
epic treasure (2001 – 2007), researches on Bahnar epic, similar to those on Tay

Nguyen epic in general, often mention to h’mon system of the whole ethnic
group rather than a particular work. In case of referring to a particular work,
they aim at general issues.
In terms of the approach of these researches, there are two angles: basic
researches and applied researches.
Firstly, those researches that approach h’mon from the basic angle
include
1) researches for specific purposes, and 2) interdisciplinary researches.
First of all, those researches for specific purposes are ones that study
objects in reference to literary works. These researches focus on specifying
issues on genres, topics and prosody of epic works. In terms of determining the
literary genre of h’mon, there are some typical articles such as “Some thinkings
about the epic genre in the oral literature of Bahnar ethnic group” (1995) of
Phan Thi Hong, “Try to explain the phenomenon of a lot of Bahnar epics all
named Dyông” (2005) of Phan Dang Nhat, and some articles introducing epic
works announced in the period of 2005 – 2007 of the Project of Surveying,
collecting, conserving, translating and pulishing the Tay Nguyen epic of Vo
Quang Trong, Nguyen Viet Hung, Phan Hoa Ly, Le Thi Thuy Ly, etc.
Regarding topics of h’mon, there is the article named “Topics of Bahnar epic”
(2001) of Nguyen Thi My Loc. With regard to prosody of h’mon, there are
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some works and articles such as “Epic group of Bahnar ethnic group (Kon
Tum) (2006) of Phan Thi Hong; “Action without end in the epic named “Tiger
kidnaps Giong in his childhood” (2008), “Storyline and characters of Bahnar
epic” (2009), and “Narrative in Bahnar epic” (2009) of Le Thi Thuy Ly;
“Variation of the storyline type, that is, the fight to save a beautiful woman in
Bahnar epic” (2012) of Phan Thi Hong.
In addition to researches approaching h’mon from specific purpose

perspective, there are researches of different levels aiming at approaching the
object from the interdisciplinary angle. They are following works: Folklore
Bahnar (1988) of To Ngoc Thanh and his coworkers, Epic of Bahnar people of
Talo group in Kon Chro District, Gia Lai Province (2006) of Nguyen Quang
Tue, “First steps to learn about names of characters in Bahnar epic” (2006) of
Nguyen Quang Tue, “The animal world in Bahnar epic (2008) of Ngo Thi
Hong Van, “Premitive cultural factors in the phenomenon in which a hero
seeks for his wife in a remote area, characters’ selection of movement
directions, and the essence of the competitions to seize beautiful women in
Bahnar epic (2008) of Nguyen Giao and Le Thi Thuy Ly, “Based on magic
elements and taboos in Bahnar epics to think about the formation time of these
works” (2009) of Le Thi Thuy Ly, “About the h’mon work named Jip Bo Ling
gives birth to a Te Te bird” (2012) of Bui Thien Thai, etc.
Secondly, researches approach h’mon from applied research angle
These researches are ones finding out about real situations of h’mon in
the contemporary life, showing causes of these situations and/or proposing
solutions to conserving and exploiting. Examples are “Gia Lai with Tay
Nguyen epic” (2008) of Vu Ngoc Binh, “Epics in Gia Lai Province” (2008) of
Cham Huong Viet, “Fate of Tay Nguyen epic in the social conditions of
contemporary society ” (2008) of To Ngoc Thanh, “Some issues on collecting,
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translating, researching and popularizing Giarai epic and Bahnar epic in Gia
Lai” (2008) of Nguyen Quang Tue, “Không nổi rồi con ơi or a sad story”
(2010) of Nguyen Quang Tue, Tay Nguyen epic in the contemporary life
(2010) of Phan Dang Nhat - Chu Xuan Giao and coworkers, etc.
In brief, Bahnar epic has been studied in several aspects, both from basic
and applied research angle. Even so, in terms of our research topic, in the
research portfolio, there is no overall research, because researches that more or

less mentioned to this topic were not carried out intensively or overally.
Originating from the new situation of the materials in recent years, we want to
survey systematically, in terms of culturology, the characteristics and
movement processes of Bahnar epic in the relationships with the historical and
social context, and on that basis, making our own judgments about its fate.
1.3. Theory and research methods
With questions of the topic being “What is Bahnar epic? and what is its
fate in the contemporary society?“, main theories used by us are the historical
materialism of K. Marx and the cultural materialism of M. Harris (Marx’s
theory has various contents, but from a culturology thesis perspective, we are
concerned only about the content discussing about the relationship between
infrastructure and superstructure of the society, a content that is considered to
be a cultural theory by culturology). Marx and Harris who was inherrited some
Marx’s opinions all affirmed decisive impacts of material conditions on social
consciousness. While Marx focused on relations of production that created
infrastructure and decided superstructure, Harris concentrated on technology
and ecology. Dispite of some certain arguements over their views on cultural
autonomy, both theorists, particularly Marx, have been widely acknowledged
by the scientific circles that they created a number of notable impacts in the
field of cultural studies as well as many other areas of social science
humanities.

Acceptable features of these theories are that they require a
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necessary attention to roles of material conditions in social consciousness,
including cultural products. Epic is a product closely connected to collecitve
psychology, and a key origin of collecitve psychology is the collectiveness in
the production activities, so studying it in the relationship with material

conditions of the society is appropriate. In addition to critics about their opinion
to accurately apply theory, with the selection of Marx’s theory and his
inherriter, we want to, by our own findings, affirm the accuracy of previous
scientists‘ opinions on Tay Nguyen epic in general and Bahnar epic in
particular who mainly used materialis theory in their research.
Method used to research the topic is the interdisciplinary method, a
typical method of culturology. With above-mention method, at the level of
detail, we use the following research tasks: text surveys (h'mon), intensive
interviews, analysis

and synthesization of existing research results.

Specifically, we compare and contrast contents of h'mon text with ethnographic
materials, combining with interviewing local people to answer the first aspect
of the research question (what Bahnar epic is). Then, basing on my own
investigations and analyzing and synthesizing research results of previous
authors to answer the second aspect (what its fate is in the contemporary
society).
Sub-conclusion
From specific social and natural conditions of Tay Nguyen, Bahnar
people have create a typical culture for ethnic groups in the region, of which
h’mon is a special achievement. Since being detected, a lot of h’mons have
been collected, translated and introduced. Subsequently, the survey on them has
been promoted both from the basic scientific angle and from apllied scientific
one, but mainly from the arts studies. Our topic, by approaching culturology,
aims to find out about the essence of h’mon as a cultural product of a particular
historical and social context and its Fate in the contemporary life.
CHAPTER 2
10

BAHNAR EPIC – THE SPECIFIC CULTURAL PRODUCT OF
TRADITIONAL SOCIETY
In this chapter, we analyze the relation between Bahnar epic and
traditional society of the subject by learning the influences of society on the
formation of characteristics of h’mon as well as h’mon’s effects, that means the
internal and external relationship of the work.
Based on definition of tradition in Vietnamese dictionary of the Institute
of Linguistics (2003), we use the clause traditional society to refer Bahnar
society before 1975, when it basically brings “natures inherited from the
previous generations”. From the theoretical perspective used in the topic, we
regard the most important “natures inherited from the previous generations” of
this society as unspecialized communist preoduction. Recently, traditional
society has been seen problem term (that mentioned societies virtually are
unchanged while they have changed little, therefore, that leads to
romanticization or discrimination of the target) and got around by many
researchers. For our part, we see that, a “traditional society“ has certain
mobilization and a modern society has reserved traditional elements, however,
the key feature is that the something new is the key property. On the other hand,
if you call the thing(s) by its or their real names, it can lead to romanticization or
discrimination, because of their reason is to not correct recognize the target. In
our opinion, basically, the unspecialized communist society of Bahnar people
before 1975 is traditional society.
2.1. The content and form of Bahnar epic and its social context reflection
2.1.1. Content
2.1.1.1. Military conflict and ware heroes
Military conflict in h’mon reflected historical reality of Bahnar people,
though not directly, refracted by the prism through thinkings of folk art. First
of all, h’mon sees that after external causes of battles in h’mon being pretty
diverse, the indirect causes are property appropriation and detention of

prisoners of war, which creates a typical phase of “military democracy” of
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Bahnar people. And then, by the picture of war, h’mon clearly reflected the
organization of contemporary society being very suitable for regular military
conflict. Moreover, h’mon also shows the central role of hero’s clan, who
dominates all power elite of the community with exceptional physical strength
and military ruling abilities.
2.1.1.2. Labor and cultural heroes
H’mon portrayed a vivid picture of labor life of Bahnar people. Main
living activities in labor life of Bahnar people are such as agricultural
production, handicraft and exploitation of natural resources in works. Labor,
not only regularly appears, but also are main or unique topic in many works,
and in these works, the main characters are cultural heroes. They show their
roles to the community by guiding people to work well.
2.1.1.3. The roles of women
Women in h’mon play a special role in the war. Standing by the justice
force, they enthusiastically participate in battles by fighting capacities not less
than the male heroes, even in many cases, they also decide war situations.
Moreover, women in h’mon are a specific symbol of power. We can see it by
learning the nature of contests in h’mon with the prize of beauty – the contests
are organized to look for a military coalition object. The roles of women in
h’mon somewhat show the imprints of machiartry of the nation.
2.1.1.4. Beliefs and customs
H’mon reflects magic and animism beliefs and many customs and habits
of Bahnar people which mostly relate to the beliefs mentioned above. First of
all, h’mon reflects magic beliefs in which you do or do not something for the
other to happen or not happen. And then, it reflects animism beliefs in which all
things and phenomena in the natural have souls and may impact on people’s

lives. On different levels, traditions, rites of worship of these gods are
demonstrated in h’mon, especially rituals in life cycles and community spirit.
Beliefs and customs in h’mon show commitment with traditional world outlook
of Bahnar people regarded as polytheism memories of Dong Son people.
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2.1.1.5. Folk knowledge
H’mon is effective tool for Bahnar people in keeping and transferring folk
knowledge as an oral encyclopedia of life. H’mon reflects Bahnar people’s
knowledge on nature (topography, land, climate, water source and flora).
Furthermore, h’mon also shows people’s knowledge on social culture, life
culture, spirit culture and experience on community management. Finally,
h’mon focuses on Bahnar people’s knowledge on living activities (farming,
handicraft, exploitation of natural resources and commodity exchange, etc.).
In general, h’mon reflects the real picture of traditional Bahnar society.
Although some factors in this picture exist so far, it has basically changed.
2.1.2. Form
2.1.2.1. Building storyline and characters form
Regarding storyline, as other narrative works, h’mon often describes that
the main characters penetrate into opposite environments to improve, suppress
or cancel it. However, for some h’mons, the contrast of opposite spaces is not
clear, works own low storyline because they are in favor of education or
knowledge providing, and listeners approach them to mentioned values rather
than aesthetic ones. Regarding characters, there are action and non-action
characters, anthropological-shaped and anthropological-unshaped characters in
h’mon. Especially, the diverse existence of anthropological-unshaped
characters clearly shows the ancient epic nature in h’mon, in which the
reminiscence of people is assessed to bring mythical characteristics rather than
to be shown by describing characters and historical events.

2.1.2.2. Description form
Regarding the relation between words and fictional entities of h’mon, we
can see the dominant of direct description, the interleaving between
acceleration and deceleration of storytelling action, the frequent occurrence of
repeating cases and the presence with many times of assessment bringing
implicit ethics, etc. Regarding the relation between texts and fictional world of
texts with storytellers, there are situations such as: the narrator appears but does
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not participate in described world and the narrator does not appear, the second
situation is more popular. Regarding the relation among elements in the texts,
three basic section combination types of narrative style consist of integration,
continuation and interleaving type in h’mon although their frequency are not
equal. Moreover, some h’mon contain several incomplete sections.
2.1.2.3. Oratorio form
To carry out oratorio of long-winded texts as h’mon, artists have to go
through a process of learning, training for a long time and dominate capacities
of memories and health. They may tell epic in large houses or any houses in the
village. It happens in quiet and order places, with all people in the village.
H’mon oratorio language has main elements such as lyrics and music. Lyrics
are alternating combination between prose and verse or symmetrical pair prose.
Music basically is vocal music, as most other ethnic groups in the region,
Bahnar people do not use musical instruments when showing epic. The
storytellers try to avoid telling inconclusively because they are afraid that
ancestral spirits along the stories coming back to them will feel unsatisfied.
It can be said that historical – social context leaves its mark in building
storyline – characters, narrative way and oratorio of h’mon.
2.2. The social roles of Bahnar epic, meeting specific historical requirements
2.2.1. The role of community links

Former Bahnar communities belong to mechanical link type; social link
type is organized based on belief and common love of all members, in which
collective consciousness mostly dominates people’s actions. H’mon, the typical
cultural product of people, is very effective means in maintaining and
developing the integrity of these communities. Being shown and perceived as
true stories about ancient glorious of the clan, h’mon sparks members’ pride on
the past and reminds them of locating their existence, not as a private but as a
part of community. On the other hand, the role of social cohesion h’mon is
inside and outside of the works. Because h’mon is often told for a large number
14


of people, that members of the villages meet each other through oratorio is very
suitable condition to maintaining and reconstructing community love and
relationship.
2.2.2. The role of reserving and providing practical experiences
There are many folk knowledge in h’mon, especially living and social
knowledge. In the thesis, we only study issues which are the closest to Bahnar
people’s life including “farming”, “eating” and “wearing”. Regarding
“farming”, using land considerably, cultivating effectively and starting seasons
at the right time are experiences usually referred in h’mon. About “eating”, the
cuisine culture of Bahnar people in epic reflects adaptation with the conditions
of ecological environment being characterized by unique and diverse flora and
fauna. That is the result of natural differentiation of climate and soil into
various sub-regions, as well as the full utilization of small production enclosed
to burnt-over land. On “wearing”, beauty experiences by Bahnar people’s
costumes show subtlety such as colors, accessories, but have to conform to
gender, situation, age and “position”. In general, folk knowledge in h’mon has
practical meanings for the ancient Bahnar people.
2.2.3. The role of ethic and aesthetic education

Most h’mon brings educational content in it. Because of not forming
school system, traditional Bahnar society attaches great importance to the
education of families and community. Families and the community are involved
in “setting social norms and values”, “developing personal behavior capacities”
and “indoctrinating symbol and model systems to explaining culture”. Epic is
one of the prominent education tools, not only for children, but also for all other
objects. The ethnic education content of h’mon is to build self-consciousness in
complying with social order for each individual i.e. to maintain compliance with
behavior patterns recognized by the community; while the aesthetic education
content of h’mon is to foster emotional capacities, build tastes – ideals and
promote harmonious development of recepting people through aesthetic
categories such as beauty, greatness, sorrowfulness and humorousness.
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In general, h’mon plays an important role in its society which is
characterized by unspecifized communist production – by strengthening
community cohesion block as the basis for this product, provides necessary
experiences to pratice it as well as build equivalent ethnic – aesthetic value
system.
Sub-Conclusion
There is a spcecial close relationship between Bahnar traditional society
and h’mon. War, labor, women’s roles, beliefs, customs, folk art, etc are
realistic in h’mon with typical artistic forms and shown through building
storyline – characters, narrative way and oratorio; h’mon also has considerable
influence on Bahnar traditional society in binding community, reserving and
providing knowledge, educating ethics – aesthetics for members preserving,
protecting and promoting it. H’mon, in essence, is specific cultural product of
traditional Bahnar society.
CHAPTER 3

END OF INHERENT EXISTENCE FORM – THE FATE OF
BAHNAR EPIC IN A CONTEMPORARY SOCIETY
3.1. The road from the past to the present of Bahnar Epic
3.1.1. Bahnar Epic before Vietnam's Southern Liberation Day (1975)
Before 1945, Tay Nguyen’ epic virtually remained intact its life. At that time,
a traditional communist economy played a main role. When French appeared,
they changed Tay Nguyen but did little citizen’s life. Although established on
about 10% of total red soil area in Tay Nguyen by the colonial government, this
almost did not have positive impacts on socio-economic situation of ethnic
minorities in place because employees were mainly recruited from other places.
A traditional culture remained its strong impacts and people’s epic performance
in Tay Nguyen still occurred as a familiar activity.
In 1945 – 1954 period, the above context is generally continued.
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1954 – 1975 period saw big changes due to wars in Tay Nguyen. Despite
these changes, new forms of production relations didn’t control the economy of
compatriots of various ethnic origins. Mutual aid teams in liberation areas or
capitalist, agricultural, industrial and forestry economic facilities with small
scale of propertied class in areas under the control of the Saigon government
were only formed in certain areas. The economy in Tay Nguyen was
characterized a natural production economy and a traditional social mechanism
wasn’t swayed. The h’mon singing and telling still happened.
3.1.2. Bahnar Epic afterVietnam's Southern Liberation Day to before Reform
(1986)
Since 1975, the State has begun to implement the Reform in Tay Nguyen
from a self-sufficient economy to a socialist economy. After 10-year liberation,
co-operative movements were basically completed, new production relations
were established, and the traditional economy of minority groups here was

transferred into a socialist planned economy. This gradually disintegrated an
old socio- economic model that was a basis for the founding and existence of
epic works because as we know, with a society organized on the basis of labor
specialization,

individuals’

consciousness

will

grow

more

than

the

consciousness of a traditional community where any individual is a member.
In addition, a policy conducting in parallel three revolutions in Tay
Nguyen took place in this period and its consequences towards the epic was
very clear. Along with a revolution in production and scientific-technological
revolution, an revolution in thought and culture significantly changed people’s
traditional worldview here. Because the natural power was clean up, artistic
forms having special relationships with beliefs such as epics encountered big
challenges to survive.
Specially, towards the improvement of production methods in Tay
Nguyen, the State implemented a policy on moving people in large numbers
from Northern Delta, Central Part and Northern mountains to carry out business

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and production activities in state-owned economic units. A spontaneous
migration flows was formed in Tay Nguyen. That caused the disorders in
minority groups’ cultural life in place.
On the other hand, big changes in terms of ecosystem-forest loss – also
have great influences on the epic performance. In addition, forest area was
declined with rapid speed due to inconsistent forest policies of the State, ethnic
minorities here also encountered a "serious forest loss" when a village
community’s traditional collective ownership of forest land was rejected by the
public ownership of land that managed by the State, which makes the forest that
has been inherent in a culture and Bahnar Epic, step-by-step strange for people
here.
As such, it can be said that by the Reform period, Bahnar epic was
basically no longer existing environment in a correct sense, in which changes in
production relations played a decisive role.
3.1.3. Bahnar Epic from Post-reform period (1986) to present
Along with a market economy established in the country, once again
production models in Tay Nguyen have experienced changes. On the one hand,
the State has dissolved cooperatives and production groups, rearranged farms
and forestry farms and adjusted the migration schedule to new economic zones
as well as fixed residence and resettlement; on the other hand the State has
issued many policies to encourage the household economic development
associated with gardens specializing in industrial tree cultivation. As a result, an
agricultural- forestry economy specialized has increasingly developed in these
areas: Tay Nguyen has become one of the most dynamic economic regions in
the country despite social and political unrest. The epic has had no appropriate
infrastructure for itself.
Besides, globalization wave has also resulted in a faster declination of the

epic. The fact that cultural elements from outside have increasingly appeared
caused rapid changes in people’s cultural and spiritual life in Tay Nguyen. The
universalization of power network and expansion of coverage area of national
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TV stations as well as local TV stations have allowed families to use modern
audiovisual media in a more convenient way; and in particular, from the
beginning of the 21st century, the Internet has had greater impacts. These
factors have promoted the traditional cultural loss. Results of interviews
conducted among Bahnar people including farmers, intellectuals, freelance,
students, etc with different age and education levels, with or without religious
beliefs, in urban and rural areas showed that h’mon – although it is beloved by
those who have deep experience with it – hasn’t attracted the Bahnar
community’s attention and recreational interest. Many phenomena of the
globalization process have effects on the fate of Tay Nguyen epic and a change
in belief is a remarkable phenomenon. A number of Bahnar people who believe
in a new religion – Protestantism have rapidly increased over the past years.
Because change belief is a constant change of culture, the fact that highland
people haven’t performed and enjoyed epics containing a worldview that they
gave up is unavoidable.
To sum up, Bahnar Epic hasn’t had suitable conditions to continue to be a
live epic with its inherent nature, so far.
3.2. Conservation, exploitation and promotion of Bahnar Epic heritage
3.2.1. Relevant guidelines and policies
From 1989 to present, UNESCO has done a lot to strengthen the
importance of intangible culture and created joint action programs worldwide
to preserve and promote them. In Vietnam, in 2001, Law on Cultural Heritage
was published in which mentioned terms of the intangible culture. Many
programs related to the conservation of the heritage of this type have also been

directed to implement by the State.
However, positive guidelines and policies aren’t always in parallel with
an ideal reality like in Bahnar Epic.
3.2.2. The real situation of conservation, exploitation and promotion of Bahnar
Epic heritage
3.2.2.1. The real situation of conservation activities of Bahnar Epic heritage
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Firstly, dynamic conservation is a type of conservation of phenomena in
an environment where they emerge and exist. Activities towards preservation
of Tay Nguyen epic in general and Bahnar epic in particular including dynamic
conservation have been implemented in recent years. Notably, in 2001 – 2007
period, along with Project “Examination, collection, preservation, translation
and publication of the Tay Nguyen epic treasure conducted by the Vietnam
Academy of Social Sciences in collaboration with provinces in Tay Nguyen,
Institute of Cultural Studies (under the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences)
has organized many classes teaching epics for young generations

in Tay

Nguyen in order to build a long-term existence of epics in the community. It
can be said that this is the most important activity in conservation efforts of Tay
Nguyen epic, so far. However, the above activities haven’t proved their effects
in practice.
There are some reasons for this. Subjectively, today Bahnar people donot
see epics as meaningful things in their daily lives. Most of their entertainment
forms are switched to modern ones. Objectively, the implementation of
conservation for this kind of heritage from cultural workers also has
shortcomings. Some people use Marx’s comments on the allure of ancient

Greek art on modern people to explain policies on restoring traditional epic
performance activities in Tay Nguyen society with a belief that this epic works
along with their inherent properties can still exist in a contemporary society.
However, Marx's comments need to be put into a certain context to consider. He
said that modern humans loved artistic works in humankind’s childhood and
had desires to "regenerate the truthfulness of that childhood in a higher level",
but in fact he still wanted to talk about an agreement between infrastructure
and superstructure. The difference in perspectives of h'mon value between
cultural workers to its current subject is a reason for the failure of recovery
effort of heritage performance activities in the inherent form.
Secondly, static conservation is a type of conservation of phenomena
outside an environment where they emerge and exist. The static conservation of
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h'mon (collection, compilation, book and tape publishing, domestic and foreign
promotion, advertisement on television and mass media, etc) mainly depends
on cultural workers.
In the thesis, we have focused on collecting documents – forms of static
conservation for h'mon that have been the most important ones, so far. Over the
past time, H'mon has been collected by free collectors; officials of Department
of Culture and Information; and participants in Project “Examination,
collection, preservation, translation and publication of the Tay Nguyen epic
treasure”. In particular, a maximum number of works published the most have
been taken from Project “Examination, collection, preservation, translation
and publication of the Tay Nguyen epic treasure”. However, the project has not
announced any new h'mon of Gia Lai where is home to Bahnar people, while
epic volume here is expected to be large. Maybe if there was a comprehensive
cooperation between cultural workers at central and local level, the h'mon
collection of the Project achieved better results because after the Project ended,

an local official said that h’mon still existed and urged competent authorities to
allocate an additional fund for continuing collection. We would like to give
information in details. After exchanging with some members of Project
Management Board and project Secretary, in 2006-2007 period they complained
that although some local cultural workers participated in the Project, they kept
artisans’ information secret in this area.
Therefore, the Bahnar epic conservation both static and dynamic aspects
needs to be considered.
3.2.2.2. The real situation of exploitation and promotion activities of Bahnar
epic
In a certain degree, this has not been done.
One of the ways to exploit and promote Tay Nguyen epics is that Tay
Nguyen epics are transferred into new forms of audio-visual culture in order to
meet demands for enjoying modern art of minority groups which is a desire of
native people we interviewed. However, until now this has not pay due attention.
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In addition, there is another important direction of promoting epics which
exploits epics for the purpose of tourism, an meaningful activity not only
introduces cultural quintessence of ethnic groups in Tay Nguyen but also offers a
practical economic benefits and source of revenue for citizens and the budget
respectively. Nevertheless, Tay Nguyen epics haven’t been exploited in
mentioning aspects.
3.3. The current development trends of Bahnar epic and directions of
upcoming conservation, exploitation
It should be noted that h'mon hardly survives in a real world with a full
range of its traditional attributes. Therefore, efforts to restore its life with
inherent form in the community is not feasible – it is necessary to have another
solution. Based on solution experience for intangible cultural heritage from some

countries in the region, the real situation of h'mon conservation, exploitation and
promotion, we present some proposals as follows.
For conservation
In terms of static conservation, h'mon investigation and collection works
should have a close cooperation between concerned departments and
organizations. Cooperation with a lack of comprehensiveness between central
and local levels should be avoided. In terms of dynamic conservation,
identifying the nature of h'mon plays an important role in giving out appropriate
solutions. It is inadvisable to set goals of maintaining h'mon survival with its
inherent nature when the necessary context no longer exists. The fact that time
and budget should be invested synchronously in all stages of investigation,
collection, compilation, publication or preservation, etc in order to ensure
scientific classification and efficiency play more important role in this type of
conservation.
For exploitation and promotion
Besides, continuing efforts are poured into introducing h'mon collection
results as well artisans are encouraged to teach epics to appropriate objects,
h'mon should be planned to put into extracurricular educational programs in the
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locality in order to enhance young generations’ awareness. Furthermore, works
should be transferred to new forms to meet the needs of the local community,
accordingly popularize ethnic cultural heritages. It is necessary to call for the
participation and response of organizations –individuals inside and outside this
locality. On the other hand, we should combine cultural activities with
economic activities, which create favorable conditions for native people to
exploit them for tourism - a direction consistent with current trends.
Sub-conclusion
With changes in production methods, a social platform for h’mon

performance activities is degraded. Futhermore, globalization – modernization
trends also have great impacts. Despite the State’s positive policies on
conservation acitivies of intangible cultural heritage, h'mon conservation is
facing limitations due to the appearance of conflicts in terms of values and
interests. The exploitation and promotion of h'mon for contemporary needs
have not been paid due attention. Restoration of inherent forms of h’mon in the
community is not feasible; therefore, our success and failure along with related
experience of other countries in the region is a necessary basis for appropriate
solutions to this heritage.

CONCLUSION
1. The culture of Bahnar ethnic group is typical for ethnic minority
groups of Tay Nguyen, and also a product of specific mountainous natural and
social conditions with various forms of arts such as sculpture, music, poetry,
dances, etc. Of which, epics (h’mon) telling uninterruptedly about the deeps of
the hero of the community in the construction and protection of the village are
favorite works.
2. Since being discovered, Bahnar epic is step by step collected,
translated and introduced, especially via the Project of Surveying, collecting,
translating and publishing Tay Nguyen epic (2001-2007). The survey of h’mon
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has been carried out in the past few decades and brought certain results both
from the basic and applied research angle. This topic, that is, Bahnar epic and
its fate in the contemporary society, adds a more systematic research work to
the research portfolio from the culturology perspective in order to specify the
essence of h’mon as a product of a specific historical and social context and to
identify its fate in the current life.
3. In terms of the content and form, h’mon is art works reflecting

characteristics of the society from which it came into being. Realities of the
traditional society such as war, labor, women’s roles, belief – custom, fork
knowledge, etc, have been presented in the h’mon in the typical art form. They
are shown specifically via storyline – character building, narrative methods and
performance (small concentration on storyline, special abundance of characters
who do not bear anthropological body, the decisive role of direct narrative
style, singing method without attaching with many performance means...).
4. As regards roles, h’mon has considerable impacts on strengthening
community relationships, disseminating knowledge of nature and society as “an
oral encyclopedia”, as well as educating about moral and aesthetical values in
the previous Bahnar society. Being a product of the traditional historical-social
context closely associated with the communism production without
specialization, the existence of h’mon meets needs that the historical-social
context requires. Through the promoting collective solidarity block, providing
members with necessary skills to effectively operate the production and
providing values to build a compatible society, h'mon’s role is not only to
maintain but also to protect and strengthen this production.
5. Existence basis of h’mon has witnessed big changes since traditional
economy switched to socialist economy and then to the market economy, and
experienced considerable changes in ecological conditions. These are main
reasons why h’mon no longer has a context to continue to exist with its old
nature. In addition, increasingly strong penetration since after the Renovation
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of the globalization is a factor fostering the end of the performance of h’mon
more quickly.
6. Although there are active policies of the State on conserving intangible
cultural heritage, the conservation of h’mon encounters a lot of limitations,
especially due to the appearance of conflicts in the acknowledgement of its

value in the current life. The exploitation and promotion h’mon’s value
according to modern forms such as adaptation into new recreational forms,
tourism trading, etc., have almost not been done.
7. With reference to trend, together with the disintegration of traditional
socio-economic context, h’mon with incident attributes is difficult to exist. The
conservation of h’mon is a pure art activity to meet enjoying demands of people
at present. It has not shown any prospects. However, exploitation of this
heritage according to new directions in order to meet demands and benefits of
the community, as well as to diffuse cultural quintessence of the ethnic group to
the world merits consideration./.

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