Vocabulary quiz j words

A wedding ceremony of the Dao Lu Gang ethnic group

Hoang Nguyen Pham is a famous Pí Le trumpet artist who lives in Nam Cuong Commune in the Cho Don District of the northeastern province of Bac Kan. He usually plays the trumpet at important ceremonies like weddings and funerals of the Dao. In the spring, the sounds of his trumpet fill the air.

In accordance with the lunar calendar, the Dao people believe that the trumpet should mostly be heard from September to March and should be silent the rest of the year – except for important ceremonies – to avoid damaging the rice crops. This is a highly respected taboo.

Hoang Nguyen Pham, 44, has been passionate about his trumpet since learning to play it at the age of 10. He says the most important technique any new player must learn is how to take, hold and release their breath. Practice is also very important to ensure a good performance during ancestor worship ceremonies at which respect is paid to the dead. Most Dao families worship their ancestors as far back as nine generations, starting with parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents. Ancestor worship occurs during funerals, tomb visits, the full moon of seventh lunar month, Lunar New Year festival, and other rituals.

Artist Hoang Nguyen Pham

No written notes

After grasping the basics, Pham accompanied his brother to learn the different tunes and techniques suited to various occasions. Since there are no written instructions regarding the music for or notes for these ceremonies, he had to listen attentively and memorize what he heard and what his brother showed him. It took him more than 20 years to gain sufficient confidence to perform as the main blower at rituals for the rice and forest gods and other occasions.

These days, Pham is a famous artisan and is invited to perform on important occasions. He has memorized all the tunes, and knows which one to blow on each specific occasion.

The Pi le trumpet consists of a mouthpiece, pipe and bell and can produce 72 sound variations.

Pham explains that at wedding ceremonies, for example, certain tunes are trumpeted to welcome the bride and her entourage, and others are played once the entourage moves away. At weddings, he says, the sound of the trumpet is always cheerful and bustling; at funerals, the trumpet emits somber notes. These intricacies, nuances and complexities can only be mastered over time are difficult to explain in words.

Trieu Hoang Giang

Tran Van Hien and Nguyen Thi Kim Hong, a couple from Vinh Long Province in the Mekong Delta, have spent several years providing shelter and covering medical bills for chronic kidney disease patients undergoing dialysis.

Hien, 47, and Hong, 43, used their life savings to build a home where they offer free care to underprivileged kidney disease patients and their caretaking relatives from around all over Vinh Long Province.

As part of their mission, the couple offers free meals to their guests, many of whom depend on the friendship, family, and solace of living together for strength in battling their physical pain and financial hardships.

Reaching out

Hien and Hong’s 200-square-meter prefabricated house sits just one kilometer from Can Tho General Hospital in Can Tho City, giving their guests an easy access to the life-saving renal dialysis they depend on.

Dialysis is the process of artificially removing waste and excess water from blood in people with failing kidneys.

A dialysis session in Vietnam costs between VND150,000 (US$6.5) and VND1 million ($43) and must be done about three times per week. Given that Hien and Hong’s guests are all from extremely low-income families, the bills add up quick.

To make ends meet, Hien spends his day operating a crane while Hong runs a grocery store out of their home.

Each morning, Hong heads to the local market to pick up food for the patients at her home.

Of course, with 40 beds at her home, there is a lot of food shopping to do. Fortunately, the food traders, many of whom were surprised when she first began picking up such large quantities, are sympathetic with the couple and do their best to help out.

“They’ve been lending us a hand ever since they found out what we’ve been up to,” Hong shared.

Apart from kidney patients, Hien and Hong also welcome homeless people into their house, hoping their kind deeds will help improve their community and the world.

A home for the needy

The idea of building a boarding house for kidney patients first came to Hien during a visit to Can Tho General Hospital.

During the visit, Hien was struck by the sight of a kidney patient painfully resting in one of the hospital’s corridors.

Aware that many of the patients in local hospitals are unable to find a place where they can sleep uninterrupted and without feeling the subconscious need to check on their belongings, Hien and his wife decided to build a space where they can get a good night sleep.

Renal patients share food at a home built by Nguyen Thi Kim Hong and her husband in Binh Minh Town, Vinh Long Province, Vietnam. Photo: Thanh Nhon / Tuoi Tre

“We provide them with free accommodation and meals. We also check on them whenever we have a free moment,” Hien shared.

As words of their free boarding house spread throughout the province, kidney patients began showing up in greater numbers.

“We’re now no different than a family. We all enjoy talking and sharing about what is going on in our lives,” Hien explained.

Hien’s sentiment is shared by those who depend on his boarding house.

“We’re just like a family. Hien and his wife provide us with a proper place to stay and meals. They also cover our dialysis bills,” said Pham Van Vang, an 83-year-old who has been on dialysis for the past 12 years.

“Sometimes they even give us money. I’m not sure how I’ll ever repay them for their kindness.”

Vang is one of the 20 patients on renal dialysis currently staying in Hien’s home, and the community he and the other patients have built has been a major pillar in their struggle for survival.

70-year-old Nguyen Thi Be, Vang’s wife, is equally thankful for the support Hien and Hong have given her husband. With dialysis needing to be done every two days, coupled with several surgeries over the years, the couple had been forced to sell their paddy field in Mang Thit District, Vinh Long Province, to cover hospital bills.

Be had been bringing in a meager income of VND50,000 ($2.1) a day by washing dishes, but her poor eyesight eventually put her out of work. The couple’s children are also quite poor and unable to provide support.

“We don’t know how we would have made it this far without support from Hien, his wife, and other philanthropists,” Be shared.

Be’s gratitude to the philanthropic couple is echoed by Pham Van Hoa.

For the past six years, this young man, has been undergoing dialysis at Can Tho General Hospital three times per week, with each session lasting between three and a half and four hours.

“I hold dear every moment I’m still alive,” Hoa shared.

According to Hoa, the emotional connections he’s built with the other guests and Hong and Hien’s home has been his saving grace. One of those connections is with Nguyen Thi Kieu Bay, a 50-year-old woman from the Province’s Tra On District who moved into the home six months ago.

With no relatives to care for her, Bay had nowhere else to turn other than Hien and Hong.

“There are times my energy is completely drained, but I refused to give up. I’m so blessed to be here and to be cared for by Hien and Hong that I have to keep going,” Bay said.

Such thankfulness is the only reimbursement Hien and Hong need for their good deeds.

“We don’t pay attention to gossip about us. All we really care about is that the patients are happy,” Hong adding how thankful they themselves are for the love and support they receive from their community.

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On the threshold of the government’s conference to review the 3-year implementation of Resolution 120 on Mekong Delta sustainable development amid climate change, to be held in Can Tho City, VietNamNet spoke with Prof Vo Tong Xuan about the effects of the resolution.

Why do you call Resolution 120 released in November 2017 the ‘Thuan Thien Resolution’?

The word ‘Thuan Thien’ (Let things flow naturally) originated from a short conversation on a dining table between PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc and me, when I was invited to a conference on sustainable development in the Mekong Delta in the context of climate change in Can Tho.

At that time, I said to the PM that Mekong Delta farmers are bearing a ‘vong kim co’ (golden hoop) on their head (vong kim co is something mentioned in a novel and is used to refer to strict and harsh control).

Explaining this, I said ‘vong kim co’ is a problem in rice farming. People grow rice because they have to implement the policy on food security. And they have to grow rice even when there is more than enough rice. They grow rice on normal land and on coastal land. They even try every possible means to prevent saltwater and bring fresh water from hundreds of kilometers far away to fields to till the rice.

The state asks farmers to grow rice in saltwater areas, while they could hatch shrimp and farm fish to earn big money on those areas. So, we are trying to be contrary to nature, go against natural laws.

When the conference ended, the Prime Minister agreed to use the word’ Thuan Thien’ as the guideline for Resolution 120.

So, we need to turn risks into opportunities and develop ‘modern farmers’?

Yes, when we say ‘Thuan Thien’, this means letting things go naturally as they like. If so, we no longer consider saltwater as the ‘enemy’.

In the past, we considered saltwater as ‘enemy’ because we could not till rice with saltwater. Now, with ‘Thuan Thien Resolution’, sea water is a ‘friend’ and we can live together with it.

Mekong Delta people now develop irrigation systems to manage saltwater. In rainy season, they till rice. In sunny season, they hatch shrimp with saltwater control systems.

Locals began farming shrimp before the Resolution 120 was released. But this was not organized planning. Rice growers tried to bring freshwater to the fields, while shrimp farmers tried to get saltwater.

The rice-shrimp farming regime was applied by farmers in the 1980s, without the state’s investment. The state only invested in rice farming.

When implementing the Resolution 120, local authorities were puzzled. A new policy needs to be associated with guides for implementation and budgeting.

To implement Resolution 120, Vietnamese farmers need to become ‘neo-farmers’. They need to join next-generation cooperatives to improve yield and increase income. Cooperatives need to be associated with businesses, and businesses need to tie to the market. But this can be done only with the state’s support.

How has Resolution 120 come into life?

The most visible ‘gain’ in terms of ‘Thuan Thien’ is the strong development of the rice farming – shrimp hatchery rotating regime.

This has increased farmers’ incomes. Farmers in coastal areas are very happy with the newly planned transformed areas. The thousands of hectares of rice-shrimp farming areas can bring profits 4-5 times higher than rice monoculture of the past.

In the areas which suffer from drought but not salinity, farmers have shifted to cultivate sesame, lotus and other fruit trees.

In 2020, despite the Covid-19 pandemic, Vietnam set many records with farm produce reaching 190 markets in the world and farm exports bringing $41.2 billion worth of turnover, the highest ever level.

Vietnam’s litchi, rambutan, dragon fruit, star apple, mango and longan are now present in choosy markets like the US, Australia, Japan and South Korea.

The rice export volume decreased by 3.5 percent, but fell by 9.3 percent in value. Of this, high-quality rice accounted for 85 percent of total exports.

For the resolution to gain the desired goals, it is necessary to continue to change in a clear direction. The state needs to step in to support farmers and businesses. There should be clear strategies: which plants and which kinds of animals to be farmed in which areas so as to optimize benefits.

The state needs to make reasonable development planning. In the area adjacent to Cambodia, from Kien Giang to Long An, fresh water is abundant, so farmers can have three rice crops a year, or five crops every two years, to ensure food security.

In the area including a part of Dong Thap, AN Giang, Vinh Long and Tien Giang, farmers can reorganize production to specialize in fruits and vegetables.

In coastal areas, it would be better to follow rice-shrimp or intensive shrimp cultivation models.

Ho Van – Hoai Thanh