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Father figure: Catholic priest Nguyen Duc Ngoc poses with Chu Ru children. — File Photo |
LAM DONG — Catholic priest Nguyen Duc Ngoc has built a wooden museum displaying ancient items of the ethnic Chu Ru group in the Central Highland province of Lam Dong's Ka Don Village.
On show are hundreds of the Chu Ru's belongings collected by Ngoc, including farming and hunting tools, musical instruments, jewellery, costumes and culinary utensils.
Elderly villager Ko Tum said: "The museum is very helpful for ethnic Chu Ru and Co Ho people, particularly the young, who often come here to understand about their ancestors and history."
Ngoc first gained exposure to traditional Chu Ru culture nearly 40 years ago when he was assigned to work at the parish in Ka Don Village of Don Duong District.
Apart from collecting items, Ngoc is compiling documents to write a book in Chu Ru language to systemise and analyse the value of the culture and life of the people.
He said each item in his museum could tell an interesting story about the Chu Ru's tradition and how they lived in the past.
"It's very difficult to find such ancient items as a wooden buffalo bell. I had to travel to each house of each villager to find it.
"I'm very happy because apart from helping people preserve their ancient things I can also help explain the culture to students from Da Lat and HCM City who visit my museum to learn and compile documents for their university assignments," Ngoc said.
Many researchers of ethnic culture from HCM City and abroad had also visited his museum, he said.
Ngoc has also set up a room to translate documents of the majority Kinh group and other groups' cultures and agriculture into the Chu Ru language.
Speaking and writing the language helps him teach villagers to apply advanced technology in agriculture production to improve their living standards.
Villager Tum said: "Ngoc often visits our vegetable gardens and rice fields to show us how to apply modern technology to gain higher productivity."
Tum expressed the group's gratitude to Ngoc for his love of their culture and his contribution to the protection and preservation of the Chu Ru's tangible and intangible heritage and the villagers' well-being. — VNS