Collection of food processing tools of Thai people at the mini “museum” of Mr. and Mrs. Kieu Van Kien. Photo: HO DUY
Most of the antiques he has collected are tools associated with the daily activities of the Thai people in the past, such as food processing tools (including pots, rice pots, bowls, plates, trays, chopsticks, jars, etc.) gourd, stone mill); hunter-gatherer kits (including traps, crossbows, cannons, bows, lanterns, etc.); earthen lamps, searchlights, and patrol lamps of the old mandarins; The shaman’s offerings include the blessing robes, drums, gongs, calendars, etc.
The musical instrument collection includes trumpets, funeral trumpets, gongs, gongs, drums, cymbals, and lullabies at funerals and weddings. The jewelry set includes sachets, silver rings, earrings… Each collection is usually arranged, scientifically arranged, numbered and has an introduction in Vietnamese and English. Those who come here, if they look there, will better understand the life, the formation and development of the Thai people in the Northwest mountains.
Love the one who loves the whole village
After taking visitors to the “museum”, sipping a cup of tea in a spacious two-storey house on stilts, Mr. Kien told about the story of “becoming charming” with this land of Mai Chau. Kien was originally a boy from Thach That, Hanoi. Since he was in high school, Kien has had a passion for collecting antiques and has always had a hobby of traveling. Therefore, on holidays, Kien often travels with friends or alone with a backpack and does not know since when, the land of Mai Chau (Hoa Binh) has become familiar to him.
Kien happened to know and fall in love with a Thai girl named Ha Thi Le (in Xam Khoe commune, Mai Chau district, Hoa Binh) who is studying medical school in Hoa Binh city. They fell in love and got married, their love was as beautiful as the Northwest mountains. Loving his wife, passionate about discovery, Kien decided to stick his life with this land of Mai Chau. Kien went to work during the day and returned at night to ask his wife to teach him how to speak and write, and learn about Thai life, customs and practices to deal with his wife’s family and live with the villagers properly. Not only that, he also invited his wife to go to Thai villages to learn and learn more. From those trips, Thai culture, Thai life has “soaked” into his blood and flesh.
A variety of Thai musical instruments. Photo: HO DUY
Kien and his wife by the fire in their “museum”. Photo: HO DUY
During a visit to a villager’s house, Kien saw the strange household items left in the kitchen upstairs, so he asked to take a look. While looking at it, he asked the owner the use of each old object and couldn’t help but praise. Knowing that he liked them, the owner of the house gave him a set of “antiques” that the family had not used for many years, if only to add to the house. Unexpectedly, until now, those items he went everywhere to look for could not be found anymore.
Teaching Thai characters to preserve culture
Many times traveling here and there, hunting for ancient coins, Mr. Kien witnessed countless antiques of different ethnic groups being bought and sold by traders. Many villagers have sold old items to the junkyard and unknowingly some of them are items containing the unique cultural values of the Thai people. Understanding that, Kien burned with the thought of collecting Thai antiquities. Since then, he often goes to remote villages to find and buy old and antique items of the Thai people. “At first, when I saw him walking all day, he would throw away his old baskets and baskets about himself, thinking that he had ‘problem’. But after knowing my husband’s intention to preserve our national culture, I am even happier and always support him,” said Le, his wife.
Hearing where there are Thai antiques, he immediately set off. He was busy walking, engrossed in searching with the fear that the “enemy of time” would damage and lose artifacts of important spiritual value. Not only learning about Thai culture in Mai Chau, Kien also roams alone on a motorbike to Son La or to the highlands of Thanh Hoa and Nghe An to understand and collect more Thai cultural artifacts in other regions. domain.
After about 10 years of collecting, in June 2012, Kien asked the permission of the local government and then set up a board “Sightseeing, exhibiting artifacts and antiques of Thai and Mai Chau culture” to display and introduce. Thai culture for tourists. Every day, Kien’s “museum” welcomes dozens of domestic and foreign delegations to visit. As both the owners of the “museum”, the couple also concurrently interprets for visitors.
In particular, Kien said he also plans to open a free Thai language class for students and young people in the area. “For Kinh people, to understand Thai culture thoroughly, the best way is to know Thai characters. For Thai people, understanding their own writing is also to preserve and promote traditional cultural values, to keep them for posterity,” said Mr. Kien.
Source: Collected internet.