Ba Na men play gongs in a festival

The Ba Na are called by many names: the Bo Nam, Roh, Kon Kde, Ala Kong, and Kpang Kong. Their language belongs to the Mon-Khmer language family of Southeast Asia. The Ba Na include 227,000 people, living in Gia Lai, Kon Tum, Binh Dinh, Phu Yen, and Khanh Hoa province.

Traditionally, the Ba Na cultivated dry terraced fields. Since the early 20^th century, they have adopted wet rice cultivation. The Ba Na practice many handicrafts such as knitting, weaving, forging, and pottery.

The Ba Na have maintained several matriarchal practices in family and clan relations and marriage. Every Ba Na village has a large community house, called a Rong house, where the village chiefs discuss community work and meet guests, where villagers gather for festivals, and community worshiping rituals, and where unmarried men can sleep.

The Rong house of the Ba Na in the Central Highlands

The Ba Na live in long stilt houses with many rooms for the extended family. In recent years, they’ve begun to prefer smaller family structures and live smaller stilt houses.

The Ba Na have developed rich cultural values in which gong performance is the center of many traditional festivals. A gong is not only a holy symbol, but also a priceless asset of the community. Dinh Srum is a Ba Na man in Dac Lac province: “The Ba Na have a tradition of playing the gong. At rituals, New Year festivals, and parties, we play the gong to lighten the atmosphere and cheer people up.”

The Ba Na have many musical instruments, including string, wind, and percussion instruments. They have many dances for worshipping and entertainment. The epics and fairy tales of the Ba Na are valuable elements of Vietnamese folk literature.

A scene of the buffalo sacrifice

The Ba Na are famous for brocade weaving on clothes, blankets, and other products. They like to combine black, white, and red in symmetric patterns to symbolize the universe, yin and yang, the earth and sky, and nature. La Lan Thi Minh is a skilled brocade weaver. “When I was 14 or 15 years old, I could weave many things. I cannot ignore our tradition. Old people weave and teach the children. Young people weave nicely and they have promoted the craft.”

The Ba Na have many festivals each year, including a ceremony to show gratitude to parents, a buffalo sacrifice, grave-abandoning ritual, and a ceremony to pray to the rice genie. The festivals are opportunities for the villagers to pray to the earth and heaven for bumper harvests and entertain themselves by playing and dancing to the gongs, drinking wine, and eating traditional food.