Indigenous cultural heritage of Thai people in Muong Lo promoted

Meticulously staged and rich in cultural identity, the program combines traditional elements with modern artistic expression. It is expected to offer visitors distinctive emotional experiences while showcasing the unique character of Muong Lo, a land of “xoe” dances.

Visitors to Muong Lo will have the opportunity to enjoy distinctive xoe Thai dance performances.

The festival’s highlight will be its opening ceremony, scheduled for 20:000 on October 16 at Nghia Lo ward stadium in Lao Cai province. The ceremony will feature an artistic program titled “Xoe Thai Dance – A Circle of Love.”

The artistic program is divided into three parts, tracing the first stirrings of love between a young Thai man and woman, the trials they endure over time, and their eventual reunion and fulfilment. Notably, rather than presenting xoe Thai dance as a series of separate performances, the program weaves it throughout the narrative as a recurring artistic thread. Many traditional Thai customs at risk of disappearing will also be vividly recreated on stage.

In addition, musical theater will be combined with Khap singing, a distinctive form of folk poetry and music and a notable intangible cultural heritage of the Thai and Tay ethnic communities in the Northwest, with Vietnamese subtitles. This approach will help audiences connect emotionally with the performances and gain a deeper appreciation of the region’s indigenous culture.

Another notable feature will be a grand-scale xoe dance performance staged for the first time as a “mega wedding” in a Muong village, bringing together thousands of people in a communal dance to bless the young couple.

Highlighting Lao Cai Province’s strategic vision through the festival, Vu Thi Hien Hanh, Vice Chairwoman of the Lao Cai Provincial People’s Committee and Head of the festival’s organizing panel, underlined that the festival and its artistic program would go beyond simply honoring heritage or organizing entertainment events. Their core objective is to gradually “turn heritage into an asset”.

Providing further information about the festival, Nong Viet Yen, Director of the Lao Cai Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, said the event is a major provincial-level cultural and tourism occasion held annually. It has become a distinctive cultural and tourism rendezvous, contributing to the preservation and promotion of the traditional cultural values of Lao Cai’s ethnic communities.

The festival holds particular significance as it coincides with the fifth anniversary of xoe Thai dance being inscribed on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The occasion will also provide an opportunity to assess achievements in preserving and promoting the dance since its inscription, while celebrating the cultural identities of ethnic communities across the Northwest.

The mass xoe dance performance will be a highlight of the festival.

According to him, by raising the quality of artistic programs and traditional festivals, Lao Cai is proactively developing distinctive cultural tourism products with strong appeal to domestic and international visitors. Developing heritage tourism will directly create jobs, increase incomes for ethnic minority communities and promote a sustainable restructuring of the local economy.

Translated by Quynh Oanh