Located in the centre of Thai Nguyen City and 80km far from the Capital city, Museum of the Cultures of Vietnam’s Ethnic Groups houses more than 10,000 manuscripts, documents and ancient artifacts, which have been existing in daily life of 54 ethnic groups in Vietnam. Built in 1960 and initially named as Viet Bac Museum, the museum had its function of supporting scientific research and educating the revolutionary history of ethnic groups in Viet Bac Region. The total area covered by the museum is approximately 40,000m2.
Having its architecture be a combination of Stalinist and traditional Vietnamese style, Museum of the Cultures of Vietnam’s Ethnic Groups presents information in three main languages: Vietnamese, French and English.
An extensive collection of hunting, handicraft and agricultural tools of Vietnamese ethnic group are on display in the museum. Typical ritual clothes and decorative motifs of various ethnic minorities are also found here. The highlight is unique costumes of the Nung and Tay ethnic groups which are used in worshipping occasions to their sorcerers.
There are three showrooms that gain the most attention in the Museum including Viet-Muong, Tay-Thai and H’mong-Dao Compartments.
In H’mong-Dao Compartments, you should take some time to explore roughly 60 documents and artifacts. They attempt to help visitors to catch a glimpse of agricultural practices of the H’mong, which are, for example, slash-and-burning farming, hunting tools, terraced rice fields and H’mong-Dao traditional costumes and daily clothes.
If you wish to get to know the primitive history of the North of Vietnam, you may want to drop by Viet-Muong Compartment, where proximately 500 items, documents and photographs depicting archaeological specimens discovered in Dong Dau, Go Mun, Phung Nguyen Era. Additionally, Vietnamese national handicraft and agricultural productions and brocades made by Muong ethnic minorities are on display.
Tay-Thai showroom offer the exhibition of farming practices, musical folk instruments, women’s clothes, traditional trades and ceremonies of numerous minorities, Thai, Tay, Lao and Lu, to name a few.
Another striking site within the museum is outdoors exhibitions of 6 cultural environments: Northern Highland, Valleys, Midland – Nothern Vietnam, Central – Coastal Region, Truong Son – Central Highland. In each exhibiting site, typical vernacular building structures are imitated, providing visitors with genuine feeling when visiting and immerse themselves into the diversified and distinct cultures of Vietnamese ethnic groups.
The village entrance gate and communal house has been considered the symbols of Vietnamese countryside
Nha Rong (Communal House of ethnic groups in the North of Central Highland in Vietnam) is the holy place representing the spirit of the village where it is situated
A variety of performances imitating cultural and entertaining activities of Vietnamese ethnic groups are hold in the museum on a regular basis and have free admission.
A traditional dance of Khmer, an ethnic group residing in the Mekong Delta
Imitating performance taking place within the precinct of the museum
Throughout the year, the museum opens from 7.30 to 11.30 in the morning and from 1.30 to 5 in the afternoon. The admission fee is about $1, definitely unsubstantial compared to the experiences offered by the museum.
Together with Nui Coc Lake, ATK historical revolutionary zone, Museum of the Cultures of Vietnam’s Ethnic Groups attracts a fair share of visitors coming to Thai Nguyen City annually.