Hanoi - Museum of Ethnicity

In the morning we went to the Museum of Ethnicity. It was built by the French in 1997. The exhibits are well crafted and highly interesting and informative. When we first got there we went to the traditional houses built outside of the museum complex. We were greeted by a young Vietnamese male who is studying culture and ethnicity. His English was excellent and he spent about an hour with us guiding us through the 3 houses of different ethnic groups (out of 52 in Vietnam).

Groups: Ede – matrilineal, matrilocal. House is long on short stilts. When the daughters marry, their husbands come to live in the house in separate chambers added on. The elephant is the symbol of power for the Ede. The entrance stairs have 2 breasts and a new moon representing the female and rebirth.

Ba Na – tall communal house where only single men can reside. The stairs going up to it are very steep with 9 rungs, 9 being a lucky number. The roof is very high with decoration on the top so it can be seen from long distances. Only men can enter the house, the women live in other houses. This same ethnic group buries their dead in a semi-long, low, thatched roof building guarded by wooden statues. On the corner is a mourning servant and along the sides are men and women copulating. I suppose thisrepresents the cycle of life, but our guide made an interesting observation that the man looks very ashamed. He does have a long face on to match his long penis.

Inside the museum were crafts, baskets and crafted scenes with video monitors nearby. We watched a Muong funeral, a Tay shaman ceremony with all women, mostly old women, and a conical hat making ceremony.

Vietnam has 54 ethnic groups. One hill tribe, the Australasians, helped the Americans during the war with promises of protection, but the US abandoned them and many were slaughtered. That wasn’t reported in the museum, I got it from another source. And, then, that has strong parallels with what happened to the South Vietnamese after Saigon fell. Very sad and tragic for both sides and everyone involved.

We had lunch at the old Little Hanoi (there are three of them now, one of them completely unrelated from the other two). I had grilled squid in sesame seeds, Kathie had some chicken thing and we shared a plate of grilled aubergines that were great. I washed it all down with a bottle of Tiger beer and we went back out into the heat and grit walking around, visiting shops and walking some more.