Dak Lak museum provides hand-on experiments with traditional handicraft

Dak Lak museum attracts 300,000 visitors a year, all coming to see the historical and cultural exhibits of Dak Lak Province and the Central Highlands as a whole.

There, artisans are also demonstrating their traditional handicraft and introducing their products as a way to promote the province’s ethnic cultures.

Artisan Y Mip Ayun of the E De ethnic minority group, 75, can competently build and play musical instruments. The man from Ko Sier hamlet, Buon Ma Thuot City, briskly cuts and shapes bamboo tubes into flutes. He enthusiastically shows visitors to Dak Lak museum how to make the instrument if they would love to do so by themselves.

Y Mip Ayun said “It makes me hugely happy when visitors want to learn about our ethnic culture. While making the instruments, I really miss my old friends, some of whom passed away already, and the moments we made and blew the flutes together. They inspire me to create new melodies simultaneously on my flute”.

H Djuih Eban is proud to introduce her E De group’s brocade weaving to visitors. During her demonstration sessions, Eban also responds to visitors’ queries about materials to weave brocades, the combination of colors and patterns, the amount of time needed to complete the clothes for festivals, and the importance of brocade weaving to the E De ethnic minority people.

She told VOV “Visitors can make beautiful brocade clothes with me. Through demonstration of weaving, I have a chance to promote and preserve the traditional customs of my E De group.”

The demonstration of traditional handicraft also enables visitors to better understand the nature and people of the Central Highlands. It helps to inspire the love and pride of artisans of their cultural values. The activity has received a positive response from visitors.

Huynh Van Thong from Dong Thap Province said “Each traditional handicraft has a long history with the development of each ethnic group. The handicraft products need to be promoted and modified to match with modern tastes, which will help to better popularize the Central Highlands people”.

As the number of artisans and the funding winds down, the museum has called for investment to hold demonstrations each month or every quarter.

There are more interactive activities during festivals at the Dak Lak museum, which is becoming an attractive tourist destination.