The traditional house Vietnam - Rong House in Highland where there is coffeeThere is no such traditional house in Vietnam

Minority has special house. Like...

Rong Houses are the traditional communal structures of the Bahar minority group in Vietnam's Central Highlands, where important events,

such as weddings and festivals, are held.

Similar to the communal house in the Viet village, the communal house in the highlands is the place that all community activities of remote

ethnic groups in the highlands take place, and the headquarters of the administration of the highland village, the place of religious belief

activities, guest house…… ; the place expressing the spiritual community festivals and the place that the old artisans impart the traditional

cultural values to the young generation...,the place keeping traditional objects on display: Gong, drum, weapon, heads of immolated animals

in holidays and is the place of birth of children from early childhood gathering around the fireplace and being told stories, and is also the

place that adults meeting at night to tell each other the stories of mountain and forests...

The ridge has two roofs; the top of the sloping roofs has a couple of horns. We should view very carefully to recognize different features

compared to houses: Going along the wave of the roofs is a special decorating range. The floor is joined with bamboo and neohouzeaua

knitting pieces. In the middle of the house, there is a straight banister. This banister is the support of small jars of Ruou Can when the

village holds festivals. The patterns decorating in the walls have two colors: red and green. Bahnar peple usually use couples of buffalo’s

horns, pillars in the middle space are sculptured skillfully (sun), eight-swing-star, lozenge, birds, humans...This is the collective architectural

and artistic works of the village community.

The Rong house is often 10m long, 4m wide, 15 - 16m high, but some houses are only 7-8m high.. The diversities in the architectural

styles of each ethnic group in the Highlands is also the structure of the house.  The Rong house of the Highlands’s people does not use iron

and steel. The joins are cut very carefully and then use the rattans and bamboo strips to bind. Each binding part of each ethnic group is

different. For the stairs to go up the Rong house, ethnic groups usually cut from 7 to 9 steps. On the top of each stair of different ethnic

groups, Ba Na people’s is the shape of Don vegetable, Ja Rai people’s is gourd containing water,   Xe Dang, Je Trieng people’s are gongs’

knobs, hoods, in some Rong houses, on the top knob of the stair, there is the shape of the chest of a young unmarried girl.. From the

inauguration of the Rong house, unmarried men have to sleep here to protect. Therefore, the folk architecture of the Rong house is unique

and each ethnic group own their different style. Very skillful hands, intelligence, and efforts of the whole community build all. The Rong

house is attached to the mentality, sensitivity and social activities, religions of the Highlands’s people. We will miss a lot when going far

away from the Rong house and when we visit the Rong house, it is very happy. The Rong house is the heart of the mountain village that will

never be fainted in the mind of the Highlands’s people. 

Highlands’s people regard the Rong house, or the house on stilts as the brave soul of the heaven and earth accumulating to protect the

village people, therefore, in each communal house there is one holy place to worship holy things, sometimes only a knife, a stone or a

buffalo’s horn…

The Rong house is one of the important elements forming the highlands cultural character. It is important because beside its material

values, it is also the place keeping the sustainable cultural spiritual soul of the highlands people. It is not only the spirit but it is also the

blood, sweat, tears, the glory, pride, repercussion of great desires of humans before the nature, universe. People assess the prosperity of a

highlands village through the Rong house. The Rong house only attaches to villages because there is no communal house at provincial,

district levels or inter-village communal houses because it attaches to the daily activities and religions of a fixed community.

The Rong house is the place where folk festivals take place and welcome honored guests to visit

the mountain village. The Rong house is the gathering place of village patriarchs, judging suits,

disputes related to the community. The Rong house is the place for the youth (girls and boys) to

meet, declare their love to each other, and join in wedlock. According to the customs here,

young single man and women, even the widows, or divorced women have to sleep at the Rong

house at night. Although being close to each other, stealthy love affairs among village mountain

girls and boys have never happened because of the strict customs and being punished heavily

by local laws. People often call a village without the Rong house the “woman village”, in other

words, it is similar to mention an unfinished village. This is only a very simple collection of

unspiritual houses, in which there are people with souls, they are not really humans, because

people only become humans when souls are thrown into bodies but as for Highlands people, the

human soul means the village soul.

The Rong house is regarded as the village soul where gathering the brave soul of the heaven and earth, mountain and forests and keeping

the holy values of the village. The village has the Rong house as being added vitality. According to the traditional mindset of the ethnic

people, the communal house is an indispensable element in the community life (village culture). The Rong house covers every quintessence

of cultural creativities of humans in the natural ecosystem. It is both mighty and contains latent spiritual elements and is the symbol of forest

culture and the strong attachment between the human community and the nature. The Rong house is the miniature of traditional cultural

components of a village and a group of people. It plays the most important part in the people’s mindset and the real daily lives of the entire

people in the community. 

Village - the Rong house - festivals of ethnic minority people have a strong attachment. The village culture produces festival and Rong house

cultures and traditional folk festivals, which honor the power of the Rong house while the Rong house is the condition and the climate to

show festivals. Both exist and decide each other. Meanwhile, festivals are the living places of almost every type of ancient folk cultures, arts

from rituals, customs to folk performances, national music instruments, clothes, languages behaviors…...therefore; the Rong house plays the

more important role in the cultural activities in the community. The Rong house both has tangible (appearance) values and intangible

(contents, place showing festivals) values. The images of flickering fireplaces, jars of wine drunk out of through pipes ( Ruou Can) bound in

lines in two sides of the fireplaces. The strong and moving sounds of gongs, and rotary dances and radiant faces of village patriarchs, girls

and boys at the festivals in the communal house present a warm, ordinary cultural space, gathering in the strong attachment of the

community to form the unique, diversified cultural character under the roof of the Rong house.

Going along the myths of ancient epics, I take pains to the highlands to wallow in the space of the Rong house where gathering the entire

spiritual culture of the village, which is considered the holy element in the daily life of the ethnic people in the highlands both spiritual and

physical life.

Two type of Rong houses appearing in the Highlands include: male Rong house and female Rong house. The male Rong house, in Jarai

language called Rong to nao, has big towering roofs. Some houses are 30m high. The male communal house is decorated very carefully. The

female Rong house being called Rong Ana, is small and has low roofs. The appearance outside and inside the Rong house is simpler. The

columns of the house are decorated with colorful patterns expressing the religious, worshipping features, myths of ancient brave men,

stylized beasts, things, daily activities that is close to the village people. The outstanding feature in the decoration of the Rong house is the

image of the bright sun. The more beautiful and bigger the Rong house is, the more prosperous and stronger the village is.

The Rong house is one of the typical cultural heritage, closely attached to the history of ethnic groups of the Highlands with simple

techniques, diversified architectures to create special beauty of manners, it is not only impressed by its beautiful manner and special

decorations but it is also fascinated by its habits of using, and containing special spiritual values which are holy, deep in the mind of each

member in the whole community.

The Rong house is an outstanding and unique cultural design, which has very important meanings in spiritual culture, social life and belief,

spirits of the ethnic people in the Highlands. It is a precious heritage today and in the future. If the Highlands’s people can keep the Rong

house – the heart of the village people where keeping the myths of epics and stimulating the creativity of new myths , the ethnic groups in

the Highlands can keep for themselves a diversified spiritual life which gets close to the tradition but also achieve the new values suitable

for the tendency of social development.

E DE LONG

The E De long house is not a communal house, but a dwelling. Yet it is also more than that. It is a

place for cultural activities and fun as well as work, and it is a central feature of the E De  people’s

matriarchal society.

Dotted all over the Central Highlands, one can find long houses of many  types. But the  houses of

the E De ethnic group are especially long – as long, they say, as the vibration of the gong or the

echo of the buffalo horn. It is here that Khan (E De epics) are  recited, lullabies are sung, judicial

cases are decided, and gallons of ruou can  wine  are  drunk through long, bamboo straws. It is also

here that the important life cycle ritual and  the  rice  ritual are performed. Understanding   these 

and  the  other functions of the E De long house can give us a more comlete understanding of the

life and specific characteristics of this ethnic group.

One of the most distinguishing characteristics of the E De is that they are a matriarchal society, and

the structure of the long house reflects this. The house is made up of a common room at one end

and a series of bedrooms, each of which has a small kitchen and items for daily use. The bedroom

nearest the back yard  belongs  to  the  matriarch, who  also   manages family activities. When she

dies, her position is taken up by her youngest  daughter, and this is the reason why the youngest

daughter occupies the room next to her mother. The other bedrooms are occupied by the other

married daughters and their families, and   finally, any unmarried daughters and sons. As  many as 7

to 9 nuclear  families live together, each with their own bedroom; the length of the long house is a

good indicator as to how many married  daughters  the family has.

The E De long house also reflects the lifestyle of the family and is used to show the wealth and rank

of the family within the community. The front yard is often used for pounding rice and siting and

chatting with family members after a working day. If the family is rich, the yard will  have two moon

chairs. On the   porch, there  are  two   wooden staircases:  one for guests  and one for the  family,

both carved with  two breasts and perhaps the image of a bird couple or the moon.

Upon entering the house, one  comes upon an ample living room (called the Ga) where both family

and community activities take  place. In a rich family, this is where the most expensive items are 

kept, including a set of gongs played in festivals and  family worship and a long chair called a Ko-

pan which is dug out of the trunk of a whole tree. Then come the private rooms, ending in the

matriarch’s room where there is a pillar dedicated to the worship of the god Giang. Finally the back

porch and yard are used by the family only.

Building a long house requires  much effort  and  planning. The matriarch invites a shaman to

choose the best area and orientation for the house. Traditionally the most desirable setup is to place

the house near a river, situated on  an  East-West  axis. The  entrance door and stairs at  either end

must be located in such a  way as to avoid the northeast wind  in the dry season and the southwest

wind in the wet season. A new house is often around 3m wide, 5m long, and 4m  high. The  house is

made entirely of forest  products, like wood, bamboo, and grass, and the roof is specially

constructed  to reduce the heat of midday.  Because of the effort and  cost  involved, the E De prefer

lengthening an existing long  house to building a new one.  Besides, living together in a  long  house 

encourages love and  mutual assistance among the inhabitants.

Old E De Woman

Every detail in the long house serves a purpose, whether for daily life, spiritual life, or family pride. It

is a central feature of E De culture, and must be conserved if E De culture itself is to be honored.