Cham ethnic followers of Brahmin in the central province of Ninh Thuan are busy for their Kate festival, which officially takes place at local temples and towers on October 12.
Cham locals are excited to celebrate the festival as they have enjoyed a bumper crop.
This is the largest festival in the year of the Cham community in Ninh Thuan. Falling on the first day of the 7th month of the Cham calendar, the festival features a wide range of traditional cultural and sport performances at temples and towers.
On the occasion, local authorities have organised visits to dignitaries and families, who contributed to the national revolution, households with remarkable contributions to the locality’s patriotic movements.
In implementing the Party and State’s ethnic policy, Cham-inhabited areas were provided with financial support to develop traditional handicraft villages and build infrastructure facilities such as irrigation and transport systems, clean water supply works, schools, medical stations, and communal houses.
Cham locals are active in promoting application of advanced technologies in agricultural production, thus improving their living standard. The new-style rural area building programme in the locality also recorded positive results.
Along with preserving tangible and intangible heritage and traditional cultural activities, and restoring ancient Cham towers, local authorities pay special attention to implementing research and projects on Cham festivals, culture, arts, and language teaching.
There are about 153,000 Cham people in Viet Nam, including approximately 72,500 people in Ninh Thuan. Over 43,000 of them, scattered across 12 communes in seven districts, follow the Brahmin religion.