A foreign tourist indulging practicing stone percussion in the Ancient Soul cultural space

Experiencing the stone percussion

From outside the entrance to the special national relic Da Dia Reef, on a shaded distance of about 100m, visitors begin to hear echoes of the stone percussion playing in various genres of music with modern sounds. The performers are not musicians or artisans, but it is from the girls who are staff serving tourists in the Ancient Soul cultural space.

The sound of the stone percussion at times is low, sometimes melodious, mixed with modern sounds, making listeners fascinated. Each stone bar emits timbres and scales in harmony with the melodious melody... The sound of the stone percussion when it is struck, listeners feel the connection between the present and the past...

Mr Ha Tan Sang, tour guide from Ho Chi Minh City, felt: “It's very special. The performances of the stone percussion in the Ancient Soul cultural space makes visitors excited when combined with visiting in a very typical stone cultural space of Phu Yen. The stones are cut and arranged in the correct order according to the scale of a stone percussion, visitors can experience percussion and learn about the typical stone culture of this land with thick sediments.

Ms Phan Hoang Thuy Oanh, a tourist from Hanoi, said: “For a long time, I thought that the stone percussion could only play ancient and ceremonial songs. Unexpectedly it can play all the music and combine with modern music. For the first time, I am able to hold two hammers and knock them on the stone, making very interesting sounds."

Preserving cultural treasures

The stones are arranged in a truss like famous stone percussions; jars, gongs, fire stoves are arranged in the space of traditional stilt houses of the Ba Na, Ede, and Cham people; thousands of millstones piled up into mountains... Cultural objects of the ancients are being kept and displayed, bringing many messages to viewers in the Ancient Soul cultural space, right on the way to the special national relic Da Dia Reef. The cultural objects of the ancients left with many valuable historical and cultural values are displayed by the owner for visitors to feel, experience, and understand more about the land they set foot in. This can be considered a mini museum, a special cultural collection of Mr Nguyen Minh Nghiep.

Having spent a lot of time collecting the squeaky stones, researching and making new sets of stone percussions with more bars, performing to serve tourists, so far, Mr. Nghiep has crafted 20 sets of stone percussions. Each set has from 19-42 bars, different sizes, on display for visitors to experience. Of which, there are 2 sets (each set of 19 bars) completely made of natural stone without being manipulated or hewn.

In addition to the highlight is the set of stone percussions, the cultural space of the Ancient Soul is also decorated with more than 1,000 sets of stone mortars, arranged like a soaring mountainside, surprising any visitor. Many visitors stopping at this space seem to find old memories through familiar items of the peaceful village that are disappearing in modern life.

In this space, Mr Nghiep also collects, stores and displays the jars that are unique products of the famous Quang Duc pottery line in Tuy An land centuries ago; a collection of musical instruments of ethnic minorities in mountainous districts such as double drums, gongs (national intangible cultural heritage), items in the daily life of the ethnic minorities such as: copper pot, copper pan, gong, jar, basket, mortar; traditional costumes; collection of artifacts about the life of coastal people...

“Starting from the idea of creating a cultural space to have more stops for tourists, I want visitors to come here to feel more clearly about the traditional culture of the land. In this space, we not only display and perform the stone forum, a unique cultural feature, but also introduces visitors to many collections of artifacts with different themes of culture, history and and cultural life of the land and people of Phu Yen", added Mr Nguyen Minh Nghiep.

Translated by Hai Loan