Communist Vietnam embraces royal past
HUE - Led by a pair of elephants, robed men with red conical hats carry the king on a gilded, silk-tasseled sedan chair.
The streets are lined by tens of thousands of excited people.
The procession is not in an Asian monarchy such as Thailand or Japan, but at the Hue Festival of arts and culture in Communist Party-ruled Vietnam, which less than a generation ago shunned its feudal past.
This seemingly contradictory re-enactment of a royal ritual in communist Vietnam is one highlight of the mid-June festival, where officials are increasingly comfortable displaying the country's royal heritage to promote tourism and development.
"The Hue festival is unique in Vietnam because it is not a political event, it is not a celebration of the state, of the party or the revolution," said Michael DiGregorio, arts and culture expert with the U.S. philanthropic Ford Foundation that has funded parts of the two-yearly event since it began in 2000.
The king, an actor from a traditional dance troupe, is taken to a temple called Nam Giao or Temple of Heaven. There, he pretends to perform sacrificial rights on a goat, a pig and a buffalo and prays for good rains and his people's prosperity.
His performance and those of other actors in the roles of royal court officials are shown live on national television. The central Vietnam city of Hue was the royal capital from 1802 during the Nguyen dynasty until 1945, when the royal family abdicated to the communists.
National identity
The economy of the poor Southeast Asian country of 83 million is growing rapidly and tourism is booming as it enters its third decade of market reforms. Vietnam has shed parts of its centrally-planned economy and removed many barriers to trade with the rest of the world.
"Most of the leadership understand that the real struggle in Vietnam is not the political struggle but it is the struggle to maintain one's identity in globalization," DiGregorio says.
"The cultural heritage of Vietnam is a way of reminding people who they are while going through this social transformation."
About 150,000 people from 52 nations visited the June 3-11 festival and overall, 1.5 million attended, officials say. They say the city has earned $23 million from tourism so far this year, an increase of 31 percent from the same period last year.
Several countries sent dancers, musicians, painters and sculptors and practitioners of installation art for performances and exhibits in the city nestled alongside the Perfume River.
Organizers adapted the slogan "Cultural Heritage with Integration and Development" to portray Vietnam as a place with a contribution to make to the world, having survived isolation and wars over much of the 20th century.
Preservation
The city of 1.1 million people was declared a World Heritage Site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 1993 to preserve its walled Imperial City and other structures. Some were built by the French, who colonized Vietnam for almost 100 years until 1954.
Part of the Imperial compound was bombed in 1968 during fierce fighting for Hue by communist soldiers of North Vietnam against troops of South Vietnam sided by the United States military.
Colin Long, a lecturer in Asian cultural history at Deakin University in Melbourne, Australia, says the Hanoi government has been careful not to destroy its biggest asset in the region.
"There is a belief in Hanoi that they are not just prepared to live on the cultural heritage but also to push for other forms of development," says Long.
At this year's festival, there are re-enactments of three royal court ceremonies, including the seven-hour long Nam Giao procession and ceremony in honor of the earth and heavens.
It starts at the Imperial City near the northern bank of the Perfume River, crosses the Truong Tien bridge and winds through city streets to the Temple of Heaven and back to the palace.
Tens of thousands of people, including throngs of motorbike riders, fill the streets in 35 degrees Celsius heat to see the procession that is the tradition of the Nguyen royal family.
Several generations stand or sit by the roadside and shaven-headed Buddhist monks emerge from their pagodas to watch.
The procession of elephants, ponies and people is a moving mass of yellows, reds and blues by the time it comes up the hill leading to the temple.
For the old man who plays the role of a mandarin in the ceremony, the occasion is thrilling.
"I feel very young now, it takes me back to my childhood," says 83-year-old Duong Thong, who is dressed in red and orange mandarin's robes for his part.
"This ceremony was stopped for a long time because of the wars until 2004. Now, it's really good for the people to remember and to live with the old times that are our cultural heritage."
By Grant McCool & Nguyen Van Vinh - Reuters - June 28, 2006
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