General Comments on the Significance of Khmer Culture in Tourism Exploitation in Kien Giang Province

During these days, people visit each other, wish each other wealth, health, prosperity and join in fun activities. Sometimes it takes more than a week to return to normal life.

During Tet, the atmosphere in villages and pagodas is bustling day and night with rituals expressing the belief that the new year will bring them peace, success and happiness.

Through rituals and related stories, they have contributed to expressing the unique cultural identity of the Khmer people, identities closely linked to the concept of wet rice farming residents, taking the rainy season as a time marker.

Chol Chnam Thmay Festival, besides its meaning as a cycle of a year, also educates people about filial piety, the dream of happiness, the consciousness of goodness and gratitude to grandparents, parents, those who have contributed and the deceased.

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Just like the Vietnamese Lunar New Year, the Chol Chnam Thmay festival is an occasion for people to have fun, relax, and welcome a new year. Besides those meanings, the Chol Chnam Thmay festival also has many other entertainment activities, so the festival attracts tourists. Most of the activities in the festival take place at the pagoda, so tourists can participate easily and throughout the festival. The activities of the festival always contain something different, creating curiosity for first-time visitors. The Chol Chnam Thmay festival is truly a valuable resource for tourism development.

Dolta Lotus Festival

Every year, around the end of the 8th lunar month (Khmer calls it the photobot month), Khmer people celebrate the Sen Dolta festival, also known as the Sen Dolta festival, to commemorate the merits of parents and relatives, pray for the souls of the deceased, and show gratitude to ancestors who reclaimed the land and blessed the villages and hamlets with peace and happiness. Not bustling and noisy

As exciting as the Chol Chnam Thmay New Year festival, and not as bustling as the Ook Om Bok festival, the Sen Dolta festival is more profound, imbued with cultural nuances and beliefs typical of the Khmer people of Kien Giang in particular and the Khmer of the South in general. And more than that, the festival represents the traditional morality of “a tree has its roots, a water has its source” of the Vietnamese ethnic community, with profound humanity and moral education.

“Sen Dolta” translated into Vietnamese means “worshiping ancestors”, so the Sen Dolta festival originates from folk beliefs. Since ancient times, the Khmer people believed that in addition to the physical world, there is also the world of spirits; people only die physically, but their souls still exist in eternity. From there, the form of “Sen” (worship) is an indispensable ritual in the spiritual life of the people with the purpose of expressing gratitude and praying for good things and blessings from the living to the dead. The “Sen” ceremony is mainly aimed at two objects: the souls of the dead who are related to them by blood and those who have contributed to the establishment and protection of the ethnic community.

And during the Dolta festival, at Khmer pagodas, there are also many festivals and art performances with unique forms imbued with Khmer cultural identity such as pentatonic concerts, traditional dances... many religious and belief activities and other activities expressing the customs and practices of the Khmer people.

The Sen Dolta Festival is held annually to pray for the deceased. In addition, the festival also contributes to educating and reminding the living to remember their roots and be grateful to those who have made great contributions to them.

In addition, the Sen Dolta festival is an opportunity for Khmer people to expand cultural exchanges, consolidate national traditions, strengthen solidarity in each Phum Soc, affirming the close connection between Theravada Buddhism and the lives of the people.

With the spirit of solidarity among three ethnic groups, Dolta Festival is not only a holiday for the Khmer people but also for the Kinh and Chinese people to join in the fun, strengthening the bond of village and neighborhood.

The Khmer Sen Dolta Festival is to commemorate the deceased, but the festival also includes forms of entertainment for the people. Unlike the Vu Lan festival of the Vietnamese, in addition to offerings at the pagoda, the festival also includes entertainment activities. The special feature of this festival is the organization of offerings, which are divided according to a certain time and have a specific meaning, creating a strange and exciting difference for visitors. However, that attraction is not only the attraction of the festival itself but also includes the forms of remembering the deceased of the people.

Sen Dolta Festival plays a big role in tourism development. In terms of morality, the festival has a very sacred meaning for the whole nation towards the deceased. In terms of culture, the festival also reflects the culture of the Khmer people. Therefore, the festival not only plays an important role in tourism development, but also plays a role in preserving and promoting the precious human values of a nation.

Ook Om Bok Festival and Ngo Boat Racing Festival

- The Ook Om Bok ceremony, also known as the moon worship ceremony, the water offering ceremony or the flat rice feeding ceremony, has a long-standing origin among the Khmer people and is always held every year in the middle of the 10th lunar month. According to the Khmer people's concept, the moon worship is to thank the Moon God for protecting the crops throughout the year, bringing favorable weather and wind, helping the crops to be bountiful, and helping farmers to have a good harvest next season.

The Ook Om Bok ceremony usually takes place in the temple yard, the house yard, or an empty land so that people can easily observe the Moon. Before the moon rises, people dig a hole, place two bamboo sticks about three meters apart, and place another bamboo stick across it like a beautiful gate and place a table under the gate. On the table are offerings such as flattened rice, sweet potatoes, taro, fresh coconut, bananas, candy, etc. On the offering tray

There is always a teapot, after each time pouring tea into a cup, people pray once to remember Buddha. When the moon rises to the top, an elderly, virtuous, and prestigious person is chosen to represent the moon worship. The worshiper lights incense, pours tea, and prays. During the worship, many children in the village gather to wait to eat the cake. When the worship is finished, the adults guide the children to line up and then take a little bit of each offering and put it into each child's mouth. When feeding, the child must not swallow immediately but must wait until all the food is fed into the mouth. At this time, the master of ceremonies will lightly punch the child's back three times, and loudly ask what he or she dreams of doing when he or she grows up. Because the food is full in the mouth, the child will not pronounce clearly when answering, which will create a burst of laughter for the people around. This is done to predict each child's future, to symbolize that everyone has received blessings from the Moon God, and also to mark the achievements after a year of hard work for each family.

The two events that have the greatest influence and attract the most people on the moon worshiping day are releasing wind lanterns and racing dragon boats .

Wind lanterns are made from bamboo, crepe paper and zinc wire, and are square or round (round lanterns are more common). From smooth bamboo strips, people make circles about 1 meter in diameter, then connect those circles into a cylinder about 2 meters high, then seal them with crepe paper, except for the bottom of the lantern, which is left open, and attach a large “spider nest” made of zinc. The “spider nest” is covered with a layer of cotton soaked in peanut oil. When the cotton is lit, many people join together to lift the lantern high. The heat makes the paper swell, creating a buoyant force. The people lifting the lanterns follow and let go when the force is strong enough to push the lanterns up without tilting and burning the paper. The lanterns fly straight into the air to the cheers and applause of the audience. The music plays, making the full moon night even more exciting. Dozens of lanterns are released into the sky. In the sky, the lanterns kept swaying in the wind, driving away disasters, risks, and uncertainties so that the village could be at peace.

- Ngo boat racing : The most attractive activity in the Ook Om Bok festival is the Ngo boat racing. Ngo boat racing is an activity that brings a joyful atmosphere and a spirit of solidarity. Ngo boat racing can be considered the highlight of the Ook Om Bok festival.

Ngo boat racing is a traditional folk sport that is indispensable in the Ook Om Bok festival, attracting tens of thousands of spectators. At first, this was just a folk game taking place on the night of the moon worship, to offer to the gods in the moon palace to enjoy, so it was only held at night, when the moon rose, after the moon worship rituals had been performed. Gradually, this game was raised to a festival, of regional scale, attracting many classes of people to participate. Every year, on the occasion of the full moon of October, Ngo boats are beautifully decorated, hung with splendid lanterns and flowers.

To make the ngo boat racing festival attractive and crowded, a month before, the pagodas had prepared to select strong Khmer men from the villages to practice rowing to be flexible and have a consistent rhythm. Ngo boats are a type of dugout canoe, 25 - 30 m long, 1 - 1.4 m wide, with many horizontal bars for two rowers to sit in pairs along the length of the boat. Each racing boat usually has 46 to 60 rowers, with the person in charge of the rowing sitting at the bow. In addition, there is a person standing in the middle blowing the whistle to accompany the rower. The oars are made of light, flexible, waterproof wood, wide, thin and gradually rounded towards the handle. Each ngo boat has different symbols, usually kha la (tiger), dragon, lion, poon-co fish... Before launching, a ceremony is held to worship the god who protects the boat.

Dragon boat racing is a very attractive and exciting sport. At noon on the full moon day, when the water begins to rise, people are crowded on both banks, and boats are ready to dock for more than a kilometer. The sound of drums, a five-tone orchestra, and whistles resound loudly. When the whistle blows - the starting signal, each pair of racing boats with hundreds of strong rowers bend down and swing their oars in unison to the rhythm of the whistle and gong, pushing the dragon boat quickly to the finish line. The sound of drums and loudspeakers blends with the cheers and applause, making the river noisy.

The Ngo boat is a very unique cultural product of the Khmer people in the South, and is also a symbol of prosperity and abundance. The Ngo boat is also a representative image of each village or the whole commune or district, so the boat race is often very fierce, not because of the prize money but because of the honor and glory of the participating unit.

The Ook Om Bok Festival has a very profound meaning in the spiritual life of the Khmer people in the South in general and the Khmer people in Kien Giang in particular. It expresses the aspirations, souls and feelings of people towards people and people towards the gods, a festival full of spiritual and entertainment elements and a festival that gathers cultural elements of the whole nation. Therefore, organizing the Ook Om Bok Festival every year is not only to preserve and promote the traditional cultural beauty, rich in humanity of the Khmer people in the South, but also an attractive tourism product to attract visitors from all over the world.

In addition to the major festivals of the nation, during the year the Khmer people also have many other rituals, each of which is imbued with the national cultural identity such as:

- Corpse festival : Corpse festival is the day when people invite gods, souls, deceased people... to hold ceremonies by possessing mediums (mediums after being possessed are called body mediums).

- Up to the nest : Khmer people in Phu My still believe in many superstitions. They believe that besides the visible world before their eyes, there exists another world of supernatural and mystical forces. These two worlds are closely related to each other. They believe that gods protect the house, the fields, the forests, and the villages.

- Ancestor worship ceremony : every year at the end of the third lunar month, each profession of the Khmer people in the South in general and Kien Giang in particular holds a ceremony to worship their ancestors. The ancestors of the profession do not have statues but are just a character in their minds.

+ Worship the ancestors of carpenters and masons.

+ Worshiping the ancestor Robam

+ Offering to the ancestor Duke

+ Offering to the ancestors of the five-tone orchestra

+ Worship the ancestors of the string orchestra

- Buddha bathing ceremony : Every year on the 8th day of the 4th lunar month is the Buddha bathing day, Buddhists go to the temple to attend and eat vegetarian food. After the monks recite the sutras, people bring a basin of fragrant water to bathe the Buddha. The water used by the monks to bathe the Buddha is used for drinking or washing the face with the wish to become intelligent and wise.

- Rain praying ceremony : The ceremony is held in drought years, the ceremony usually takes place at noon, monks and Khmer people gather in a field, dig small holes symbolizing wells. After the ceremony, everyone dances and sings very happily. In addition, there are other festivals such as: New rice planting ceremony, rice yard worship ceremony, housewarming ceremony, blessing offering ceremony, 100-day ceremony.

Belief

Most Khmer people follow Theravada Buddhism. Khmer people have many offerings. In addition to incense, candles, rice, sticky rice cakes, candy, sweets, fruits, medicinal tea, etc., Khmer people also have quite special offerings such as:

+ Sla – raw: is an offering made of banana tree.

+ Chông – thbầug: is a basket containing rice or paddy offered in the hair cutting ceremony to repay the old woman or in a funeral.

+ Animals: offering whole live pigs, cows, cattle... to the gods when their wishes are fulfilled.

+ Banners: in Khmer funerals, in front of the coffin of the deceased, they hang a white banner called "the flag of the soul". The flag is also hung in weddings at pagodas or in processions such as the water lantern ceremony.

+ Parasols: on Buddhist altars in temples or in private homes, we often see parasols to cover statues and objects of worship. These parasols are made of colored paper, small on top, large on the bottom, placed on top of each other like an axis.

In addition, there are other forms of worship of the Khmer people in Kien Giang: folk worship, rice worship (Sen - Pren), rice worship to grandparents and parents, worship in Brahmanism...

2.3. General comments on the significance of Khmer culture in tourism exploitation in Kien Giang province

Tourism is an industry with a clear resource orientation, or in other words, tourism can only develop on the basis of exploiting the values of tourism resources. In addition to natural tourism resources, cultural values are also considered a form of tourism resources to exploit to create attractive, different and competitive tourism products not only between regions and localities in the country but also between Vietnam and other countries in the region and internationally.

With a diverse and rich traditional culture, the cultural features of the Khmer people in Kien Giang in particular and the South in general are truly an attractive humanistic tourism resource that can be exploited to serve not only domestic tourists but also international tourists.

Overcoming space and time, along with the constantly creative minds and skillful hands of the artisans, a unique culture imbued with the Khmer culture of the South has been created. This is most clearly shown in the art of Khmer pagoda architecture. Khmer pagodas have beautiful ancient architecture, many pagodas were built over 100 years ago, decorated with unique patterns and motifs, imbued with the national cultural identity (Lang Cat Pagoda, Soc Xoai Pagoda...). Pagodas are not only the center of religious activities but also demonstrate the cultural activities of the Khmer people.