Yang Tao is a commune in Region III of Lak district, located at the northern gateway of the district, about 10 km east of the center of Lak district, National Highway 27 runs through the commune with a length of about 6 km. Yang Tao has 11 hamlets, of which 6 hamlets are in particularly difficult situations. According to statistics, the commune currently has 10 ethnic groups living together in the area, the most populous is the Mnong people, accounting for 92.81 TP3T, followed by the Kinh, Ede, Gia rai, Tay, Nung, Thai, Dao, Hmong, and Muong.

The Mnong people in Yang Tao mainly belong to the Mnong Rlam group, an ethnic community that has long lived in this area. The traditional economic activities of the Mnong people are mainly self-sufficient based on slash-and-burn cultivation, some wet rice cultivation, and hunting. Traditional exchange activities are bartering, and property valuation is based on folk measurements: baskets, hand spans, arm spans, and arms. During the development process, this community has created unique cultural features that are preserved to this day, such as pottery making, weaving, and other intangible cultural values such as folk songs and gongs.

Bamboo and rattan weaving has existed for a long time in the Mnong Rlam community, and is mainly for men. Items used for daily life such as baskets, winnowing baskets, and trays are all familiar products created by the skillful hands of Mnong men. From the age of 6-7, boys already know how to help their fathers arrange bamboo strips, split bamboo, and practice weaving simple items. Gradually, when they are proficient, they will create more complete and neat products. Daily living items often do not have patterns, or simple patterns such as horizontal borders created by dyed bamboo strips. However, many woven items, especially baskets, have sophisticated patterns that are much more valuable than other types. However, not all men know how to weave products that require high skills such as baskets, winnowing baskets, fishing nets, etc.

The story of the Mnong people's weaving craft is also associated with the process of exchanging goods and trading between ethnic communities in the Central Highlands because rattan and bamboo products, in addition to serving family needs, are also used to exchange for food and other goods. In addition, it also shows the connection and cultural behavior of people towards nature and the surrounding environment.

Bamboo and rattan weaving used to play an important role in the daily life of the Mnong Rlam people in Yang Tao commune, Lak district, but this traditional craft is facing the risk of fading or disappearing for many different reasons. Most of the skilled craftsmen who are maintaining the craft are over 50 years old, while most of the young people in the community are largely unaware of and not interested in this traditional craft. Only a few people know the highly aesthetic patterns on traditional weaving products. Meanwhile, the consumption of weaving products is also facing many difficulties. The weaving artisans here also share their concerns about the risk of losing traditional weaving techniques.

This article summarizes the content related to the bamboo and rattan weaving technique of the Mnong Rlam people in Yang Tao, Lak district, Dak Lak province through field trips, conversations with the community and references to some related research articles and articles. Along with the documentary video, this content also contributes to introducing the bamboo and rattan weaving technique of the Mnong people in Yang Tao commune, Lak district, Dak Lak province, and at the same time, this will also be a reference document for preserving and teaching traditional crafts to the younger generation in this community.

BAMBOO AND RAT WEAVING PROFESSION OF THE MNONG RLAM PEOPLE IN YANG TAO COMMUNE, LAK DISTRICT

To create a complete and aesthetically pleasing woven product requires the craftsman to be meticulous, patient, experienced and take a lot of time. Simple items take at least two days, while complex items take from 10 days to half a month. The weaving process goes through many stages, from selecting raw materials, treating against mold, termites, to weaving the finished product.

Bamboo and rattan weaving tools

The Mnong people's bamboo and rattan weaving tool kit includes:

+ Knives (kgă): there are many types, the type used to cut bamboo in the forest, split bamboo strips, or the type used to shave bamboo strips. Knives are made from old bamboo roots, the top of the bamboo root is where the blade is inserted, the blade of the knives is usually rectangular and forged from iron, with a flat tip.

+ Bamboo shaving knife (peh): the blade is shaped like a leaf, pointed and sharp, inserted into a solid bamboo handle, the handle is long enough to clamp onto the worker's side or armpit when shaving bamboo. This is an indispensable tool for them.

+ Small chisel: made of metal, has a pointed tip, used to punch holes when piercing and tying rattan straps.

+ Wooden stick (mŏng pông): about a hand's length, used to hit the chisel head, pushing the woven slats together.

+ Pliers (pen): used to pull the rattan fibers tightly, creating strength when tying the waistband.

+ Pencil (kră yŏng): Used to mark the distance between the slats.

+ Shaping frame (wang sah): used to shape the size of the basket to be woven, made of bamboo to make weaving convenient.

Procedure

Selection and processing of raw materials

Material selection:

The main materials are bamboo, rattan and reed, which are available locally. To select the materials, men in the village usually have to wake up at dawn to go up the mountain to select plants.

For bamboo, they often choose bamboo trees that are 3 years old or older, because if the bamboo is young, it is very brittle and easy to break, and they only cut it on the last days of the month when there is no moon, because the bamboo tree at the beginning of the month contains a lot of water, so it takes a long time to dry and is susceptible to termites. In particular, the bamboo must be straight and long to produce smooth bamboo fibers, so that when weaving, there is no need to join many sections.

For bamboo: When buying bamboo, do not choose short-noded bamboo because it will be difficult to mix and split. When choosing bamboo, you must choose bamboo that is not too old but not too young (about 12 months old or older). At this time, the tree has enough hardness, firmness, little shrinkage, and the bamboo is still very flexible, easy to split, easy to weave without rotting, and termites can create sophisticated utensils and decorate with arbitrary patterns. If you choose a young tree, it will easily shrink or a tree that is too old, the bamboo will be brittle, difficult to split, difficult to weave, although the old tree will give the product a strong durability. In addition, when the product is finished, the bamboo material often shrinks, creating gaps in the product.

For rattan: this is not only a raw material used to make woven bamboo strips but also used to make durable and aesthetically pleasing backpack straps and waistbands. As for rattan, the craftsman leaves each long section on the kitchen loft, takes it down when needed, cuts it to the required size, dips it in water, splits it and then uses it to tie. When drying rattan fibers in the rain, the rattan fibers lose their beauty, or when exposed to too much sunlight, the rattan fibers lose their freshness. With well-dried rattan fibers, the person splitting the rattan can easily split them in half or quarters, but splitting them in three, five or seven is really difficult. Each split rattan fiber must be similar to the other. Therefore, to have rattan fibers for weaving requires the rattan splitter to be talented, skillful and technical.

Raw material handling:

Splitting and sharpening the bamboo: also plays a decisive role in completing a beautiful product. Splitting the bamboo thinly or thickly depends on the product to be woven. After splitting the bamboo, it must be sharpened so that the bamboo is soft, smooth and even, so that when woven together the bamboo is tight and does not create gaps. After sharpening the bamboo, hang it on the kitchen rack for a certain period of time to weave, creating a beautiful dark brown, dark yellow or ripe plum color. Smoke can also be used to prevent mold and termites for both the bamboo and the bamboo product. After each use, people often hang the products on the kitchen wall or kitchen rack to smoke, so that the product will last longer.

Knit

Creating patterns on products is a very important step, demonstrating the talent, ingenuity, aesthetics and many years of experience of the weaver. The bamboo fibers used to create patterns are stored separately and whittled before weaving. This type of bamboo is colored by rubbing forest leaves on each fiber. It is a type of vine with round leaves and sticky resin. It is crushed and applied to the bamboo fibers, then soaked in mud for a few days. The bamboo fibers will have a beautiful shiny black color. In particular, if you want to create another color, just brush this material on and leave it in the kitchen for a while, it will turn into a dark brown color; the dark or light color depends on how much forest leaves are rubbed on. Patterns on woven products such as baskets, winnowing baskets, etc. often follow geometric motifs to create objects such as bean leaf patterns (nirang ha tuh), banyan branch patterns (ro nook mbah jiri), polygons, triangles, and squares created by the method of weaving bamboo strips, combined with smoked and dyed bamboo strips, etc.

The weaving technique is mainly to interlace the bamboo, double, triple or hexagonal bamboo, combining the bamboo with very complex and sophisticated and creative weaving and wrapping, etc. There are many simple patterns such as fish bones, diamond shapes, wavy shapes interwoven around the body and in pieces. The main color is the color of eel skin through smoked kitchen (light brown), black from soaking in mud, rubbing charcoal on the outside to create shine.

All finished products are placed on a smoked stove to add durability to the product.

Steps to weave basket:

After the materials are fully prepared, the craftsman will proceed to weave the basket. The basket is woven in a circular cylinder shape - a typical shape of the Mnong basket in Lak district, consisting of three parts: the body, the base and the mouth of the basket, in addition to the strap. Normally, the Mnong basket is about 50 - 60 cm high, the mouth is round, slim, the bottom is smaller than the mouth and comes in many different sizes. Each type of basket depends on the object and function of use. For example, the basket used to collect firewood or pick wild vegetables, the middle part of the basket is often woven loosely, with many hexagonal cells (about 3 - 4 cm wide). As for the round basket, the whole body is woven with a thick layer of bamboo (can have a lid or not).

The body of the basket (săk sah): The basket is framed with vertical bamboo strips and woven from the bottom of the base up, gradually bending the bamboo strips to form a square shape for the bottom of the basket, weaving the base while building the frame of the basket. Then, the craftsman moves on to the step of weaving higher up the body of the basket, the bamboo strips move left and right one by one. The craftsman spends a lot of time and effort weaving the body of the basket. On the body of the basket, they weave simple decorative borders with black, yellow or brown bamboo strips running parallel and evenly spaced about 5 - 10 cm apart, depending on the type of basket.

Mouth of the basket (lid): When weaving to the rim, add more bamboo sticks and bend them into a circle around the mouth, tie them with small rattan strings for security. For each section that is bound with parallel rattan strings at equal distances, leave a corresponding section empty, repeating until the circle is complete.

The base of the basket (joang sah): After weaving the basket body, the craftsman will proceed to make the base of the basket. The base of the basket is usually made of soft wood or four strong old bamboo sticks tied tightly at the four corners of the base to create a solid support, so that it does not fall when dropped. The Mnong people often use ana pam wood to make the base of the basket. First, the "ana pam" wood will be peeled off the unnecessary parts, the wood will be thinly shaved and soaked in water to make it easier to bend. After soaking, the craftsman will bend the wood into a cross shape along the edge of the two bamboo sticks that have been crossed to fix the basket (kuê sah) at the base. In addition to the wood, the craftsman also uses four strong old bamboo sticks tied tightly with rattan ropes at the four corners to create a solid support, so that the basket does not fall when placed down.

Strap: The strap is made from many small rattan strands, tightly woven together to create strength. The top of the strap must be woven wider than the bottom to create comfort and avoid shoulder pain when carrying heavy objects. The top is tied to the body of the backpack, close to the mouth of the backpack by using a hot metal awl to punch two holes on both sides, then thread the rattan and tie it crosswise with small rattan strands to secure the top of the strap. The remaining bottom end is threaded through the wooden base with a short piece of rattan.

Once woven, the baskets are processed by the Mnong men in a traditional, simple and inexpensive way, which is to hang them on the kitchen shelf to prevent termites and to give the product a soot color. They are then used or sold a few weeks later.

For common baskets such as rice baskets, firewood baskets, etc., almost any man can weave them, but for baskets with lids, the artisan must be very skilled and have a slightly different weaving method, weaving in a round cylinder shape, with a conical-shaped lid. A skilled craftsman can weave two layers of bamboo, embossed bamboo, dyed bamboo, etc. On the lid of the basket, people weave patterns in a double style consisting of two different borders running parallel and evenly. The pattern creation on the basket with lid is not done by painting after the product is finished, but is done simultaneously while weaving. The black and red bamboos, according to the artisan's wishes, will be dyed first, then inserted one by one and will gradually appear on the product. Patterned baskets have a much higher exchange or preservation value than regular baskets and are used to store fabrics, dresses, blankets, jewelry, and valuable household items. To weave a complete basket with a lid, the artisan must be meticulous, patient and spend a lot of time (from 15 to 30 days). Therefore, in a village, there are only one or two people who know how to weave this type of basket, and they do not even have to exchange other assets such as rice, pigs, and cows to exchange for baskets to bring home for use.

Product

Bamboo and rattan weaving products here are quite diverse and abundant. The main products are items used for daily life, such as baskets, winnowing baskets, fish scoops, etc. In which, the basket is the most essential and popular item of people in daily life and production. The basket is used to hold rice, corn, rice, vegetables and goods. Almost any man can weave common types of baskets such as rice baskets, firewood baskets, but baskets for storing goods (with lids) or sieves, winnowing baskets and products decorated with elaborate patterns must be made by highly skilled artisans. The baskets, winnowing baskets, winnowing baskets... woven by skilled craftsmen are also used to exchange for other necessary items for the family. Skilled craftsmen will be invited to other families in the community to participate in important tasks of the village. This is also one of the prides of the family and lineage of that craftsman.

Wicker products are still used by the majority of people in the commune today, especially the baskets. Every day, on the winding roads of the village, we can easily see adults and children carrying baskets of all sizes going to the fields, herding cows, etc. In addition, the basket is also present in the cultural life of families and communities such as weddings, funerals, etc.

CONCLUDE

The traditional weaving craft of the Mnong people is preserved by memory, passed down from generation to generation and is mainly undertaken by men in the family to weave items for production and daily life. The main materials are made from bamboo, rattan and rattan and are selected based on experience. With the weaving technique of interlocking bamboo, double bamboo, triple bamboo or hexagonal bamboo... combined with the very complex, sophisticated and creative way of connecting and wrapping bamboo, the Mnong people have created many types of weaving products from bamboo, rattan, reed and bamboo.

In the current context, the bamboo and rattan weaving profession of the Mnong people in Yang Tao commune is facing the risk of being lost. Worried about the loss of the profession, many skilled people in villages in Yang Tao commune have been trying to pass on the profession to the younger generation. However, the traditional craft of weaving requires perseverance, hard work and dexterity, but the income from the profession is low and unstable. Therefore, to maintain and preserve this traditional craft, in addition to the efforts of those who pass on the profession, there needs to be promotion from other factors and elements such as apprentices, consumer markets, and sustainable sources of raw materials./.

REFERENCES

1. Be Viet Dang, Chu Thai Son, Vu Thi Hong Vu Dinh Loi (1982), General outline of the Ede and Mnong ethnic groups in Dak Lak, Social Sciences Publishing House.

2. Ngo Duc Thinh (2007), Cultural colors of the Central Highlands, Tre Publishing House.

3. Institute of Cultural Studies (2011), Collection of traditional Vietnamese crafts and craft villages, Volume 5: Weaving; embroidery, weaving; paper making; votive objects and folk painting, Social Sciences Publishing House.

4. Provincial Party Committee - People's Council - People's Committee of Dak Lak province (2015), Dak Lak Gazetteer, Social Sciences Publishing House.

5. Pham Bao Tram et al. (2020), Weaving craft of the Mnong Rlam people in Yang Tao commune, Lak district, Dak Lak province, tradition and practice, Scientific topic, Dak Lak Museum.

6. http://baodaklak.vn/channel/9803/201812/dan-lat-nghe-thu-cong-truyen-thong-of-nguoi-mnong-5610956/

7. http://m.baodaknong.org.vn/lich-su-van-hoa/bao-ton-khoi-phuc-nghe-dan-lat-truyen-thong-of-dong-bao-m-nong- 78308.html