(VOVWORLD) - "Catch a wife" is a traditional custom of the Mong and some other ethnic groups in Vietnam’s northwest region. The custom of a man pulling a woman to be his wife usually takes place at fairs and festivals. The couples are already in love and preparing to get married. But for many years, the custom was interpreted as "marriage by capture." Ma Thi Di, a 14-year-old Hmong girl in Sapa town, Lao Cai province, courageously resisted the backward custom and would not let others arrange her marriage and steal her life.
With the passing of time, gongs have become an attractive and appealing symbol of the culture of the Central Highlands, associated with the cultural and spiritual lives and beliefs of local ethnic minority people.
The Central Highlands’ province of Lam Dong is home to four brocade weaving villages of local ethnic minority people. In a bid to preserve the traditional cultural identity of the K’Ho people, artisans in Ka Tung village, Đam Rông district, are working with local authorities to restore and preserve their traditional craft of brocade weaving.
For generations, the Red Cờ Lao, one of Vietnam’s various ethnic minority groups, have lived in villages on the slopes of the Tây Côn Lĩnh mountain range in the northern province of Ha Giang. Their cultural values have changed over times, but some of them have been preserved to this day.