VietNamNet Bridge – An exhibition displaying over 250 photos on Bru-Van Kieu ethnic minority people in Vietnam by a Hungarian scientist kicked off in Ho Chi Minh City on February 21. 

At the exhibition (Source: VNA)

The event is jointly organised by the Consulate General of Hungary in HCM City and the municipal Fine Arts Museum. 

Hungarian Consul General Baloghdi Tibor said the exhibition features the daily life and belief, and tradition of Bru-Van Kieu people, a typical ethnic group living in upland areas in Southeast Asia, and one of the 54 ethnic minority groups in Vietnam. 

The event shows close cooperation and exchange between Vietnamese and Hungarian scientists in particular, and other cooperation fields in between the two nations, he stressed. 

Vargyas Gabor, author of the photos, said his works were taken between 1985-1989 during his field trips in Khe Sanh of the north central province of Quang Tri within the cooperation framework between the two countries’ academies of science. 

He said that through the exhibition, he wants to tell visitors a story about faith and life. 

The Bru-Van Kieu,   a Mon-Khmer language group, live mostly in mountainous areas of the central provinces of Quang Tri, Quang Binh and Thua Thien Hue with a population of around 74,500.

The group originally lived in the central part of Laos and migrated to Vietnam amid historical changes, inhabiting the western part of Quang Tri Province. The group settled in the area of Van Kieu mountain and later was named after this mountain.

A Bru-Van Kieu family is patriarchal in which the oldest man is the owner. When this man dies, his power and property are passed to his oldest son. Daughters are not entitled to inheritance.

The exhibition will run through February 28, and then it will move to Khe Sanh. All of the photos will be presented to Quang Tri Province after the exhibition.

Source: VNA