Kontum Province lies in the Central Highlands region of Vietnam and shares borders with Laos, Cambodia to the west, Quang Nam Province on the north, Quang Ngai Province to the east and Gia Lai Province on the south. It has an area of 9,934 square km and a population of approximately 330,000. The economy is primarily agricultural. The name Kontum comes from the name of a village of the Bahnar ethnic group. In the Bahnar language, kon means "village" and tum means "pool".
Kontum has feature climate of Central Highland that is tropical monsoon one. There are two seasons. The rain seasons lasts from May to October. The dry seasons lasts from November to April next year. The annual average temperature is 23.40C with annual average rainfall is 1.884mm.
Kontum is a relaxed little town with few sights in their own right. What nevertheless puts it on the map of interesting places in Vietnam are the surrounding minority villages, including settlements of the Sedang, Bahnar, Jarai, Gieh Trieng and Rengao ethnic groups. Kontum has colorful, diversified culture of ethnic groups. Their customs are unique with special traditional festivals like Gong, buffalo stabling, leaving the tomb and new rice festivals. Each village has a Rong, a huge and impressive communal house where the villagers gather for special occasions. Strangely enough, French catholics missionary work has been quite successful in this remote part of the country, rendering some of the minorities converts and leaving a few Christian vestiges.
Kontum's major draw is the villages of the indigenous hill-tribes (called montagnards by the French). It is strongly recommended to go with a guide, since he or she will be able to communicate in the minority language and keep you from inadvertently breaking taboos. If you are on a tight itinerary, it might be good to fix things beforehand, since they are often crowded with tour groups. Though some of the Bahnar villages actually form a part of Kontum's eastern and western edge, the ones farther away are more interesting.
There are several attractions in Kontum: Tay Nguyen Grave House, Communal House (Rong House), Ba Na Village… Tay Nguyen Grave House is a wooden house which is built after removing the hut where personal belongings of the deceased are stocked. The grave house is surrounded with a wooden fence, within the fence there is a wooden statue resembling a human being, a bird or an animal. The practice of removing the makeshift hut is usually organized in spring and is considered a festive day. The ritual is called Le Bo Ma (Leaving-the-grave). In this day, villagers are gathered at the cemetery ground and the family members bring food offerings including rice-distilled rice, rice, cooked pork and other meat. After the offerings are given to the deceased, villagers are to sing songs, dance and enjoy the drink and the food taken down from the altar. They have the belief that the deceased has returned to join the feast with those alive.
The Rong House of each ethnic group has its own architectural style, design, and decorations. Yet there are shared features. In the village, it is often the biggest house roofed with yellow-dried gianh leaves and has 8 big wood columns. The rafters are decorated with patterns of bright colours, depicting religious scenes, legendary stories about ancient heroes, stylized animals and other familiar things of the village life. The most salient feature of the decoration is the image of the brilliant God of Sun. The Rong House is a symbol of the culture of Central Highlanders, an age-old and stable culture. The bigger the house, the wealthier the village is. It is a pride of the whole village.
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