The first impression one gets of Bach Thi Dao, a Muong ethnic woman, is her patience. With deep winkles creviced into her face, Ms Dao patiently guides young female students through proper shuttling techniques.

Bru-Van Kieu people subsist on swiden farming on hill sides. Previously they relied on hunting and fishing as the main source of food. Now they raise cattle and poultry as offerings for worship rituals and to improve their diet. They also make handicrafts such as leaf mattresses or dossers.

Japan-Vietnam Goodwill Ambassador Sugi Ryotaro on June 22 handed cameras worth US$15,600 from the Japanese government to the Ministry of Education and Training in support of a filmmaking contest for local students.

A night of fashion by Vietnamese famous designer Minh Hanh was held in Valentini Palace in Rome, Italy on June 21.

Prime Minister Phan Van Khai has signed Decision 145/2006/QD-TTg on building an international standard university in Vietnam.

The Ministry of Culture and Information is devising a project to incorporate 22 ethnic minority languages and writings into its culture and information activities.

The Thai ethnic minority group have a population of more than 1 million inhabitants living in the provinces of Lai Chau, Son La, Hoa Binh and Nghe An. The Thai have other names such as Tay, Tay Dam, Tay Khao, Tay Muoi, Tay Thanh, Hang Tong and Pu Thay. The Thai language belongs to the Tay-Thai Group.

Vietnam has 54 ethnic groups that make up the great nation. Each group has unique traditions, customs and ways of life, thereby contributing to the country’s rich cultural diversity. The Cham is one such ethnic minority group.

The first gongs in Vietnam were made during the Bronze Age, between 2,000 and 3,500 years ago. Gongs are still being used by the Muong and Thai ethnic groups in northern Vietnam and by many of the ethnic groups in the Central Highlands.

he traditional dress of the Lo Lo ethnic people is one of the most beautiful of all Vietnam’s 54 ethnic groups. Colourful triangles represent stylised barley sheaves, a symbol of the Lo Lo ethnic group.

The Khmer ethnic people celebrated their traditional Ok Om Bok festival on the full-moon day of the tenth month of the lunar calendar every year to thank the moon for the good weather, good crops and plenty of food. This year's festival fell on November 26.

The La Chi ethnic minority, numbering more than 10,700, live mostly in the northern mountainous provinces of Ha Giang and Lao Cai. They are also referred to as Cu Te, or La Qua and speak a language of the Kadai linguistic family. Their settlement in the area is mentioned in books dating from the 18th century.

Held in the seventh month of the Cham calendar (normally September or October in the solar calendar), the Kate festival commemorates the goddess Ponuga along with Po Klong Garai and Porome-deified monarchs who stand fall in Cham history, as do the towers named after them.

The Tay (with a total population of more than 1.2 million in Vietnam) and the Nung (more than 705,000 people) belong to the Tay-Thai ethnic language group. The two ethic minority groups often live in mixed villages in highland mountainous provinces in northern Vietnam such as Cao Bang, Lang Son, Thai Nguyen and Bac Can.

It may be said that the Sao Truc (bamboo flute) is one of the oldest musical instruments of humankind. No one knows when it came into being, nor where it originated. People only know a universal fact: in all corners of the five continents, virtually all people have their own flutes.

Canadian singer James Gordon will give a performance at the Youth Theatre in Hanoi on the evening of June 27 to celebrate Canada's National Day, which falls on July 1.

More than 100 Vietnamese artefacts, including bronze drums, traditional costumes and daily tools of citizens, were introduced at the inauguration of the Quai Branly Museum in France on June 20.

A two-day festival of French music opened at L’Espace, Le Petit Bruxelles, Café des Arts, Sofitel Metropole, Sheraton Hanoi Hotel and Sofitel Plaza in the capital city of Hanoi on June 21.

The elephant has great spiritual and economic importance to many of the ethnic minority groups in the Central Highlands (Tay Nguyen). Some, like the Ede in Don village, Dak Lak province are famous throughout Vietnam for their ability to train and work with elephants.

While the lowlands women of Vietnam rarely ever touch a drop, a drinking party never kicks off in the jungles of the Central Highlands region until the head of the matriarchal household takes her first sip of the good stuff.

The Khen is a local ancient musical instrument which was invented more than 2,000 years ago. Artefacts left by the Dong Son culture depict pictures of Khen players and today many ethnic groups in Vietnam still use this instrument.

Much like the Scottish kilt and the Vietnamese ao dai, the defining garment of the Thai ethnic minority people of the north-western mountains is a simple scarf, known as the khan pieu.

As dawn breaks over the horizon, a Mong couple set out for the morning market. On the back of his horse, the husband sways in time to the sound of the hooves beating against the ground.

The H’Re people live mostly in the central provinces of Quang Ngai and Binh Dinh, on the eastern side of the Truong Son Moutain Range. This is an ethnic group that has its own distinct cultural characteristics.

Folk music and musicians enjoy great respect among the people of Lang Son and neighbouring provinces in the northern-eastern mountains of Vietnam.

With a total of eight clusters of Cham towers, Binh Dinh is the ideal place where vestiges of the Champa civilization are still available for tourists to see and for researchers to study.

The Guol House, or communal house, is central to the social and cultural life of the Co Tu, an ethnic group living in northwestern Quang Nam province, to the southwest of Thua Thien-Hue province.

Every Saturday, the picturesque mountain village of Sapa comes alive with shoppers who know what they want: love. They travel from near and far to size up the goods of the day, hoping something will tickle their fancy. Tall or short, sweet or sultry, they are all on the market, looking for love.

The Xo Dang ethnic minority people of nearly 100,000 live mostly in the Central Highlands province of Kon Tum, and in mountainous areas of central Quang Nam and Quang Ngai provinces. They pray to Gods and Spirits for high crop yields and safe daily life. Xo Dang people speak a language of the Mon-Khmer linguistic group.

The Dao ethnic minority group is one of 54 fraternal ethnic groups in Vietnam. With a population of nearly half a million, the Dao ethnic minorities live mostly in the northern provinces of Tuyen Quang, Ha Giang, Cao Bang and Lang Son.