Plung dugout canoe – A M’nong masterpiece
(TITC) – About 60 km south of Buon Ma Thuot city, on Highway 27, visitors will encounter a natural freshwater lake that never dries up, covering an area of over 500 hectares. The second largest freshwater lake in Vietnam (after Ba Be Lake) is surrounded by the majestic Chu Yang Sin mountain range and rice fields of the M’Nong villages in Lak District, Dak Lak Province. Standing out on the lake are the unique dugout canoes of the M’Nong – Plung.
Visitors will not only be fascinated by the green of the diverse plant ecosystem, the yellow of the ripe rice fields, the unique architecture of the longhouses of the Ede and M’Nong people, but also by the movement of the dugout canoes like cranes gliding on the calm and peaceful surface of Lak Lake.
Photo: Nguyen The Duc
Plung – a dugout canoe made from hundreds of years old star wood – has a straight body and a circumference larger than two young men’s hugs, which is the criterion for its durability and width. Before cutting down a tree, the village elder often performs a ritual to ask permission from the forest god. From a solid tree trunk with hardwood, through many skillful and meticulous carving steps, artisans have created an artistic masterpiece, a wooden boat about 5m-7m long, about 50cm wide and the thickness of the walls and bottom from 3cm-5cm. The time to create a plung is not just one week or two weeks, but often one or more than two full moons.
A plung can carry 3 people. Before being officially used, the plung will be recognized and welcomed by the M’Nong family through an initiation and launching ceremony. During the Plung initiation ceremony, there will be many dishes and rice wine to report to the gods, inviting ancestors to bless and pray for peace when putting the boat into the water.
Plung is considered a relative by M’Nong families. Plung not only shows the uniqueness of traditional boat carving skills but is also the property of families showing power and wealth. For the community, this is a unique artistic masterpiece in the system of tangible and intangible cultural heritage of the M’Nong people in the Serepok river basin.
Tourism Information Technology Center
