A night of fire jumping

10:42' 02/07/2007 (GMT+7)

VietNamNet Bridge – Pang, pang…The worshipping master tapped a bamboo stick. The sound urged the young man to plunge into the flaring fire and jump out intact amid the extreme elation of the crowd. It was a day of fire jumping, a traditional game that the Pa Then minority living in the northern mountainous region of Vietnam often play after harvests. The fire jumping festival is held several times a year, often falling between lunar October and the following January and taking place on a big, flat ground or inside a worshipping master’s house. On a drizzly and dismal afternoon, master Sin Lao Ta’s house situated on a hillside in My Bac hamlet, Ha Giang province was noisier than usual. Some were preparing wood for the fire. Others were killing a beautiful hen with golden legs. Sin Lao Ta in black clothes was sitting alone in a corner, silently staring at an altar with incense, a bowl of water, and other altar food for the event. Soon the whole village gathered around the big crackling fire in the middle of the master’s home: children with eyes wide in suspense; women in their best and colourful traditional clothes mingling in the red hot hue of the night. Young men surrounded the master, their faces turned towards the fire with apprehension and excitement. This was their day. Only men “jump fire”; women aren’t allowed to. The Pa Then people believe that if they jumped into a fire, women would dance around like mad without stopping for 7 days and 7 nights. Around 8 pm, a 25-year-old man named Viet picked up a bamboo stick and started tapping it on the master’s iron worshipping equipment to call spirits to enter him and carry him safely through the fire. A few minutes later, Viet’s body started to shake. He jumped up and down like a frog on a wooden stool so many times that it cracked. He stopped, shook his head and withdrew. Other tried, but they didn’t jump either. A young man with brown skin and curly hair named Vinh seemed to succeed in calling the spirits since he did jump into the fire twice, feet feeling the burning coal. He jumped out, lying flat on the ground, exhausted. Vinh later said, “Now I’m very tired but when the spirits entered me, I felt as light as a feather. The fire didn’t feel hot to me then.” A man named Dinh even jumped several times. And after his first failed attempt, Viet did succeed at last. Then other men joined in. Some jumped so far and high that their heads touched the wooden pillars of the house, then fell down, but got up right away with broad smiles on their faces. Around 9, with the fire dying down and the house smelling of smoke and bodies becoming weary, the villagers started to disperse. Villagers who participate in the game often contribute wood to feed the fire. But according to Phu Thi Thien, a local culture official, the fire jumping festival has lost much of its simplicity and beauty in recent years due to foreigners’ inappropriate ways of exploring culture. For the past 10 years, foreign tourists visiting My Bac hamlet have often given local people money when they jumped fire and this made them misunderstand that they should be paid to do so. Gradually, they started to lose the habit of willingly contributing rice, wood, and chickens to their communal festival and expect money in return for taking part in the game. For money, some worshipping masters have even organised fire jumping shows “out of season”, taking the “spirits of fire jumping” to as far as Ha Tay province to deliver shows ordered by some customers. (Source: Viet Nam Net)