Every year, when the Kate festival season comes, Cham people, no matter where they are, will return home to attend the ceremony and gather with their families. This year, due to the impact of the epidemic, the Kate festival will not take place as usual every year, but will only be held within the family. So let's join Travellive to feel the atmosphere of the old festival season through this article, with a Kate ceremony at Po Nagar temple (Huu Duc village) and Po Rome tower (Hau Sanh village), Phuoc Huu commune, Ninh Phuoc district, Ninh Thuan - a place that still retains many traditional features of Cham culture.

According to Cham legend, the inhabitants of the ancient Champa kingdom included many ethnic groups: Cham, Churu, Ede, Raglai..., in which the Cham were the "oldest sister", the Raglai were the "youngest sister". Cham society followed matriarchy, the youngest sister was the one who had the right to inherit and keep the family heirlooms of her ancestors, so thatcostume(the costumes of the gods-kings) are kept by the Raglai people. On the day before the main Kate festival, the Cham people must hold a ceremony to welcome the Raglai people to bring the costumes to the Cham temples.

Due to various reasons, recently, the costumes of King Po Klaung Garai and King Po Rome were both left to be kept in the Cham villages in the area of ​​those towers, so these two places no longer have the ceremony of bringing costumes back from the Raglai people. Currently, only in the area of ​​the Po Nagar goddess temple, the goddess's costumes are still kept by the Raglai people of Phuoc Ha village (near Huu Duc village). Therefore, only in Huu Duc is there a ceremony of bringing costumes back.

On this day, people from neighboring areas and tourists often flock to Huu Duc village to attend the procession and receive the Po Nagar goddess's costume from the Raglai people and the Cham people. The procession returning from Phuoc Ha village was welcomed by the Cham people at the Huu Duc village stadium. A stage was set up in the middle of the stadium, with a Cham ceremonial orchestra and Cham dance teams in traditional festival costumes gathered in full. When the palanquin carrying the costume returned to the stadium, the ceremonial music began to be played loudly.

The three main musical instruments that create the soul of Cham festivals are the Saranai trumpet, the Paranung drum and the Ghinang - according to the Cham people's concept, these musical instruments symbolize the human, the sky and the earth in a complete and whole way. When performing, these three musical instruments are not separated but always blend together, in which the Saranai trumpet is the main musical instrument.

After the performance welcoming the Po Nagar goddess's costume at Huu Duc stadium ended, I returned to Hau Sanh village nearby. The old manCamuney(the tower caretaker) - whom I was lucky to have met on previous visits to the tower, led me to the small temple in Hau Sanh village, where the costumes of the god-king Po Rome were kept, to burn incense.

That evening, there was a performance in Hau Sanh village. After dinner with Mr. Camuney’s family, I joined the crowd of people eagerly carrying chairs to the middle of the village to quickly find a place to watch the performance. The Cham people here are very hospitable, when they knew I was from far away, they happily gave me a good spot.

The band in the village cultural night, in addition to the Ghinang drum, Paranung drum, and Saranai trumpet, also used pre-recorded background music, an electric guitar, and an organ. The performers were all village cultural groups.

The village festival ended not too late because the next morning was the most important ceremony taking place at the temples. That night, I stayed at Mr. Camuney's house right in Hau Sanh village.

Mr. Luong - the name of a Camuney in Po Rome tower, left home while everyone was still asleep. At nearly 6am, the whole family woke up, his son invited me to go to the shop at the village entrance to have breakfast and drink coffee. He had been working far away for many years, and only returned to the village during the Kate festival, so he wanted to take the opportunity to meet everyone.

On the morning of the main festival day on the ancient towers, the costumes will be carried from the temple to the tower for the ceremony. The procession includes religious dignitaries in formal costumes, girls in colorful Cham ao dai dancing, and a ceremonial band performing throughout the journey.

After going with Mr. Luong's son, I returned to the village temple just in time to see the ceremonial music playing, the dance team performing the ritual dance to ask for the robes to be carried up to the tower. The palanquin containing the robes was decorated with red cloth, the wooden frame was also painted red, and was carried by four men in traditional festival costumes. In front of the procession were religious dignitaries, including the monk.The whole monk- the highest religious dignitary in the region, his robe embroidered with red borders - was the one who walked between the two parasols.

Behind the palanquin are the girls carrying the palanquin.atâu extract(a bamboo basket containing Cham offerings), followed by an orchestra, playing music along the entire route, followed by dance groups in colorful festival costumes. A few teenagers carrying banners walked on both sides right behind the palanquin. Finally, a number of locals and tourists followed the procession.

Leaving the village gate, I asked a Cham man to take me by motorbike to the foot of the mountain where the tower is located, just enough time to take in the whole festival atmosphere in the Po Rome tower area before the procession arrived.

Po Rome Tower was built around the 17th century, on top of a small mountain called Tro Mountain. This tower was built to worship King Po Rome (1627-1651), perhaps it was also the last tower built by the Cham people. The ancient tower, though small and simple, still retains its religious function for the residents of the whole region. In areas outside Ninh Thuan and Binh Thuan where there are no towers, the Cham people will have to go to Po Klaung Garai Tower, Po Rome Tower or all the way to Po Sha Inu Tower in Phan Thiet to worship Kate.

From early morning, local Cham people and people from neighboring areas gathered to display offerings around the tower area. Their offerings were also very simple: fruits, rice, chicken, and later beer and wine. They spread mats, nylon sheets and displayed offerings on every open space around the base of the tower.

After lowering the palanquin, theextract atâucontain the teacher's clothesKadhar- the dignitary performs the ritual of bathing and dressing the statue of the god - moves it into the tower to prepare for the ceremony. At this time, outside the tower yard, the opening act and the ceremonial dance begin.

I was very impatient for the bathing ceremony and dressing the statue of Po Rome inside the tower, but the yard was small, the dance groups filled the yard, it would be impolite to walk past them while they were performing. Luckily, when the dances ended, the crowd immediately rushed to the tower yard, Mr. Luong suddenly appeared, grabbed my hand, pulled me up the steps, pushed me inside and said: "Take advantage of it, there will be a lot of people coming in". I only had time to turn back to look at him gratefully, before I could say anything, I was pushed into the narrow tower, which was also full of people.

When the ceremony was over, I left the tower to say goodbye to Mr. Luong, then went to say goodbye to his wife in the tower area. She also slipped me a bag of some cakes and some fruit, saying, "Take this and eat it on the way, it's noon, dear."

Many years have passed, the tower has been repaired, I am still absorbed in the ancient Champa towers in the Central region and have not had the opportunity to return to Hau Sanh village, to Po Rome tower. I told myself that this year I will definitely return to the Kate ceremony in Hau Sanh to complete "10 years of old love". But then the pandemic broke out, all plans failed, the Kate ceremony in 2021 could not take place as usual. I heard that Po Rome tower has a new tower keeper, I wonder how Mr. Luong's health is? When the epidemic situation is under control, I must return to Hau Sanh to visit the family of the venerable old Camuney, to visit the last tower of the Cham people.