Sound of love By Features Desk
Publisher:Viet Nam News - Publication Date: 21-04-2008

The sound of the khen (bamboo flute) resounds from a distance, as the wind blows through the surreal landscape of wooden houses to welcome me to Ta Cu Village, Ho Quan Phin Commune, Dong Van District in Ha Giang Province.
As I tour around town, I see where the sound came from as I watch some local Mong ethnic minority boys playing the khen, their body and souls caught up in the music.
It’s a custom for men in the village play khen to find a partner on love-market day, or to show-off their talent during the festival season. Mastering the khen technique to provide the beautiful melodies for songs and dances, however, is no easy feat.
At 57, Mua Sinh Po is known as the 'king of khen' as he spent the last 37 years studying and popularising the musical instrument to the villagers.
At 20, Po started making his own bamboo flute under his father’s guidance.
"My father always told me that only patience and desire could help me make a performance of khen sound and look beautiful," recalled Po.
Holding a flute, he explained to me how the unique instrument worked. Six bamboo flutes of different sizes and tones are connected to each other by a wooden handle with a hole to create the music. In each wind instrument, there is a thin copper piece lying in the connection between the six flutes and the handle. By controlling each flute with fingers, the artisan makes his own melody.
"Putting the thin copper in the right place is the hardest part for most flute makers. One wrong move can ruin the sound and make the flute worthless," said Po.
"To get the right sound, the flute maker has to try hundreds of times, putting it in a certain place and playing a while to tune it until it has the sound it should," he added.
Although he’s now familiar with the flute-making process, it still takes Po at least two days to finish one. He’ll spend the year wandering the forests with his father to choose the best Gisong tree, used to make the flute body.
"In my early days, when I would pierce the wrong hole in the flute body, my father would use that flute to hit my hands. When the broken bamboo flutes piled up as high as the dry grass in the garden, I finally made the perfect one," said the artisan.
Besides making the flute, the artisan also sells them to tourists who fall in love with the sound of khen and ask him for one. The price for each flute is 150,000 dong (US$9), bringing his family 35 million dong ($2,000) annually. The artisan also guides 23 households in the village on how to make the flute to help them supplement their incomes.
Po is always willing to teach young boys to make and play the flute if they really want to. Mua Va Tua, his oldest son, has studied his father’s technique and showed off his talents during the festival season.
"The bamboo flute is the important musical instrument to the Mong people. I just want to help develop and preserve it for future generations," said Po.
The khen will soon become an official traditional handicraft of Ta Cu Van Village. The Denmark Viet Nam Culture Cooperation Fund recently visited the village to study what investment was needed to help residents in producing and selling their khen.

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