Dak Lak Museum of Ethnology is a historical site of Dak Lak province, located near the center of Buon Ma Thuot city. It is the first museum in Vietnam to use 4 languages in its display, including Vietnamese, French, English and Ede. Dak Lak Museum of Ethnology is a cooperation of the French Republic and the Vietnam Museum of Ethnology. Designed according to the model of the traditional long house architecture of the Ede ethnic group – the largest ethnic group in Dak Lak.
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Dak Lak Museum of Ethnology
Dak Lak Museum of Ethnology is with a length of 130m, a width of nearly 65m, over 9,200 square meters, costing 80 billion VND. There are many valuable artifacts and pictures on display here. Before your eyes is a miniature space of the majestic Central Highlands mountains, with many species of animals, plants,… This large space is arranged into 3 exhibition spaces with 3 major content sections, including biodiversity, national culture and history.
You’ll fall in love with the middle: biodiversity. This space displays artifacts and images of the ecology and soil of the Central Highlands such as forests and folk medicines; many animals such as sun bears, leopards, flying weasels; the ecological area has Lak lake, Dray Nur waterfall; red basalt soil, clay, gray soil; or the dense coffee and rubber trees.
Dak Lak Museum of Ethnology
Out of surprise in the middle area, the left area will bring you to the close life of ethnic minorities. This area is a national culture, a space to display artifacts and images of the life and activities of the people of the Central Highlands, typically the indigenous Ede people, in addition to other ethnic groups with tools such as: agricultural baskets; canoes, baskets, harpoons for hunting and gathering; benches, stoves, or trinkets are present in all longhouses. Or be mesmerized by the costumes of village elders, shamans, brocade weavings, mats,…; gongs of the Ede and Jarai people, wine jars of all sizes.
Dak Lak Museum of Ethnology
The area on the right is a historical space displaying artifacts and images of ancient people’s items, combat weapons serving in the resistance war against the French colonialists and the American empire, fossil snails, ancient dishes and tools in the wartime activities, images and documents about campaigns in the resistance war for national liberation.
Currently, this is an interesting attraction for domestic and foreign tourists when coming to Buon Ma Thuot city. The artifacts on display in Dak Lak Museum of Ethnology partly recreate, provide viewers with a panorama of development history, unique cultural values of people and nature of the wild highlands from the Paleolithic period until now, thereby reflecting the characteristics of the sunny and windy Central Highlands.
