A proverb about the culture of soy sauce-making recounts that all a farmer needs to make a living anywhere is rice, water spinach, soy sauce, and eggplants. Throughout the ages, soy sauce has been closely linked to the lives of Duong Lam villagers as a condiment that adds special flavor to their meals. The Duong Lam soy sauce is made with the finest soybeans clean water, and hot weather, thereby reflecting the lifestyle and culinary culture of the local people.\n\nThis video introduces the story of an old couple in Duong Lam Village who continue to brew soy sauce in strict accordance with the traditional recipe.

Kieu Ky Village is located on the northern bank of the Red River about 15km from Hanoi. The village is known in Vietnam as the only place that handcrafts thin, sophisticated gold leaves. The master artisan credited with passing on the craft, Nguyen Quy Tri, is honored by the villagers of Kieu Ky as the father of gold craft. \n\nGold craft is primarily used to elevate the sanctity of temples and communal houses and further to elaborately decorate daily objects, such as furniture, painting, and other lacquered items. This video shows the process of crafting gold leaves and gilding in Kieu Ky Village.

Kin Pang Then is a traditional ritual of the Tai ethnic group in the northwest region of Vietnam to welcome and thank the deity known as Then. In the ritual, Then comes down to grant blessings on villagers and heal those whose souls are sick. The beneficiaries of the ritual are obliged to participate in the next Kin Pang Then ritual. The whole process of greeting and sending off the deity is intended to bring harmony and unity to all community members who participate in and enjoy the ritual. \nThis video shows the spiritual life of the Tai people and a master performing the ritual to bring good luck and wellbeing to the local people.

The traditional village troupe performs the puppet shows in countryside at the traditional village festival and for tourists. The puppeteers manipulate the puppets by hand with string. The puppet shows with music and story tell about the farmer’s life and countryside activities. The film demonstrates the connection between the puppetry and the worship of the communal god that the show is an important performance at the traditional village festival.

Trong quan singing\n(Liêm Thuận commune, Thanh Liêm district, Hà Nam province)\n

Hà Giang - one of the six provinces in the Northeast region of Vietnam has a diverse terrain and mountainous topography divided into 3 distinct regions: the rocky mountainous region includes Đồng Văn, Mèo Vạc, Yên Minh, Quản Bạ, Bắc Mê districts; the western region includes Xín Mần, Hoàng Su Phì districts; and the lowland region includes Vị Xuyên, Bắc Quang, Quang Bình districts and Hà Giang city. Residents in Hà Giang province belong to various ethnic groups such as the H’Mông, the Dao, the Tày, the Nùng, the LôLô, the Bố Y, the Pà Thẻn, the Giáy.

Xẩm is a folk performing art form of Vietnam with unique and typical lyrics. Among the national traditional art forms, only Xẩm singing is regarded as an occupation for its artists to earn for a living.

If beliefs in fertility associated with aspiration of reproduction remains as a cultural sediment; beliefs in ancestor worship exist in various forms not only in the Việt communities but also in the lives of many ethnic groups; beliefs in village titulary worship make communal houses to become special space for religious activities; then beliefs in the Mother Goddesses has not only spread widely, but also formed large worship centers exceeding a village’s and a commune’s space. In other words, the development of beliefs in the Mother Goddesses is a spatial expansion from the North to the South, from coastal region across the delta to the mountains; from remote areas to urban centers in Viet Nam. Beliefs in the Mother Goddesses is a process of integrating and combining folk beliefs and religious activities of the Việt people and of other ethnic groups such as the Tày, Nùng, Tai, Dao, Cham, Khmer, etc which forms a specific type of Vietnamese folk belief sustainably developed for a long time.

Phú Thọ - a midland province in northern Vietnam, is about 100 kilometres northwest of Hanoi where the sacred mountain Nghĩa Lĩnh also known as mountain Hùng exists. On Nghĩa Lĩnh mountain, there are Lower (Hạ), Middle (Trung) and Upper (Thượng) temples together with legends about 18 Hùng Kings of the Vietnamese people. Around Nghĩa Lĩnh mountain, there are hundreds of temples, communal houses and shrines located in villages and communes, which forms a religious space to worship Hùng Kings.

Phu Dong Village in Vietnam holds a traditional festival to celebrate Saint Giong from the seventh to the ninth days of the fourth lunar month every year. One of the most important figures in the festival is Hieu, the Flag Commander. It is the Flag Commander's responsibility to select young men of good character from decent families in the village to serve the saint. Those selected are honored by the local residents after taking part in the festival.\n\nThis video shows the social and religious aspects of the lives of local people who worship their local god, as well as the spiritual life of the local community reflected in the festival.

Every year, the people of Nam Giang Village organize a traditional festival at Dai Bi Buddhist temple to commemorate Zen master Tu Dao Hanh. Starting from New Year's Eve to the festival period from the twentieth to the twenty-forth days of the second lunar month, a variety of Buddhist rituals mixed with fold beliefs are performed. \n\nIn particular, the sacred puppet theater serves to convey spiritual enlightenment to the people and deliver their wishes to the Buddha and saints through music and dance. This video tells the story of the members of a Buddhist puppet theater troupe who pray for the wellbeing and happiness of their community.

The Tai communities live in Son La, Lai Chau, Yen Bai and Dien Bien provinces in the Northwest of Viet Nam. Kin Pang Then is one of Then's important rituals of the Tai people. This is the occasion where the Then master and his followers perform a thanksgiving ritual for the Then god. The ritual includes songs and music that symbolically express the journey of the Then Master to travel to the other world to look for the lost souls of the disciples/clients and to call the souls coming back to their bodies. The film is about the destined ritual Master and his ritual performance with Xoe dance for healing, good luck and well being for the local people. The film demonstrates the spiritual life and religious Then practice of the Tai in Northwestern religion in Viet Nam.