Phu Tho Xoan Singing – Ancestral Guild Ritual Songs of the Hung Kings Era (UNESCO)

Phu Tho Xoan Singing (also known as Communal House Spring Singing) is a sacred ritual performing art intimately tied to the ancestral worship of the Hung Kings in the ancestral heartland of Phu Tho. In 2011, Xoan was inscribed on UNESCO’s List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding. In a historic global milestone achieved through remarkable community preservation, UNESCO transferred Xoan onto the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2017—marking the first time in world history a heritage site successfully graduated from the urgent safeguarding category. Folklore traces the origin of Xoan to the mythical founding era of the Hung Kings’ Van Lang kingdom, when the royal queen composed soothing spring melodies to ease childbirth and entertain royal princes. Xoan is practiced within hereditary guilds (phuong Xoan) presided over by an elder master (Trum). A classical performance follows three structured phases: Ritual Ceremonial Singing honoring national ancestors and village deities, Fourteen Narrative Ballad Suites (Qua Cach) celebrating agricultural seasons, and Festive Romantic Courtship Songs (Hat Hoi) full of lyrical wit between young men and women. Xoan seamlessly weaves together vocal harmonies, disciplined hand choreography, and reverent shrine etiquette. Accompanied solely by a small ceremonial drum and rhythmic bamboo clappers, the bell-like timbre of female singers (Dao) and male vocalists (Kep) executing synchronized gestures of wine offerings and symbolic rowing brings the millennium-old spirit of Vietnam’s dawn of civilization to life in ancient village temples like Thet, Kim Dai, and Lai Len Shrine.