and your heart forever, says an ethnic minority custom that one woman has stayed true to for nearly 80 years.
An elderly ethnic woman who has worn a pair of huge, heavy earrings for almost 80 years without taking them off once is a living legend among the Co Tu ethnic minority group.
Po Loong Panh’s earrings are also unique. A second pair can’t be found across the Co Tu people’s villages.
For Mother Panh, as the elderly woman is popularly known, the earrings are more than a piece of jewelry.
The pair is almost 100 times larger and heavier than the normal earrings worn by Co Tu women these days. They are cast in silver and their diameter is almost equal to that of a small bowl.
Panh’s earrings are much bigger than those that Co Tu women wear now
What makes them unique, though, is not their impressive dimensions, but that the two ends are welded together, making it impossible to take them off.
Panh’s wrinkled, spotted face lights up every time she talks about her treasured earrings.
According to Co Tu tradition, parents give their daughters a gift when they get married.
It is said that before presenting the gift, the parents and the bride have to make a vow to their husband’s family, which would bring health, happiness and wealth to the couple later.
Panh’s wealthy parents gifted her the earrings. Despite a memory that is fading with old age, Panh distinctly remembers the vow she took many years ago.
According to the vow, she has to wear the earrings till the day she dies and is never allowed to take them off under any circumstances. The vow is a testament to her faithfulness to her husband and guarantees her bountiful crops, perfect health and great fertility.
Even after her death, she has to wear the earrings to the other world to prove to Giang (the supreme god of the ethnic people) and other gods that she has kept the vow.
If she fails to keep her vow, Giang would blame her, and her husband and children would be killed by beasts of prey when they go hunting in the forest.
After the vow was made, a hot iron bar was used to weld the two ends of the earrings together.
The earrings have become Panh’s inseparable companions ever since.
After wearing the pieces for many years, the holes on her ears are now so large that a finger can be put them through.
Though Panh can’t remember her age exactly, her nephew, Zo Ram Poong, who is almost 70 and is secretary of the KaNooh 2 hamlet said she is about 93 or 94 years old and is the oldest person in Tay Giang Commune.
Panh has nine children, but several of them have died and she is living with her youngest son and his children.
Po Loong Xin, Panh’s grandchild, says her grandmother can still wash clothes at the spring, cook meals and even chop small firewood.
Xin adds Panh is rarely ill though the weather in the mountainous region is quite harsh for the elderly.
If you lend Panh your ear, she might tell you the secret of her good health.
Reported by Vu Phuong Thao
http://www.vfv.com.vn/articles/readnews/9
· Posted by hoopnut
on September 03 2009
In Stories · 5411 Reads ·
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