1. Ede house columns
The columns of traditional Ede long houses are carefully carved with ornamental sculptures to embellish the house and display the owner's wealth and social position.
Each column is topped with a carving of a cooking pot called go bung, one of the family's most treasured possessions. It it used as a container of water to be added to the jars of rice wine, and to cook rice whenever a ceremony is celebrated in the family. Some Ede explain the carved design to be that of the pot used to steam glutinous rice, with the four stones or which it is put.
Ede society is a matrilineal one in which women play major social roles. This tradition is reflected in the breasts carved on columns. In other cases, the figure is that of a pair of elephant or rhinoceros tusks. On the surface of columns are carvings of geometric designs, or figures of a four-petalled flower, hdrong flower or fruit.
These two columns of a long house built in 1967 in Dak Lak province stand at the far end of the main room to receive guests.
2. Ede long house
The Ede long house is 42.5 meters long and 6 meters wide and sits on one meter high stillts. It was recon-structed at the Museum in 2000 by 16 Ede Kpa people in two and a half months. It was originally built in 1967 and belonged to Mrs. HDiah Eban's family in Ky village, Buon Ma Thuot city, Dak Lak province in the Central Highlands.
The house in oriented in a north-south direction according to Ede tradition. The north side is the front with the main entrance. The south end was where families lived. As a house of a powerful family, it was built with big columns and beams, on which many decorations were carefully carved. Its original staircase, over one meter wide, was carved from one large wooden board.
Traditionally, extended matrilineal families lived in long houses. The more people who lived in a house, the longer it was. Some houses were 200m long. In the 1970s, there were still house 50m to 60m in length. Since the 1980s, extend families have split into nuclear ones that live in smaller houses.
If you want to see this Ede house columns at Vietnam museum of ethnology, let's take enjoy Hanoi City tour with Viet Unique Tours.
