“Living” Epics in Central Highland-Vietnam

Abstract

This article is about h’mon, an epic genre of Bahnar ethnic in the Central Highlands of Vietnam. Typical of this epic type is H’mon Dam Giong (or The Dam Giong epics). The contents of this article include space and mode of performance of h’mon; characteristics of the “living epic” of h’mon (It is the ability to refresh the content of h’mon by adding new details); characteristics of the character system (including the central character and the re-appearing characters).