The mystery of Agarwood that not everyone knows!
In the past, agarwood has always been considered a quintessential product of heaven. Agarwood is a very rare type of wood, the ancients had the saying "take wormwood to find agarwood" to express the hardships of finding this type of agarwood. However, not everyone knows the legend about this special product of nature.
Legend of Agarwood
Legend has it that the profession of going bass originated from the holy land of Po Nar Gar at the foot of Dai An mountain (Dien Khanh, Khanh Hoa). Goddess Thien Y A Na is the ancestor of the profession with anecdotes about her birth, very sacred and mysterious apparitions.
According to ancient history, the land of Khanh Hoa used to be the land of agarwood of the once mighty Champa kingdom. This is the land of many mysterious stories about the appearance of the gods. One of them is the goddess Thien Y A Na, who blesses and sustains those who are on the road to find incense. The goddess named Thien Y A Na in Cham language is Po Nar Gar, born from sea powder and light in the open sea.
Once upon a time in Dai An mountain, there was an old but childless couple growing melons on the mountainside. But every time a melon is ripe, it loses that fruit. After a long time, he and his wife became suspicious and tried to catch the thief. As expected of the old man and his wife, that night while watching melons, a beautiful girl came to steal melons from the garden. At this time, the old man ran to catch him red-handed. But because the girl was small and pretty but had no parents, the old couple brought her home to raise her and consider her as their own child.
One day, it suddenly rained and the wind blew, the scenery was sad, the girl piled the stones into 3 fake rocks, then put flowers and leaves on it for fun. Seeing that the girl was playing a game that was not suitable for her age, the old man scolded her. While sad, suddenly seeing the male flag following the flow of water, the girl immediately transformed into the other male song to let the waves wash out to sea and land in China. The fragrance from the male song gives off a sweet aroma that makes many people curious to come and see. At this time, the local people gathered to bring the precious male song home, but no matter how much they gathered, they couldn't lift it. When hearing news from the people about the palace, Crown Prince Bac Hai came to see what the truth was, then the male flag suddenly became light in the hands of the crown prince.
On a moonlit night like a fairy scene, the prince accidentally saw a beautiful girl emerge from the male flag placed on the shelf. The prince rushed to hug her, and then asked the king to marry her. After a while they lived in a splendid palace, one day she suddenly remembered her adoptive parents in Dai An, so she incarnated into a male song to float on the sea to find her homeland.
When passing the old melon garden, everything is still there, but the old man and his wife have since passed away. Too sad at the passing of her adoptive parents, Thien Y A Na shed tears of sorrow, and then built a kind grave for the two of them. In order to repay the favor for the land that had supported her during the past time, Thien Y used his hands to transform into 4 precious agarwood trees in the 4 directions of the east-southwest in Khanh Hoa, and then rode the seeds to the sky. missing.
Currently, traces of those four precious agarwood trees are still there, but they are carefully guarded by the "mascots", so no one can see them, if they do, these trees will "disappear on their own". After a while, it will return to its original position. It is a tree in Dong Bo (Nha Trang City) town in the south; 1 tree in Hon Ba (in Ninh Hoa district) town in the North); 1 tree in Hon Du (Duyen Khanh district) and 1 tree in Suoi Ngo (Duyen Khanh district) town in the east. These agarwood trees are said to have no leaves, no sense, no rain or shine, they can't be damaged, and are considered treasures of the village.
Offering 13 trays to the gods before leaving
Not only the husbands and wives, but also everyone who has entered the profession of "carrying" must know these beliefs. Because they always believe that wherever they are, the agarwood tree is also the incarnation of the noble goddess Thien Y A Na, so they must be respectful before her. Moreover, the path of the concubines is often treacherous and dangerous because they have to live in the murky forests for a long time. The husbands are very careful to avoid mistakes that desecrate the gods. Because they believe that the spiritual world also exists as living people, and if we respect them, they will help us.
In addition to choosing the leader (who leads the group of husband and wife), people must choose people of the same age to go with the group. A group of about 7-15 people depending on the group. Bau Dou are usually people who have long experience in the profession of agarwood, in addition, they must know how to run the group and most importantly, Bau Dou leaves must belong to the worshiping rituals before entering the exploitation of agarwood, sometimes carrying them with them. Statue of Goddess Thien YA Na. This appointed husband and wife will have to perform an "idol" ceremony from the hands of the famous witches in the village to their home. After that, they will clean it and put it in a glass cage in a dignified way like ancestor worship.
People often think that the animals in the forest are incarnations of gods, so the husband and wife abstain from calling their names directly, but often say the camp to some other name. For example, when calling the name of a tiger, it is called "Teacher", a snake is called a "long girl", a python is called a "Ba horse", a pig is called "Doi"...
The same goes for other types such as rice (Me), salt (Met), going astray (green shackles), bleeding (bleeding fish). Because of fear of the retribution of the Holy Maiden, most husbands and wives often refrain from eating meat, and most abstain from the meat of the lizard (for fear of bad luck) and python and snake meat (because this is the holy woman's loom). After reaching the forest to search for agarwood, Bau Duu will find an empty and clean field, then ask the group members to place the offerings on the thin carpet on the ground. After burning incense and asking permission from the "forest god", people started to set up camp to rest overnight.
At dawn the next morning, all of them woke up to prepare to worship before entering the forest. It is worth noting that the people carrying the slings must have a full 13 trays of offerings and are mainly offered vegetarian food. The tray brought to the offering is usually white sticky rice, white porridge, confectionery, incense, and especially a few incense sticks made from agarwood. After that, people choose the square stones to put these offerings on top and Bau Du is responsible for arranging the banknotes to prepare the offerings. The ceremony must be divided into 13 trays and the offering tray for "Uncle 2" (which is the name of the bearer people used to refer to the holy mother Thien YA Na) is the largest, placed in the middle and in the highest position compared to other trays. again. After taking a bath, he will change into decent clothes, and Bau Truong will conduct the worship ceremony", it took forever to preach to Mr. Qua to share this with us.
This ritual started before liberation, and only real consorts know about these rituals. Later consorts also performed the ritual, but in a simpler way. The content of this ritual is to pray for the Goddess of Agarwood to give blessings so that the lucky people can win precious agarwood. Because everyone knows that the goddess is the queen who rules over the agarwood in every forest, and there is only one way to pray for her to give "blessings" to the husbands and wives, and to pray for peace for each person. That is also the millennial consciousness of the people who go deep here who still believe and entrust themselves to the motherland as an expectation for a better tomorrow.
