Boua Xou Moua
 Boua Xou Moua plays the gaeng for special Hmong community events in Portland. Blue Hmong Shaman and player of the gaeng (bamboo wind pipes) "Every person has his own culture. The culture of the Hmong is very good. It is very important to keep the ancestors’ way of living." Boua Xou Moua (pronounced Bu-ah su Mu-ah) grew up in a small Hmong village, called Ban Whoi Na, in the mountains of northern Laos. There he studied with five male elders to learn the practices of a Hmong shaman. His uncle taught him how to play the gaeng or bamboo wind pipes. This instrument’s music is important for funeral rites, weddings, courtship songs, and for shamanic healing rituals. Boua Xou Moua became an important spiritual leader in his village. In 1976, Moua and his family fled Laos to Thailand. Two years later, they emigrated to the United States. In 1985, Boua Xou Moua received a National Heritage Fellowship Award from the National Endowment for the Arts for his extraordinary musical abilities. Today, the extended Moua family lives in southeast Portland. "I feel deeply in my heart that if I don’t learn from my grandparents and elders their information will go. It’s a way of respecting them. I want our youth to learn the Hmong traditional ways to keep it alive." |