General introduction

Vietnam locates in the tropical area of the half North sphere with the area of 330.991 m2 (Based on the figure of the General statistical Office of in 1996).

Vietnam shares border line with the People’s Republic of China to the North, with the People’s Democratic Republic of Laos and the Kingdom of Cambodia to the West. It’s surrounded on the East and South by the Pacific.

According to the General Statistical Office, Vietnam had the population of 76.327.900 people in 1999, of which Viet people (also called Kinh people) occupied 84% of the total population of the country and others was about 1 million people.

According to the figures of the government in 1979, Vietnam had 54 nations belonging to 8 language groups: The Viet-Muong group, The Mon-Kh’Mer group, The Tay-Thai group, H’Mong-Zao group, Kadai group, The Malayo-Polynesian group, The Han group, The Tibeto-Birman group.

Forest which has hundreds thousand of kinds of plant occupies about 50% of the total area of Vietnam. It is an important material for people to create musical instruments suitable to the environment and labor life, which create the specific characteristic of Vietnamese musical culture.