The "Quest for the King of Fire" was inspired by Norman Lewis, the acclaimed traveller and writer who set out to experience the mystery of the Tay Nguyen people, also known as the Montagnards.
During the nineteen-fifties, travelling along roads that were mere tracks, through jungles of diverse beasts, Lewis found numerous tribes, who practiced a severe and dramatic form of animism. More absorbing though were the tales he was told of magical things, one being of a “King of Fire”. He never found that deity. Now unknown to him, we have taken up the journey in search of the truth.
The documentary was written and narrated by Barry Hooper, an Australian expatriate living in Vietnamese and teaching English Literature at the University of Hanoi. It records the traditional culture of the Jarai, Meo and Khan People, along with the discovery of the rightful pretender to the throne of the “King of Fire”, who by many is said to be only a myth.
Barry's journey begins in North Vietnam, a part of the world little known to outsiders, secluded for almost half a century by occupation, wars and now by a communist regime. His travelling companions are a Vietnamese film crew from the Ministry of Interior.
We visit places of great historical and cultural interest. Travel by land and water at the western boundary of the Red River deltas, a beautiful and enchanted land.
Other nations may lay their claims but this is the true Land of the Dragon and the Vietnamese are its children believing the ancient legend which tells of the Dragon Lord Lac Quan being father of the nation.
Visited by wars of aggression for twelve of the past twenty-two centuries, the people are justifiably and undeniably hard.
Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism... still flourish in Vietnam but a fourth religion, Communism, is the ultimate authority.
After visiting Houng and Cat Da we turn west into the mountains of The Truong Son to look for people of the Meo, before swinging south to seek the ancient Jarai and search for the Kings of Fire.
Ar Lyn the rightful pretender to the throne of the “King of Fire”
A Bialecki/Hooper Documentary
Design & Copyrights by VisionGrip.com
A SUNSHINE TELEVISION PRODUCTION
sunshine television
sunshine television
