In each region of Vietnam, each ethnic group has one special instrument serving in specific folk festival. Ê Đê and Ba Na people (Tây Nguyên) have the t’rưng instrument while Chăm group have the saranai instrument and the paranưng drum and Việt people have the oboe, etc. Raglai ethnic minority in Ninh Thuận have Bác ái lithophone, which is a special instrument from the old time.

In folk festivals, people use mã la to accompany dancing and singing. However, the more special instrument may be the cha py, which is made of bamboos. The folk artists of Raglai people make and play this instrument in folk festivals, especially in their ceremonies or New Year Holiday, such as the bỏ mả ceremony, the new-rice ceremony, the new-cultivation ceremony, Nguyên Đán holiday, etc.

Raglai patriarchs told that chapy was the musical instrument of poor people because one ancient good mã la instrument was equivalent with one buffalo or two oxen and one set of mã la must have from 9 to 12 pieces. In contrast, people take only one day to go to the forest for getting big bamboos and to make the chapy. Then, they can play it tomorrow. This instrument is similar to the small mã la set.

The chapy instrument of Raglai group is special in the point that the melody from this instrument sounds as if the stream was murmuring; the t’rưng instrument was played; the lithophone was performed if we listened carefully; and eight or nine young men were playing mã la if we closed our eyes.

The shape of the chapy is simple. It is only a big bamboo section, which the folk artist splits its skin into strings. After that, he whittles it very smoothly and put it into two parallel strings. In this way, he makes this instrument with from five to eight bamboo pieces depending on each region. In Bác ái, people make this instrument with eight bamboo pieces.

To play this instrument, the folk artist applies one end of the instrument to his belly. After that, he uses two hands to raise it and his fingers pluck bamboo pieces. Bamboo pieces vibrate on two bamboo-skin strings, which causes the special melody. In Bác Ái, Ninh Thuận, Raglai people often perform on this instrument in ceremonies and New Year Holiday. Most of them can play it. At present, the chapy is not only popular in Raglai community; instead, its echo spreads nationwide and internationally.

When the spring comes, beside the oven, old peole drink wine out of the jar through pipes; men play the chapy; and woman dance with the clappers in the accompaniment of mã la, which create the animated festival atmosphere throughout the night. In such occasions, men can find their wives and vice versa because the emotional performance of men on the chapy agitates women and the women’s dance softens the men’s heart. In this way, the spring in the village of Raglai people lasts endlessly as the sound of the chapy.