"Hong Thai plum, Thuong Lam girl"

I traveled around with Truong Giang's verses on my mind. That day at Hoa Van Ba's Ba Ngan homestay in Na Tong village, Thuong Lam commune (Lam Binh district, Tuyen Quang province), I happened to see a public performance. Children, young women or middle-aged women gathered to practice and sing, many of which have a joyous beauty like a peony flower. Beautiful from body to laughter, voice.

Be Thuy Linh - a young girl wit an oval face, a slim nose and eyes sparkling like stars. She has a talent in English and MC-ing, often passionately tells guests about the beauty of the mountains and the people of her hometown. In the past, Mr. Ba's had a beautiful cousin named Nong Hoai Thu who was also invited to act in the movie "The First Wave of Life".

Quan Van Bien, 78 years old, former Chairman of the Front of Thuong Lam Commune, said that his daughter is not only beautiful in appearance, but also in her manners, meek, diligent, love for her husband, for her children, and the beauty in her manners also lie in her greetings, her thoughtful cookings, arrange blankets and beds neatly. They are beautiful because they know how to sing then, play instruments, know how to sew and weave. These beauties have not been recognized in any beauty contest but are still recognized by the people, and recently communes, districts, provinces sometimes organize beauy contests, but after each of such contest, beautiful girls usually travel to get married…

Explaining the verse "Hong Thai plum. Thuong Lam girl", Mr. Bien said that in the past, the Sky Emperor sent messengers to find a land with 100 mountains to construct the capital. Someone advised that Thuong Lam has 100 mountains, but when the messenger counted thoroughly he could only see 99 mountains, turns out, when locals heard the news, they built 1 fake mountain. When 100 phoenixes flew to nest, 99 landed, and 1 circled in the air because the mountain was fake. The Sky Emperor was so angry that he sprayed water to wash away the fake mountain and wished to punish the people here, but after seeing that the land was too beautiful, he couldn't bear it.

The fairies often go to Thuong Lam Lake to bathe. There once was a man who stand on Na Tong mountain to watch them each time, seeing that the fairies were so beautiful, he wishes to marry one of them. However, the fairy tried his heart by turning into a school of fish, seeing that the fish were delicious, the man wished to eat them, so he could not marry the fairy, he stood there forever turning into a stone statue on the mountain. The fairies flew away, leaving behind the peony they used to pick for bathing. Later, Thuong Lam's women followed, they also picked the peony flowers and put them in the bath water, so everyone became beautiful. This place also has a temple to the princess of the mountain - a village citadel that is said to be extremely beautiful.

I returned to Anh The homestay in Nam Dip right as Chau Duc Anh brought a basket of wild vegetables such as beef vegetables, sour leaves, bamboo shoots and foul vegetables into the kitchen. She smiled and said: "Today, we have boiled stream ducks, grilled field carp, bamboo shoots stuffed with meat, fried bamboo shoots, many kinds of vegetables in which beef and foul vegetables are also medicinal herbs".

I was too hungry to be polite so I enthusiastically tried dish after dish. Carps raised for an entire year with size only as big as 3 fingers, yet they are delicious because of their rich aroma and sweet taste. The plate of stream duck is juicy, the meat is as thick and fragrant as the Van Dinh grass duck in my hometown. As for wild vegetables, each has its own taste, but there is nothing like the lowland vegetables.

Chau Duc Anh's grandfather, Chau Minh Vi, turning 75 years old this year, said that when he first worked in tourism with 5 other households, the district allowed them to travel, supported with some materials and the remaining paid by his family to repair the house: “Visitors coming to my house are considered my own children. When I meet foreigners, I greet them with hello's, goodbye's, see you again's when they leave, and when conversing, I use the phone to translate. Working in tourism, when children and grandchildren cook rice, the grandparents boil water, take care of the children, when there are more visitors, they mobilize cooking teams, cultural teams, reception teams, tour guides of the whole village to help. Monthly income is about 5-7 million.

I have heard many good stories, such as that stilthouses are roofed with palm leaves, so they can catch fire easily and spread to other houses. Therefore, grandparents have passed on an advise in the house to not curse at each other, not raise voices or cause hatred in the house because when people are angry, they can easily set fires to the houses. Therefore, the people live in harmony, not only in Nam Diep but also in every Tay village.

Ma Thi Hong - Director of the Center for Vocational Education and Continuing Education in Lam Binh district, said that the vast cotton fields are no longer available, the brocade weaving art in many places has also disappeared, so recently the district encourages the villages and hamlets to restore them. The project to establish Lam Binh brocade weaving cooperative was awarded the second prize in the "Startup ideas for vocational education students" contest in 2021 organized by the General Department of Vocational Education in collaboration with the United Nation Fund Population Agency with support from Japan. After which, the students bought old brocade pieces from their relatives to make towels, shirts, hats, slings, etc. to sell to tourists.

"The district has no drugs, no prostitution, many houses leave their doors open, for many years there has been no fatal traffic accident." Mr. Nguyen Van Hien - Vice Chairman of Lam Binh district. 

The country's youngest district in tourism

Mr. Nguyen Van Hien - Vice Chairman of Lam Binh district said that although it is the youngest district in the country (founded in 2011), the principle since then has remained unchanged: preserve the forest, preserve the landscape, keep the cultural identity of the 12 ethnic groups.

Although it is mountainous, Lam Binh does not have typhoons or flash floods thanks to the second highest forest coverage rate in the country at 78%, of which primary forests account for 2/3: “It wasn't until 2016 that we started paying attention to the forest. In tourism, we can see that the most precious aspect of the district are the forests, losing the forests means losing everything. When people feel that forests and landscapes are beneficial to them, they will try their best to protect them.

In the past, although the language remained, stilthouses by Tay people started to disappear because some people found it quite inconvenient to live in. But at that time, the Chairman, the District Secretary made a document prohibiting the removal of stilthouses in the area, the rules remain until now. As a result, Lam Binh is the district that is preserving the best stilt houses in the country, about 10,000 households have 7-8,000 stilt houses.

In the past, the costumes of the Tay and Dao people were also lost to time, partly because they were assimilated into the Kinh culture and partly because in the process of labor, the costumes were not convenient, the way to wear them was complicated. Since 2016, when developing tourism, the province has directed the district to encourage traditional costumes in schools, each teacher and student has 1 costume of their own ethnic group, worn 1-2 times a week. After 2 years, it spread to the whole district and now it has reached preschools, from there spreading to the elderly and young people.  

In the past, when people wore their own ethnic clothes, they were often embarrassed because some Kinh people created the notion that wearing national clothes is old-fashioned. But nowadays, they are worn more frequently and popularly, not only in festivals but in everyday life stemming from 2 factors.

The first is due to the government's effort in helping people think that they must return to traditional clothings because it is a proud cultural beauty. If they can't preserve their culture, after they die, will they still dare to look at their ancestors in the afterlife? The district also stipulates that officials must wear traditional costumes at least once a week.

Secondly, by turning cultural products into tourism products, when people have income, they preserve and promote them well such as brocade weaving, then singing and coi singing. Many tourists who visisted, saw that the people are wearing traditional costumes, responded very positively: "You need to wear clothes like this, keep traditions like this, then we will come to Lam Binh".

I have been to many places that develop tourism, but honestly, most of them are cultural acts, not here. Managers, from district and commune officials, did not understand what community tourism is at first, so they had to go to school. The most difficult thing is to change the mindset of farmers, who are used to being self-sufficient, and now they have to switch to serving. Currently, the district has about 50 homestays, most of which are in Thuong Lam and Lang Can communes.

When guests visit, even beliefs must be subjected to changes. Many ethnic groups on this island abstain from inviting strangers into the house. In the past, there was a case that every group of guests that visited, the host had to report to the ancestors due to fear. After several times of crossing through that spiritual beliefs barrier, reporting to the ancestors has now become a cultural beauty, the act can be seen as, the hosts respects the guests so much that they have to report their ancestors like such.

There are groups of Spanish and Portuguese guests who really enjoy Lam Binh's community homestay, they even like the smell of buffalo dung, cow dung. They say that many places don't have that smell, it reminds me of the smell of the countryside, maybe their country was like that once in the past, but now it's gone"... We were so engrossed in the conversation, that when Mr. Hien left, I looked at the clock and it was almost 11pm.

Translated by Nguyen Hai Long