A trip to Bac Hoa village

Bac Hoa village currently has about 160 families with more than 700 people from Nung ethnic group, in which there are nearly 100 houses located on a hill forming an architectural complex together with the terraced rice fields upfront. Many houses in the village date back to several prior generations.

Coming to Bac Hoa village, tourists can not only admire the astonishing natural scenery but also see the people engaging in normal daily activities lịke weaving traditional handmade indigo clothes or enjoying their own specialty food. In March, Bac Hoa village is filled with a spectacular red glow from rows of ancient rice growing on the side of the road and in the orchards. In the summer, people harvest sweet fruits like lychees, oranges, longan, etc. everywhere, while there are thousands of fields of colorful chrysanthemum flowers in the autumn. If you come here at the active time of the Tan Son market (formerly known as Thac Luoi market), you will have an opportunity to experience and observe the unique cultural features imbued with national identity. For each month, the market is opened on 5 sessions: the 2nd, 7th, 12th, 17th, and 22nd day of the lunar calendar.

Like many other households in the area, the nave is considered the most important part of the house of the Nung people, which explains why it’s chosen as the place to settle the ancestral altar. Depending on the house layout, the owner can choose to make separate enclosed rooms or room partitions, but, here in Bac Hoa village, the house is only divided by cloth curtains. The most valuable component of the structure lies in the house frame made of ironwood pillars with a quite solid internal truss. The Nung people in the village live near to each other; sometimes their houses are only separated by a row of trees or a ditch.

Minh Thu

(Source: Vietnam Today 1.2022)