Lesson 3: Song on the Mountain Top

On rainy days, it takes an hour to walk. It is freezing cold in winter, but sweat still pours down our backs... to reach Tu Thuong. At that time, we reporters, those who have experienced the route to Tu Thuong, now every time we recall the roads to work, we still get goosebumps... Yet, returning to Tu Thuong this time, we ran on the newly completed concrete road in August 2023, driving all the way to the middle of the village.

October, the harvest season has just ended, the fields are bare with stubble across the mountainside after the rain and sun have incubated enough nutrients to grow round white rice grains, to bring prosperity to the Green Mong people - an ethnic group living in the high mountains of Nam Xe commune, Van Ban district - until now there are only 125 households, with nearly 1,000 people. The mysterious stories and interpretations about the Green Mong people on the Tu Thuong mountainside are still just guesses and legends passed down by word of mouth over time. We only know that this place has an ethnic group living, loving each other through the rain and sun of life, surviving and adding a bright color to the colorful picture of the ethnic minority community in Lao Cai .

Along with the Flower Mong, Black Mong, White Mong... the Green Mong in Tu Thuong also grow flax, weave fabric, dye indigo and embroider brocade, creating their own ethnic costumes. Old lady Ly Thi Sai is considered a skilled weaver, while instructing her granddaughter to stretch flax thread, she happily chatted with us.

Speaking of Mr. Sai's granddaughter, Vang Thi Nam, who graduated from high school. 4 years ago, during my stay in Tu Thuong, I met Vang Thi Nam and this time was also a chance to meet again when Nam was waiting for a job to go to work.

I still remember, that year, Vang Thi Nam was in 10th grade. She exuded the resourcefulness and agility of an older sister who knew how to take care of her younger siblings and help her parents with all the housework. The day we stayed, it was the full moon of the seventh lunar month. On the love rock at the beginning of Tu Thuong village, under the bright moonlight, only the sound of flutes echoed in the mountains and forests. Young men and women of marriageable age whispered stories on the cliff, shyly afraid that people from afar would hear. That night, we slept late and drifted away in an indescribable feeling about the green Mong village. I cannot forget the lingering image in the sunset of the next day, when we temporarily said goodbye to Tu Thuong land, Vang Thi Nam stood at the kitchen door, politely waving and saying goodbye to us: Goodbye, auntie. If I don't come out to see you off, I'll cry...

Today, as if meeting a long-lost relative, Vang Thi Nam chatted with us: I want to work as a factory worker in Bac Giang , but my grandmother is getting older and weaker, so I want to stay close to take care of her.

So since graduating from high school, Nam has remained in Tu Thuong and is currently an active member of the Club for preserving and promoting the cultural identity of the Green Mong ethnic group of Nam Xe.

The club to preserve and promote the cultural identity of the Green Mong people has 26 members. The club meets once a month. Activities are maintained such as learning embroidery, sewing, singing, and folk games. The elderly in the club teach the younger generation. In addition to growing flax and weaving, the Green Mong people in Tu Thuong also preserve many other unique cultural features such as singing, playing the drums, blowing the flute, blacksmithing, casting, and weaving.

Mrs. Vang Thi Mao, an elder in Tu Ha village, is 78 years old this year, but for her, not only does she look after the house so her children can go to the fields to plant and harvest cardamom, she also reminds her children to focus on their studies, still diligently sitting every day spinning flax, weaving fabric and embroidering brocade.

In particular, since Nam Xe commune established the Green Mong Cultural Identity Club, Ms. Mao has been passionately teaching traditional crafts to club members. Stopping her brocade embroidery, Ms. Vang Thi Mao smiled gently and said: As long as my eyes can see clearly and my hands can still thread needles, I will continue to spin linen, weave fabric and embroider shirts.

The Green Hmong village is always prosperous thanks to the hard-working hands, the determination to overcome poverty and backwardness in the past to become the masters of the family economy . Therefore, although the village has only more than a hundred houses, there are many families that develop their economy effectively, becoming typical not only in the village but also in Nam Xe commune. Mr. Ly A Vang in Tu Ha village is one of the typical farmers. When mentioning Mr. Ly A Vang, people in the village and commune are impressed by his will and diligence in work. Mr. Vang's family, like many other families in this land, works in agricultural production, mainly farming and small-scale livestock raising, with an annual income just enough to eat.

With available land conditions, he and his family chose to develop the economy according to a comprehensive agricultural production model, combining both cultivation and livestock. Initially, there was a lack of investment capital and a small workforce, so the family's economic development encountered many difficulties. Now, Mr. Vang's family has more than 2,000 ^m2 of rice fields and raises 10 pigs, a fish pond of more than 800 ^m2 . On average, each year, Mr. Vang's family's income from livestock and cultivation is over 200 million VND...

Moreover, many children of the Green Mong people dare to boldly step out of their villages, go down the mountains to study, excelling to become cadres and party members of the very few ethnic minorities who are exemplary, leading and joining forces. A typical example is comrade Vang A To, Secretary of the Commune Party Committee, who, together with the local Party Committee and government, built the highland commune of Nam Xe to develop the economy and society, and preserve culture. Or Ms. Vang Thi Phai has boldly overcome the barriers of ancient customs, the "9x" Green Mong girl determined to go down the mountains to find knowledge, expanding her knowledge beyond Tu Thuong mountain, longer than Nam Tu stream, and is now the "leader" of the Green Mong sisters of her hometown...

As the Chairwoman of the Commune Women's Union, young female party member Vang Thi Phai actively encourages members to preserve traditional culture and identity. According to Ms. Phai, Green Mong women always love ethnic culture, like to embroider, dance, sing and participate in community activities. Therefore, the establishment of the Green Mong ethnic cultural identity preservation and promotion club is a useful playground for many generations of the elderly and young people in Nam Xe...

Time flows with the flow of the four seasons of spring, summer, autumn, and winter. The Green Mong people in Nam Xe wholeheartedly love Uncle Ho, believe in the leadership of the Party, and promote their strengths to successfully carry out their tasks. The Green Mong love song on Tu Thuong mountain today is harmonized by the ups and downs of dynamism, of the spirit of daring to think, daring to do, daring to overcome barriers within themselves and their community to build a prosperous life...