Step on the stairs of the stilt house...

The Co Tu people's wooden house still retains traditional stairs. Photo: ALANG NGUOC

Alley to the house

After its opening a few years ago, Polong Plenh’s stilt house in Por’ning village (Lang commune, Tay Giang) has become a “must-have” for visitors. Many people come, experience it, and then fall in love without realizing it.

Everyone wants to step on the smoke-stained stairs.
Mr. Polong Plenh said that many people enjoy this stilt house space because of its old features - traditional cultural artifacts that he always preserves and meticulously arranges.

On one side is the kitchen, above the kitchen is a firewood rack, along with other items serving the daily life of the Co Tu people. Even more special, the baskets, crossbows, drums, bark shirts, etc. placed around the corner of the stilt house, create a feeling of a traditional, simple, familiar space full of philosophy of life.

I walked up the stairs, counting each step as if I were somewhere in the middle of a deep valley. Inside, the kitchen was already ablaze. The scent wafted in the wind.

Every time I stop by, I am fascinated by this stilt house. Even in the arrangement of the two wooden staircases, the owner cleverly made them meet at one point - both leading to the kitchen.

Climbing all the stairs and looking up, you will see the worship space. Uncle Ho’s photo is in the middle, and other decorative items around, including jars, cymbals, etc., add color to the unique stilt house.

Mr. Polong Plenh said that people in the highlands often consider stairs as the main entrance to the house. Except for the ground-level houses, all architectural spaces of the community, from the gươl, the moong to the stilt houses, the zông (field huts) are built and installed with stairs connecting from the base of the house to the wooden wall with the floor to lie on.

“In the past, the Co Tu people only lived in stilt houses. The stairs were solidly built, both increasing the longevity and creating a unique mark for the space of the house,” Poloong Plenh shared.

The other day, I went up the mountain to a friend’s hut. Amidst the floating mountain mist, a pretty stilt house was built, the sturdy steps creating a highlight for the stop at the edge of the forest.

That night, we stayed at the hut, in the story of the mountain, you cherished forming a stop to experience and explore "cloud hunting" in the middle of the forest.

Survival value

During our journey up the mountain at the beginning of the year, we woke up in a village of the Co Tu people in the border commune of Ch'Om (Tay Giang). The village was newly built on the flat ground close to the mountainside. All the doors of the houses of the people face the mirror, closed in a circle.

The Co Tu people built the kitchen next to the main house, so at first glance, it is easy to mistake the two houses for separate houses. The kitchen is also quite large, designed in the traditional stilt house style. The system of stairs connecting the two houses creates a unique feature between the new and old architecture.

Living along the Eastern Truong Son range, the Co Tu people and many other ethnic minorities use stairs as "decorative" objects for their houses.

Normally, people make wooden stairs, with two main types: solid wood and small sawn wood arranged in steps. From round wood, after bringing it home, the craftsman often uses an axe to create each step in the shape of an arc, ensuring the base of the pillar is flat to avoid slipping when going up and down.

This type of staircase is also often present in the gươl and is carved quite elaborately. In the past, pregnant women were not allowed to climb the stairs of the gươl, partly because it was dangerous, and partly because people avoided it because the gươl was a sacred place, the residence of the gods.

Village elder Bhling Hanh (Cong Don village, Zuoi commune, Nam Giang) said that the stairs in the houses of the highlanders are not simply for convenient movement. They have a very high value in terms of community survival.

Hundreds of years ago, when building a house, highlanders calculated the prevention of natural disasters, as well as attacks by wild animals. Therefore, the more solid the stairs of the house (usually stilt houses), the higher the level of safety.

“Decades ago, people in the highlands raised livestock and poultry right in the village. Therefore, the high space of the house was also intended to ensure hygiene and easy observation. Later, there were barns, and the stilt houses were gradually converted to ground-floor houses to suit the new architectural style,” said elder Bhling Hanh.

Nowadays, in many highland villages, the traditional terraced architecture is no longer intact. The fading is gradually becoming evident. Many houses are deformed, especially the mirrors.

Although accepting the new trend, every time the old architecture is mentioned, many highland elders, especially researchers of ethnic minority culture, express regret.

Old memories, old values now only exist in documentary images...

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