When ethnic minorities "carry heritage" to the city and make efforts to promote highland identity

“I wear a skirt and a Pieu scarf so that visitors can see that I am Thai. Partly I want to impress visitors when they come to the booth, and partly I hope that the traditional costumes of my people will be known and loved by many people,” Hoang Thi Bich, a White Thai from Moc Chau, Son La province, shared her pride when standing in the middle of the booth promoting the colors of the Northwest, attracting many visitors, at the 2025 Autumn Fair (held at the National Exhibition and Fair Center, Dong Anh, Hanoi ).

The event gathered hundreds of booths from all provinces and cities across the country. In particular, the "Vietnamese Autumn - Autumn Colors and Fragrances" section was considered a highlight when recreating the cultural space, products and traditional crafts of the regions. With an area of nearly 20,000 m², the exhibition area gathered more than 30 provinces and cities, introducing typical products, OCOP goods, handicrafts, processed agricultural products and highland specialties.

Each booth is a cultural piece, where visitors can visit and experience the outstanding and unique beauty of ethnic minorities from Son La, Dien Bien , Lao Cai, Tuyen Quang...

People who "carry heritage" to the city

In the booth displaying products of Son La province, young H'Mong ethnic artisan Hang A Cua was adjusting his panpipes and said that this trip to Hanoi was more difficult than every year, because the panpipes and drums are easily damaged, and they had to be transported over hundreds of kilometers of mountain passes. But once he got there, he saw people curious about the musical instruments and asked to take pictures with his panpipes, and he forgot all his fatigue.

“We also bring local specialties. We don’t just sell goods, we also want city dwellers to know how the Mong people live, what they eat, and what they wear. That’s what it means to bring culture to the streets,” Hang A Cua said.

Hang A Cua is introducing products from Son La province, one of the booths attracting many visitors. (Photo: Phi Tuan/Vietnam+)

Next to it is the stall of Hoang Thi Bich, a White Thai from Moc Chau, Son La. Boxes of tea, milk cakes, and dried fruits are neatly arranged next to traditional Thai costumes. From early morning, Bich's stall is always crowded with customers. Many people stop to taste, buy, and take photos with hand-embroidered Pieu scarves. For Bich, this is an opportunity for her to help the Thai identity appear more clearly in the eyes of tourists from all over the world.

Like other booths with bold Northwest colors, with the desire to promote the local image, Dien Bien province's booth was designed with an open space, recreating the traditional stilt house scene of the Thai people, creating a highlight to attract visitors.

Owner of Ha Bac Grill (Dien Bien) Lo Thi Suong shared: “We and the provincial government have tried to recreate as authentically as possible a stilt house, a typical feature of our ethnic group. Visitors can step in to visit, take pictures and feel the living atmosphere of the mountain people.”

Next to that, the stall of Lao Cai province was filled with the fragrant aroma of sausage, five-color sticky rice and smoked meat amidst the chilly, drizzly weather of the capital. The taste of the mountains and forests coming to the city really urged the footsteps of the diners.

Stalls with strong highland flavors attract the attention of many visitors. (Photo: Phi Tuan/Vietnam+)

Booth owner Phung Kim Dung, a Bo Y person in Muong Khuong, said that to prepare for the fair, the whole family had to prepare all night and then wake up at 3 a.m. to light the stove, cook sticky rice, and hang meat to get to Hanoi on time. “My family is a small business with no employees, but being able to participate in the fair is a great joy. I just hope that many people will know about the food of the Bo Y people, and the culture that we have been trying to preserve for so long,” she said.

With many unique features brought to the Autumn fair, diners stood around the booths, tasting the five-color sticky rice, and attentively listening to the Bo Y woman tell about the corn and rice seasons in the highlands.

Nguyen Thu Ha, a tourist from Cau Giay district (Hanoi), shared after stopping at the booth of the highlanders: “Listening to them talk about their unique cultural features through their costumes and cuisine, I found things that seemed distant to be strangely close. Perhaps it is this simplicity and sincerity that makes the fair so attractive.”

Efforts to spread highland identity

For many artisans, each trip to the fair is not only an opportunity to introduce their products but also an opportunity to bring their traditional culture closer to domestic and foreign tourists.

At the booth of Tuyen Quang province, artisan Giang Thi Say, a Mong ethnic from Can Ty commune, stood out in the colorful brocade space. On the table were exquisitely woven fabrics, traditional dresses, souvenirs and hand-embroidered bags made from brocade.

To prepare for this special trip back to the city, she and her cooperative had to work continuously for many weeks to have enough products to display. “I want people to see that our handicrafts are beautiful, delicate and can be applied to many different products, not just traditional brocade fabrics,” Giang Thi Say shared.

The space is filled with the colors of brocade from the Northeastern mountainous region. (Photo: Phi Tuan/Vietnam+)

Visitors to the booth not only immerse themselves in the space of the colors of the Northeast region but also have the opportunity to “decode” the meaning of each pattern with Say. For Say, this is also an opportunity for her to represent the voice of her people, contributing to promoting the cultural beauty of the ethnic minorities in the highlands to a large number of tourists in the capital.

“Many young people in Hanoi came to ask, I was very happy. They were interested, they were curious, so I knew that the unique cultural values of our people had reached a large number of people,” Say expressed.

Not only Say, artisans like Hang A Cua (Son La), Hoang Thi Bich (Moc Chau) or Phung Kim Dung (Lao Cai) understand more than anyone the special and different value that they have been passed down from the cradle of ethnic minority cultural heritage that generations of fathers and grandfathers have strived to preserve and protect.

So now, amidst the modern, bustling urban life, they share a common wish: to tell people in the lowlands about their culture and their own lives, so that "each tourist will know, understand and love our people's culture more."./.

Creating sustainable livelihoods for ethnic minorities

At the discussion session on October 29, the 10th Session of the 15th National Assembly, many delegates mentioned the role of culture, heritage and tourism in economic and social development. In particular, delegates emphasized that this is the "internal resource and soft power" of the nation; investment in mountain tourism for economic development and preservation of cultural heritage must be considered a pillar in the regional and national development strategy.

From there, key solutions are pointed out to preserve and promote the above resources such as: preserving identity in development, building a green tourism ecosystem, promoting cultural industry, digital transformation in heritage management, and ensuring mountainous infrastructure associated with sustainable tourism development.

In addition, there are also suggestions to create favorable mechanisms for people, especially women and ethnic minorities, to become the subjects of mountain tourism development, thereby turning traditional cultural treasures into sustainable livelihood assets.

(Vietnam+)

Source: https://www.vietnamplus.vn/khi-dong-bao-dan-toc-cho-di-san-ve-pho-va-no-luc-quang-ba-ban-sac-vung-cao-post1074020.vnp