Tay woman 20 years preserving traditional culture, doing community tourism

For 20 years, Ms. Hai has built Thai Hai Village - a community of 4 generations of Tay people living together in stilt houses that are nearly a hundred years old to preserve their ancestors' traditional culture and do community tourism.

About 12km from the center of Thai Nguyen city, Thai Hai Eco -tourism Stilt House Village Conservation Area (Thai Hai Village) is located among the mountains, hills and trees in Thinh Duc commune, Thai Nguyen province.

In Thai Hai Village, there are 30 stilt houses that are hundreds of years old. This is not only a place to preserve and maintain traditional cultural values ​​combined with nature conservation, but also a place to recreate the customs, habits, and cultural lifestyles of the Tay and Nung ethnic groups...

With its rustic, traditional cultural character of ethnic minorities, in recent years, Thai Hai Village has created a magical attraction, attracting tens of thousands of domestic and foreign visitors. Thai Hai has also become a community tourism village, an attractive tourist destination of Thai Nguyen province.

In the simple traditional costume of the Tay people, Ms. Nguyen Thi Thanh Hai (60 years old) excitedly talks about Thai Hai Village that she and many other people have worked hard to build over the years.

Ms. Hai said that the idea of ​​doing community tourism came to her about 20 years ago. The Tay people are still there, but their costumes and stilt houses no longer retain their original spirit. It is very difficult to find a village with intact stilt houses, and many cultural traditions have also been lost.

In Thai Hai village, traditional cultures of the Tay and Nung ethnic groups are still preserved...

She wants to preserve the customs and practices of her ancestors and the products of the countryside that can feed her children and grandchildren, in a self-sufficient way. However, she admits that the most difficult thing is awareness and the human factor.

With the encouragement of her family and relatives, she quietly did the work that many people said was “a drop in the ocean”. She saved her personal assets to buy back stilt houses, collect artifacts, and collect intangible cultural assets that were at risk of being lost or forgotten.

“There were many nights when my companions and I had to sleep in the middle of the forest so that the next day we could continue our journey to find stilt houses that were at risk of being demolished to collect and bring back. When we ran out of money, I had to exchange them for rice, blankets, and essential items, and then ask them to keep what they wanted to throw away,” she recalled.

At first there were a few people, then a few houses and gradually a whole village called Thai Hai Ethnic Ecological Stilt House Village Conservation Area. Here there are 4 ethnic groups but together they work to preserve Tay culture right in the poor land on the outskirts of Thai Nguyen city.

This is a common home for more than 150 people of different ethnic groups such as Tay, Nung, San Chay, Kinh,... All activities are self-sufficient. They preserve, grow and process green tea, and brew wine according to the typical process of the Tay people to maintain a clean food source and not affect the environment.

The village has built a complex of 30 stilt houses, restored almost completely from the old houses in the Dinh Hoa Safe Zone, with a whole community living in indigo, traditional occupations, festivals, folk games, and families with 4 generations living together.

Ms. Hai said that at first, people had to dig the foundation by hand, everything was done manually because machines could not come in to support the house building. People also raised livestock and poultry for food, planted acacia trees to improve the soil, dug holes on the hills, etc.

From the original purpose of building the village with the desire to preserve the traditional stilt houses and the stilt house culture of the Tay ethnic group, by 2011, Thai Hai Village officially started tourism activities. Currently, the village has become an interesting destination for domestic tourists and nearly 40 countries and territories around the world; with the capacity to receive and serve food and accommodation for more than 1,200 guests at the same time.

In recent years, Thai Hai Village cuisine has always been in the top restaurants that meet the standards of serving tourists in Vietnam. Notably, at the end of 2017, the Vietnam Union of UNESCO Associations also granted a Certificate of Sponsorship to the Thai Hai Ecological Ethnic Stilt House Village Conservation Area "A valuable project to preserve traditional culture andeducate the spirit of national solidarity".

The Thai Hai ethnic stilt house village conservation area has also been honored with the ASEAN Tourism Award four times. “When I started, I didn’t think the model would be as successful as it is now,” she admitted.

According to Ms. Hai, in Vietnam there are many ethnic groups with their own identities, and all four seasons have special fruits. Therefore, if there is consensus and support from the State, there will be more successful community tourism villages, and people can also live, love and protect each other on their homeland.

Source: https://vietnamnet.vn/nguoi-phu-nu-tay-20-nam-bao-ton-van-hoa-truyen-thong-lam-du-lich-cong-dong-2214364.html