Living spaces like flowers of the mountains

During the renovation process, Thai Nguyen has had many solutions to develop the socio-economic areas of ethnic minorities and mountainous areas. Essential technical, cultural and social infrastructure such as electricity, roads, schools, medical stations, and cultural houses from programs, projects, and investment support policies have not only gradually improved people's living standards but also fundamentally changed farming practices and the appearance of villages.

Bright colors among green mountains

Coming to many villages with many ethnic minorities, we were amazed by the fresh beauty of the mountainous countryside. Beside the immense green of corn, rice, fruit trees, and tea fields, newly built houses with diverse architectural styles appeared faintly. The roads to many villages have been widened, paved with concrete, or paved with asphalt, quite convenient.

Dao people harvest tea.

Learning about the reality in the localities, we know: The investment has focused on key points, suitable to the conditions, potential strengths, customs and practices of the ethnic minorities, and has achieved positive results. The work of mobilizing the masses to promote their ownership, the active participation of the community and the people has aroused the spirit of striving of the ethnic minorities. The rate of poor households has decreased sharply, the gap in living standards compared to the average of the province has gradually narrowed. The education , health care and culture of the ethnic minority areas have made new developments.

With the joint efforts of the four groups: "State - Scientists - Entrepreneurs - Farmers", ethnic minorities are equipped with knowledge of science and technology, supported with fertilizers, sources of plants, seeds to convert crops and livestock, develop traditional industries and craft villages, deep processing and diversify products. The telecommunications infrastructure system is built to facilitate people's access to digital technology platforms. Many agricultural cooperatives are truly a bridge to help farmers produce agricultural products in the direction of goods and consume products in the market.

With many synchronous solutions, the province has basically completed land allocation and forest allocation and orientation for planting large timber forests. Communes with large ethnic minority populations have many valuable agricultural products. Besides tea as the main crop, many localities have chosen custard apple, grapefruit, cinnamon, etc. to focus on development and have achieved high yields and commercial value.

Tay village, Dong Phuc commune in the morning sun.

Traditional products such as weaving, sewing ethnic costumes, honey, sticky rice, green rice, vermicelli, fermented wine, etc. meet the requirements of quality and consumer tastes and have achieved OCOP standards. Some other agricultural products such as pigs and hill chickens are also oriented for development. High-tech agricultural models for producing safe mushrooms, vegetables, tubers, and fruits in greenhouses, producing organic rice, and growing citrus trees in a biological direction have been initially built and brought practical results.

The beautiful traditional cultural values of the ethnic groups such as language, traditional costumes, customs, religious rituals, cuisine , folk songs and dances are created conditions for the people to preserve and promote by the Party committees and authorities at all levels. Many festivals have been restored to become diverse and rich cultural spaces and a joyful and healthy atmosphere in the community.

Not all living spaces have met the development needs and aspirations of the people. Ethnic minority and mountainous areas have a wide terrain, low population density, production levels still rely heavily on natural factors, simple farming methods, low economic value, and few opportunities for non-agricultural employment. Infrastructure in many northern communes of the province has not been fully invested in. Mechanisms and policies are not attractive enough to attract businesses with strong economic potential to invest in processing industry, linking production according to value chains in remote communes.

For generations, the settlements of many ethnic groups have been called villages, hamlets, now commonly called hamlets, hamlets like the Kinh people. The situation of mechanically fitting into the old village names such as: Xom Ban Ten, Xom Lang Phan, Xom Lang Phan... makes people feel regretful. Most of the cultural houses in ethnic minority hamlets follow a common design, without their own identity. Many traditional occupations such as making Tinh lutes, weaving hats, dyeing, weaving indigo clothes, brocade, rattan and bamboo weaving, palm blinds, cakes... have slow consumption of products, so they have not created a sustainable livelihood.

Ten Village, Van Lang Commune promises to be a new destination.

Mr. Dao Trong Xe, 86 years old in Cay Thong village, Duc Luong commune, shared: The Tay villages have settled here for a long time and have preserved the ancient cultural features from costumes, customs to Tinh lute and Then singing. Many villages still keep their stilt houses. The practical actions of local leaders in economic development associated with the development of eco-tourism, cultural and historical tourism, promoting the cultural identity of ethnic minorities have created consensus among the people. However, in the commune, some communal houses, pagodas, and temples of Na Ban, Ham Rong, Dong Thin, Khuon Thung, Na Don, Mon Ray, Ruong Lon, and Cay Thong have degraded, so they should be studied and considered for restoration and embellishment...

Cultural Identity - Endogenous Resource of Development

Resolution No. 03-NQ/TW, dated July 16, 1998, of the Central Executive Committee at the 5th Central Conference (VIII term) clearly stated: "The national identity of Vietnamese culture includes sustainable values, the quintessence cultivated through thousands of years of building and defending the country, becoming the unique features of the Vietnamese ethnic community and the Vietnamese people" . A nation cannot develop sustainably if it does not preserve traditional cultural values.

National identity represents a deep sense of origin and humanity, in addition to its spiritual significance, it is also a cultural trait passed down from generation to generation. On the land of Thai Nguyen, in the common home of the great family of Vietnamese ethnic groups, despite the convergence and integration in many aspects of the country's socio-economic development, each ethnic group still has its own cultural traits with its own identity. Maintaining values so that they do not fade away has many meanings, making the cultural nuances in the community more diverse and rich.

We believe that to implement the National Target Program for socio-economic development in ethnic minority and mountainous areas, we need a new approach and a new perspective. We should pay attention to forms of activities that increase community cohesion, and build each village into a living space with its own identity for each ethnic group in socio-cultural and economic development.

Teaching Tinh lute and Then singing to young people.

Preserving, promoting and spreading cultural beauty, placed in the overall development, contributing to improving the material and spiritual life of the people is one of the important tasks. The project to develop community tourism in Thai Nguyen province in the period of 2025-2030 promises many prospects for new destinations and creating more jobs for the people. Thai Hai stilt house eco-tourism village, Mo Ga hamlet community tourism village, Quyen ethnic cultural village... can be considered models for improvement and replication.

Recently, many localities have been interested in establishing infrastructure investment projects, building facilities, developing tourism products, gradually forming eco-tourism villages, or community tourism destinations such as Ban Ten, Dong Khuan, Khuon Tat... Some community tourism destinations associated with agriculture, rural areas, revolutionary history, ethnic culture, tea culture are continuing to be implemented in ATK Dinh Hoa, ATK Cho Don, promising to be attractive destinations.

Investment projects under the community tourism development plan open up an impressive cultural tourism space. However, the project can only be implemented in certain villages and hamlets. The problem is that it is necessary to research and orient people to raise awareness of preserving their ethnic culture and proactively build living spaces. Pay attention to supporting the connection of destinations, training in methods of welcoming guests, supporting the construction of community houses, toilets, parking lots, souvenir stalls, restoring ethnic cultural features...

In preservation, there should be solutions to limit shortcomings. For example, the coming-of-age ceremonies and the dance festival usually last for 1-2 days and nights. If a family has many young people working at the enterprise and they all ask for leave, it will be difficult for the employer to arrange production. Many dance performances in the ceremonies often last long. If cultural managers and artists select and support the staging of excerpts into folk dance works, it will certainly attract many people to participate and contribute to widely promoting them to tourists...

A young Mong couple, owner of a YouTube channel, Mr. Hoang Van Hinh, born in 1990, his wife, Ms. Giang Thi Denh, born in 1995, Khe Mong hamlet, Van Lang commune, built a house combined with a place to have fun and check in for people. On the front gate of the house with a beautiful yard, he attached a sign in Mong, meaning "Our house". Many production and community activities of the people were recorded and edited by him. He shared: Along with intangible culture, the Mong people also have very unique types of tangible culture such as cuisine, house architecture, traditional crafts. The simple, pure beauty of the land and people of the highlands of Thai Nguyen is of great interest to not only Vietnamese but also foreigners. I want to contribute to preserving the beauty of my ethnic culture. Everyone joins hands, the village will be like mountain flowers...

Each village is a living space with its own identity from culture to architecture or crops, livestock, handicrafts... that identity is the endogenous resource of development, creating the strength of the great national unity bloc and no bad guys can take advantage of it to distort and sabotage.

Although there is still much to do, with the joint efforts of all levels, sectors and the whole community, ethnic people have had a better life. The new appearance and new vitality of the highland villages are an important premise for Thai Nguyen to strongly promote all endogenous resources, creating a new step of development in the era of national development.

Source: https://baothainguyen.vn/van-nghe-thai-nguyen/202507/nhung-khong-gian-sinh-ton-nhu-hoa-cua-nui-57c2f83/