From the rhythm of the resistance pestle to the sound of new rural machines

Echoes of History – Bom Bo, a Time of Never Sleeping

Bom Bo – a sunny April afternoon. Turning from Highway 14, the newly paved black asphalt road led me across the green hillsides to Bom Bo village, Binh Minh commune, Bu Dang district - Binh Phuoc - a place deeply engraved in the hearts of the Vietnamese people with the story of the Stieng people pounding rice with torches to feed the army during the years of resistance against the US to save the country.

Village Elder Dieu Should recall the glorious past

Village elder Dieu Nen, over 80 years old, is a living witness to history. In his rustic house, he gently stroked an old wooden pestle and recounted: “In the early 1960s, under the fierce pressure of the US-puppet policy of concentrating people and establishing strategic hamlets, the Stieng people in Soc Bom Bo not only did not submit, but also rose up in protest. We were determined not to enter the strategic hamlets, despite the enemy’s threats and suppression. More than 100 people – young and old, men and women – quietly left the hamlet, crossed the forest, crossed the stream to find the “Nua Lon” base, where the Dak Nhau stream flows, to live with the revolution. They left their fields, their homes, and everything. They only brought baskets, rice, and mortars with them. In the new place, people built huts, increased production, and pounded rice to feed the soldiers. The sound of the pestle was a signal of trust, a promise to the revolution.”

Stieng ethnic cultural reserve in Bom Bo

Musician Xuan Hong, during a march through the base area, composed the famous song “The sound of pestles on Bom Bo hamlet” like an epic in the middle of the vast mountains and forests. Since then, the name Bom Bo has not only been a place name, but has become a living symbol of the people’s love for the revolution, of the close relationship between the army and the people during the war.

Bom Bo today – keep memories, write the future

Walking through Bom Bo today, it is easy to see the obvious changes: spacious houses, concrete roads connecting each village, and electricity to every household. The old Soc is now Bom Bo village in Binh Minh commune, with a new look but still preserving its traditional cultural values.

Many tourists visit the exhibition house of the Stieng ethnic cultural reserve in Bom Bo

One of the typical projects here is the S'tieng ethnic cultural conservation area in Bom Bo, which Binh Phuoc province invested nearly 200 billion VND on an area of ​​over 113 hectares. This place is designed in an indigenous style, with traditional long houses, brocade weaving villages, weaving areas, knife forging areas... interspersed among the cashew forests, creating a space that is both rustic and vibrant. The area also has schools, community houses, resettlement areas for people and especially a homestay resort in the style of traditional stilt houses - airy, fully equipped, suitable for visitors to fully experience the life of indigenous people.

Inside the exhibition house, mortars, stoves, gongs, the largest lithophone in Vietnam... are solemnly preserved. Visitors coming here not only visit but also listen to stories about the village, taste bamboo rice, grilled meat, and can wine - specialties that make up the soul of the S'tieng. Mr. Lam Hanh Nguyen - the conservation area's custodian proudly introduces each item: "Every festival like "The sound of pestles echoing forever on the Bom Bo village", people from all over the region and tourists come here. There are new rice celebrations, community friendship ceremonies, S'tieng wedding ceremonies... to both preserve culture and create sustainable tourism ".

The lithophone set of the Stieng people is displayed at the Stieng Ethnic Cultural Reserve in Bom Bo commune.

Not only preserving traditions, the people here, especially the Stieng people, are still striving to improve. Bom Bo village has 362 households with nearly 2,000 people, of which 155 households are Stieng. The rate of poor households has decreased to less than 5%, the proportion of well-off and rich households is about 60%. Almost all households have electricity and clean water; 100% of school-age children go to school. Mr. Dieu Hoang, a local resident, happily shared: “In the past, there was the sound of pestles, now there is the sound of machines. Cashew grinders, tractors, agricultural processing machines. My children have finished school and do not work for hire anymore, but stay to work in tourism, open shops, and establish cooperatives.”

Mr. Bui Anh Tung - Chairman of Binh Minh Commune People's Committee said: "Since the commune achieved new rural standards at the end of 2021, the government has continued to orient the development of community tourism, exploiting OCOP products such as cashew jam, rice wine, brocade... We not only want to keep it in our memories, but also make Bom Bo a typical destination for cultural tourism in the Southeast region".

Road to Soc Bom Bo

Late in the afternoon, I left Bom Bo when the sunlight had turned golden on the green cashew rows. The sound of the rice pounding pestle no longer echoed as before, but instead, there was the sound of children studying, the sound of machines running in the workshop, the sound of gongs and drums mixed with the sound of gratitude - all creating a new harmony of the modern countryside. Bom Bo - from a village in the deep forest with flickering torches, has now become a living symbol of the spirit of innovation and preservation. A "new pestle beat" - of machines, of knowledge, of the will to rise - is being beaten in the heart of the great forest, like a promise that: here, the past and the future will always go hand in hand, firmly.

Tien Dung

Source: https://baophapluat.vn/tu-nhip-chay-khang-chien-den-tieng-may-nong-thon-moi-post545838.html