by Jim Goodman
Giáy and Hmông en route to Tam Đường Đất market |
Several aspects of Sapa
contribute to making it the most popular travel destination in Vietnam’s
northern mountains. At
around 1600 meters altitude, it enjoys refreshingly cooler temperatures than
the hot plains. Phansipan, the
country’s highest mountain, is visible from the town on clear days. As a proper hill station resort, Sapa
has attractive parks, lively markets, hotels of all kinds and restaurants
offering a wide range of food.
Visitors can make day excursions to several different waterfalls or to
villages in the picturesque valley below Phansipan.
Sapa’s other principal
attraction is the presence of ethnic minorities in town, mainly Black Hmông and
Red Dao (pronounced zao). Although there are Giáy and Xa Phô
villages in the southeastern part of the valley, these people rarely visit
Sapa. Most of the district’s
villages are Black Hmông and Red Dao, so these minorities are likely the only
ones travelers will see during their short visit, unless they join the caravan
of mini-buses to Bắc Hà, in the eastern part of Lào Cai province, for the
Sunday market day.
For some travelers, the superb
mountain scenery is just a bonus, for the prime draw of the far north is its
ethnic variety. All along the
border live a great variety of ethnic minorities. Short journeys over the passes west and north of Sapa offer
opportunities to meet other branches of the Dao and Hmông, as well as Lừ,
Giáy and Hà Nhì.
mountains west of Trạm Tôn Pass |
Lừ village near Bình Lư |
From the junction just north
of Sapa, National Highway 4D turns northwest for 13 km to Quý Hồ, where a road
turns north to Mường Hun and the main road continues southwest, passing the
Silver Waterfall on the right.
Close to the road, this waterfall tumbles a hundred meters and has a
pathway halfway up to a pavilion for a close observation of the cascades.
The main road continues its
ascent a few more kilometers to the Trạm Tôn Pass, at 1900 meters the highest
in the country. This is also the
provincial boundary and the road now winds down the mountain into Lai Châu
province. The peaks of the Hoàng
Liên Sơn mountain range are more picturesque on the descent. Compared to the rather blunt peaks of
Phansipan and its neighbors, those on the western side of the pass feature
steeper sides and sharply pointed summits.
Lai Châu 1999, when it was still called Tam Đường |
At the foot of the mountain the road comes to Bình
Lư village, where a turn south leads to a Lừ village, one of several ethnic
minorities in eastern Lai Châu different from those anywhere around Sapa. The Lừ are a Tai-Kedai group who
migrated down from southern China in the 9th century, originally
settling around Điệm Biện Phủ until forced out by the Thái and moving east a
few centuries later. In China they
are classified as part of the Dai nationality and are the major Dai community
in Xishuangbanns, Yunnan, and Buddhist.
But the Lừ in Yunnan became Buddhist long after Vietnam’s Lừ migrated
out of China.
The Lừ in Vietnam, like the
country’s Thái, are animist, yet they garnered a separate classification as a
minority. They live similarly, in
stilted wooden houses near rivers or streams, venerate ancestors and
agricultural deities and are basically rice farmers. But the women dress very differently, and much more
elaborately, than the Thái.
Dao Làn TIên girl |
Lừ woman in Tam Đường Đất |
For jewelry they wear silver
neck rings with silver chains hanging from the ends in front, similar to those
worn by Dao and Hmông. The ear
ornaments, unique to the Lừ, consist of silver plugs with three or four small
bead and pompom pendants. In the
past, the women also blackened the teeth, but this custom is now dying out.
White Hmông girl with typical jewelry |
Flowery Hmông women in Tam Đường Đất market |
Market day begins early at Tam
Đường Đất and starts winding down by noon. It is, however, the best opportunity
to appreciate the ethnic variety of this part of the province. Most of those in attendance are women
wearing their traditional clothing.
Lừ women will be there, dressed in their finest ensembles. Women of the Giáy, another Tai-Kedai
minority from the valleys and lower mountains slopes, will wear their
pastel-colored, side-fastened jackets, with a band of contrasting color around
the collar and along the lapel, over plain black trousers.
market day in Tam Đường Đất |
Members of up to four branches
of the Dao could turn up for market day here. The most numerous are the Dao Làn Tiển, the women dressed in
long black jackets, the edges trimmed in red or blue, and pantaloons loose
above the knees and tight below them.
A skein of pink woolen thread hangs from the collar down the front of
the jacket. Younger females wear a
round black cap, decorated with silver discs and colored pompoms. The older women tie their hair in a
chignon inside a silver crown wrapped in horsehair, but hidden from view by a
tall black hat. The usual heavy silver ornaments complete the outfit.
Dao Tuyền women also wear
black jackets and pantaloons, but can be distinguished easily by the white
apron in front and by their billed caps.
This Dao branch is more common further west. The other two Dao groups likely to show up in Tam Đường Đất
are the Red Dao and Sewing Dao (Dao Khâu). The Red Dao look similar to those
around Sapa, recognizable by their tall red turbans. The Sewing Dao are so named because of their embroidery
skills. Women cover nearly the
entire surface of their trousers with embroidered patterns and sewing these
onto the cloth, which can take a few months to complete, becomes their prime
activity when not engaged in agricultural or domestic work. The result combines certain motifs
required by tradition with those created by the person making them, so that no
two pairs are exactly alike.
Giáy girls leaving Tam Đường Đấ |
Red Dao ornamented turban |
The market day in Mường Hum
falls on the same day as the much better advertised and promoted one in Bắc Hà. Consequently, nearly all the tour
groups flock to Bắc Hà on Sunday.
The scene there is certainly colorful, but the experience is somewhat
marred by the great numbers of Hmông and Dao women trying to peddle handicrafts
to the foreigners.
Red Dao women in Mường Hum |
Red Hmông hairdo |
For the ethnic minority women
managing stalls and layouts of handicraft products, the potential customers are
of their own and other minorities.
The baskets and bamboo items they sell to people who will use them, not
keep then as souvenirs. The batik
cloth the Hmông sell as skirt material goes to other Hmông women who don’t have
time to do the work themselves.
And the colored thread the Hà Nhì hawk finds customers among all the
ethnic minority women, as they are all embroiderers.
The Red Dao of Bát Xát
district live in the same way and share the same customs as the Red Dao
sub-group around Sapa. The women
wear the same kind of long-tailed coat and embroidered trousers and the same
silver jewelry. But the coat and
trousers feature less embroidery, mostly in white, rather than the yellow
favored around Sapa. The headgear
is very different, too, being a tall tubular turban wrapped in bright red cloth
or patterned cloth dominated by the red color. Some women decorate the turban with silver chains and
pendants.
Red Hmông woman in Mường Hum |
Hà Nhỉ woman, Mường Hum |
The Flowery Hmông here are the
same sub-group as in Tam Đường Đất and the Red Hmông women don similar outfits,
featuring the pleated, heavy, batik-patterned, indigo-colored skirt. The Red Hmông drape a hem-length, black
apron, bordered in bright blue, over the front of the skirt, but what
distinguishes them from other Hmông is the hairstyle. Women retain the hair that comes off when brushing and then
attach it to the living hair, lengthening the strands, and then tie red woolen
thread to the ends and wrap everything around into a huge bouffant.
The most dazzling apparel in
the market is that of the Green Hmông women, so named because green dominates
the jackets, skirts and leggings (though it could also be blue or a shade of
blue-green). The younger
generation keeps their long hair uncovered, while the older women wrap it in a
decorated turban or headdress. The
jackets and skirts are machine-made printed cotton and are also on sale in the
market, but subsequently festooned with loads of glittering, spangled
ornamentation.
Green Hmông woman |
Green Hmông girl |
Following excursions to Tam Đường
Đất and Mường Hum, a traveler might find the return to Sapa, with only two
minorities in the streets, almost anti-climactic. But now endowed with a greater awareness of the variety of
attractions in the area, new ambitions arise. Beyond Sapa there is much to explore, to wonder at,
appreciate and enjoy.
*
* *
Bình Lư, Tam Đường Đất and Mường Hum are part of Delta Tours
Vietnam’s journey through the northern mountains. See http://www.deltatoursvietnam.com
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