Almost no tourist visiting the city of Da Lat can ignore Pongour Waterfall which is also known as Bay Tang (Seven Layers) or Thien Thai (Paradise) Waterfall. This waterfall has become famous for its charming, imposing natural beauty.
It can be said to be the most beautiful waterfall in the southern part of the Tay Nguyen (Central Highlands) region. Pongour Waterfall is 20km from Duc Trong District and 50km from the center of Da Lat, near National Highway 20 with a section running from Da Lat to Ho Chi Minh City.
Pongour Waterfall is about 30m high, several hundred meters long with a shelf that is tens of hectares wide. From Da Lat, one can go along the road leading to Trung Hamlet and turn right, then go along another 8km before reaching Pongour Waterfall.
There are two suppositions about the name Pongour. The first supposition is that the name Pongour derives from the language of an ethnic group, meaning the owner of white clay. Some French geological documents show that this place is rich in kaolin. So Pongour means the owner or the king of kaolin. The second supposition which is more common is that the name Pongour derives from the language of K'ho people and means four rhino horns (pon means four, and gour means horn). This supposition comes from one of the legends of K'ho, Cham and Churu people. The legend tells that in the past, the land of Phu Hoi, Tan Hoi, Tan Ha was owned by Ka Nai - the young, beautiful and powerful head of a tribe. She was capable of defeating wild beasts, especially rhinos. Her tribe had four rhinos and Ka Nai used them to plough mountains, forests, hills, streams and fight the enemy to protect the tribe.
At that time, the Prenn enemy (Cham people) from Panduranga (now Ninh Thuan Province) came to the area which is now Lam Dong Province to assault local people, treating them as slaves or compelling them to go soldiering and fight against the Kinh (Vietnamese) people. Lots of people of Ka Nai's tribe were arrested. This made Ka Nai angry and she appealed to the central highland tribes such as Sre, Ma and Nop to rise up against the Prenn enemy. She rode a rhino and led a troop to Panduranga to revenge. Ka Nai occupied four ramparts of the enemy and released hundreds of K'ho people who had been held captive by the Prenn. However, some K'ho Ma people had defected to the enemy and did not want to return to their homeland in the Central Highlands. This made Ka Nai angry and she decided to punish the ungrateful people. After that, she rebuilt the lives of the K'ho people. Ka Nai and four rhinos worked day and night to build a 'faithful kingdom' for K'ho people. Pongour is the vestige of four rhinos which contributed to opening a new cultural era for the ethnic groups in the Central Highlands.
In the 1960s, many Chinese people in Tung Nghia (now Duc Trong District) went to pagodas and shrines or visited mausoleums and historical sites on the 15th day of the first lunar month. On that day, K'ho and Churu people and those from other ethnic groups such as Thai, Tho, Tay and Nung went on a pilgrimage to Pongour Waterfall. Since then, on the 15th day of the first lunar month each year, Pongour Waterfall has become a pilgrimage site for people from Lien Nghia, Luc Nam, Cao Bac Lang in Duc Trong District and Brotel, Phu My, Bang Tien, Ngoc Son, Lac Son and Dinh Van in Lam Ha District.
Today, young people from the city of Da Lat, Lam Dong Province go to Pongour Waterfall in spring to play folk games and join ethnic people in their traditional cultural rituals. Pongour Waterfall can be said to be an unmissable destination for anyone who visits Da Lat.