Quynh Son, a community tourism village in Bac Son district, 80 kilometers southwest of the center of Lang Son province, draws visitors with its beautiful scenery and unique Tay ethnic culture. The hundreds of stilt houses in Quynh Son have a uniform architecture and face the same direction.
The traditional Tay stilt houses, roofed with yin-yang tiles, bear a slight resemblance to the architectural style of the northern delta region.
Most of the Quynh Son villagers are ethnic Tays who have lived here for generations. There are 400 traditional stilt houses built with iron wood. The house pillars, round or square, stand on stone blocks. The roofs are covered with yin-yang tiles. A stilt house usually has three or five compartments, each with a specific function.
Trieu Nguyet Nga, a local tour guide, said, “The stilt houses are built in a unique and uniform architectural style: the doors face south. According to an ancient Vietnamese precept – ‘Marry a gentle wife and build a house facing south’ – this will attract good fortune to the homeowner, and ensure warmth in the winter and coolness in the summer.”
Quynh Son is the only place in Lang Son that still practices the 100-year-old craft of making yin-yang tiles, which has been passed down from generation to generation.
Veteran tile maker Hoang Cong Hung explained the four stages in making a tile. “First, compost the soil. The soil is then kneaded. After that, the impurities in the soil are filtered. Finally, the soil is put into the mold to form a tile. Before composting the soil, you must knead the soil three times, then step on it once, and filter the gravel three more times. It takes a lot of effort,” said Hung.
Most of the people living in Quynh Son community tourism village in Bac Huynh commune, Bac Son district, Lang Son province, are ethnic Tay.
Quynh Son village was opened for tourism in 2010 and recognized as a tourist destination by the provincial People's Committee in 2015.
Ten households in the village offer homestay services. Visitors can enjoy such famous culinary specialties as traditional cakes, roast pork, grilled bamboo tube meat, “khau nhuc” (a type of braised pork belly seasoned with several kinds of herbs), sausage, purple sticky rice, and wild vegetables.
Villager Duong Thi Kieu told VOV how to make grilled pork in a bamboo tube. “First, choose good pork belly, plus salt, MSG, pepper, and mountain ginger which is pounded into a marinade that will make the meat bright red. Next, cut the meat into pieces and marinate them in the spices for 10 to 15 minutes. Finally, put the meat into a bamboo tube and grill for about 40 minutes. When the tube turns black, the meat is done.”
Fresh ingredients combined with special spices gives the local dishes a unique flavor, a tourist told us. “What impressed me most was the spices, which can’t be found anywhere else. Duck or pork, for example, is always roasted with wild clausena indica leaves, plus other spices such as onion, ginger, or garlic,” the tourist said.
Visitors can also participate in interesting hands-on activities with the locals like wrapping black chung cakes and pounding sticky rice and wormwood leaves to make wormwood cakes. These traditional cakes are made from “hoa vang” sticky rice, which Quynh Son people grow in Bac Son valley. Visitors can listen to Then singing accompanied by the three-stringed Tinh lute in a friendly community cultural space.
The tour guide named Nga said, “The most unique feature of the Tay people in Quynh Son is Then singing, an art form preserved, performed, and taught by the village art troupe.”
The people of Quynh Son understand the importance of preserving their traditional architecture, culture, and crafts. Much money has been invested in building shared infrastructure, developing tourist accommodations and tours, and organizing cultural performances to attract more tourists.
Bui Hang
