Just 10 kilometers away from the central area of Buon Ma Thuot City is located a grandiose primeval forest – the Chu H’lam sacred forest which has been cosseted, protected by the Ede ethnic minority people from generation to generation.
The inherited oath
Y Ruue Mlo, a village patriarch, said that “H’lam” in Ede language means “incest,” while Chu H’lam means “the incest hill.” The strange name is related to the story about the two siblings-brother and sister who loved each other and violated the “law of the God.”
Despite the severe laws which have been existing for the last thousands of generations and despite the foreseeable harsh penalties on incest, the two still loved each other earnestly and wished to live together as a husband and a wife.
Since the couple violated the God’s laws, they were punished by the local residents in the village, who forced them to find a white buffalo to worship to the God as the acknowledgement of their guilt. However, since the couple could not find a white buffalo, they decided to offer a white pig.
When the pork was broiled and prepared for the offerings, the sky suddenly turned dark. A thunderstorm arose, washing off everything. The white pig suddenly came alive, running around the village and shouted.
When the pig finished around, all the people in the village, both young and old, all the cattle, from pigs to poultry, and houses all disappeared. All the things left were a black hole in deep hollows.
From the black hole of death, water began to rise, submerging all. The black hole is now the lake named Sinh Dia (bloodsucker’s marsh) now located under the shadow of the ancient trees in the Chu H’lam old forest which is green all year round.
More and more trees have been growing up there, hiding the path to the forest, acting as a firm wall preventing people from entering the village punished by the God. The village patriarch affirmed that if someone entered the old forest and reminded the story about the brother and sister, he would get lost in the forest.
He said that all the children of the village are told by their parents that they must not touch the trees in the forest. In local residents’ mind, Chu H’lam forest is inviolable forest. If someone deliberately chops down the trees in the forest, they would meet misfortune.
Joining forces to protect the old forest
The old man recalled the days in the past, when they suffered from the dearth. At that time, no one in the village starved to death, because the forest gave them food. Therefore, no one can forget the gifts from the forest and repay the forest with ingratitude.
This is one of the reasons that explains why the primeval forest still can exist next to the Buon Ma Thuot noisy city as a proof of the love of local people to the old and sacred forest.
However, the human greed proves to be immeasurable. The Chu H’lam forest with thousands of precious trees which have been untouched over the last many years has become the aiming point of illegal lumberjacks.
More and more precious trees in the forest have disappeared. Local residents in Ea Map hamlet could not imagine that someone would dare to infiltrate into the sacred forest. They said that if the illegal lumberjacks cannot be found by the local authorities, they would still be punished by the God.
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