Lesson 2: Carving your name on Muong Khuong rock mountain

In recent years, when mentioning Muong Khuong district, people often mention tangerines as a specialty of this land. Muong Khuong people are always proud of living in a high, sharp mountain area but it is the largest "tangerine granary" in Lao Cai border province. It is truly an unbelievable story when in a land full of fog, undulating rocky mountains, corn and upland rice have had many years of crop failure, let alone growing fruit trees like tangerines.

12 years ago, if I had not been there myself, I would not have believed that the ethnic minorities in the highlands of Muong Khuong district could grow tangerines on rocky mountains, and that the tangerine trees yielded golden harvests, earning hundreds of millions of dong. The first people to grow tangerines in Sa Ho valley, Muong Khuong town were Vang Thi Lan and her husband, Pa Di ethnic group.

Ms. Vang Thi Lan recalls the difficult days: When we first came here to start a business, my husband and I eagerly abandoned corn to plant sugarcane. The first year we earned tens of millions of dong, so we were excited to continue planting. In the following crops, the sugarcane kept getting shorter, the stalks were only as big as corn, sour and rotten, and no one bought them. All the efforts disappeared like mist on the mountain top. Not giving up on failure, in 2003, my family continued to buy tangerine seedlings from China to plant on the rocky mountain. By the fourth year, the tangerine tree had only produced a few fruits. My parents and relatives said that no one was as foolish as Lan and Thanh, buying strange trees to plant, and in the end, losing money and effort...

At that time, thinking about having to cut down thousands of tangerine trees, my husband was like a lost soul. I encouraged him not to be discouraged, the tangerine trees would bear sweet fruit. A few years later, when the tangerine trees had borne fruit, covering this rocky mountain area, bringing in hundreds of millions of dong in revenue, they were attacked by a strange disease. The couple ran around, asked everywhere, and finally found a medicine that could save their family's tangerine garden. But saving themselves was not enough, Lan and her husband also shared their experience with other households, saving a large tangerine area.

After more than two decades of persistently growing tangerines, through many ups and downs, the sweet tangerine gardens are now bringing Ms. Vang Thi Lan's family a revenue of billions of dong each year, helping her family become one of the few households with good production and business at the central level in the poor district of Muong Khuong. A special thing is that from Ms. Lan's family's tangerine growing model, many Pa Di households in Muong Khuong have learned from it, strived to overcome difficulties, and become rich from tangerine trees and other integrated economic models.

Arriving at Chung Chai B village, Muong Khuong town, we met Mr. Sen Po Diu, who is also one of the first Pa Di households to grow tangerines on the rocky mountains of Muong land. Mr. Diu said that in the past, to escape poverty, his family did all kinds of jobs such as growing corn, cultivating rice, raising pigs, and making wine, but life was still very difficult. In 2004, Mr. Diu's family boldly abandoned corn and switched to growing tangerines. Up to now, the family has 5 hectares of tangerines with 6,000 trees, harvesting 30 tons of fruit each year, selling for 300 to 400 million VND.

Every tangerine season, Mr. Diu's garden is as crowded as a festival. Mr. Diu and his wife, Ms. Po Thi Sen, happily use their smartphones to record videos and take pictures of the tangerine garden and post them on social networks such as Facebook, Zalo, and TikTok to promote and introduce Muong Khuong tangerine specialties. Thanks to that, one day the family sent tons of fragrant tangerines to the provinces. In addition to growing tangerines, Mr. Diu's family also grows guava and purple cardamom trees, bringing in a total income of nearly 500 million VND/year, creating seasonal jobs for 6 workers in the village.

Talking to us, Mr. Po Van Tien, Chairman of the Farmers' Association of Muong Khuong town, smiled: From the first tangerine growing models of the Pa Di and Bo Y people, now the whole of Muong Khuong district has 815 hectares of tangerines, with 1,500 households growing tangerines. Of which, Muong Khuong town has become the largest tangerine growing area in the district with 350 households growing tangerines, over 260 hectares. Each hectare of tangerines brings in an income of 100 - 200 million VND/year, helping many households get rich.

In particular, Muong Khuong town has only about 200 Pa Di households, but there are many households that are good at production and business at all levels, concentrated in Chung Chai A, Chung Chai B, Sa Pa villages, and Ma Tuyen residential group. Typical examples include Mr. Lan Mau Thanh's good production and business household at the central level; 2 households at the provincial level are Sen Po Diu and Po Min Cuong; 9 households at the district level are Po Seng Phu, Po Chin Sai, Vang Pa Tin, Thao San Tu, Tung Pin Cuong, Tung Pin Lan, Po Chin Pha, Trang Len To, Thao San To and 17 households that are good at production and business at the commune level.

The Chairman of the Farmers' Association of Po Van Tien town asked us: "Do journalists know how to recognize Pa Di people? If you have the opportunity to visit the villages in Muong Khuong, whichever family goes to work the earliest and comes home the latest, that family is a Pa Di person."

Just joking, but in fact, the Pa Di people in Muong Khuong are famous for being hard-working and diligent. Some families are well-off but still save every little bit to make their lives more comfortable. The Pa Di people are also very intelligent and creative in labor and production, and are the "leading birds" in economic development of many villages and hamlets. They not only grow tangerines, but also raise livestock, process agricultural products for export, and process specialty foods such as sausages, dried meat, chili sauce, etc.

Talking to us, Mr. Pham Dang Nam, Secretary of the Party Committee of Muong Khuong town commented: I wonder if it is because the harsh life in the mountains has honed the diligence and courage of this community? Because, not only with tangerine trees, the Pa Di people in the town also volunteered and took the lead in all tasks, including implementing Resolution 10 of the Standing Committee of the Lao Cai Provincial Party Committee with the main crop being tea. The common point in the villages and hamlets where the Pa Di people live is that they do not accept poverty, the poverty rate in this community is very low. Their outstanding feature is the spirit of strong solidarity, one person who knows how to produce will teach others to follow; when a family in the village has work, the whole community joins hands.

Along with turning the desire to get rich into reality, the Pa Di people in Muong Khuong land also strive to build a new countryside. This time coming to Muong Khuong, we had the opportunity to visit Ban Sinh village, Lung Vai commune. Comrade Hoang Viet Du, Standing Deputy Secretary of the Lung Vai Commune Party Committee, said: The commune has 14 villages, of which Ban Sinh is the only village where the Pa Di people live.

Going back in history, since the 1940s, there have been about ten Pa Di households moving from Tung Chung Pho commune to Lung Vai commune, living along the Ban Sinh stream. Although the population is small, the Pa Di community is very united, close-knit, has the will to get rich and actively responds to the construction of the new countryside. Currently, Ban Sinh village has 70 households, of which 40 are Pa Di households.

Mr. Po Van Minh, a Pa Di, Head of Ban Sinh village, excitedly said: In recent years, the Pa Di people in Ban Sinh have been the backbone of economic development emulation movements, with models of growing tea, pineapple, growing Seng cu rice, and raising fish. Households: Trang Ban To, Po Chin Hung, Po Chin Pha harvest dozens of tons of tea and pineapple each year; households of Po Chin Son, Trang Van Sai grow tea and grow Seng cu rice each year earning 100 - 200 million VND...

Ban Sinh is no longer the “ginger valley” as it was originally named. The valley is now covered with green rice, corn, and tea fields along solid concrete roads. Right at the entrance of the village, many newly built houses with the appearance of villas have “sprouted up”. Since 2004, Ban Sinh has been the first cultural village of Lung Vai commune and has been maintained for the past 20 years. Notably, Ban Sinh is also a model new rural village of the commune.

That result was not only achieved by the Pa Di people but also reflected the role of the Front Committee in gathering the strength of great solidarity of the entire people in the village, because in Ban Sinh there are other ethnic groups living together such as the Nung and Giay people. Mr. Trang Sau Chien, Head of the Village Front Committee and also a son of the Pa Di people, excitedly said: The ethnic communities here raise high the flag of great solidarity, in which the Pa Di people always take the lead as exemplary people.

Arriving at Muong Khuong town, it is unbelievable that there is a Pa Di village living on the top of the mountain, Sa Pa village, the road up is steep and steep. Mr. Po Khai Cui, Head of Sa Pa village said: Just 8 years ago, on rainy days, the only way to go to Sa Pa villages 9, 10, 11 was on foot. On sunny days, people with good driving skills can ride a motorbike to the village. The 3 villages are in a tripod position like 3 oases on the mountain that few people know about. However, since 2016, 2017, the village has had national grid electricity, the road to the village has been concreted, helping to change this land.

Being in Sa Pa village today, we shared in the excitement of the people. The happiest thing was that cars could reach the village. On the way to the village, we saw trucks carrying rocks, sand, gravel, and cement for the people to build houses. At night, Sa Pa was lit up with lights, just like the residential groups below the town. This is just a small story in many places, but it has been the dream of the people for many years.

Sa Pa village has 61 households, of which 59 are Pa Di. People's lives have become much more prosperous thanks to the active conversion from ineffective corn cultivation to new crops such as tangerines, purple cardamom, and tea. Every year, the center of Sa Pa village has more and more beautiful houses built like those in the city.

Only when visiting the Pa Di villages can one fully understand the hardships that the people have to face and overcome in their journey to paint the face of their homeland. The villages and hamlets perched on the slopes and hillsides, with little arable land and barren rocks, now have electricity and solid houses. Rice roots still grow at the foot of dry, cracked fields; tangerine roots split the ground, separate rocks, grow green, then bloom and bear fruit. Their determination is like the owners themselves.

The epic in the fight to push back poverty and build the homeland was written by the Pa Di community with solidarity and diligence, like the lyrics that Pa Di women hum every time they return home from work: " Come on, we are not afraid of anything/ Let's go, sisters, let's go together/ Carry green trees to compost/ Fertilize the corn and rice to grow well/ Only then can we have a prosperous life...".

Last song: Forever the songs echo

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