From traditional house to local homestay

The houses built from rice fields of the Binh Lieu people are becoming increasingly scarce. However, thanks to the efforts to improve and transform traditional houses into homestays with unique indigenous culture, a direction for preserving traditional culture associated with sustainable tourism development has been opened.

In recent years, the mountainous border district of Binh Lieu in Quang Ninh province has changed dramatically day by day. The transportation system connecting each village and cultural and sports facilities have been invested in, contributing to improving the material life and spiritual enjoyment of the people. However, for those who have set foot on this land about ten years ago, each trip back is a mixture of joy and a little regret.

Happy that people’s lives are getting more and more prosperous, but regretful that the traditional houses of the Tay, Dao, San Chi… are becoming less and less visible. The old houses are gradually giving way to development and modernity.

In Binh Lieu, the Tay and San Chi people have traditional houses built with earthen bricks, while the Dao Thanh Phan people have houses built with rice field soil called "trinh tuong". Although these types of houses have some differences, they are all made from rice field soil. The low-roofed houses are covered with yin-yang tiles, warm in winter and cool in summer. The space inside the house is divided into the main room which is the living room, the kitchen on the right and the bedroom on the left. In the past, when life was difficult, traditional houses like this were enough to meet the basic needs of a family. However, today, with the economy improving, along with the movement for people to build solid houses, traditional houses are gradually disappearing to make way for flat-roofed houses and solid Thai-roofed houses.

The modern homestay is built in the traditional rammed earth house architecture of the Dao people in Dong Van commune, Binh Lieu district.

Mr. Duong Cam Henh, a Dao Thanh Phan (Khe Tien village, Dong Van commune) shared: In the past, the rammed earth houses were built with rice field soil. After twenty or thirty years, the house's foundation often cracked, and after another ten years, it had to be rebuilt. Now that the economy is better, families can afford to build new houses. Most of them use concrete and bricks to make them solid, and few people rebuild traditional houses anymore.

Compared to traditional houses, flat-roofed houses and modern Thai-roofed houses are more solid and resistant to natural disasters, so more and more families are abandoning their traditional houses to build modern houses. The remaining brick and earthen houses or rammed earth houses are either abandoned or used as warehouses.

With the desire to preserve the rammed earth houses left by our ancestors for future generations, and turn them into homestays for tourists to stay, since 2023, Mr. Duong Phuc Thim's family (Khe Tien village, Dong Van commune) has started building two homestays in the style of Dao people's rammed earth houses.

“In terms of materials, the new-style rammed earth house does not only use farmland soil but also mixes cement, sand, and stone in a certain percentage, making it more durable and solid. As for the construction method, the soil must first be dried, then sifted, mixed, and then rammed. It is rammed every 12 centimeters. I think the new-style rammed earth house is basically beautiful and will probably last for hundreds of years,” Mr. Thim shared.

The new wall-mounted homestay is both traditional and modern. Traditional in architecture and decoration style with ethnic patterns and motifs, while modern in amenities from bathrooms and bedrooms, all meet the accommodation standards to serve tourists.

Transforming traditional houses into homestays with unique indigenous cultural colors is the direction that Binh Lieu district is orienting to gradually form community tourism villages of the Tay, Dao, and San Chi people. Before the wall homestay in Dong Van, the Hong Dong house homestay in Hoanh Mo commune was also built in a traditional and modern style. This is both a way to preserve culture sustainably and develop accommodation products with the unique mark of Binh Lieu.

Hong Dong Homestay in Hoanh Mo commune, Binh Lieu district was renovated from a traditional brick and earth house of the Tay people.

Mr. Nguyen Ha Hai, Director of Hon Gai Tourism and Service Joint Stock Company - Quang Ninh Branch, commented: "Accommodation facilities with their own style and the cultural identity of the local community are the factors that create the "quality" of Binh Lieu tourism and the district needs to further promote it to create competitive advantages and differences."

Currently, the number of traditional ancient houses in Binh Lieu is not much and there is still no official statistics as a basis for preserving and promoting the value of these houses associated with tourism development. It is thought that the district needs to soon implement statistics, zoning and supporting the owners of ancient houses that need to be preserved. Only then can traditional houses with precious original cultural values avoid the fate of disappearing in a regrettable and wasteful way, especially when Binh Lieu is on the road to building cultural villages of the Tay, Dao, and San Chi people associated with community tourism development.

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