If you go to Son La or Dien Bien, you can't miss the story of King Thai
Deo Van Long; if you go to Lao Cai, you can't miss hearing about the Hmong
King Hoang A Tuong; and if you go to Ha Giang, you must know about the
father and son, the Hmong King Vuong Chinh Duc and Vuong Chi Sinh.
But before mentioning the Hmong King and his son, we cannot fail to mention
the historical migration of the Hmong people from the North to the South.
The
Dong Van Stone Plateau is a land where the Hmong, Lo Lo, Tay, Dao, and
other 17 ethnic groups have lived together for generations. According to
historical records, the Hmong appeared in Dong Van around the late 17th and
early 18th centuries, later than other ethnic groups. However, the Hmong are
the most dominant ethnic group, accounting for 77% of the population of the
Dong Van region, and are also the ethnic group that has left the most
significant mark on this land.
The Hmong were once a large ethnic group living in the Jingzhou-Jianghuai
region (now part of Hunan and Guizhou provinces, China), part of the
Miao-Yao tribal alliance formed over a period of 5000 years. Throughout
their history, the Hmong in Jingzhou-Jianghuai shared a common
characteristic with the Vietnamese people: they were constantly threatened
by the Han dynasty from the north.
During the Han dynasty's most prosperous period, the Han army unified China,
subdued major tribes, and invaded neighboring countries. In China, the Hmong
were a large ethnic group that the Han dynasty both hated and resented. The
Hmong, intelligent, courageous, and exceptionally brave, were considered by
the Han dynasty to be a threat to the survival of the Han dynasty, so for
generations, Han emperors sent troops to subdue the Hmong. But the Han
conquests all failed due to the fierce resistance of the Mongols.
However, to protect the survival of their people, the Mongols in
Jingzhou-Jianghuai paid a heavy price. Each century, wars caused the Mongol
population to dwindle, with the elderly, women, and children outnumbering
men. At the end of the 17th century, a fierce battle occurred between the
Mongol clan and the Han dynasty.
The Mongol leader in Jingzhou-Jianghuai then rallied the men to rise up
against the Han dynasty once again. This was also the battle that inflicted
the greatest losses on the Mongols, driving them south. After this battle,
faced with the casualties suffered by his people, the Mongol leader in
Jingzhou-Jianghuai made a final decision to protect his race and to
permanently free his people from further territorial wars.
The leader called upon the Hmong people: "All the great clans, go south. Go
to the highest, most remote lands, places no one has ever set foot in, and
stop there, build houses, cultivate fields, marry, and have children. That
will be the new homeland of the Hmong people."
Following the call of that Hmong leader, the Hmong people in
Jingzhou-Jianghuai (in Guizhou province) left their homeland and migrated
south in the largest migration in the history of the Hmong people. This
migration brought the Hmong people to the northern regions of Vietnam. The
command given by the Hmong leader was strictly followed by the Hmong people:
they chose the highest, most remote, and most desolate mountainous areas to
settle and establish new homelands and villages. This explains the Hmong
people's habit of living in sparsely populated mountainous areas.
During that migration, the Dong Van Karst Plateau was one of the places
chosen by the Hmong people as their new homeland. Even now, the Hmong people
of Ha Giang still recount their ethnic history through songs: "Guizhou is
the beloved homeland of our Hmong people. Because our Hmong people were poor
and hungry, because our Hmong people were illiterate, and lost their land to
the Han Chinese in a lawsuit, because our Hmong people were illiterate, we
had to move our homeland to this land".
The migration of the Hmong people to the Dong Van karst plateau marked a
significant period in the history of the Hmong people, with the formation of
Hmong kings whose prestige resounded throughout the northern mountainous
region. At the beginning of the 18th century, Dong Van had around 100,000
Hmong people, including the Vang, Duong, and Ma clans…the largest clans.
Each clan had its own customs, its own worship practices and way of life, in
addition to the characteristic customs of the Hmong people. Each clan also
had a leader unanimously elected by the entire clan. These clan leaders were
responsible for protecting the safety and vitality of the entire clan, and
most came from the most prestigious and wealthy families within the clan.
However, King Vuong Chinh Duc - the first Hmong King in Dong Van - did not
have such a noble background. King Vuong Chinh Duc came from a poor family.
He was the son of a poor Hmong family named Vang. Before being known as
Vuong Chinh Duc, he was born in Sa Phin - Dong Van with the name Vang Dung
Lung. Vang Dung Lung had a difficult childhood. His father died at a young
age, and Vang Dung Lung had to...
But Vuong Chinh Duc - the first Hmong King of Dong Van - did not come from
such a noble background. King Vuong Chinh Duc was from a poor family. He was
the son of a poor Hmong family named Vang. Before being known as Vuong Chinh
Duc, he was born in Sa Phin, Dong Van, under the name Vang Dung Lung. Vang
Dung Lung had a difficult childhood. His father died at a young age, and he
had to work hard with his mother and older brother, Vang Tra Po, to survive.
But the elders in Dong Van, especially in Sa Phin - the hometown of Vuong
Chinh Duc - Vang Dung Lung, say that his parents, grandparents, and those
who witnessed his growth all saw early on the characteristic temperament of
an intelligent, courageous Hmong person, always exploring the land around
him.
From a young age, Vang Dung Lung was very active and intelligent. At the age
of 10, Vang Dung Lung was already wandering on foot through the high
mountains of Meo Vac. There wasn't a single village he hadn't visited. There
wasn't a single Hmong person in Dong Van he hadn't met. Vang Dung Lung
usually only returned home when he suddenly realized he had been away for
too long, and often when he came home, his mother almost didn't recognize
her son, who seemed to have aged and become more experienced with each
departure. By his youth, Vang Dung Lung was a brave and courageous Hmong
young man, unafraid of tigers or wild animals when venturing into the
forest, and renowned throughout the high mountains of Dong Van for his
masterful flute playing.
When the Hmong began their migration south and settled in Dong Van, the
Hmong leader, whose story is passed down in Hmong history, dreamed of a
peaceful life for his people in this new land, free from the bloodshed and
death that had plagued their history. But that leader's dream did not come
true. The time when Vàng Dúng Lùng was born and raised coincided with the
period when Vietnamese feudal history witnessed the invasion of Western
colonial powers. After subduing the Nguyen dynasty, the French colonialists
began to conquer the ethnic minorities in the northern mountainous region,
including Dong Van.
At the same time, the Manchu Qing dynasty also advanced into Dong Van,
intending to eliminate the Hmong rebels forming there, fearing that these
insurgent groups could endanger the Manchu Qing dynasty's rule in the border
region with Vietnam.
In Dong Van, there were also rebel groups from China who had migrated there,
plotting to seize Dong Van.
Faced with this threat, the Hmong people of Dong Van, under the leadership
of their leader Vu Phan Lung, rose up, ready to fight the Qing army and the
French troops advancing into Dong Van. Among Vang Dung Lung's Vang family,
there was also a follower of Vu Phan Lung in fighting the invaders, Vang Di
Tua. During that uprising, Vu Phan Lung was betrayed and killed, and the
Mong people in Dong Van were brutally murdered by Chinese rebel groups who
had drifted into Dong Van at that time.
Vang Di Tua, elected by the Mong people of Dong Van as their leader, also
died not long after from illness. Once again, the Mong community reunited.
Vang Dung Lung rose to become the Mong leader in place of Vang Di Tua. Under
Vang Dung Lung's leadership, the Mong people of Dong Van repelled the rebels
in Dong Van, unifying the entire Dong Van region. Building on this success,
the Mong people of Dong Van continued to fight alongside Vang Dung Lung,
together with their leader, against the French.
The French, after advancing to Cao Bang and Ha Giang and consolidating their
forces, began their conquest of Dong Van for over 10 years, starting in the
early 1900s, with the determination to completely dominate the region and
place it under their colonial rule. When carrying out this conquest, the
French were very confident in their strength and ability to subdue a small,
backward, and impoverished ethnic group in the high mountains.
But the French did not foresee the difficulties in Dong Van. Even after
establishing garrisons in Dong Van, even after inflicting countless
casualties on the Mong people of Dong Van, they still could not subdue them.
Only when they understood the customs and culture of the Mong people did the
French realize that the only way to temporarily rule them was to accept a
Mong leader - a leader whom any Mong person would readily obey. And they
chose leader Vang Dung Lung. To secure this alliance with the Mong leader,
the French signed a peace treaty with Vang Dung Lung, committing to withdraw
completely from Dong Van and granting the Mong people autonomy under the
supervision of a French garrison in Dong Van and an administrative unit of
the Nguyen dynasty.
At the same time, the Nguyen dynasty also appointed Vang Dung Lung to the
position of Bang Co official, governing the Dong Van region. Vang Dung Lung
was also given a hat, official robe, and received a salary from the Nguyen
dynasty. From then on, Vang Dung Lung began to enter the history of the Dong
Van region under the name Vuong Chinh Duc.
He became the Hmong King as a matter of course in the minds of the 70,000
people of Dong Van, the leader who protected the people of Dong Van from the
bombardment and slaughter of the French colonialists. Therefore, although he
was a Hmong, he was also revered by other ethnic groups in Dong Van.
The pronouncement of the feng shui master and the mystery of the power of
the land where the Hmong King's mansion was built
It is undeniable that Vuong Chinh Duc played a crucial role in a turbulent
period of history, helping the Dong Van plateau, with its 70,000
inhabitants, achieve a certain degree of autonomy, avoiding the exploitation
of the colonialists like other areas in Dong Van. At that time, the Hmong
people in Dong Van mainly lived by cultivating opium poppies.
After signing the peace treaty with France, Vuong Chinh Duc also reached an
agreement with the French regarding the purchase and sale of opium. The
French were forced to accept buying opium from the Hmong King Vuong Chinh
Duc at double the previous price. Thanks to this agreement, the Hmong people
of Dong Van enjoyed a long period of prosperity thanks to opium cultivation.
Vuong Chinh Duc quickly became wealthy, possessing the largest mansion and
assets in the rocky plateau region.
The current residence of the Hmong King in Sa Phin (Dong Van) is the one
built by Vuong Chinh Duc during his most powerful period. According to
researcher Hung Dinh Quy, the land that the Hmong King Vuong Chinh Duc chose
to build his mansion was auspicious according to feng shui, shaped like a
turtle shell, with the mansion situated right in the center of the highest
point of that shell.
Among the legends passed down by the Hmong people of Dong Van about Vuong
Chinh Duc, many stories are true, while many others are embellished and
passed down orally. However, according to researcher Hung Dinh Quy, one
story is relatively accurate: the story of why the Hmong King Vuong Chinh
Duc chose that particular piece of land to build his house.
The story goes that when Vuong Chinh Duc was a young boy who often wandered
through the remote corners of the Dong Van mountain region, one day a group
of Chinese merchants passed through Dong Van and stopped to rest near a
tortoise-shell shaped plot of land in Sa Phin.
Among the merchants was a very skilled feng shui expert who, upon seeing the
empty plot of land, suddenly exclaimed: "This land is so beautiful. Whoever
builds a house here will either become a king or a high-ranking official,
respected and worshipped by all, enjoying endless wealth and prosperity for
generations to come." At that time, Vuong Chinh Duc (then a young boy named
Vang Dung Lung) was sleeping on a tree branch directly above the skilled
feng shui expert and overheard the conversation.
The young Vang Dung Lung decided that he would definitely build a house on
that plot of land. Later, when he became a Hmong leader in that war, Vang
Dung Lung remembered the feng shui master's words from years ago and sent
people to build a house on that tortoise-shell shaped plot of land. Since
building his house on that land, Vuong Chinh Duc increasingly asserted his
authority in Dong Van.
His prestige also increased with each victory he achieved as a leader. After
signing an agreement with the French, possessing a large fortune, Vuong
Chinh Duc had his house in Sa Phin built into a grand mansion, befitting his
status, right on that turtle-shell-shaped piece of land. According to
researcher Hung Dinh Quy, the mansion that the Hmong King Vuong Chinh Duc
built in Sa Phin differed from the architecture of ordinary Hmong houses.
According to the Hmong people's long-standing tradition, a mansion with that
shape was reserved only for kings and the most prestigious people in the
region. However, almost no Hmong people living during Vuong Chinh Duc's time
saw such architecture. After the migration, many aspects of Hmong culture
were lost due to war, including the majestic houses described in Hmong folk
songs.
And King Meo Vuong Chinh Duc built his house according to his vision of a
house inspired by the folk songs of the Hmong people that he had read. To
this day, the King Meo's mansion in Sa Phin remains a must-visit for anyone
who sets foot on the Dong Van karst plateau. It witnessed the most powerful
years of the Dong Van King Meo family, until his descendants left Dong Van
for other lands, following the changes of history.
Ha Giang Tours - Ha Giang,
the northernmost point of Vietnam, attracts tourists with its majestic
landscapes of the Dong Van Stone Plateau, the treacherous Ma Pi Leng Pass,
and the emerald green Nho Que River. It is a melting pot of unique highland
cultures, famous for its buckwheat flowers, the terraced rice fields of
Hoang Su Phi, and its cool, crisp air, ideal for experiential tourism. Ha
Giang is a top choice for those who love exploring pristine nature, local
culture, and conquering adventurous mountain passes.
