Lesson 7: After the legend of the Ngan family

(Baonghean) - Many people in Dinh village (Chi Khe - Con Cuong) still believe in a half-true, half-false story, which can be called a legend, that the ancestor of the Ngan family, with over 20 households residing in the village, used to raise a water dragon, in Thai language called "to nguoc". Some people even translate it as a dragon or giao long?

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Ban Dinh is the old name of the three villages Lien Dinh, Trung Dinh and Nam Dinh today, separated from Lien Dinh village in 2005. Most of the villagers know the story about the legend of the Ngan family mentioned above.

Mrs. Vi Thi Chien, resident of Trung Dinh village, said: Nearly a hundred years ago, there was an old man named Xanh who worked as a shaman. He was a famous shaman in all the neighboring villages. In those days, shamans were the "bridge" between the human world and the gods. Whenever someone in the family was sick and wanted to exorcise evil spirits, remove bad luck, or make a fortune... they had to immediately send someone to find and carry the shaman back.

Sword and shaman's robe of Mr. Xanh

Besides the ceremonies, Mr. Xanh went to the forest to work and cut wood like the local people. In the afternoon, he liked to go to the river and stream to cast a net to catch fish and shrimp. One afternoon, when the lightning flashed on the horizon, he carried his net to a section of Lam River called Vang Cua. There was no sign of fish or shrimp, only an unusually large snake egg caught in the net. He brought it home for his chicken to hatch. Two weeks later, he saw the hen jump out of the nest and squawk in panic. He went to the nest and saw that the egg had hatched into a baby snake. He decided to leave it alone so that the snake could go wherever it wanted, but unexpectedly, the snake stayed by his side and clung to him.

The snake often followed the flock of ducks to eat worms and crickets, hunted birds and mice, so it grew very quickly. In the morning, it followed people home to sleep on the rafters at night. One day, when Mrs. Xanh was digging worms for the ducks, she saw the snake lingering around their feet. She thought to herself, "This animal keeps getting in my way, I can't go anywhere. Let's kill it!" The old woman waved her hand, and with one swing of the shovel, the snake's tail was severed. Then, dark clouds gathered, thunder and lightning appeared. Only then did the old woman realize that the animal was sacred, so she said, "Sorry, son." The dark clouds and thunder temporarily subsided. The two old people treated the snake's wound and always considered it a sacred animal given to the family by heaven. From then on, the snake was named "Tao Cun", a loving name to remember the event of its tail being partially severed. Many years later, a rainbow-colored crest grew on the snake's head. People believed that at this time it was a dragon.

On the day Mr. Xanh passed away, the dragon led his descendants to a rock and crawled around it three times. The family understood the meaning and immediately split the rock to make a coffin for him, as easily as cutting a banana tree.

After the death of its master, the dragon returned to Vang Cua abyss. Before leaving, the dragon broke off its rainbow-colored crest and gave it to the old lady to put on the altar. From then on, the family's business was lucky, and all the descendants in the family prospered.

Nowadays, whenever the Ngan family has an event, big or small, from weddings to soul-calling ceremonies, it rains. The Dinh people believe that this is when the dragon returns.

Mrs. Quang, now over 80 years old, is Mrs. Xanh's granddaughter-in-law. She said that the day she became a bride, the five-colored crest was still on the altar. In 1983, at her eldest daughter's wedding, it rained heavily, and all the guests were soaked. After her daughter's wedding, she took the five-colored crest to a body of water near her house called Vang Cooc to return it to the dragon. However, every time the Ngan family did something, it still rained.

Mr. Quang, the granddaughter-in-law of the dragon breeder

The Ngan family, Dinh village, belongs to the Thai Tay Thanh group, originally from Thanh Hoa. Through many generations living next to the local Thai Tay Muong group, they have spoken the Thai Tay Muong language, but still maintain the customs of the Thai Tay Thanh group originally from Thanh Hoa. On Tet, they often offer black banh chung made from sticky rice, using ash water from the charcoal of sticky rice straw to create the black color.

Today, Mr. Xanh's descendants still keep the shaman's robe and two magic swords from hundreds of years ago. In addition, there is also a set of ancient gongs. These are family treasures. When we came to film these antiques, Mr. Ngan Van Tho, a descendant of the person who is said to have raised dragons, had to perform a ritual to ask for them to be removed from the altar. Mrs. Quang said that every year on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month, the family holds a ceremony to wash the two precious swords!

Article and photos: Huu Vi