Discovering Muong Quang - Part 4: "Cang Kim" Festival and the love story of Nguoc

(Baonghean) - Legend has it that in the past, Nguoc in Cu village (Quang Phong - Que Phong) had skin as transparent as morning spring water. In Tin Pu village, there is a sim hill marking the event where Don was captured by a python. Her husband, Tao Hien, refused to marry anyone else. Later, young men and women went to the sim hill to hold the "Cang Kim" festival with the hope of having a faithful love like Don and Tao Hien.

Ban Cu is where there is a temple to worship Nguoc.

See you in the season of ripe blackberries

Beautiful love stories always have a lasting vitality and the love story of Tao Hien and Don is no exception. Muong Quang people still tell each other that: The sim hill in Tin Pu village is the place where Don was eaten by a big python, Tao Hien waited and missed her in loneliness.

That is the summary of the story that Mr. Lo Van Quy in Tin Pu village, Quang Phong commune told us on an early autumn day. He said that on the hill called Ten Neu is where in the past, young men and women of Muong Quang and neighboring Muong villages gathered to hold a festival of throwing con and dancing on bamboo poles during the season of ripe sim. The locals call this day Cang Kim, a sim picking festival to commemorate Don and Tao Hien in the old story that sounds both real and unreal.

The story goes that, long ago in Tin Pu village, Muong Quang, there was a beautiful and kind-hearted girl named Don. She had skin like a peeled egg, hence her name. When she was of marriageable age, men from far and near villages came to propose to her, but she did not like any of them. Until she met Tao Hien, a nobleman from Muong Cam Lu, who was talented and kind, and she was moved.

Tao Hien sent a matchmaker to ask for Don to be his wife. Her parents did not dare to agree because they were worried that their daughter would not know how to be a noble daughter-in-law. The feelings between Don and Tao Hien grew stronger and stronger. Loving their daughter, her parents immediately agreed to let Tao Hien take Don as his wife without a dowry, only requiring him to overcome the challenge of carrying her across the highest mountain of Pu Kep in Muong Quang. Tao Hien happily accepted and carried Don across the mountain.

Before leaving, Don was worried that her husband would be thirsty, so she wet her hair to get him some water to drink. When she reached Ten Neu hill, she told him to stop and rest, but his hair was dry from the hot sun. Don told her husband to wait while she went down to the stream to get water. While she was drawing water, a large python swallowed her. Tao Hien waited and did not see his wife return, so he returned to the village to report the bad news. The villagers found the python sleeping next to the stream, shot it to death, and took out Don's body. Tao Hien took his wife to Ten Neu hill to bury her, and from then on remained single without marrying anyone. Later, on the hill where Don rested, a tree with purple flowers grew, which was the sim flower.

Mr. Quy recalls: In the past, every time the sim on the hill was ripe, usually on the 15th day of the 7th lunar month, young men and women from Muong Quang would invite each other to Ten Neu hill to hold a love song festival and bamboo dance... Young men and women from distant Muong villages also waited for this day to come back to the festival with the wish to have a beautiful love like Don and Tao Hien.

The Story of Nguoc

Another hill in Cu village (Quang Phong - Que Phong) has a temple to worship Nguoc. Mr. Lang Van Ngo, the main information provider on this topic, said: She was the daughter of a village chief named Bien Cu, born with an intelligent nature, diligent in embroidery and also taught this craft to the villagers, so she was loved by many people. Nguoc had a strange skin color, transparent like glass, so many people loved her and wanted to propose to her.

At that time, there was a Chinese general named Liu Tong who came to the Muong Quang area to mine gold. Liu Tong had a son named Liu Phu. Mr. Bien Cu saw the Chinese mining gold so he tried to get acquainted with them in order to make a profit. With his relationship with the Muong people, Liu Phu often visited Mr. Bien Cu's house. The meetings with Nguoc made him develop feelings. Although he did not say it, Nguoc also secretly admired the talented Northern man but did not know how to express his feelings. Nguoc was sad and fell ill, Liu Phu was good at medicine so he came to take care of her, from there the two had the opportunity to be close.

Liu Tong knew about his son's love affair with a local girl, but he did not forbid or allow the marriage. He only focused on amassing wealth. Liu Phu could not marry Nguoc, but everyone knew about the deep affection between the two. He did not bring the material wealth he earned back to his country, but spent it on hiring people to reclaim land, dig canals, and build dams for the people to cultivate. Liu Phu was respected by the people in the area.

One day, Nguoc got a fever, Luu Phu tried to cure her but she did not survive. Her death made him sad and he also fell ill and died. The people sympathized and remembered the couple's merit in helping Muong Quang reclaim land and pass on the embroidery craft. Luu Phu was buried in Xan village, now Hua Kho village, while Nguoc was buried on a hill in Cu village. From the high hill, Nguoc could look towards her lover's resting place.

We went to Hua Kho village but no one knew where Luu Phu's grave was anymore. Mr. Lang Van Lam, who lived in Cu village, said that he was the 9th generation descendant of Mrs. Nguoc. He told a story that was very different from the story of Mr. Lang Van Ngo about Miss Nguoc. Mr. Lam said that back then, Mrs. Nguoc had a transparent skin so there was a Kinh "muong" who loved her. She did not accept it so she was hunted everywhere. She had to run to Ket Lin mountain where there was a Khmu village to live. She also made herself ugly by smearing ash on her face but was still more gorgeous than all the girls in the village. The Kinh "muong" did not let her go either, Miss Nguoc had to flee once again and finally died of illness in Na Can village in today's Cam Muon commune. Seeing the beauty die tragically, the mandarin felt regretful, sad and died too.

Mr. Lang Van Lam said that every year on a beautiful day in the first month of the second lunar month, the Lang family and the people of Cu village hold a ceremony to worship Nguoc at the temple called Mieu Temple. On the day of the Mieu Temple festival, the villagers pool money to buy a pig, each family wraps 10 pairs of banh chung to offer to her to remember her merit in passing on the embroidery craft to the people, and it is also an occasion for the villagers to pray for favorable weather, good crops, and for people and animals to be free from diseases. In the past, every 3 years, the villagers slaughtered a buffalo to worship the temple. Realizing that this was a waste of money, the villagers have abandoned this custom for decades.

While recounting the old story of his family, Mr. Lang Van Lam led us up Ket Lin hill, where there is a temple to worship Lady Nguoc. The temple was built temporarily with bamboo and rattan, so after a short time it became dilapidated. Mr. Lam said that every year, just before the day of the temple worship, people cut bamboo and palm leaves to rebuild the temple. Currently, the descendants of the family and the villagers do not have the conditions to build a more solid temple, but the annual tradition of worshiping Lady Nguoc has never stopped. No matter how difficult it is, every February, the Lang family and the villagers of Cu still slaughter pigs to worship the temple.

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