About the 'heavenly gate' Tay Son

(Baonghean) - The remote district of Ky Son has two places called 'heaven's gates' located in the North and South directions of National Highway 7. They are Muong Long Heaven's Gate and Tay Son Heaven's Gate.

One early winter day, we traveled 12 km from Muong Xen town to Tay Son. The asphalt road was smooth and smooth, but the only thing was that it went up a steep hill. Before leaving, my friend told me that although it was hot outside, I had to remember to dress warmly because if I passed the Heaven's Gate, it would be freezing cold. I didn't believe it because I had been to cold places like Na Ngoi, Nam Can, Muong Long and thought that Tay Son couldn't be as cold as those places.

Tay Son Heaven Gate looking down.

The road to Tay Son this season is covered with white reeds on both sides of the hill, blending in with the white clouds drifting by. Then we reached the top of the southern gate of Ky Son. Indeed, only when I got here did I truly feel the piercing cold of the first days of winter. The cold wind blew fiercely. The mist carried by the wind lingered on my body like a thin curtain of rain.

Looking down from the Heaven Gate, Muong Xen town is as small as the palm of your hand with the Nam Mo river winding through it like a silk strip. We quickly put on a coat and walked a few more kilometers to reach the center of Tay Son commune in Huoi Giang 3 village. It was past 10am, but the weather was still freezing. People went out in their clothes to protect themselves from the winter cold. Children were wrapped in warm scarves by their mothers and slept soundly. The commune chairman Vu Ra Tenh told us: "Coldness is a specialty of Tay Son.

Thanks to this unique climate, the people here produce many specialties such as raising black chickens, growing broccoli, taro, peaches... But there were also years when it was so cold that livestock and crops died en masse." Then he told of the severe cold at the beginning of the year that caused great damage, the mountains and hills were covered in white ice and snow. Many households were left penniless after the snow melted. Mr. Vu Ra Tenh's voice seemed to drop: "Hopefully this year the weather will be more favorable so that people can feel secure."

Tay Son in the cold season is really beautiful. The remaining early blooming peach blossoms are still fresh on the branches. And I must say, we have never seen a place with as many beautiful peach blossoms as this land. Tay Son peach blossoms are light pink, with 6 petals, and mossy trunks growing over ancient sa mu houses. And also, the persimmon trees have lost all their leaves, leaving only the red fruit hanging on the branches. In Huoi Giang 1 village, a whole forest of bright red persimmons lies in the middle of the village, falling all over the paths. The villagers say that there are too many persimmons, they can't be given or eaten all, so they just leave them like that. The color of the peach blossoms fades, the red pink color blends with the green color of the mountains and forests, making the Tay Son landscape irresistibly beautiful.

Rose branches laden with fruit in Tay Son.

Wandering around the village for a long time, the young commune cadre Vu Ba Lenh told us: “Tay Son also has one of the largest and most beautiful forests in Nghe An. Do you see, behind the villages are densely packed with po mu trees!”. Only then did I observe the forest stretching across the backs of Huoi Giang 1,2,3 villages. With just a few steps, Vu Ba Lenh brought us to the entrance of the po mu forest.

As Ba Lenh said, the “most beautiful forest in Nghe An” was right in front of us, clear and flat like a resort. Every tree was straight, as if it had been regularly pruned. “Last year, the cold weather killed all the trees in the neighboring forests, but this po mu forest was not affected at all, but became even greener” – Vu Ba Lenh said.

Then Ba Lenh said, before 1996, people went into the forest to exploit natural po mu wood a lot. Trees that were so big that 7-8 people could not hug them, it took a whole week to cut them down, and they were cut down everywhere. Mr. Vu Pa Re (Huoi Giang 3 village) felt very sad when he saw that. Although he was old, he still discussed with his children, including the current Chairman of the commune of Chua Ra Tenh, that they had to plant po mu forests to have a long-term source of income.

So he went through the forest alone to find a bunch of young sa mu trees to reclaim and plant, surprising everyone. At first, the family only planted an area of ​​less than 10 hectares, and now those trees are 20 years old. In 2007, Mr. Vu Pa Re passed away, but before closing his eyes, he told his children and grandchildren that they must preserve the po mu forest, if he could not enjoy it, then his children, grandchildren and the generations after that would enjoy it.

Remembering their father's words, Vu Xai Chu, Vu Va Lenh, Vu Nhia Hua, and Vu Ra Tenh's children always considered it a valuable treasure that needed to be further developed. Everyone mobilized the villagers to work together to grow seedlings and develop this forest to over 50 hectares. "Now, there are more than 30,000 po mu trees. If they reach harvest age, it will probably cost hundreds of billions of dong," Vu Ra Tenh told us proudly.

Lecture 1.

We were really surprised to see that in this land of the misty heaven's gate, there are people who can see far and wide. "Talking about the future, but right now, the life of the Tay Son people is still very difficult. Electricity and phone signals have just arrived in the commune, but in remote villages like Dong Tren, Dong Duoi, and Lu Thanh, it is still extremely difficult, many households are in difficulty and do not have enough to eat" - Vu Ba Lenh standing next to us told us.

Having said that, he led us up the steep slope of the high mountain on the top of Huoi Giang 2 to Ms. Xong Y Hua's house. The weather in the highlands was cold and foggy, but we were sweating to get to where she and her children lived. Hearing the commune official introduce her house, we were startled because we didn't think it was a house. The four sides were made temporarily with bare planks. There was nothing valuable in the house except for a bed made of logs covered with a layer of bamboo to lie on. A few chayotes that she took advantage of the time to bring back from the fields to make the main meal for the whole family were lying on the ground still wet from the rain.

Through Vu Ba Lenh's translation, we learned that in 2014, her husband, Vu Ba So, died from eating poisonous mushrooms while in the forest. She currently has to raise two disabled children, Vu Y Di and Vu Ba Nhenh. Ms. Xong Y Hua swallowed her tears and said that her family's financial situation was so difficult that many days they didn't even have rice to eat, and if they did have rice, they only ate a little to save for when they were hungry. The main food was rice with wild vegetables or water. Hearing her story, we couldn't help but feel moved when we saw the cold wind outside still blowing into the house where she and her children lived...

We said goodbye to Tay Son land when the afternoon light had just gone down. The sun was glimmering behind the misty clouds on the high mountain tops. The people were returning from the fields with baskets full of vegetables, taro, squash... The village was starting to light up.

Dao Tho