Stirring up 'bamboo forest' in the lives of people in the highlands of Nghe An

Meter forest in Tuong Duong district. Photo: Dinh Tuan

However, it doesn’t matter what name you call it, as long as everyone understands this wild bamboo species. Behind my house in the Chi Khe Hydroelectric Reservoir (Con Cuong) are old mét bushes growing in clumps. In the spring, every noon when the gentle breeze blows by, the tall mét roots seem to bend down softly, the branches and leaves rustle, sometimes you can even hear the creaking sound of the mét roots hitting each other like someone is rocking a baby to sleep. The local elders said that in the past, this land had a dense mét forest running from the forest down to the bank of the Nam Pao River (Song Lam).

Only those who were born and raised in the mountains, living on the help of nature, can understand the uses of bamboo and bamboo.

Ever since the bamboo shoots first sprouted from the ground, they have been helpful to people's lives. Through many generations of trees and people, and to this day, bamboo shoots are still an indispensable part of people's daily meals.

Bamboo shoots are used to prepare dishes. Photo: Lu Phu

If in the past, the locals ate bamboo shoots to fight hunger and get through the lean season, now, bamboo shoots have been processed to become a specialty. And for the mountain people, even though life has become more prosperous, even though they have moved away, thinking about their homeland means thinking about boiled bamboo shoots with fish sauce and shrimp paste. Not only that, in the culinary picture of the Thai people in Nghe An, bamboo shoots are also grilled to make salads; pickled in salt to make pickled bamboo shoots for storage. In particular, pickled bamboo shoots are cooked with ingredients such as meat, fish, silkworm pupae, ant eggs, grasshoppers, young bees... and create famous specialties that only the Thai people have.

With old bamboo, people use them to build huts, huts, pave stilt houses, make fences, water wheels, and troughs. Not only that, countless utensils and items in the daily life of mountain people are made from bamboo and bamboo, such as baskets, trays, sieves, winnowing baskets, etc. Even toothpicks are made from bamboo trees.

Bamboo and cypress trees are also present in the spiritual and religious life of the people. For example, cypress trees are used to build “chau din chau nha” (landowners and grass owners) temples, “lung ta” (foreign) temples, neu trees and flower trees in the Xang khan (Xang oc) festival, and erecting a Ton cao (cosmic pillar) next to the graves of the dead with cicadas and divine crows (ca loc) hanging on them…

The meter tree is the raw material for people to weave household items. Photo: Dinh Tuan

I remember the lesson “Vietnamese Bamboo” by author Thep Moi (Excerpt from Literature class 7, Education Publishing House, 1980) that I studied when I was young. I believe that anyone who has studied it can at least remember a few sentences or paragraphs from the lesson, such as: “Bamboo will remain forever with the Vietnamese people”.

My neighbor, Mr. Vi Van Linh, in Chau Dinh village, Chau Khe commune (Con Cuong), has been busy cutting down trees to sell these past few days. He has a forest of trees left by his ancestors. Each time he cuts down about 100 trees. Each tree is sold for 15,000 - 30,000 VND depending on the type. "I only cut down old trees" - Mr. Linh said. "Yes! We have to nurture them! Don't harvest them in an extermination way".

Every day, from inside my house looking out onto Highway 7, I occasionally see “super-sized, super-heavy” trucks carrying meters passing by, full to the brim. Every time I go down to Con Cuong town, through Chi Khe commune, I see many houses with piles of meters parked in front of their doors waiting for the collection trucks to come and take them away.

“Mét is very easy to grow,” said Mr. Linh. “It can grow even if you put a fence post on it. It will be ready for harvest in about 5-6 years. If it is really old, it will take about 10 years.” I agreed with my neighbor and said, “Growing mét now also contributes to protecting the environment.”

Meters are exploited by people in Tuong Duong district, loaded onto trucks and transported downstream for consumption. Photo: Quang An