“The ancient village of dong son from the early twentieth century to present” (làng cổ đông sơn từ đầu thế kỷ XX đến nay)

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
INSTITUTE OF VIETNAMESE STUDIES AND DEVELOPMENT SCIENCES

NGUYEN THI LIEN

THE ANCIENT VILLAGE OF DONG SON FROM THE
EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY TO PRESENT

MASTER THESIS
MAJOR: VIETNAMESE STUDIES

HANOI, 2013


VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
INSTITUTE OF VIETNAMESE STUDIES AND DEVELOPMENT SCIENCES

NGUYEN THI LIEN

THE ANCIENT VILLAGE OF DONG SON FROM THE
EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY TO PRESENT

Master thesis, major: Vietnamese studies
Code: 60 22 01 13

Supervisor: Prof.Dr. Ngo Đuc Thinh


Hanoi, 2013

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This thesis is seen as the result from having studied at Institute of Viet
Nam studies & Development of Science – Hanoi National University along with
having spent most of the time on practical inspecting experience throughout the
studies.
The author would sincerely like to express the grateful to those beloved
lecturers who have directly lectured those Master classes for the year of 6
specialized in Viet Nam studies and beloved teachers who are in the
Management Board of Institute, Department of Education for offering all
necessary help under any conditions throughout the course of the studies so that
this highly-expected thesis was successful completed.
Especially, the author would like to thank so much to the professor Ngo
Duc Thich for his thoughtful in guiding and spending most of his valuable time
to exchange ideas and direct for the author. During the instruction time under his
close surveillance and instruction, the author has gained so much of both
theoretical and practical experience in terms of working style, planning skill and
serious attitude towards works.
Besides, in order for this thesis to be successfully completed, the author
would also like to thank to the local authority of Dong Son ancient village, local
council of Ham Rong street, the Management Board of vestiges and landscapes
of Thanh Hoa …furthermore thanks to the people of Dong Son ancient village
for providing a lot of useful information.
Last but not least, the author would like to thank to the Management
Board of Hong Duc University – Thanh Hoa; those beloved teachers in the Head
of Department of Social and Science, family members, close friends who have
always been there for me to make this thesis done successfully.
My most sincerely thanks to all!
Hanoi, date 02 month 05 year 2013
Author

Nguyen Thi Lien


UNDERTAKING MINUTES
I would like to guarantee that these content and material, data used in
this thesis are true and collected, performed by me only. All these works were
done under the close supervision and directly instructed by the Professor Ngo
Duc Thinh. All references used in this thesis were extracted from mentioned
specified sources.
Author

Nguyen Thi Lien


TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION.............................................................................................1
1. Rational of the study................................................................................1
2. Objectives and scope of research............................................................3
3. The purpose of the thesis.........................................................................3
4. Research situation related to the thesis..................................................3
5. Research methods.....................................................................................5
6. New results and contributions of the thesis...........................................6
7. Organization of the thesis........................................................................6
CHAPTER 1: APPEARANCE OF DONG SON ANCIENT VILLAGE IN
THE FIRST HALF OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY............................8
1.1. Some basic concepts..............................................................................8
1.1.1. The concept of village.......................................................................8
1.1.2. The concept of ancient village..........................................................8
1.1.3. The concept of traditional village.....................................................9
1.2. Dong Son – riverside and half-mountain half-plain village...........10

1.2.1. Geographic location........................................................................10
1.2.2 . Natural condition............................................................................10
1.2.3. Landscape........................................................................................15
1.3. The long tradition of the Dong Son ancient village..........................19
1.3.1. The history and development of the Dong Son ancient village......19
1.3.2. Traditional economics.....................................................................21
1.3.3. Traditional culture...........................................................................24
1.3.3.1. Tangible culture........................................................................24
1.3.3.1.1. Resident organization, cuisine, apparel, travel...................24
1.3.3.1.2. Historical relics...................................................................28
1.3.3.2. Intangible culture......................................................................30


CHAPTER

2:

SOME TRANSFORMATIONS

OF DONG

SON

ANCIENT VILLAGE FROM AUGUST REVOLUTION TO PRESENT
.........................................................................................................................44
2.1. The theory of social transformation..................................................44
2.2. Transformations of Dong Son ancient village in the war against
America (1954 – 1975)...............................................................................45
2.2.1. Context of the transformation.........................................................45
2.2.2. Expression of the transformations...................................................46

2.3. Transformations of Dong Son ancient village from Doi Moi (1986)
to present.....................................................................................................54
2.3.1. Context of the transformation.........................................................54
2.3.2. Expression of the transformation....................................................55
2.3.2.1. Economic transformation..........................................................55
2.3.2.2. Social transformation................................................................59
2.3.2.3. Cultural transformation.............................................................68
CHAPTER 3: CONSERVATION, DEVELOPMENT OF CULTURE IN
THE

ANCIENT

OF

DONG

SON

VILLAGE

WITHIN

THE

CONSTRUCTION OF NEW RURAL AT PRESENT..............................76
3.1. Awareness and role of citizens and local government in
preservation and construction of culture.................................................76
3.1.1. Awareness, role of people...............................................................76
3.1.2. Awareness, role of the Party, State and local government..............78
3.2. Current situation of cultural conservation and construction in the

ancient village of Dong Son at present.....................................................80
3.2.1. According to the movement of cultural village...............................80
3.2.2. According to the proposed projects................................................87
3.2.3. According to 19 criteria of new rural construction of the Prime
Minister.....................................................................................................88
3.3. A number of solutions and proposals.................................................89


3.3.1. A number of solutions.....................................................................89
3.3.2. A number of proposals....................................................................92
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................95
REFERENCES..............................................................................................97


INTRODUCTION
1. Rational of the study
The village is a community or a basic clustered human settlement of
Vietnamese people. It has an origin of old since the disintegrated process of
the primitive communal mode. And then, it has become social classes and a
first state in Vietnam. In the history, Vietnamese village associated with the
length of the country’s history. It is the process of continuous development,
not only improve and adapt to the natural world, but combat against also
foreign aggression and domination. In the process, the country has sometimes
lost, but the village has not lost. It still maintained and developed until today.
It not only plays an important role in the history of the country, but is
also home, active school, and closely connected place with everyone in
Vietnam. In the spiritual and deep concept of Vietnamese people, the village
represents the ancestral land, is also home to acknowledge success and
reputation of everyone. Thus, the research about Vietnamese village is
necessary to know about the process of formation, development, contribution,

location, and role of village in the local history.
There are many researches in and out country, which studied about
Vietnamese village. They provided a lot of documents and new information,
which contribute to better understanding of Vietnamese villages and society.
However, the results of these researches have still not fulfilled the demands of
Vietnamese village nowaday. Because of urban life, Vietnamese society as
well as village is changing rapidly. Therefore, it is necessary to have more
studies about Vietnamese village to find solutions for retaining the beauty of
the Vietnamese village before its changes in recent years.
Ever Dong Son ancient village has known as the first place that has
found out the Dong Son culture – a brilliant culture in the nation’s history.
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Other subjects of the Dong Son ancient village is not actually known or
studies by people as well as researchers. The research into Dong Son village
will give us a comprehensive view of a village in its stature in the world.
Dong Son village as well as many other Vietnamese ancient village, is a
community of the residents, economics, culture, and society, appears very
early, and has a special position in the close relationship among family,
village, and state, which took place during the process of national
construction and defense over thousand years. Moreover, it has different
characteristics from other villages.
However, in the nowadays, because of developing trend of humanity,
Vietnamese village in general and Dong Son village in particular is facing to
fierce challenges between tradion and innovation, ethnic and modern.
Although, it needs to innovate, it still needs to retain and preserve special
identities of the village. It is an extremely important requirement that need to
get attention not only of the government, but get also awareness of everyone
who is living in the village as well as in the community. Thus, the study in

depth about the Dong Son ancient village in early twentieth century to the
present is essential. It can show more detail about the changes in all aspects of
people’s life in the village, and contribute to conservation and promotion of
typical cultural values in the village. As a result, everyone knows how to
make their homeland to become a better place step by step.
As urbanization process, the typical identities of village was being
eroded and lost from time to time. Therefore, I chose the Dong Son village for
my research to learn about its changes and to contribute to rediscover its
distinctions.

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2. Objectives and scope of research
Object of the research is to study all aspects of people’s life in the Dong
Son ancient village.
Scope of the research
Scope of the problem: study about the appearance of the Dong Son
ancient village in early twentieth century to see unique characteristics of the
village as well as its changes. And, giving recommendations to preserve,
conserve, restore, and build the Dong Son ancient in the construction of new
countryside nowadays.
Location: Focus on the Dong Son ancient village, and compare with
other villages.
Time: From early twentieth century (1900) to 2010.
3. The purpose of the thesis
Based on the appearance of the Dong Son ancient village in early
twentieth century, compare with the other ancient villages at later stages to
see its transformation.
Study about the awareness of local people and government about

cultural conservation as well as conservation status, cultural construction in
the Dong Son ancient village today. And then, give out recommendations to
preserve the Dong Son ancient village before infulences of urbanization
process now.
4. Research situation related to the thesis
There are many researches which studied about Vietnamese village
both internal and external country in recent years. And, there are many
valuable results of these researches, which helped a lot of Vietnamese people
to have a better understanding about their community in which they are
living. However, the Dong Son ancient village is not really attracted by many
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scientists to participate in research. Hence, there are only a small number of
researches that related to the Dong Son ancient village such as.
“History of Ham Rong Ward Party (1945 – 2010)” – Thanh Hoa
publishing house, which refered to some aspects of the Dong Son ancient
village such as the process of establishment’s village, monuments and
landscapes, and traditional history of village.
“Folk games forum in the Dong Son area” – Postgraduation’s thesis of
Tran Thi Lien, which studied about basic characteristics of Dong Son folk
games in the common situation of folk games in Thanh Hoa province.
In the “Collection of materials of Ham Rong and and of Ham Rong
victory” published by the Library of Thanh Hoa province, with the first, the
second, the third, the fourth and the fifth episode, there are a number of
articles about Dong Son ancient village such as the one about ancient houses,
Ham Rong bridge, fighting spirit and winning over the American invaders ....
In 2004, Department of Culture and Information of Thanh Hoa
province organized “Scientific conference celebrating 80 years of discovering
and researching Dong Son culture (1924-2004)” and published the book

“Antiquities of Dong Son culture in Thanh Hoa”. In above work, there are
some articles related to ancient Dong Son village, for example: “80 years for
detecting Dong Son archaeological location and Dong Son culture: Research
achievements, conservation and promotion of values” written by Ngo Hoai
Chung; “About a museum of Dong Son culture in Ham Rong region” written
by Nguyen Van Ngoc and “History of discovering Dong Son culture” by
A.Prof.Dr. Pham Minh Huyen.
In the article “Kết chạ in Thanh Hoa” published in the journal of Past
and present, No. 342 in 2009, the author Trọng Đạt refers to the custom of
Kết chạ of Dong Son villagers with Giang Hen ones. Through this traditional
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custom, the author highlighted the unique in the spiritual life of the people of
Dong Son village.
A number of research works of the author Hoang Tuan Pho such as
“Landscape of Dong Son - Ham Rong” (2004), “Sacred spirit of Ham Rong”
(2009) refer to the formation history of Dong Son village as well as its
landscapes.
The book “Ham Rong, historical clash” published in 2010 on the
occasion of the 45th anniversary of Ham Rong victory raised the significance
of location of Dong Son village in wartime as well as in peacetime. It is also
the first place where they found relics of bronze age.
It is an omission in the history of issue if we do not refer to the book
“The ancient village of Dong Son” by Luong Dai Dung being the editor. The
book gave the readers information about daily life of its inhabitants. However,
there is no comparison between the earlier time and present time to see the
change in all aspects of the village.
In addition to above works, there are others ones such as “Pagodas of
Thanh region”, “Folk songs of Thanh Hoa”, “Monography of Dong Son”,

"Monography of Thanh Hoa, the episode 2, 3". These works mentioned some
aspects of the daily life of Dong Son villagers before.
5. Research methods
There are some methods of research, which was applied for this
research as below:
Retrospective study method: we can see that there are many aspects of
people’s life in the Dong Son ancient village, which were not mentioned in
the modern data.
Method of system – structure: Village is a separate system, so when we
use this method, we can see an interactive relationship between internal
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elements of its and some aspects. Thanks to this method, the Dong Son
ancient village can be show up as a unified entity.
Interdisciplinary research method and study area: it helps researcher to
have a full view of social and cultural space of the Dong Son ancient village.
In addition, there are some research methods such as observation,
comparison, statistics, interviews, etc, which were also used in this research to
get a comprehensive and objective view of the Dong Son ancient village.
In the process of researching, the author delivered 150 questionnaires
and implemented 17 in-depth interviews in the ancient village of Dong Son,
which is in order to collect accurate and objective information for the
research. At the same time, it will give readers useful information of people
living here.
6. New results and contributions of the thesis
The research is the first study that has a systematic view about the
Dong Son ancient village from the early twentieth century to nowadays. It
provides for researchers with extensive and reliable information.
The research has also an objective perspective about conservative

issues as well as giving some solutions and recommendations to preserve,
conserve, and restore culture of the Dong Son ancient village in the
construction of new countryside today.
Results of the research also contribute to suggest for further studies
about an old Vietnamese village with special characteristics.
7. Organization of the thesis
Beside the introduction, conclusion, reference, and appendix, the
research includes three chapters:
Chapter 1: Appearance of Dong Son ancient village in the first half of
the twentieth century.

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Chapter 2: Some transformations of Dong Son ancient village from the
August Revolution to present.
Chapter 3: Conservation, development of culture in the of Dong Son
village within the construction of new rural at present.

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CHAPTER 1: APPEARANCE OF DONG SON ANCIENT VILLAGE IN
THE FIRST HALF OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
1.1. Some basic concepts
1.1.1. The concept of village
There are many different concepts of village which is very familiar to
everyone. Some people considered villages as “living cells of Vietnamese
society, a natural product created by the process of settling and residing
together of Vietnamese people who cultivated” [69, pp. 11-12]. Some people

considered villages as “units possessing and distributing public land. It is
also the social unit of villagers gathering around the village temple,
communal house with religious of its gods to become the cultural unit
(festival) and sometimes/often the administrative unit of commune - local
level (the commune is the first and the village is the second)” [78, pp.16-20].
According to Phan Huy Le, he said that village is “the settling community of
small farmers who cultivate rice and doing crafts and small businesses based
on the model of rural commune gradually turning into feudal system” [38,
pp.3]. Thus, depending on the way of approach, each person recognizes the
village with different characteristics. However, it can be said that the village is
“the basic settling community in rural. Its inhabitants are mostly farmers
engaging agriculture, settling in alleys or cramped campus compared with
cultivated fields surrounding the village. There is autonomy expressed clearly
by village rules or village convention. There are rituals, customs and
traditions called village's culture”.
1.1.2. The concept of ancient village
The concept of “ancient village” is not popularly used as the concept
of “village”. A village considered as an ancient village must satisfy a number
of criteria as follows:
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Firstly, in terms of the formation history, the village must be aged 200
years or more.
Secondly, organizational form of residing by descent.
Thirdly, the systems of epitaph, genealogy, conventions, decrees, relics
of the village ... prove the existence of the village since its establishment.
Thus, a village considered an ancient village when it fully meets the
specific criteria, in particular here, it is Dong Son village.
1.1.3. The concept of traditional village

Vietnamese villages beginning to appear along with the disintegration
of the clan commune has a history of about 4000 years. The concept of
“village” have been mentioned by many researchers, however the concept of
“traditional village” does not really attract many people. In this thesis, basing
on research of Professor Nguyen Quang Ngoc the author offers a number of
criteria to identify a traditional village.
Firstly, each village has a certain geographical area as living space
including resident area, land, hills, mountains, rivers, ponds ... used by the
village community or the members of the village community.
Secondly, residents of the village are members of a community having
a strong attach to each other by many relationships such as neighbor one
(villages, hamlets, Lane ...), blood one (family, kinship), the professional one,
relationship of beliefs and relationship of supporting or helping each other
(corporation, group).
Thirdly, culturally, each village usually has communal house where its
tutelary god is worshiped as well as pagodas, temples, shrines..., public spaces
for cultural activities, festivals and beliefs.

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Fourthly, in terms of management, it may be the council of old
villagers, the Council of family heads managing, in addition to this,
management is carried out through conventions.
Thus, it can be seen that a traditional village must fully has above
criteria.
1.2. Dong Son – riverside and half-mountain half-plain village
1.2.1. Geographic location
The Dong Son ancient village “is located in the 2206 north latitude,
114093 east longtitude” [15, pp.12], belongs to Ham Rong ward, Thanh Hoa

city, about 4,5 km north-northeast of city center, on the bank of Ma river.
Thus, there are many different transport systems such as cars, motorcycles,
boats, which can help to transport quickly and rapidly.
The village is the central area of Thanh Hoa plain area in which is
accreted by alluvia of Ma and Chu rivers. However, in around the village is
surrounded by rocky and soil mountains that is a special feature of the village
compare with other villages in the northern delta in general and Thanh Hoa
plain in particular. The Ma rive locates in front of the village, and mountains
stay behind of the village, the feng shui of the village is very good.
Geographically, it is bordered by Thieu Duong, Nam Ngan and Dong
Tho ward, Dong Cuong commune, and Ma River in the North, South, West,
and East respectively.
1.2.2 . Natural condition
- Topography
Dong Son village is a peaceful idyllic village, but its landscape is
totally different from other villages. It has Ma River flow through, undulating
mountains from far, and fields between river and hills lead to spectacular sight

18


for this area. Therefore, it dominates among big plain of Ma River with
“charming mountains and rivers”.
Ancestor of the Dong Son village chose a good location to build the
village. First, there are mountains surrounding the village. These mountain
systems were spreaded out by folk that “ninety nine mountains” both rocky
and soil extending, bend, and bobbing on the Ma River. They have origin
from the Duong Xa village (Thieu Hoa district) with different names as
“Truong mountain, Long Ham mountain” [5, pp14]. When it comes to Dong
Son – Ham Rong, there is a prominent mountain, so local people called

Dragon Mountain. And, other mountains are named such as peacock, the
behind village mountain, elephant mountain, lobster mountain, phoenix
mountain, etc. It is not really sure that whether there are 99 mountains or not,
but people in Dong Son village still believe that Dong Son is located in the
land of “99 mountains” with phoenix bird figure, elephant kneeling, huzhou.
These are 99 mountains in the East; there is one mountain that faces to
Dragon Mountain, which is Ngoc Mountain, and people call Nit Mountain. In
the previous stage, this mountain system is also in line with Truong Mountain,
but because of Ma River separated Ngoc Mountain out. This is handed in the
folk until now.
“Ninety nine mountains at the east side
And the Nit mountain at the river is not come
Ninety nine mountains are crowed
And the Nit mountain is not yet back east side1”
It can be said that the mountainous terrain in this place has created the
good landscapes for Dong Son in particular and Ham Rong area in general.
This is shown the most clearly in the eyes of the old man “Ham Rong
mountain – Long Hao mountain and in formerly Dong Son called Truong
1

East in here is the Dong Son village, and also means Dong Son district before.

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Son. The mountain from Ngu Hoa in the Duong Xa commune leads to
consecutive flexibility as dragon, finally floating jumped a high mountain, the
rock pile, on the mountain in which has Long Quang cave. Under mountain
has a protruding rock on the river, which looks like the sucking sand and
absorb water dragon” [70, pp.222].

Ma River means Mother River follow Vietnamese language. Thus, we
can sure that it is a huge river. It starts from Dien Bien area through Son La
province, flows through the northern of Lao, and then comes to Thanh Hoa at
Tam Chung commune, Muong Lat district, and finally goes to East Beach via
Hoi gate (Sam Son beach) and two sub-gates include Len and Lach Tuong
gate. It has 3,5km length when it flows through Ham Rong ward include
Dong Son village. It is a big water source for cultivation and livestock as well
as supplies enough demand of fishing source for local people. In particular, it
has a big contribution to transport between the plain and mountain, between
upland and lowland areas.
“As northern delta, Thanh Hoa plain is created by modern alluvia that
spread out on the large surface, and slightly inclines toward the sea at the
side of the Southeast. In the edge of the North and North West is composed by
old alluvial of Ma and Chu River – from 2 to 15 m high” [58, pp.200]. Hence,
in the plain still remains a lot of various soil and rock. Dong Son village is not
an exception in the Thanh Hoa delta system. As a result, land area in the Dong
Son village not only uses for rice cultivation, but uses also for vegetable crops
and animal husbandry. Especilly alluvial soil, it is accreted regularly by Ma
River, so it brought many advantages for people in the village.

- Climate
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Thanks to to topography as above, the climat in the Dong Son ancient
village has characteristics of coastal plain and the monsoon tropical climate
with 4 seasons include spring, summer, fall, winter. “The annual average
temperature is around 230C to 240C, the highest temperature is 41,50C, and
the lowest temperature is below 100C” [5, pp.18]. “The annual average
humidity is quite high from 80-85%. The lowest humidity is 50% when having

North-East monsoon and West Wind; it sometimes has humidity reach to 90%
at the end of winter”2. We can see that in the Dong Son village receives a big
number of temperature and humidity in around year, so it is good for
developing agriculture, forestry, and fishing. Forestry develops very strong
with many classes; cultivation develops average from 2 to 3 seasons per year;
there is no abandon land. However, the most serious climatic issue for
agricultural activities in Dong Son village is high relative humidiy, which
encourage disease problems on both cultivation and livestock. Moreover,
there are some natural disasters that comes to suddently such as flood, and the
water of Ma River stays in high level quickly result in that there are many
difficulties for agricultural production and people’s living. However, there are
many advantages more than disadvantages.
In the Dong Son village is quite hot in the summer season due to
surrounding mountain systems, so it is difficult for wind come to inside lead
to lacking of air exchange between inside and outside of the village. In the
winter, the village is quite warm because there are mountain systems which
limit North and East-North wind.

2

.

21


- Natural resources
+ Land source
Land area of the Dong Son village is about “4000ha, and have only 1/5
for cultivation land, 4/5 land area left is mountainous area [15, pp.25]. It
means that cultivation land comprised 800ha of total land area in the Dong

Son village. Rice land is not only land for one crop, but also has land for two
crops. In the land for one crop, people can grow other crops such as
vegetables, corn, and so on to support people’s life. Besides, in the village still
has alluvial land in bank of river, garden land, and land in the hillside. People
can grow food crops such as maize, potatoes, cassava, and plant short-term
industrial tree such as mulberry, cotton, pineapples, beans, and so on. It
supplies demands of local people as exchange of goods with other villages.
+ Water source
In the early years of the twentieth century, there is lack of pond, lake,
and well system in the village. In whole village, there are only some ponds of
landlords, rich peasants, which used to fish as well as used to fire. Water for
daily activities is taken from one well in front of the village, but water is
limited, so water from well is used only to cook. Bathing, washing, water was
taken from water of Ma River. In the bank of Ma River, people made rocky
step to serve their daily activities. If how much water in the well is lack of,
Ma river can provide enough water demand of people in the village, so it can
be said that Ma River helped people to overcome problem of water shortage
in the early years of the twentieth century.
+ Forestry source
Forestry and mountains in the Dong Son village comprised a quite big
area with a variety of precious wood such as Erthrophloeum Fordi Oliver,
Bullet wood, Chukrasia tabularis, and so on as well as animals such as
22


rhinoceros, deer, tigers, and so on. Forestry brought many benefits for people
in the Dong Son village. They can go to the forest looking for firewood or
timber to build houses or hunting animal for family meals. However, in the
early twentieth century, the forest of the Dong Son village is no longer as
before, it became to hill garden of people in which planted crops. Now, the

Dong Son village does not have natural forests instead of forests of
everyhousehold and follow to the control of the Party and State. And, it was
bringing profits for people as well as contributing to balance environmental
ecosystem.
1.2.3. Landscape
- Cua Roong Mountain (C4 Hill)
Cua Roong Mountain is one of tops of Ham Rong Mountain; it is a
place for people in the Dong Son village plant crops. In the war with the
United States, this hilltop put an anti-aircraft artillery battalion 37 (4 battalion,
228 regiment is known as C4). C4 is the horror of US air force when
bombarded on Ham Rong. In the short time, “C4, other units, and local
militia shot doen 116 American aircraft together” [15, pp.103]. Thus, C4 was
awarded the title of hero unit of the armed forces and the name of the Cua
Rong mountain loss intead of C4 hill. Results of war expressed deep gratitude
between C4 militia and people in the Dong Son village. Now, C4 hill has been
embellished with a convenient way to go to relic. Foothill is two large stone
tablet in which record victories and the list of soldiers who sacrificed here. In
the top of hill is a system of combat service includes 6 cannon tunnels (K1K6), 3 commander tunnels (2 D tunnels, 1C deputy), 1 tunnel for scouting
service, nurses, gas military, radiation machine. These works have been built
soild concrete. In 1994, C4 is one of relics of the national monument by
decision No.974 dated 07.20.1994 with a protected area of 9600m2.
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- Canh Tien Mountain
Canh Tien mountain is one of two mountains that created the feng shui
“Dragon in the left side, white tiger in the the right side” for entire region.
This mountain is located in the south of the Dong Son village. Canh Tien was
named follow to the shape of the mountain, and according to the legend, it
involves white fairy and giant Vom spouses. After tricking white fairy came to

cave, the couple ripped one side of wing and buried with one side of wing left
in the Dong Son village. After some time, there sprang up a mountain with the
shape of fairy wings. Canh Tien Mountain progresses from high to low in the
East –West direction. This is one of the mountains in which people in the
Dong Son village planted crops and livestock to create delicious famous
products for region such as cassava, yam, taro, mountain goat, etc.
In the Vietnam war, Canh Tien Mountain was also known by another
name Quyet Thang because in the halfway up the mountain toward East has
put the word “Quyet Thang” by stone; it shows the will of Thanh Hoa
military and people. Thus, Canh Tien Mountain not only brings in itself
values in term of sights, but also brings values of cultural history.
- Mat Rong Cave (Mat Rong cave, Long Quang cave)
Mat Rong cave as “huge eyes through the forehead dragon, while the
left eye looks to left side of Ma river, the right eye looks toward the Thanh
Hoa city. Dragon eyes also emitted toward and twisted the Hoa Chua pearl
and bossed across many villages of Hoang Hoa district” [48, pp.289]. Cave
has name Long Quang cave; gate of cave is spacious; inside of cave is high
and airy. We can go inside via many ways, for example, the way from SouthWest starts the line connecting the southern bank of the Ham Rong bridge
along the ridge of Rong mountain, and then comes inside via right eye of
Dragon or come to cave from North-East via the left eye of dragon.

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Mat Rong cave has been known long time ago with its primordial
beauty, purity, and captivated a lot of literators, hold on footsteps of many
imperial orders and poets. Formerly, the king of the later Le had a routine
every few years come to Son Lang to cult – in which the start of the later Le.
In 1478, Le Thanh Tong is a famous bard who stopped enjoying the charming
mountain and rivers of Long Quang cave. In front of wonderful landscape, the

king poetized and carved on a grinding ceiling between the stone roofs with
decorative wire arounding. This poem named Mat Rong cave, but its content
likes a picture overview Rong mountain, and the most dominant thing is Mat
Rong cave.
Long Quang cave
Translator:
“Fret with the wonderful scenery,
Looks far clearly surrounding from top of mountain.
Remember landscape when visit Ngoc Kiem tomb,
Thought I lost to Dao Nguyen.
Cloud idle land flooded, do not sweep,
Regular line in the sky, sun up.
Beauty make forest, headline slot,
As defending invited to visit individual”.
(Hoang Tuan Pho)
- Tien Son Cave
“Plants such little dust
Entrance to not know that near or far
Beauty instead of interesting galaxy
Who onwer of peach garden is”
In Thanh Hoa, it seems that any mountains have magical traces. Tien
Mountain is a place for fairy excurse; Tien cave is a place for fairy practice
medicine; Tien Well is a place for fairy combs her hair and mirror. Tien cave
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