(TITC) - Located beside the mild Nam Mu River, about 7km to the east of No 4D National Highway, Na Luong Village (Na Tam Commune, Tam Duong District, Lai Chau Province) is home to more than 90 households with 400 Lao ethnic people. Thanks to pristine natural beauty and age-old cultural identity, Na Luong is becoming a friendly destination for many tourists.
From Lai Chau Town, along to No 4D National Highway to the southeast about 53km, tourists will arrive at the road into Na Luong Village. The first impression when coming the village is the image of the traditional stilt houses nestling under green trees and Lao women in traditional costumes weaving hard.
Lao ethnic group currently has about 13,000 people living mainly in provinces of Dien Bien, Son La, Lai Chau, Lao Cai by rice cultivation, cattle breeding, brocade weaving... Like as other Lao ethnic villages in the Northwest region, Na Luong has preserved intactly unique traditional cultural features including Water Festival (Bun Voc Nam).
Since long time ago, Lao people have lived by growing water rice and treasured water because water is life of everything. This is also origin of the water festival. The water festival is hold when Lao people finish harvest to pray for superabundant crop.
The festival includes two parts of rite and festival. The rite part has sacrifice ritual to deities to ask to organize the festival, pray heath and happiness for everyone. The festival part begins when all people go to stream to splash water. According to Lao people's conception, the wetter somebody are, the luckier who are. This activity not only attracts locals but also tourists. All people want to be splashed water to hope more lucky things to them.
The festival closes with specific folk games of the Northwest region as day gay (pushing sticks), keo co (the pull of natural forces), nem con (throwing a sacred ball)...
To Na Luong, besides exploring majestic mountain scenery, unique water festival... tourists can also enjoy local specialties such as colored sticky rice (xoi mau), fish steamed in banana leaves (ca hap la chuoi), chicken (fish) cooked with tamarind (ga, ca nau me)...
With unique cultural identity, The Netherlands Development Organization (SNV) selected Na Luong to invest and develop into community-based tourism destination, and Viet Nam National Administration of Tourism is considering Na Luong as a tourism destination for the North West arc tour. In the future, Na Luong will become one of ideal destinations for tourists who want to keep away from noisy atmosphere of city.
Thu Giang