Ha Giang Tours - If you go to Son La or Dien Bien, you can't miss the story of King Thai Deo Van Long; if you go to Lao Cai, you can't miss hearing about the Hmong King Hoang A Tuong; and if you go to Ha Giang, you must know about the father and son, the Hmong King Vuong Chinh Duc and Vuong Chi Sinh.
But before mentioning the Hmong King and his son, we cannot fail to mention the historical migration of the Hmong people from the North to the South.
The Dong Van Stone Plateau is a land where the Hmong, Lo Lo, Tay, Dao, and other 17 ethnic groups have lived together for generations. According to historical records, the Hmong appeared in Dong Van around the late 17th and early 18th centuries, later than other ethnic groups. However, the Hmong are the most dominant ethnic group, accounting for 77% of the population of the Dong Van region, and are also the ethnic group that has left the most significant mark on this land.
The Hmong were once a large ethnic group living in the Jingzhou-Jianghuai region (now part of Hunan and Guizhou provinces, China), part of the Miao-Yao tribal alliance formed over a period of 5000 years. Throughout their history, the Hmong in Jingzhou-Jianghuai shared a common characteristic with the Vietnamese people: they were constantly threatened by the Han dynasty from the north.
During the Han dynasty's most prosperous period, the Han army unified China, subdued major tribes, and invaded neighboring countries. In China, the Hmong were a large ethnic group that the Han dynasty both hated and resented. The Hmong, intelligent, courageous, and exceptionally brave, were considered by the Han dynasty to be a threat to the survival of the Han dynasty, so for generations, Han emperors sent troops to subdue the Hmong. But the Han conquests all failed due to the fierce resistance of the Mongols.
However, to protect the survival of their people, the Mongols in Jingzhou-Jianghuai paid a heavy price. Each century, wars caused the Mongol population to dwindle, with the elderly, women, and children outnumbering men. At the end of the 17th century, a fierce battle occurred between the Mongol clan and the Han dynasty.
The Mongol leader in Jingzhou-Jianghuai then rallied the men to rise up against the Han dynasty once again. This was also the battle that inflicted the greatest losses on the Mongols, driving them south. After this battle, faced with the casualties suffered by his people, the Mongol leader in Jingzhou-Jianghuai made a final decision to protect his race and to permanently free his people from further territorial wars.
The leader called upon the Hmong people: "All the great clans, go south. Go to the highest, most remote lands, places no one has ever set foot in, and stop there, build houses, cultivate fields, marry, and have children. That will be the new homeland of the Hmong people."
Following the call of that Hmong leader, the Hmong people in Jingzhou-Jianghuai (in Guizhou province) left their homeland and migrated south in the largest migration in the history of the Hmong people. This migration brought the Hmong people to the northern regions of Vietnam. The command given by the Hmong leader was strictly followed by the Hmong people: they chose the highest, most remote, and most desolate mountainous areas to settle and establish new homelands and villages. This explains the Hmong people's habit of living in sparsely populated mountainous areas.
During that migration, the Dong Van Karst Plateau was one of the places chosen by the Hmong people as their new homeland. Even now, the Hmong people of Ha Giang still recount their ethnic history through songs: "Guizhou is the beloved homeland of our Hmong people. Because our Hmong people were poor and hungry, because our Hmong people were illiterate, and lost their land to the Han Chinese in a lawsuit, because our Hmong people were illiterate, we had to move our homeland to this land".
The migration of the Hmong people to the Dong Van karst plateau marked a significant period in the history of the Hmong people, with the formation of Hmong kings whose prestige resounded throughout the northern mountainous region. At the beginning of the 18th century, Dong Van had around 100,000 Hmong people, including the Vang, Duong, and Ma clans…the largest clans. Each clan had its own customs, its own worship practices and way of life, in addition to the characteristic customs of the Hmong people. Each clan also had a leader unanimously elected by the entire clan. These clan leaders were responsible for protecting the safety and vitality of the entire clan, and most came from the most prestigious and wealthy families within the clan.
However, King Vuong Chinh Duc - the first Hmong King in Dong Van - did not have such a noble background. King Vuong Chinh Duc came from a poor family. He was the son of a poor Hmong family named Vang. Before being known as Vuong Chinh Duc, he was born in Sa Phin - Dong Van with the name Vang Dung Lung. Vang Dung Lung had a difficult childhood. His father died at a young age, and Vang Dung Lung had to...
But Vuong Chinh Duc - the first Hmong King of Dong Van - did not come from such a noble background. King Vuong Chinh Duc was from a poor family. He was the son of a poor Hmong family named Vang. Before being known as Vuong Chinh Duc, he was born in Sa Phin, Dong Van, under the name Vang Dung Lung. Vang Dung Lung had a difficult childhood. His father died at a young age, and he had to work hard with his mother and older brother, Vang Tra Po, to survive. But the elders in Dong Van, especially in Sa Phin - the hometown of Vuong Chinh Duc - Vang Dung Lung, say that his parents, grandparents, and those who witnessed his growth all saw early on the characteristic temperament of an intelligent, courageous Hmong person, always exploring the land around him.
From a young age, Vang Dung Lung was very active and intelligent. At the age of 10, Vang Dung Lung was already wandering on foot through the high mountains of Meo Vac. There wasn't a single village he hadn't visited. There wasn't a single Hmong person in Dong Van he hadn't met. Vang Dung Lung usually only returned home when he suddenly realized he had been away for too long, and often when he came home, his mother almost didn't recognize her son, who seemed to have aged and become more experienced with each departure. By his youth, Vang Dung Lung was a brave and courageous Hmong young man, unafraid of tigers or wild animals when venturing into the forest, and renowned throughout the high mountains of Dong Van for his masterful flute playing.
When the Hmong began their migration south and settled in Dong Van, the Hmong leader, whose story is passed down in Hmong history, dreamed of a peaceful life for his people in this new land, free from the bloodshed and death that had plagued their history. But that leader's dream did not come true. The time when Vàng Dúng Lùng was born and raised coincided with the period when Vietnamese feudal history witnessed the invasion of Western colonial powers. After subduing the Nguyen dynasty, the French colonialists began to conquer the ethnic minorities in the northern mountainous region, including Dong Van.
At the same time, the Manchu Qing dynasty also advanced into Dong Van, intending to eliminate the Hmong rebels forming there, fearing that these insurgent groups could endanger the Manchu Qing dynasty's rule in the border region with Vietnam.
In Dong Van, there were also rebel groups from China who had migrated there, plotting to seize Dong Van.
Faced with this threat, the Hmong people of Dong Van, under the leadership of their leader Vu Phan Lung, rose up, ready to fight the Qing army and the French troops advancing into Dong Van. Among Vang Dung Lung's Vang family, there was also a follower of Vu Phan Lung in fighting the invaders, Vang Di Tua. During that uprising, Vu Phan Lung was betrayed and killed, and the Mong people in Dong Van were brutally murdered by Chinese rebel groups who had drifted into Dong Van at that time.
Vang Di Tua, elected by the Mong people of Dong Van as their leader, also died not long after from illness. Once again, the Mong community reunited. Vang Dung Lung rose to become the Mong leader in place of Vang Di Tua. Under Vang Dung Lung's leadership, the Mong people of Dong Van repelled the rebels in Dong Van, unifying the entire Dong Van region. Building on this success, the Mong people of Dong Van continued to fight alongside Vang Dung Lung, together with their leader, against the French.
The French, after advancing to Cao Bang and Ha Giang and consolidating their forces, began their conquest of Dong Van for over 10 years, starting in the early 1900s, with the determination to completely dominate the region and place it under their colonial rule. When carrying out this conquest, the French were very confident in their strength and ability to subdue a small, backward, and impoverished ethnic group in the high mountains.
But the French did not foresee the difficulties in Dong Van. Even after establishing garrisons in Dong Van, even after inflicting countless casualties on the Mong people of Dong Van, they still could not subdue them.
Only when they understood the customs and culture of the Mong people did the French realize that the only way to temporarily rule them was to accept a Mong leader - a leader whom any Mong person would readily obey. And they chose leader Vang Dung Lung. To secure this alliance with the Mong leader, the French signed a peace treaty with Vang Dung Lung, committing to withdraw completely from Dong Van and granting the Mong people autonomy under the supervision of a French garrison in Dong Van and an administrative unit of the Nguyen dynasty.
At the same time, the Nguyen dynasty also appointed Vang Dung Lung to the position of Bang Co official, governing the Dong Van region. Vang Dung Lung was also given a hat, official robe, and received a salary from the Nguyen dynasty. From then on, Vang Dung Lung began to enter the history of the Dong Van region under the name Vuong Chinh Duc.
He became the Hmong King as a matter of course in the minds of the 70,000 people of Dong Van, the leader who protected the people of Dong Van from the bombardment and slaughter of the French colonialists. Therefore, although he was a Hmong, he was also revered by other ethnic groups in Dong Van.
The pronouncement of the feng shui master and the mystery of the power of the land where the Hmong King's mansion was built
It is undeniable that Vuong Chinh Duc played a crucial role in a turbulent period of history, helping the Dong Van plateau, with its 70,000 inhabitants, achieve a certain degree of autonomy, avoiding the exploitation of the colonialists like other areas in Dong Van. At that time, the Hmong people in Dong Van mainly lived by cultivating opium poppies.
After signing the peace treaty with France, Vuong Chinh Duc also reached an agreement with the French regarding the purchase and sale of opium. The French were forced to accept buying opium from the Hmong King Vuong Chinh Duc at double the previous price. Thanks to this agreement, the Hmong people of Dong Van enjoyed a long period of prosperity thanks to opium cultivation. Vuong Chinh Duc quickly became wealthy, possessing the largest mansion and assets in the rocky plateau region.
The current residence of the Hmong King in Sa Phin (Dong Van) is the one built by Vuong Chinh Duc during his most powerful period. According to researcher Hung Dinh Quy, the land that the Hmong King Vuong Chinh Duc chose to build his mansion was auspicious according to feng shui, shaped like a turtle shell, with the mansion situated right in the center of the highest point of that shell.
Among the legends passed down by the Hmong people of Dong Van about Vuong Chinh Duc, many stories are true, while many others are embellished and passed down orally. However, according to researcher Hung Dinh Quy, one story is relatively accurate: the story of why the Hmong King Vuong Chinh Duc chose that particular piece of land to build his house.
The story goes that when Vuong Chinh Duc was a young boy who often wandered through the remote corners of the Dong Van mountain region, one day a group of Chinese merchants passed through Dong Van and stopped to rest near a tortoise-shell shaped plot of land in Sa Phin.
Among the merchants was a very skilled feng shui expert who, upon seeing the empty plot of land, suddenly exclaimed: "This land is so beautiful. Whoever builds a house here will either become a king or a high-ranking official, respected and worshipped by all, enjoying endless wealth and prosperity for generations to come." At that time, Vuong Chinh Duc (then a young boy named Vang Dung Lung) was sleeping on a tree branch directly above the skilled feng shui expert and overheard the conversation.
The young Vang Dung Lung decided that he would definitely build a house on that plot of land. Later, when he became a Hmong leader in that war, Vang Dung Lung remembered the feng shui master's words from years ago and sent people to build a house on that tortoise-shell shaped plot of land. Since building his house on that land, Vuong Chinh Duc increasingly asserted his authority in Dong Van.
His prestige also increased with each victory he achieved as a leader. After signing an agreement with the French, possessing a large fortune, Vuong Chinh Duc had his house in Sa Phin built into a grand mansion, befitting his status, right on that turtle-shell-shaped piece of land. According to researcher Hung Dinh Quy, the mansion that the Hmong King Vuong Chinh Duc built in Sa Phin differed from the architecture of ordinary Hmong houses.
According to the Hmong people's long-standing tradition, a mansion with that shape was reserved only for kings and the most prestigious people in the region. However, almost no Hmong people living during Vuong Chinh Duc's time saw such architecture. After the migration, many aspects of Hmong culture were lost due to war, including the majestic houses described in Hmong folk songs.
And King Meo Vuong Chinh Duc built his house according to his vision of a house inspired by the folk songs of the Hmong people that he had read. To this day, the King Meo's mansion in Sa Phin remains a must-visit for anyone who sets foot on the Dong Van karst plateau. It witnessed the most powerful years of the Dong Van King Meo family, until his descendants left Dong Van for other lands, following the changes of history.
Source: https://hagiangtraveltour.com/blog/epic-migration-of-hmong-people-to-dong-van-karst-plateau.asp
