Cap Sac ritual of Dao people in North Vietnam

Cap Sac ritual of Dao people in North Vietnam

In the traditional rituals of the Dao people, there is a special ritual called the Cap Sac, it is only for men. Dao people think that if men have not passed the ritual, they are still considered as children. Persons who passed the ritual are considered to be adults even though they are still young, they will have chance to participate in the important work of the village and help the shaman.

Ceremony is usually held in November, December or January each year, as this is a free time. The ceremony was selected very carefully, the Red Dao and Dao Tien usually graduated from the age of 12 to 30 while in the Long Dress Dao is 11 to19 years old. The Red Dao can hold up to a maximum of 13 people (if less than it must be an odd number) at the chief house of family. But the Long Dress Dao is only for one person at a time and at his home. Near the ceremony, families have to send people to bring gifts to shaman, worshipers must abstain singing, quarrels, sleeping with others. To serve rituals and incentives to the villagers to witness, families must prepare essential items such as pigs, rice, wine, clothes…

Each group of Dao has a rank: Red Dao and Long Dress Dao have 7 lamps, Dao Tien has 3 lamps. Each ceremony must have 6 shamans to take responsible for the various tasks. All the shamans must worship ghosts at the altar of their ancestors to ask for blessings and helps. At the ceremony, they hang the Jade Emperor and the gods of the Dao, set up the altar of the ancestors of worshipers and altars of the gods. When performing the ceremony, the shamans must perform a lot of offerings, dance, magical gestures according to books. The worshiper and his wife also must perform many ceremonial movements as instruction of the shaman. In all Dao groups, after completing the complex rituals, the shamans have to give thanks to the ancestors and gods so that the sacred ritual ends.

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Terraced rice field in the filled water season in Mu Cang Chai- Zonitrip

When entering the filled water season, Mu Cang Chai Terraced rice fields dressed in colorful new clothes. It looks as unique as the masterpieces and charms no less than the ripe rice time in October.

In May, the highland of Mu Cang Chai is shown with the color of brown soil, the color of the water and the sun, the color of the seeding rice … It created a beautiful picture on the fields in the Khau Phau valley.

This is the time when people start bringing water into the field, the time when the terraced rice fields always bring in a wonderful appearance.

Due to the lack of flat land for cultivation, H’Mong and Thai people in Mu Cang Chai have to break the soil in the middle of the mountain to transplant rice. They took advantage of the first rain showers of the summer and the sun was not heavy enough to drain the fields. They also picked up water from streams through bamboo tubes to plow fields.

Visitors who travel to the Mu Cang Chai in the water season also have the opportunity to observe the hectic work scene of the H’Mong community.

Early in the morning, when the mist was still pending, the H’Mong people from all over the village carried their hoes, led the buffaloes and took the paddies to the rice fields. As the sun shines on the mountainside, the bare feet cheerfully follow the buffalo to the plowed terraced fields.

They are excited about the new plowing season. Someone makes the border and removes weeds while others plow the fertile soil and repair the irrigation system. They work in the air filled with laughter. H’Mong girls dressed in colorful clothes as making up to the special color of Mu Cang Chai Terraced rice field in the flood season.

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Our incredible Trekking trip to Rice Terraces Vietnam

I’m Nghia – tour guide of Zonitrip. This is my story about the Trekking trip to Rice Terraces Vietnam – Mu Cang Chai with a nice couple (one American and one Spanish).

We leave Hanoi so early: 4am. We trekked at least 5-6hrs with distance about 20km per day through the many type of road: Muddy rice field, climb to Terraces mountain, walk to deep bamboo forest or through the remote village in Mu Cang Chai – one of remote tourism destination in Northwest Vietnam.

April is in Spring – the best time to travel in Vietnam. So we were very lucky with nice weather, not too hot or cool, we had all sun, wind and cloud…It was so perfect for a trekking Rice Terraces Vietnam trip.

First trekking, we visited a peaceful village of Thai people.

This village located near the mountain, behind the beautiful & green rice fields. The Thai ethnic is one of the main ethnic groups in Vietnam, and have little similar culture with people in Laos, Thailand. A man- who is host of simple house we visited – said that they have some common words like numbers, writing, eating, drinking, so on. The Thai people often live on the “stilt house” – the popular house in mountainous area, made by bamboo or wood. Stilt house helps them to avoid wild animals such as tiger, bear, snake…They often feed animals like: ducks, chickens, buffalos…under the floor of house.

Leave the Thai village, we continue our trip to explore Mu Cang Chai – our target in this trip. Mu Cang Chaimade me satisfied with incredible scenery. Mu Cang Chai is over 300km far from Hanoi, is well-known with dramatic Rice Terraces Vietnam – look like the steps of ladder to the sky. Throughout the area, you can have amazing photo of the Rice Terraces covering from this mountain to other mountain. I was surprised when know all of these fields were form by human power with simple tools.

We climbed up to the mountains- where have amazing rice field and walked through the remote of Hmong people.

Let’s talk about Hmong people in Mu Cang Chai.

We visited a house of Hmong, a very simple land house made by wood. Hmong is also one of the 54 ethnic groups in Vietnam. They just came to Vietnam 300-400 years ago to avoid the war with Chinese. Their villages often locate on the high mountains- where have the hard climate through the year, so their life are still poor and very simple

However, I was surprised again when talk with them. Although their life is still hard, but they can provide anything for them by feeding animals around house, cultivations like rice, corn.

Even they also make their clothes from hemp. The women have to make the fabric, embroider and sewing the clothes for all members in family.

On the hiking road, we met a Hmong man. He was so friendly and cute. He invited us to visit his house and play a Hmong song by their traditional pine.

His neighbors were also warm, they told us to join their farming work on the field. It was so exciting experience.

One of most unforgettable experience in our trip was “Bamboo Collecting”.

We stayed one night at homestay of Thai people. The woman host asked us to join with her to find the bamboo. We though: “ Oh, why not? The bamboo in here is very tasty and yummy”. So that tomorrow, each of us were prepared a special bag ( look me like a Vietnamese). We went to deep bamboo forest. Oh, I didn’t think the small bamboo can easily to find like that.They grow above the soil, near the big bamboo tree, and we just picked-it up by hand. It’s our first time to finding bamboo. The woman said that the bamboo is very cheap, only 1 dollar for 1 kg. After 1,5 hour, we found a full bag. It was so happy when we ate the food we found by our self. It’s really fun & great experience

Although the short time, but we had the great time to travel. I hope other travelers also had the great experience like us when travel with Zonitrip.  When you are going to go Mu Cang Chai, Vietnam –  don’t miss the Trekking Rice Terraces Vietnam tour of Zonitrip.

Nghia Bui – Apr, 2018

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H’Mong – Dzao – Thai Ethnic Group in Mu Cang Chai

1. Thai
The Thai ethnic group in Yen Bai province has 53,104 people living in most districts, towns and cities of the province. In particular, it is concentrated in Van Chan, Nghia Lo, Tram Tau and Mu Cang Chai districts, including White Thai and Black Thai. Like the H’Mong people, Thai people live in villages where are in lowland, near the central area and near the water source.  The Thai people are famous for the dances. In the festivals, the spreading dance has become the cultural characteristics. Everyone holds hands to dance under the melody of singing & spreading hands.

Dress apparel: Thai women wear Pieu suits, black skirts and short shirt with the butterfly & spider & cicada button shaped. On the holidays, they can wear a slim black dress, or a hoodie style dress.

Male wear cut pants to the waist and shirt with pockets on either side. On holidays, they wear long black shirt with the white inside.

They put the black scarf in the style of an ax on the daily day, they wore a long scarf on holidays.

2. H’Mong

H’Mong people in Yen Bai are mainly 4 groups: Mong Hoa; Mong Den, Mong Trang và Mong Do.

H’Mong people often live in the village and prefer the high slope, sloping area with the topography of 800-1700m. Part of the H’Mong life is to drown in dances, festivals and glittering in traditional costumes.

Traditional H’Mong costumes are made of linen fabric, decorated by needles, clew, and beeswax to create beautiful patterns. The women's costume includes a head scarf, or head cap with long tail, skirt, apron, belt and leggings. Men's clothing also has its own unique characteristics.  Men's jacket is short, the collar has a lot of daisies. Pants are usually black & indigo dyed with wide pants to clear the climbing hills and canoes easily

.3. Dzao

The Dao ethnic groups live in Yen Bai province. There are four main groups: Red Do, Dao Quan Chet Nga Hoang, Dao Quan Trang and Dao Lan Tuyen. When coming to Vu Linh- Thac Ba, tourists can easily meet the Dao ethnic people living around this area. The traditional costumes of the Dao Yen Bai people are unique by the decorative art on clothes with motifs of plants, animals, human figures, birds, Chinese characters. Men's wears have two types: short-sleeved shirts for daily basis and long shirt for festivals and weddings.

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The custom of dragging wife of H'Mong people

     The custom of dragging wife of H'Mong people 

As usual, spring is also the opportunity for young H’Mong women and to meet each other. These can be year-end markets, festivals during the New Year's Day, or firewood & water picking day to prepare for a new year. With a large population, H’Mong people in Mu Cang Chai still retain their traditional cultural characteristics. The custom of dragging wife that called wife robbery is a unique feature in the marriage of the H’Mong.

When the couple complains and swear to marriage, they will report back to their parents and family. If everything goes well, the man's family will invite matchmaker to ask for the engagement party (the wedding appointment) and finally the wedding (the wedding procession).

This custom can be happened for a variety of reasons such as: The boy likes the girl but the girl refuses, the son's family used the power to "rob the wife" for his son… But these cases have only happened in the past, under the feudalism. Today, as many other ethnic groups, H’mong people always respect the regime of one wife-one husband. The concept of beautyfull couple is healthy, ethical and hard working.

Marriage is the result of voluntary love. The dragging wife custom is now the affirmation for the intense love and aspirations for a happy family of H’Mong girls.

H’Mong weddings are usually celebrated on good days in the spring, because people are abstinent to wed in thunderstorms months.  And it is thought that spring is the season of things to multiply. But not every love story has a happy ending without experiencing turbulent.

In fact, there are many couples who love each other earnestly but they cannot get the agreement from one of their family (mostly the girl's parents). When parents didnot agree but the couple finds themselves to live together, they not only are considered impious but also the marriage is not accepted by the community. At that time, the couple will discuss to marry each other by “The dragging wife custom” with the help from relatives.

Everything is planned in secret that the girl’s family do not know it, the girl is still collecting firewood and picking water as usual. Then one day as scheduled, the man appeared. Friends of the guy appeared and helped the guy pull the girl to home while they are talking.

The girl still felt surprised and cried despite knowing everything. Not only that, girls have to pretend to call for help from her family. It is thought that the girl was taken to wife without crying, it is cheap and spoiled girl. When the bridegroom come to save the girl, the boy’s friends will take the hit for him to let him take the girl to home.

After the boy's family brought the chicken to the feast, the girl was brought into the house. The H’mong perceive that the girl was made the entrance ceremony by a rooster, even if the girl had left home, her parents would not be able to accept it because she had belonged to other family. Therefore, knowing that his daughter has been pulled to wife, even if they do not agree, the girl’s family also agreed.

However, the two parties can agree on the wedding when going to the engagement party. But if the boy used the dragging wife custom, the girl’s family will be less sympathetic and often punish by asking for higher than usual. The boy must determine that he will be fined if he uses the dragging wife custom. And they have to meet the requirements of the girlfriend no matter how much they claim. Because of these rules, not all families can use the "dragging wife" for boys.

Families want to use the dragging wife custom are routinely well-off family so as to meet the requirements of the girl’s family. It may take up to three years for the boy's family to pay the fine.

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The popular questions when travelling Mu Cang Chai by motorbike

Mu Cang Chai, Yen Bai, with 300 kilometres in Northwest far from Hanoi,  is favourite destination for Motorbike travelers who love adventures, natural beauty and love enjoying highland atmosphere.

mu cang chai, vietnam

When is the best time to travel in Mu Cang Chai?

The best time to visit Mu Cang Chai is in harvest season, from September to October and poured water season in May or June. These are the two most appropriate time for you to admire the magnificent scenery of northwestern mountains with rice terraces ladder brilliant yellow colour; or water flashed like a mirror surface.

How is the weather in Mu Cang Chai

Unlike the plain areas, the weather in the mountains is very unpredictable and constantly changing throughout the day. Often there may be rain at night, early morning fog and sunny daytime sky. You should prepare for wind and rain coat jacket coming here, to prevent the sudden rain forest.

How to get there?

You can go to Mu Cang Chai by car or motorcycle. If moving from Hanoi, normally it will take about 8-9 hours on a motorcycle. You can also catch buses under Hanoi – Than Uyen to go through the Mu Cang Chai. However, places are scattered in various communes and villages, motorcyclists will help you be more active.

Zonitrip offer the options Motorbike Mu Cang Chai 3Day2Night to save your time and health, there is a new expressway that connects Hanoi to Yen Bai within 2 hours, then continue take a motorbike from Yen Bai – Mu Cang Chai.  In addition, Zonitrip arrange the private car for you from Hanoi – Mu Cang Chai.

With many alpine terrain and steep gorge as Khau Pha Pass aces, you should restrict speed when moving. Guests should not go at night because of poor visibility and security issues, corrupted Khau Pha Pass car on.

What things need to bring

You should prepare the necessary utensils such as warm clothing, wind jacket, toiletries, batteries and charger, camera and phone, ID. If you travel by motorcycle, do not forget to equip themselves substandard helmets, protective gear limbs, gloves, reflective stickers.

motorbike mu cang chai tour

When motorcyclists should wear a raincoat raining entirety, hair dryer and shoe cover. Also, stay away from villages, you should also bring candy to donate ethnic children.

Where to stay

Tourism in Mu Cang Chai undeveloped so the accommodation establishments primarily as hostel and homestay. You can stay in the town of Tu Le, Nghia Lo or Mu Cang Chai. With the peak season, prices may stay in the range of 300000-400000 dong a room. If selected homestay, price for a contract is 60000-100000.

Zonitrip often arrange to stay at homestay of Thai people in Mu Cang Chai village and Nghia Lo illage. It was really unique and unforgettable experience. I truly enjoyed having local foods,local alcoholic drinks and taking stunning photos. The ethnic families we stayed with were beyond welcoming, and they know where to go to get a taste of authentic

Homestay Mu Cang Chai

Which point must to see

When to Yen Bai, you can combine sightseeing Mu Cang Chai with other districts. Through Tu Le area, you will visit the Lim Mong, Lim Thai, Cao Pha field, Khau Pha Pass.

Rice field in Lim Thai village, Mu Cang Chai

mu cang chai – vietnam

Gold terraced rice fields Mu Cang Chai, Vietnam

If time permits, travelers can continue on through Than Uyen, O Quy Ho Pass and to Sapa, Lao Cai.

What to eat in Mu Cang Chai

When to stop in Yen Bai and Mu Cang Chai, you can enjoy the typical dishes of the ethnic Hmong, Thai, such as five-color sticky, black earth cake, grilled fish pa pinh top, cake, grilled chicken with honey or buffalo meat infected leaf kitchen upstairs. These are all traditional dishes of local ethnic minorities.

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After the ride with the experienced team of Zonitrip, you will have the lifetime experience. Below links are featured trips to Mu Cang Chai, the best place for motorbike tours north west Vietnam.

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3 days: http://zonitrip.com/package/motorbike-mu-cang-chai-tour/

5 days: http://zonitrip.com/package/motorbike-sapa-mu-cang-chai-tour/

Motorbike Mu cang Chai- Marks the end of the unplanned road trip

” Sapa – Than Uyen – Mu Cang Chai – Nghia Lo – Yen Bai
— 3 days, about 302km.
Marks the end of the unplanned road trip.—–








Motorbike tour #Sapa- #MuCangChai- Riding through mountainous road, trusting my own judgement maneuvering the sharp bends both uphill & downhill. Apparent signs of possible landslides along the way & passing by a few + fallen trees covering half of the road, praying hard that I wouldn’t have to see one falling before my very eyes.

Riding through villages would mean terrible road condition. Of bumpy, rocky road (literally rocks) and countless of potholes. So challenging that if that was game, I would’ve unlocked a few levels of achievements cause I got through it hahaha! Few skids here and there but I didnt fall, and thats good enough.

Unpredictable weather. Either it was pouring so heavily that I just wanna shut my eyes cause too much rain got into my eyes and I can barely see what’s ahead, or the weather was just nice with wind and all (and that makes me appreciate the dry weather more cause it could rain any moment!)

No words to describe the ever-changing horizon throughout the journey. There’s so much that I can capture / describe, but I guess it’s best to see with your own eyes.

Was tweeting few days before the trip about how I’d want to get a bike license so that I can do road trips when Im traveling. Who would’ve thought that the day would actually come anytime soon? Well they say the best trips / adventures are the ones not planned. And it sure is! Even if it means riding a scooter (I think since its auto) throughout hahaha!

What an adventure!! Though it was one hell of a ride / experience, it’s another dream come true, definitely! ”
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Are you already to explore the new land?
Let’s go …

The itinerary:
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