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The ‘Squirrel’ men of the Nam Tran Valley

The ‘Squirrel’ men of the Nam Tran Valley

Thursday, March 28, 2013, 18:07 GMT+7

‘Squirrel men’ is the nickname given to locals living in a valley of limestone mounts in the central province of Quang Nam, where most people can climb trees as fast as a squirrel to pick a type of wild fruit that grows in local forests.

They reside in villages in the upstream area of the Do River – a branch of the Vu Gia River – in the Truong Son mountain chain. The area belongs to Ca Dang Commune of Dong Giang District.

Village of squirrel men

The Hien and Men villages are separated from a limestone chain called Boi Chu Phieng by the Do River.

At this time of year, village locals are knitting rattan papooses, a kind of bag used to hold things on their backs, to prepare for the harvest season of Loong boong, or Bon bon, which begins in the fifth month of the lunar calendar. Locals can harvest the wild-grown fruit (scientific name of Lausium domestium Corr.) for four months out of the year.

Each papoose has a hook the size of a human finger to attach it to a tree branch.

“In the peak season of August, all of the locals go to the mountains to pick Loong boong,” said Mr. Ha Van Bach. The forests are just a half day walk from his village.

“Here, all people know how to climb trees. After climbing, locals learn swimming, shooting with a bow and arrow, hunting, and trapping. Getting married can only come after mastering those skills,” said Bach.

To show off his climbing skills, Bach put his papoose over his shoulder and swiftly jumped up to hold a branch of a tree. After a few quick moves, he stood over ten meters above the ground.

Cleverly, he moved his body from branch to branch by swinging to collect fruit. His swinging from tree to tree looked like that of a wild squirrel.

During the peak of harvest season, most adults from the villages live at the top of Loong boong trees, which spread from Ham Hill to Heo Hill across the valley. Both girls and boys pick fruit as well, he added.

“Climbers need no rice or drinking water as eating Loong boong is enough,” Bach noted, and explained that Loong boong is similar to lichee with its sweet taste.

When a papoose is full, a ‘squirrel’ goes down and carries it back to his village and starts a new journey back to the forest, said A Lang Tam, Bach’s wife.

Bhnuoc Vui, who is 72, recalled that when he was younger he, as well as many young men now, could survive for a week in the forest without rice and water.

Decades ago French soldiers arrived and attempted to oust locals from the forests, but “we ran faster than the French and they have guns, we have bow and arrow,” Vui recalled.

Shares for animals

Though it is a wild forest, the locals from Hien and Men take turns caring for young trees growing in the forest as if they were in their gardens.

Vui said that during the fight against the French, the villages could live in the forests with available vegetables and stream water thanks to their adaptation to the local weather and climate over generations.

As a contractual liability with animals and the Gods, locals in the valley have never picked fruit before squirrels enjoyed them. Locals can only begin picking fruit after they offer the best and place them in a rock cave, and wait until squirrels eat them all.

“No one dares to pick fruit if squirrels don’t eat the ones in the cave,” Vui said. “Otherwise, branches break to punish you, and the trees would not offer fruit later in the season.”

The Co Tu believes that it is wild squirrels that eat Loong boong and carry the seed of the fruit to other areas to enlarge the forest.

“Thanks to squirrels, no one cultivates this forest but it keeps on spreading,” Vui said.

And locals always spare fruit as a share for other local inhabitants, including birds, squirrels and other creatures.

According to a legendary story about the Loong boong fruit created during the Nguyen Dynasty centuries ago, prince Nguyen Phuc Anh was once beingchased by Tay Son troops. While running away, Anh moved upstream on the O Gia River, and his food and water ran out. Anh and his followers picked the Loong boong fruit and survived in the wild and successfully moved towards the south. After becoming the king and naming himself Gia Long, he conferred the fruit that saved him and his troops the name of Nam Tran, which means the precious fruit of the south. So the Loong boong is also called Nam Tran fruit.

Tuoi Tre

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