Farmers have to chisel rock to create hollows and fill them with soil for cultivating rice on the Dong Van rock plateau in the northern province of Ha Giang.

>> An audio version of the story is available here

With a lot of efforts and labor, Mong ethnic minority people living in the Ma Pi Leng Mountain have grown their crops that way.

The Mong people have a proverb, “No mountain is higher than the knee of the Mong people,” meaning that they can overcome the hardship and challenges of Nature.

These people have a special variety of rice called Khau Mang since it produces fragrant and tasty rice seeds.

The price of Khau Mang is always around twice that of other rice varieties.

Vu Se Co is the farmer who owns the biggest amount of rice on the rock plateau in Dong Van, with over a hectare and a half. He resides in Ma Xi B Village in Ma Le Commune of Dong Van District.

The road leading to his house can challenge even the most experienced driver because it is often slippery over morning dew or after a rain. The road is wide enough for a car to travel and below it is a deep abyss.

Standing on the peak of Ma Pi Leng, the Nho Que River looks like a blue thread below the Tu San Abyss.

Co’s house is located by the abyss.

A local held his mouth with two hands and made a long and loud howl, which is the way to call each other. Down the abyss, a similar howl was sounded as a reply.

Waiting for a while, Co appeared with his hands wet with dew. He bowed to enter his house and carried out a can of alcohol to treat his guests.

Watering rock with sweat to plant crops

After some bowls of wine, Co took the guests to his rice fields located along the banks of the Xeo Ho Stream, around a hectare and a half in total area.

To own such an amount of rice, Co has worked almost all of his lifetime to transform rock into farming land for growing the grain.

He recalled that he did not want to follow local practices: carrying bags of soil to stuff into rock holes and put seeds in.

He decided to transform rock foundations into strips of rice fields.

He works all days round, even at night under the moonlight, year after year.

The story of transforming rock into rice fields can be summarized with those words and the farmer and his family have lost so much labor and sweat to this farming. 

“The state granted me money to transform rock into rice fields.

“Every farmer was encouraged, and given money, to do it.

“I worked to have my own rice fields, to harvest crops, and to be granted the state money. It’s a pleasure to do it,” Co said.

Now, Co owns 1.5 hectares of rice field, two hectares of corn farm, 45 cows, and some hundred goats.

The man even lends his rice fields and cows out to other poor people in his village.

Thao Xin Ho, Thao Dung Sin, Thao Va So, and Vu The Chu are those to whom Co lent his land.

“The people here are poor. I am now having enough to eat so I help them,” Co said simply.

“I have money to buy many cows and goats. I’ve lent them to my villagers and when the animals give birth to cubs, they’ll get a part.”

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