Therefore, Dak Bla River has great significance to Kon Tum province and city, as an eternal symbol. More strangely, this is a river flowing in the middle of the majestic Central Highlands.
River of epic
Kon Tum City is in the bright days of the year-end festival. Christmas trees made of bamboo and wood bearing the bold patterns of the Ba Na and J’rai people have created a splendid and jubilant atmosphere unique to Christmas in this Central Highlands land.
Kon Tum has a beautiful wooden church with glass paintings filtering the afternoon sunlight, creating a magical space of spiritual life. Kon Tum has Bo Y border gate, a border junction with the sound of roosters crowing that all three Indochinese brother countries Vietnam - Laos - Cambodia can hear.
Kon Tum has a notorious prison, where the French colonialists used to detain revolutionary soldiers captured in Nghe An, Ha Tinh, Thua Thien - Hue provinces... and then these political prisoners turned Kon Tum prison into a "communist university" in the middle of this dangerous jungle.
But the first place I visited in Kon Tum was the Dak Bla River of the Central Highlands legend. Here, the Ba Na people built their houses, cleared the first fields, gave birth to children, generation after generation. Good land attracts birds, from this village, dozens of other villages have sprung up around the milk of Dak Bla.
The Dak Bla River has become a lucky god of the local people, similar to the Thanh Hoang in the villages in the North. They worship the Dak Bla River and always pray for what they need from the river. Alluvium, fish, shrimp, water source, to feed people; peace, gentleness to nourish the soul... all come from Dak Bla.
But the residents living along the Dak Bla basin admire the river for another feature: its reverse flow. The indomitable, heroic character of the Central Highlands epic and the Central Highlands people also partly originate from the reverse flow of the Dak Bla and the Serepok River.
Geographically, the Dak Bla River - with a total length of 139km - is the confluence of three rivers: Dak Akoi, Dak S'nghe and Dak Pne. Dak Bla, like other rivers here, originates in the Northeast region of the majestic Truong Son mountain range, but the Dak Bla's waterway is much more contrary and arduous.
There is some controversy about the origin of the Dak Bla River. Previously, it was believed that the Dak Bla River originated at the foot of Ngoc Linh Mountain in Tu Mo Rong District (Kon Tum) and ended when it joined the Se San River. However, recently, researchers have determined that the origin of the Dak Bla River is not in Tu Mo Rong.
The first water source that created the shape of Dak Bla was the Dak Snghe River. The Dak Snghe River originates from Mang But Commune (Kon Plong District) and belongs to the Eastern Truong Son mountain range. From the foot of Ngoc Men Mountain, where Kon Tum and Quang Nam border, flows a small stream. That stream joins two other small streams in Mang But Commune to form the Dak Snghe River.
Passing through Mang But commune to Dak Tang commune, the Dak Snghe river is blocked, swells and becomes the reservoir of Thuong Kon Tum hydroelectric power plant. Behind the reservoir, the Dak Snghe river suddenly changes direction to the left bank and then slopes down to Kon Ray district. Here, the Dak Snghe river meets the Dak Koi river from the West.
Flowing for another 5km, it meets the Dak Pne River from the East on the left bank and joins it. From here, the river has a new name, Dak Bla. After receiving water from its tributaries, the Dak Bla River widens and flows through the residential areas of the Xe Dang, Ro Ngao and Ba Na people.
Thus, on the way, in addition to Dak Snghe and Dak Koi, the Dak Bla River also receives water from Dak Sut, Dak T're streams and many other streams. When flowing through Kon Ray district, the Dak Bla River turns to the North - South direction, then from the South, the Dak Bla winds, quietly embracing the city of Kon Tum.
Love song of Dak Bla
Musician Nguyen Cuong - a "boy from Hanoi's Old Quarter" but famous for his songs about the Central Highlands - described Dak Bla in the song "Love song on the Dak Bla River" sincerely and humanly as follows:
Dakbla Dakbla stream
Still hugging the town
Like mountains embracing clouds
Like clouds embracing mountains
Like your arms
Softly, softly...
But at the very point where we stopped to take a portrait of Dak Bla, the river turned to flow west instead of flowing east. Because of this difference, Dak Bla also has another name, which sounds very geographically specialized: The river flows backwards.
Imagine this, from the Mang But source to Kon Tum city, the Dak Bla river still flows in the North - South direction. However, when it joins the Po Tong stream, the river suddenly changes direction to the West, starting its reverse flow. The flow of the Dak Bla is very gentle and slow in the Kon Tum city area because of the flat terrain.
Therefore, the alluvium of Dak Bla has the conditions to settle and build up a vast plain. After creating the foundation for Kon Tum city, Dak Bla flows to Gia Lai, joins the Krong Po-ko river to form the Se San river and continues its course to Cambodia, then joins the Mekong river to flow to Vietnam.
The Dak Bla River is like a cool breath of fresh air that brings vitality to the burning Central Highlands. However, the people living on the river tell a different story about this natural flow. It is not because of the Truong Son mountain range, not because of the watershed, but because of a tragic love story.
The story goes that in ancient times, the Dak Bla River also flowed eastward like many other rivers and streams. But the Central Highlands at that time was torn apart by wars between tribes, including an irreconcilable feud between a J’rai village on the right bank upstream and a Ba Na village on the left bank downstream.
But a boy from J’rai village and a girl from Bana village were deeply in love with each other. They knew that their love would never become husband and wife because the hatred between the two villages was too deep. So, they made an appointment on a bright moonlit night to go to the riverbank on their side of the village, stab themselves to death, then jump into the river to drift together to a place where there was no more hatred.
The boy's blood flowed east to find his lover, while the girl's blood swam west to find him. When the two blood streams came close, they swirled together into a whirlpool and swept the entire river along with them to the west. The next morning, the villagers were extremely surprised to see the familiar river suddenly flowing west, and the water was as muddy and red as blood. When they learned about this, the two villages immediately put aside their hatred and became sworn brothers. But the Dak Bla River from then on continued to flow west, unable to change course.
The value of the Dak Bla River in the material and spiritual life of the ethnic groups in the Central Highlands is enormous. The epics of the Central Highlands all mention Dak Bla as a very important element in life. In the epic of the Ba Na people, it is said that the communities living along the Dak Bla River are all rich and powerful thanks to the generosity of the river and the fertile plains that Dak Bla has created.
In this era, the Dak Bla River has become a valuable natural resource in a different way. It is also considered an energy river like the Da River in the Northwest because Dak Bla carries a series of hydroelectric plants. The river has brought water, cool wind, alluvium, fish and shrimp, and now it is tirelessly flowing out white gold for the Central Highlands.
