In the space of "the scent of deserted hills/the water of streams in the steepness", in Cat Cat village (Sa Pa ward, Lao Cai), a classroom for preserving H'Mong culture, where children are taught traditional cultural values that still take place regularly every day, as calm as the water spinning in the Northwest highlands.
The sound of waterfall, horses fighting on the banks of streams or the sound of silver carpets following each graceful step of the H'Mong girls all created a feature that attracts tourists when coming to Cat Cat village - a famous community tourist destination nearly 3km from the center of Sapa town.
In those characteristic sounds, the lyrics and lyrical works from the H'Mong cultural conservation class of the fine artist Giang Seo Ga, Former Director of the Sa Pa District Cultural Center (now Sa Pa Ward), became unique, proving that traditional values are being preserved and promoted persistently by the bustling tourist flow to the village.
Mr. Giang Seo Ga's class is simple, simple but solemn when both teachers and students wear traditional costumes of the H'Mong people. According to Mr. Giang Seo Ga, after retiring in April 2019, he accepted the invitation of Cat Cat Tourism Company to attend a class to teach H'Mong culture.
The class has about a few dozen children from grades 1 to 9, the study schedule is arranged flexibly to facilitate their daily lives. For normal days, the class is open regularly on weekends. During the summer vacation, children are able to study continuously for two sessions a day for three months, each session lasting 45 minutes.
With just blackboard, white powder and three large wooden tables, children excitedly sat in groups listening to the teacher playing the board and teaching. Suddenly, the small roofs bowed and whirled with the words in the notebook, the little fingers crowned with blue ink. The joyful classroom atmosphere is in harmony with the excitement of many visitors from all over the country coming to visit the small village.
According to Mr. Giang Seo Ga, lectures in the classroom revolve around the culture from ancient times to the present in the lives of the H'Mong people. Walking through the winding road through simple wooden houses, leisurely footing on the green stone steps in the middle of majestic mountains and forests, visitors can see the sparkling sunlight with indigo fabric, silver silk, and light yellow sparkling spheres... These are the items carrying the traditional customs, practices, and crafts of the H'Mong culture that Mr. Giang Seo Ga is preserving and passing on every day to children.
There was a time when Mr. Giang Seo Ga had difficulty teaching culture to children when the pace of life in the village was today associated with tourism development, a more colorful and bustling life. The road leading through the village, crossing Tien Sa waterfall, and A Lu bridge not only has the footsteps of the H'Mong people but also domestic and international tourists.
In the work of preserving, conserving and promoting traditional cultural values of ethnic communities, teaching and educating ethnic culture is one of the urgent tasks. Because in the current version, some children cannot speak H'Mong language, while their parents, some do not know and do not understand the common language, leading to a generation gap in the family.
With love for the origin of the nation and hoping that future generations will promote precious traditions, Mr. Giang Seo Ga always teaches himself in all ways, from H'Mong to Vietnamese so that children can hear and understand most easily. This helps them not only understand and engrave their roots but also spread and share with tourists.
The singing, the flute, and the flute flute from the cultural space for tourists to experience in Cat Cat Can village, Mr. Giang Seo Ga looked at the children proudly and said that in 2025, at the Ceremony to announce the decision and award the certificate of national intangible cultural heritage of the Black H'Mong People's Art of Construction, the children in the class were invited to perform. That is the "sweet fruit" of all teachers and students after the trio songs that Mr. Giang Seo Ga teaches in H'Mong, Vietnamese and English.
The special thing about attending the class is that not only are they given cultural knowledge, but the children are supported by Cat Cat Tourism Company with 100,000 VND/day each. In developing community tourism in ethnic minority areas, it requires a multilateral cooperation model, including ethnic minority communities, governments, cultural organizations and tourism businesses.
From the invitation of Mr. Giang Seo Ga to teach the class to the support for children participating in the class in the village, the responsibility and clear role of the factors in this cooperation model have been demonstrated. The result was that some children solicited tourists in the village to significantly reduce, while the work of preserving and promoting heritage values was improved. Knowledge, customs, national languages... passed down and passed down through generations are the source to help maintain identity and cultural diversity.
During recess after school, children sit under the peach trees and laugh happily, I embroider, I play solidly. Mr. Giang Seo Ga rested teaching that in all Cat Cat villages, women and mothers crawled to preserve the traditional occupations of the H'Mong ethnic group, from painting bee wax, weaving fabric, dyeing indigo... The lectures and images of women and mothers crawled to preserve culture not only left a mark on children but also became a beautiful image for tourists.
Mr. Giang Seo Ga confided that many innocent children who say that they want to become teachers in the future are very touched. The lectures on traditional national culture for the next generations of old, loyal and steadfast teachers like ancient times in the midst of a vast mountain, in the heart of a life continuously flowing like clouds flying over the top of the mountain, until now, partly reflect the strong hope.
The development of tourism, including community tourism, always comes from the need to learn and experience traditional cultural values of tourists. Mr. Giang Seo Ga, women, mothers, children and the local community not only play a role in preserving but also directly participate in exploiting, promoting, and creating heritage to turn heritage into assets, creating a driving force for preservation associated with improving livelihoods, thereby helping traditional cultural values continue to be maintained sustainably.
According to the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Lao Cai province, in recent times, Sa Pa ward has always paid attention to and especially promoted the role of community tourism as a sustainable direction, both developing the economy and preserving the cultural identity of ethnic minorities, especially the cultural identity of the Mong and Dao ethnic groups.
Project No. 03 of the Sa Pa Town Party Committee on "Developing Culture and Tourism; building a Sa Pa National Key Tourism Area of international stature in the period of 2020-2025" is a lever to preserve and promote the national cultural values and heritages associated with tourism development in Sa Pa.
The singing and reading of words from Mr. Giang Seo Ga's class on preserving H'Mong culture and diverse activities of the local community not only create unique cultural features to attract tourists, the main thing is that these traditional cultural features are being jointly promoted to preserve and promote to continue opening a sustainable tourism development direction in the future for Cat Cat village.
