Although located in the land of Ha Giang with majestic geological parks of Cac-xto ( Karst) such as Dong Van, Meo Vac, Du Gia, the terrain of the area is located in Ha Thanh village (Ha Giang 1 ward, Tuyen Quang province) quite low and flat.
The Tay people originally preferred to live in flat, windproof and close to water sources, not like the Dao people, the H'Mong people who preferred to live in high mountains. Therefore, most of the villages in this area belong to the Tay people.
Although located at the foot of the deserted Tay Con Linh, it is not far from the urban area of Ha Giang city (the old administrative name before merging the province on July 1, 2025), only about 7km.
Although not located in the towering terrain like Hoang Su Phi or Dong Van, Ha Thanh village still has a unique beauty with soft terraced fields, surrounded by a series of villages, along with a stream flowing down from the top of the mountain.
The houses in Ha Thanh village are not rammed houses, yin-yang tiled roofs, stone fences, but traditional stilt houses with palm roofs - a type of tree that grows quite a lot in the Midlands and this area. The stilt house style is simple but also very poetic, creating an unforgettable unique beauty.
However, the image that overwhelms visitors here is the rocks that seem to grow from the ground, seeming to fall from the sky, arranged in a mess without any order. From the first moment I eyes the strange, smooth rocks of the hundred-year-long process of phong hoa, I immediately thought of a "disarray".
The phrase "the chaos of the battle" may remind readers of the story of the young general Lu Ton of the Three Kingdoms of China, who, due to his desire to chase Liu Bi's army, got lost in the battlefield that Kong Mi set up, with the constantly moving rocks that caused Lu Ton to get lost, and had to rely on the guidance of Huang Xia out of the army, Kong Mi's father-in-law, to escape the battle.
However, the chaos in the small Tay village named Ha Thanh is not as dangerous, but very gentle, creating an interesting landscape for the beautiful terraced fields of this place. The rocks are lying still, peaceful in the waves of rice when green, when golden for many years.
What happened here to arrange a mess of stones like this? Is that any trace left over from a geological formation that caused landslides and rock melting? Is that the scene of a terrible flash flood that suddenly occurred?
Many questions were raised but not answered. Even the elderly in the village shook their heads, only saying that when they grew up, they saw rocks like that, and the next layer followed the previous layer, continuously digging up the fields with steps around them, every step of the field kept winding around the rocks and opening them, no one thought about breaking rocks or moving rocks.
Also because of the mindset of "living in harmony with natural geography", this beautiful terraced fields in Tay village have an unusually strange and beautiful appearance. It is completely different from the terraced fields rising from the bottom to the high sky of Hoang Su Phi or the small pieces of rice like a mat surrounding the sharp cat ear stone c layers in Dong Van.
At sunset, when the sunset is at the end of the day, the forest is on the top of Tay Con Linh, and the warm golden morning falls on the Lower City, the afternoon smoke billows from the stilt houses and then rise on the stone clouds. At that time, the scene suddenly became strangely peaceful, when next to the rice waves, a herd of buffalo and elephants made of stone laying in silence.
Seeing those rocks, people's hearts suddenly felt relieved, then leaned on the rocks to rest. The sound of tearing of the nearby stream flows through a sandbank of rough sand caused by broken rocks, squeezing through the ancient rocks of "ards" like human soul into the dreamland.
The stream water is very clear, very clean and cool because it flows down from high mountains, not chained and poisoned by rotten leaves. Thanks to the water of this stream, life here becomes comfortable. Water for daily use, water for growing rice, water for raising fish, a specialty fish of the Tay people.
Almost every household in the village brings stream water to the pond to raise fish suddenly, or just needs to dredge soil and build a wall to block the water to form a pond. Suddenly, the fish only live well in clean, cold water and are circulating every day. These are all enough here, thanks to the stream and thanks to the rock.
The fish is suddenly considered by the people of Ha Thanh village to be a delicious piece that deserves to be used as a dish to offer to heaven and earth, forefathers during worship, death anniversaries, and festivals. The custom of using fish suddenly to worship during the Tay people's holidays has existed for a long time.
On the 5th day of the 5th lunar month, the whole Ha Thanh village often cooks sticky rice and grills fish suddenly to thank God for blessing the bumper crop. On the 12th of the 11th lunar month, the Tay people here often have the custom of making fish cakes, also to worship their gods and ancestors.
All of their daily habits and beliefs are based on the geographical characteristics of this place. There are stones to build fences for rice fields on steps, stones to build roads for streams, stones to clean water so that people have delicious rice, precious fish and affectionate, sweet Then singing.
Therefore, the "disorder" of Ha Thanh village does not make people confused or scared, but creates a place to slow down to live with terraced fields, with rice-picking trees along the stream, with pine forests and fish flock suddenly feeding with moss in cold water. Just like that for a thousand years!
