News

Transforming communities in the highlands of Viet Nam

23.11.2020

When we think of mountains, we think of adventure, natural beauty, a pleasant climate and peace. Its only when we dig deeper, we begin to understand the lived realities and challenges that the communities here navigate on a day-to-day basis to survive in such harsh regions

Ms Lo Thi Trang, a Muong woman born in 1994, owns a traditional stilt house in the Da Bia village, a remote hamlet in the mountainous Hao Binh Province of northern Viet Nam. She was forced to move away from Da Bia when she was still in high school to pursue further studies because of the lack of opportunities and facilities in her own village. After school, she took up a job at a technology company, but she found the work unstable and the pay unreliable. She was also concerned about the ailing health of her parents, so she decided to move back to her village in 2016.

Da Bia is home to several indigenous cultures. However, lack of opportunities and income sources have forced several youth to migrate from here and leave behind their home and culture. The village is known for its brocade art and beautiful landscapes and is also home to the Sung and Muong communities. Ms Trangs culture and traditions date back to several thousand years and is rich in stories and folklore, which have been recognized by the Viet Nam Federation of UNESCO Associations.

Several communities like that of Ms Trangs are forced to leave behind their traditions and homes in search of better economic opportunities. Therefore, the growth of gentler forms of tourism in such culturally and ecologically fragile regions has come as a boon to its residents. Tourism is a great binding force that brings livelihood access to local communities and provides recognition to the culture of the region. This helps in both conserving culture and enriching local values and traditions.

Da Bia, with the help of international NGOs, has slowly transformed into an eco-tourism village. When Ms Trang came back to the village, she noticed that people were earning more, the village was cleaner and the community had become environmentally conscious. Although she was thinking of becoming a teacher, she changed her mind and decided to join the community-based tourism project to enable several other community members to have a stable income and better opportunities.

Read the full blog on mountainhomestays.com

Mountain Partnership member Mountain Homestays has been working to bring out the stories of several such initiatives and the richness of the cultures they seek to preserve. They are building a platform for these communities to showcase their tourism potential and offerings to travelers from all over the globe. To explore community tourism initiatives in Cambodia, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan and Viet Nam, and in the Indian regions of Ladakh and Meghalaya, visit mountainhomestays.com.