Travelog - A travel guide to Vietnam

Highland hamlets of B’Nur, Dangya and Dung and the whole Lat commune of the Lac Duong district, the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong is close to Lang Biang mountain. All the hamlets lie on a gentle slope next to a hundred-year-old valley at the legendary mountain foot.

Many senior people in the Lat commune say that it’s a long time since they climbed the mountain in their youth. They could no longer behold Fairy U Yang’s two breast-like mountain tops in the morning, and they missed it so much.

At the warm atmosphere of a night in the B’Ncur village, I was told about the Lang Biang legend for the first time by village patriarch Pantinh Bor:

“Once upon a time, there were two big tribes of Lat and Sre in the La Ngu Thuong area (present Lam Dong province). The Lat tribe had a young chieftain called Lang. He was as handsome as the trunk of forest trees on the mountain peak. He was brave when facing storms and was kind-hearted even to plants.

The Sre tribe has Biang, daughter of chieftain Jrenh. She was beautiful, graceful, gentle, intelligent and modest. When Biang went to the forest to pick flowers and fruits, the grass and plants seemed to be closer and happier.

Later Lang killed a python near the Datanla spring to save Biang, and they fell in love. They made a date and met each other in moon-lit nights in the forest and mountain of La Ngu Thuong. With a love is as passionate as a flame, Biang decides to catch Lang to be her husband.

Plants and animals knowing the good news prepared a wedding party for them. However, the wedding was unsuccessful because chieftain Jrenh did not allow them to ignore custom and practice passed from one generation to another.

Overcoming the sufferings and tear, they decide to die together. Lang and Biang sit silently on the peak of the mountain. It rains cats and dogs in the forest and the storm and thunder is heard roaring in the sky. From the crescent to the full moon, they breathe give their last breath. Dew shrounded white the whole area, making the whole high plateau gloomy as though in mourning clothes.

Animals, heaven, land and many tribes see off their spirit. The hatred is over, people of different tribes gathered together. They buried Lang and Biang on the peak of the K’Bung mountain. The grave got bigger and bigger. Since then, the mountain peak is named after Lang and Biang…”

At the foot of the legendary Lang Biang, the Lat commune has become familiar. From a few small hamlets of a remote and mountainous commune in the past, the Lat commune has become a famous place.

It is famous for the biological diversity of the natural reserve which has been upgraded into the Bidup-Nui Ba National Park. It is also famous for precious values of the Co Ho culture being preserved and promoted.

The sound of gongs is still melodiously heard everyday. The sound of M’ buot khen is still resounded every night. The patterns of brocade are seen everywhere in the valley. The Lat commune has become a symbol of the tourism development.

The Co Ho Lach and Co Ho Chil peoples on the Lang Biang plateau are very ancient. The name of the Lach tribe is part of the origin of the name of Da Lat. The community of the Lach tribe lives in an extended way in B’Neur, Dangya and Dung hamlets with a population of about 7,000 of 500 households in the Lat commune’s town.

Their ancestors were the initial residents on the Lang Biang plateau who met and received doctor Yersin and his exploration delegation in the itinerary to discover this beautiful high plateau a century ago.

Tourists coming there from many regions of the country and many countries in the world. They conquer the peak of 1,500-metre high Lang Biang of the Bidup-Nui Ba National Park.

Tourists get to know the round of epics and the legend of the Lam Vien plateau. They long to discover nature here, make friends with locals and get to know the attractive and mysterious culture.

In the Lat commune, it seems that every local knows how to develop tourism. When it gets dark, Dangya, Dung and B’Neur villages have eight troupes of gongs to give performances near the flame to entertain visitors. Hosts and guests together dance around the flame, listen to folk songs of yalyau and tampot and the sound of M’buot khen and drink ruou can (wine drunk out of a jar through pipes).

Everyday, hundreds of tourists are beautified with brocade patterns and sun themselves in the space of Bidup-Nui Ba National Park and the attraction of the Lang Biang plateau’s legend.