Central Highland
From Dalat the fertile plateau of the Central Highlands stretches northwards for hundreds of kilometers. This is the most sparsely populated region of Vietnam and inhabited mainly by the dozens of ethnic. There are many places of interest in the Central Highlands and although the main towns of the Buon Ma Thuot, Pleiku and Kontum may not have a great deal to offer, there are many authentic minority villages throughout the area. The traditional thatched, wooden stilt-houses of the Ede, Jarai, Bahnar and others are a feature of the region and an overnight stay in one of the villages is a memorable experience. One such village is Jun village on the shore of Lak Lake about 50km from Buon Ma Thuot. Here visitors can have a real Central Highlands experience with an elephant ride through the countryside, a cruise on the lake in a dug-out canoe and spend the night in a village longhouse.
December to March is a good time to visit the Central Highlands when conditions are usually dry and cool. Along the central coast there is a rainy season from December to February. June to October tends to be very dry and hot.
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Attractions |
Ako Dhong Village
Ako Dhong Village (or Co Thon), is two kilometers north of Buon Ma Thuot City, Dak Lak Province. It has 300 inhabitants; all of the villagers are the E De and the M’Nong people.
“Ako” means the original source in the E De’s language, and “Dhong” means Valley, the Valley of the original source of Ea Nhon Spring. This is a village famous for its prosperity, and is often called “The village of tile-roofed houses” or “Ama Rin Village”.
Formerly Ako Dhong was a jungle. Ama Rin, the owner of the village, a native of Ea Mlai Village in M’Drak District, was among the first people who came here to set up the village. Prior to 1975, Ako Dhong Village had only three long-houses of ten households. All the villagers shared a big well, and cultivated 12ha of coffee. The villagers’ self-sufficient livelihood was based on cooperative working method and average distribution. From 1975 towards, together with the government’s policy on settlement, Ako Dhong villagers had households of smaller scale formed and a village school set up.
Ba Na Village
Ba Na Village is in the Central Highlands, Kon Tum Province.
Ba Na Village has many beautiful wooden stilt houses. The staircases leading to the houses are made from tree trunks; each step meticulously chiselled by the skilled Ba Na men. The Ba Na ethnic group was the first among the minorities of the Central Highlands to write and to use buffaloes and cows to plough their fields. Nevertheless, their lifestyle has remained primitive. The Ba Na is nationally famous for their hunting skills. Like other ethnic minorities, the Ba Na people keep fires burning in the middle of their houses. Family members and friends sit around the fire to drink, eat, and talk. The fire also keeps the house warm. Men sometimes have a scar on their chest. It is a result of a wound their inflict to themselves with fire in sign of sorrow when one of their close relatives die.
Communal House (Rong House)
The Rong House can only be found in villages to the north of the Central Highlands, especially in Gia Lai and Kon Tum provinces. It is a large, imposing, beautifully decorated stilt house built in the middle of the village. It is where community activities take place, reception of guests, meetings, wedding ceremonies, or praying ceremonies. It is also the place for reception of guests. The Rong House of each ethnic group has its own architectural style, design, and décor. Yet there are shared features. In the village, it is often the biggest house roofed with yellow-dried gianh leaves and having 8 big wood columns. The rafters are decorated with patterns of bright colours, depicting religious scenes, legendary stories about ancient heroes, stylized animals, and other familiar things of the village life. The most salient feature of the décor of the Rong House is the image of the brilliant God of Sun. The Rong House is a symbol of the culture of Central Highlanders, an age-old and stable culture. The bigger the house, the wealthier the village is. It is a pride of the whole village.
Don Village
Don Village is located northwest of Buon Ma Thuot in Krong Na Commune, Buon Don District, Dak Lak Province close to the Cambodian border, approximately 42km from Buon Ma Thuot. Don Village has been famous for its Kru, powerful elephant tribe leaders, for a long time, and is well known in India and France for its elephant. Y Pui, a 102-year-old man (1883-1985) who tamed over 450 elephants, spent part of his life as King Bao Dai’s Mahout. Elephant training and hunting has been passed down through generations. It takes 67 months to domesticate a wild elephant.
Dray Sap Waterfall.
In the Central Highlands, about 30km south of Buon Ma Thuot City to Krong No District in Dak Nong Province is Dray Sap Waterfall. The Dray Sap is one of a popular group of waterfalls in the Central Highlands including Gia Long, Dray Nur and Trinh Nu. It is called the waterfall of smoky mist because Dray Sap in the E De ethnic people’s language means fall of smoke. Dray Sap Falls extend 500m divided into three parts; the upstream, the middle and the lower stream. The water is supplied by two rivers, the Krong No, which means river of the husband in the MNong ethnic people’ s language, and the Krong A, the river of the wife. There are usually legendary stories associated with famous landscapes and Dray Sap is no exception.
Jun Village
Jun Village belongs to Lien Son Townlet, Lak District, Dak Lak Province.
Nestling by the romantic Lak Lake, Village bears the pristine beauty of villages in the Central Highlands and it is still considered as a mountain girl who always preserves her traditional identity. Despite historical upheavals, Jun Village still preserves and promotes its traditional, cultural identities and customs. The road leading to Jun Village is asphalted but it still preserves its pristine of the traditional village. The houses on stilts, the daily life’s activities as weaving brocade, knitting, fishing, water farming are the beautiful culture of the ancestor, which present clearly. Coming to Jun Village, tourists can visit the traditional long houses, or watch young girls weaving brocade, to feel as if they returned to the past to immerse themselves in the peaceful, legendary and poetic long poems or can ride elephants to go sightseeing amidst the magnificent landscape. There is nothing more interesting than sitting at the door of the long house, admiring the legendary moonlight and enjoying the cool wind from Lak Lake.
Kon Tum Former Prison
Kon Tum Prison is located in the western part of Kon Tum Town, Kon Tum Province. The prison was built by the French to detain patriotic revolutionaries. Since 1975, the end of the war, Kon Tum Prison has been a historical vestige of Vietnam. It has been badly damaged over the years and now only one stela and eight graves of revolutionary combatants remain. Kon Tum Prison is a revolutionary historical monument site.
Lak Lake
Ethnologist Condominas discovered the first ancient lithophones in Vietnam on February 5th, 1949 in Nduk Lieng Koran Lak Village. Ethnologist and musicologist Andre Saheffnet announced this instrument in Paris on June 21st, 1950. At present this set of lithophones is preserved in Louvre Museum (France). The myth of Lak not only appears before tourists’ eyes but also is expressed by ancient stories passed down from generation to generation. Coming to Lak Lake, tourists can learn of these old stories. They can also go boating on Lak Lake, or ride elephants to have sightseeing tours. Fascinating extras include enjoying traditional dance performance and the local specialties. If tourists get a chance to listen to the lithophones, they feel more interested in exploring this mysterious land.
Tay Nguyen Grave House
Tay Nguyen Grave House is located in the Central Highlands, Kon Tum Province.
According to aged old customs of ethnic minority groups in the Central Highlands, after the burial of the deceased they built house to shelter the grave from rain and sunshine.
The grave house is surrounded with a wooden fence within there is a wooden statue resembling a human being, a bird or an animal. The practice of removing the makeshift hut is usually organized in the spring and is considered a festive day. The ritual is called Le Bo Ma (Leaving-the-grave). In this day villagers are gathered at the cemetery ground and the family members bring food offerings including rice-distilled rice, rice, cooked pork and other meat. After the offerings are given to the deceased, villagers are to sing songs, dance and enjoy the drink and the food taken down from the altar. They have the belief that the deceased has returned to join the feast with those alive.
Sculpture of Grave Houses in the Central Highlands
The five provinces of Gia Lai, Kon Tum, Dak Lak, Dak Nong and Lam Dong are located in the highlands of south-west Vietnam where a brilliant culture of Southeast Asian and Polynesian nations lived. The linguistic families of the Mon-Khmer and Malay-Polynesian played the main role in the formation of the language of the Central Highlands, as well as the traditional customs, which have remained very popular among the scattered communities of the region.
Mourning houses erected to honour the dead of the Gia Rai and Ba Na ethnic groups are symbolised by statues placed in front of the graves. These statues include couples embracing, pregnant women, and people in mourning, elephants, and birds.
