In the past the ancient village of Loc Yen in Tien Phuoc District, Quang Nam province had hundreds of Ruong Houses (Ancient viet houses) facing the terraced fields. Today 20 of these houses remain, each with its painting like beauty.
A part from its typical fruit trees, Loc Yen ancient village has stone-paved lanes. In particular, each house has a stone-paved alley wich bears a specific feature suitable to the house. Mingling with old houses are newly-built houses, but their old stone alleys covered with moss are still well kept.
An ancient house in the village.
Loc Yen villagers have handed down from generation to generation many true stories full of legendary characters. Huynh Sao, an 80-year-old villager said: “In the past, tigers used to come to the village to catch people, pigs and chickens, so every house had to possess bamboo tocsins and drums. When the tiger arrived, the villagers brought the tocsins and drums to the stone alley and beat them to chase it away.” Now old Sao still keeps the screens, pictures and photographs that depict the tiger chases which he participated in.
We visited the house of 80-year-old Nguyen Nai who has been engaged in feeling the pulse and writing and filling prescriptions since he was young. Upon arriving at the alley of his house we smelt the medicinal herbs. Nguyen Nai showed us the nets, spears, broadswords, wooden tocsins and horns which had been used tochase off the tigers. He passionately told us the time when the whole village, led by his father, had tried to besiege and catch the tiger. Whenever a villager discovered the tiger’s tracks in the Duong Ro Mountains or the surrounding areas, he/she informed Nai’s father.
Immediately his family blew the horns and beat the wooden tocsins to spread the news and all villagers rushed to the forest to hunt the tiger. Sometimes, it took the villagers nearly a month to catch the tiger which hid inside mountain caves.
Old Nai also showed us the head of a wild boar he had caught several years before. It was the only boar caught having tusks with such a huge size. “I am sure that even a hungry tiger dare not come close to this boar,” he said.
Seeing us to the alley of his house he took with him a horn. Seemingly to remember the past he blew the horn for fun. The sound of the horn reached each alley in the ancient village.
Source: Vietnam Pictorial