Experience living with the Xo Dang ethnic minority people

Hi Hivers in the Pinmapple community, I have been fortunate to have the experience of living with the Xo Dang ethnic minority that I want to share with you today. That was the occasion when I stayed at the house of A Kieu, a villager of Vi R"Ngheo village after I finished my charity program there. I was used to living a comfortable life, so living with locals like this was a memorable experience for me.

I was in a house on stilts with other members of the A Kieu family. There are 3 generations living in that house including A Kieu's parents, A Kieu's siblings and his nephews and nieces. Although many members live in the same house, it is not divided into rooms. It is just a long wooden house on stilts divided into two main spaces, the sleeping floor and the kitchen. In the evening, each family member chooses a corner of the wooden floor to sleep. A Kieu's parents are old, so they sleep near the fire in the house to keep warm. They don't even have toilets, they use public toilets along with other villagers, which are built by the government. The space below the stilt house is used by them to store things.

The stove is an important and sacred place in the house of the Xo Dang ethnic minority. The fireplace is considered the heart of the house of the Xo Dang, which is the place to keep the whole house warm. For that reason, the Xo Dang people always try to keep the fire burning in their house. After a day of work, family members often gather around the fire to cook and eat together. Therefore, the fireplace is also a place to connect family members. On each stove of the Xo Dang people, there is usually a rack hanging down from the roof. The Xo Dang usually store grains, leaves and meat on those racks thanks to the warmth and smoke from the fire below. Therefore, one of the specialties of this land is smoked meat.

Although the ingredients for cooking by the Xo Dang people are simple, which they get from around, the way they prepare the food is very creative. They mainly eat meat from the livestock and poultry they raise such as buffaloes, cows, pigs, chickens, ducks and they eat vegetables grown in the garden and collected from the forest. In addition to smoked meat, they also have special dishes such as rice cooked in bamboo tubes, meat grilled in bamboo tubes, stream fish eaten with wild vegetables. They especially like dishes that are difficult to eat for many people such as buffalo skin, cow skin, organs of animals. They often use large pots to cook enough food for family members. In general, living in harmony with nature, they have many different creative ways to prepare food, which creates a rich cuisine of theirs. The first time I tried their dishes, I wasn't used to it, but after that, I got used to it and felt very good. Even now my mouth is watering when I repeat those foods. One thing I really like is that they only eat food that they produce organically.

They mainly live on farming and livestock. They wake up quite early. At 5 a.m., family members gathered around the fire to chat, drink warm tea, and have breakfast before heading out into the fields. I was the last to wake up in the house. Some of them went to the rice fields to work, others led the cattle up the hills, while others went to the forest. Each of them has a different mission, however, they all have one thing in common that they work very hard and they work for their families.

After A Kieu family members went to work, I also took a walk around by myself to explore the village. In the early morning, fog covered the whole village. The houses hidden behind the fog were also very beautiful. In the distance, I could hear the rooster crowing. The fields there are located right in the village so I could easily see villagers working in the fields. They greeted me with smiles, and they were even a little shy. And while I was walking around the village, I also came across a lot of different animals such as buffalo, cow, pig, dog, cat, chicken, duck, etc. They live in harmony with humans. The children were already playing with each other on the ground. Everything there is so peaceful and the atmosphere is so fresh. I spent the whole morning enjoying the atmosphere there. I then returned to say goodbye to A Kieu's family and went back to the town.

It was a great day for me with the experience of living with the Xo Dang ethnic minority. I hope you will understand more about their lives and enjoy my photos. Thank you for taking the time to read my post and have a nice day.

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