Exploring Lai Chau

 

Traditional festivals in Lai Chau typically are folk customs and organised periodically by villagers. Spiritual festivals pray for good harvests and community health.

 

Folk festivals in Lai Chau are typically poetical and festive, aimed to teach the offspring of good reasons and good deeds, unite communities, preserve and promote national identities, and facilitate people to join cultural creativity. All traditional festivals in Lai Chau are hosted by villagers. Ceremonial masters are usually respected elderly in host villages. Thai people has Then Kim Pang Festival (Muong So and Phong Tho) held on the 10^th day of the third lunar month. This event features then-singing ceremonials (36 songs), then-dancing (36 ballets). This is the root of well-known Thai conic hat dancing.

 

 

The Hmong people have Grau Tao Festival (Dao San, Phong Tho) held on the 10^th day of the first lunar month, characterised by indigenous singing, dancing and thang co soup. The Dao people have Tu Cai Festival, an ancestral worshipping. The Lu people have Cam Muong Festival, a forest god worshipping.  The Giay people have Long Tong Festival, the pray for good crops.

 

The Cong people have Rain Worshipping Festival in which offerings are brought to the banks of stream to refer to the Heaven to pray for favourable weather. Then, water splashing ceremony, folk games, cuisine and cultural activities are also held.

 

 

What attracts tourists to Lai Chau province are the plateau at the altitude of 1,500 metres covered by year-round clouds and mist, and pleasant climate. It has Sin Ho Plateau, Thau Lake, Dao San, hot-water springs, mineral water springs, O Mountain, Tien Cave (Sin Ho), Vang Po hot-water spring (Phong Tho), Na Dong and Na Don hot-water springs (Tam Duong), hot-water spring (Than Uyen), and large hydroelectric reservoirs.

 

Deo Van Long Mansion in Le Loi commune, Sin Ho district was the residence of Thai puppet king during the French resistance war. The mansion is a historical site with characteristically unique architecture and cultural identity of Thai people.

 

 

Le Loi Stele was carved on a cliff on the northern bank of the Da River in Le Loi commune, Sin Ho district.

 

Archaeological vestiges of Vietnamese civilisation such as Nam Phe and Nam Tun relics in Phong Tho district found tools dated back to the Stone Age, and brass instruments dated to the Dong Son culture.

 

With an attractive cultural space situated on the northwest tourism arc, Lai Chau will be an appealing tourist site in the northwest.