Story in Thuoc Ha village

Mentioning the name Thuoc Ha, surely everyone living in Tuyen has heard of it, this is the homeland of the ancient Ham Yen medicinal village, now in Ham Yen commune, in the 50s of the last century, people divided it into 2 villages Thuoc Thuong and Thuoc Ha to refer to the upper village and the lower village. After many ups and downs, the medicinal profession is still maintained in Thuoc Ha. The whole village currently has 100 households, of which 45 households know how to make simple remedies to treat common family illnesses.

People in Thuoc Ha village, Ham Yen commune dry medicine to prepare to send to customers.

50 years in medicine

Thuoc Ha village in October just experienced a flood due to the circulation of storm No. 10, the amount of water from upstream. The rice field of nearly 5 hectares was covered with mud, although quite busy with the work of cleaning up the house after the flood, the village chief La Thi Hai was excited, she quickly introduced to me the herbalist, a veteran who has been prescribing medicine to cure and save people for 50 years.

Mr. Quan Quang Trong's house has just been completed and is still plastered. Mr. Trong said that in early 2025, he received 80 million VND in support from the Ministry of National Defense to complete the house after many years of dreaming and aspiring.

Mr. Trong was born in 1949, at the age of seventy, he is still strong, exuding the spirit of a soldier of Uncle Ho who had gone through life and death from the battlefields of the South to the battlefields of neighboring Laos. He said that he knew how to prescribe traditional medicine from an early age, when he was only 14 years old, at first he followed his father into the forest to get medicine to save people in the village, gradually the love for the medical profession mixed with the kindness of his father seeped into him without him knowing. By the age of 20, he had memorized nearly 100 traditional medicine recipes to treat diseases related to the stomach, liver disease, bone and joint pain, blood clots... and proved to be quite good at treating diseases.

After joining the army, Mr. Trong temporarily put aside his medical practice to devote himself to the country. It was not until 1975 that he returned and began to restore his medical practice until today. Mr. Trong said that it took him nearly 2 years to search through his scribbled notebooks to reshape the prescriptions. If he did not understand something, he would ask his father to teach him. The story of medical practice just reached a climax. He shared the memory of personally curing many difficult liver diseases for patients in Cao Bang , Thai Nguyen or hematoma cases in Ha Tinh, Co To Island - Quang Ninh...

I was quite curious about how to combine the medicines and how to get the medicines, Mr. Trong explained, some local medicinal plants have never been available, for example, the Red Worm tree must be taken from Cao Bang or endemic species must be taken from communes such as Meo Vac, Lam Binh... He confided, he is old now, cannot go get the medicine himself, most of the time he has to send it by bus, but the principle is to leave the whole plant and leaves for accurate identification, because just one mistake is related to the patient's life, that is also the reason why he is always chosen by the old Ham Yen district Oriental Medicine Association to consult on many difficult cases when requested.

Every year, Mr. Trong's house has over 100 patients coming to see him and get medicine, and strangely, the number of people who are cured accounts for 90%. Neighbors say that every Tet, his house is filled with laughter because patients come to thank him. Indeed, amidst the hustle and bustle of life, simple stories like this always warm people's hearts, slow down and make them feel comfortable and light.

Keep the profession

Village chief La Thi Hai said that the medicinal profession in Thuoc Ha has been around for hundreds of years, but now the younger generation following the profession is gradually fading away and some precious medicinal plants have been lost. To preserve the profession, many households have proactively brought medicinal plants home to grow, but this is only the beginning stage, and it will probably take a dozen or more years to see results.

Taking advantage of the bright sunshine before being affected by storm No. 11, Ms. Ho Thi An is quickly turning over a batch of hepatitis medicine to send to the lowlands. Ms. An said that since the beginning of the year, thanks to many people's recommendations, she has started selling some prescriptions online and received positive feedback.

I also boldly asked her how much a pack of medicine cost.

She replied: "I charge 100,000 VND for 6 doses. If it works, I can go back and if it doesn't work, I can get it from another place. But luckily, there are only a few people who get it from another place right now."

In front of the spacious 2-storey house, there is a red brick garden with a carefully locked gate, that is Mrs. An's medicinal garden. The garden is about 100 m2 wide but has a variety of medicinal leaves, some of which she took the trouble to go all the way to the Na Hang mountains and forests to bring back... she shared that it must be preserved to be sustainable, because many precious medicinal plants are now naturally exhausted, if not planted, a medicinal herb will be lost, which means a related disease will not be cured.

In Thuoc Ha village, there are currently 6 old traditional medicine practitioners recognized by the state and are practicing the work of dispensing traditional medicine quite effectively. In addition to Mr. Trong and Mrs. An, there are also Mr. Bui Van Thong with his remedy for bone fractures; Mr. Nguyen Van Binh with his remedy for bone and joint pain; Mr. Quan Van Vuot with his remedy for digestion and Mrs. Hoang Thi Vu with her remedy for infertility... Although it is commune 135, people's lives are still difficult, but mentioning Thuoc Ha is mentioning the word "good", because for many years, traditional medicine practitioners have never used medicine to get rich, that is truly something to be respected.
Leaving Thuoc Ha at dusk, the road leading to the village was full of rocks and dust. I still remember what Mr. Quan Quang Trong said, hoping that the young generation would maintain the profession and for the locality to become a true medicinal village. He respected the reporter, and personally picked a very precious stomach medicine plant that he got from the Truong Son mountain range and told anyone with stomach pain or digestive problems, just need to steep a few leaves in boiling water and it will definitely be effective.

Le Duy

Source: https://baotuyenquang.com.vn/van-hoa/du-lich/202510/chuyen-o-lang-thuoc-ha-b174553/