Unique stone architecture on the Stone Plateau

Dong Van Stone Plateau is home to unique stone structures: from stone fences, stone steps, stone fields, stone houses to roads, bridges and stone memorials. The most typical image in the Stone Plateau is the stone fences surrounding houses and fields. Stone fences are not simply boundaries but also have the function of protecting crops and livestock from attacks by wild animals. The stones are carefully stacked on top of each other, without the need for cement or adhesives, creating solidity and durability over the years. This is a testament to the ingenuity and creativity of the people in utilizing natural resources.

Stone fence around the house

The Dong Van Stone Plateau is home to a large number of Mong people - a place where "when you open your eyes you see rocks, all around are rocks", "living on rocks, escaping poverty on rocks and getting rich on rocks, dying in rocks"... To survive, the ethnic groups here have found every way to conquer rocks. They break rocks to create paths; grow corn in rock holes... More specifically, the Mong people in the Stone Plateau also know how to build stone fences to protect their homes.

The stone wall is sturdy and durable over time.

The highlight is the skillful stone stacking skill that only the Mong people in the Dong Van Stone Plateau can do. From the elderly to the teenagers, everyone knows how to stack stone fences without using cement or any other materials to create adhesion, but the stone fences are always sturdy against wind and rain and last forever. The seemingly lifeless, rough, uneven, and angular stones have been selected and skillfully arranged by the talented hands of the Mong people to create solid, unique stone fences surrounding the houses. Looking at the rows of stone fences, few people know that they are made up of hundreds, thousands of different large and small stones. The most different thing here is that these stones are kept almost intact as what nature created. And the "author" of the rows of stone fences had to spend a lot of time selecting and arranging so that the stones really fit together to create solidity for the stone fence around the house.

The stone walls surrounding the house were firmly built by the people.

Stone steps

Stone steps are a clever solution for local people to conquer steep mountainous terrain. These steps make moving easier and help prevent soil erosion. Each step is made from large, flat stone slabs, both sturdy and aesthetic, clearly reflecting the ingenuity and life experience of the people here.

Stone stacking

To have corn fields and green flowers growing on the gray rocks, the ethnic people living on the Dong Van Stone Plateau must spend a lot of effort and diligence in clearing the land, weeding, carrying soil to the fields... These jobs usually start when the sky and land in the highlands turn to spring.

Highlanders build rocky fields to grow corn and other crops.

For the ethnic people here, clearing land for farming is the most laborious and time-consuming work. To create fields that can be planted, farmers must pick up rocks and stack them on the lower slopes of the fields to prevent landslides, erosion and leaching of nutrients. To make the most of the cultivated land, people will not only stack rocks in large areas, on the high slopes of the fields, areas with many rocks that cannot be leveled, but farmers will also build closed rock holes, then carry more soil to fill in for cultivation.

The process of clearing the fields and stacking rocks is mainly done by hand. When the stacking of rocks is completed, people will clear the grass and bushes from the bottom up. Corn is the main food crop grown here. In addition, vegetables, squash, beans and some other crops are also grown to increase productivity.

Rock cavity soil

A house of the Mong people on the Stone Plateau is surrounded by sturdy rocks.

In an area with nearly 80% of the terrain being rocky mountains, for the ethnic groups living on the Dong Van Stone Plateau, the method of cultivating rock holes (building rock embankments, carrying soil into rock holes, growing food crops) is nothing strange. Located at an altitude of over 1,000 m above sea level, rock hole cultivation is widely applied on an extremely large area. The knowledge and techniques of rock hole cultivation are experiences of cultivating on fields in rocky lands, which are summarized and perfected by the ethnic groups living here during the entire cultivation process and passed down through many generations. Officially recognized as a National Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2014, the knowledge of rock hole cultivation carries many historical and cultural values, closely associated with the settlement process of ethnic groups with a history lasting about 300 years. Over time, the technique of rock hole cultivation has increasingly developed. Thanks to that, the lives of the people here have gradually become more stable, more prosperous and avoided hunger during the lean season. The knowledge of cultivating the soil and rocks of the people here shows a strong vitality, a spirit of protecting the land and the village. No matter how difficult it is, the ethnic people still seek to innovate to maintain their lives, gradually rising up to eliminate hunger and reduce poverty.

The stone architectural works in Dong Van are a testament to the harmony between humans and nature, demonstrating the resilience and creativity of the people in building a sustainable life on harsh land.

H.Anh (Synthesis)

Source: https://baotuyenquang.com.vn/van-hoa/du-lich/202509/kien-truc-da-doc-da-tren-cao-nguyen-da-c4823cd/