VietNamNet Bridge – At weekends, visitors flock to Don Village (Dak Lak) to see elephants, ride elephants and to buy “special products.”




Mr. Hung, 33, from District 9, Ho Chi Minh City was born and grew up in the city but he loved “forest products.” In his own room, Hung arranged a lot of things originating from forests, such as the horns and heads of chamois, wild boar, deer, a lot of claws of wild animals and stuffed python, cobra, panther, wild cat, eagle, etc.

Hung proudly showed off his collection of forest stuff that were collected from a variety of tours and field trips all over the North West and Central Highlands forests, mainly from the Central Highlands.

Hung did not remember how many times he went to the Central Highlands, particularly Don village in Dak Lak province, to hunt “special items.”

"Forest products in Don Village are available. Souvenir shops can provide you with any species of animal and in any form that you. For example, if you request skin, claw, bones of Leopard or even a stuffed Leopard, you will get them as long as you have cash. In general, forest products in Don village are very rich and easy to purchase, so I frequently visit this place," Hung explained.

Hung pointed to a cupboard of 40 cm wide, almost 3 m long, with more than a dozen of skulls of wild animals such as bears, tigers, leopards and wild boars and said that he bought all of them from Don Village.

Showing an animal skull with four canines, Hung said this is the skull of a panther that he bought during his visit to Don Village to attend the funeral of the “King of Elephants” Amakong.

"I bought it for only VND4 million ($200). Urban traders offered a similar skull for over VND10 million. This skull is rare because it has all teeth, especially the razor-sharp canines."

In Don village, almost every souvenir stall sells elephant tail hairs or rings with elephant tail hairs. It is believed that elephant tail hair is a symbol of good fortune and loyalty. Anyone who wears the ring will have good luck. For couples, if the guy or the girl gives her/his lover the elephant tail hair ring, he/she will not have to worry of being betrayed.




Thus, anyone who go to Don village buys at least one elephant tail hair ring at the price of VND100,000-200,000 ($5-10) without knowing that the rings are fake.

Besides elephant tail hair-related staples, anything that is related to wild animals in the Red Book of Vietnam is on sale in Don village.

Mrs. Xuan, the owner of a souvenir shop in Don village introduced to her customers elephant tail hairs and products from elephant tail hairs, belts made of elephant skin, combs and tobacco pipes made from elephant bones and items of elephant’s tusk.

If Xuan’s stalls offers elephant-related items, the stall of a man named Minh, which is close to Xuan’s stall, sells heads and other body parts of many animal species like bears, tigers, panthers, etc.

Leopard, bears, tigers, elephants, langurs are precious species listed in the list of endangered species of Vietnam and the world, which are banned from hunting and trading in any form. But in Don village, products related to these animals are sold publicly.

Talking about the exclusive items from wild animals, many locals laughed and advised visitors to not buy them. "There are around 50 elephants in Don village. Each elephant has only 200-300 tail hairs. Elephants will be sick if their tail hairs are pulled out, so no elephant owner pulls out elephant tail hairs to sell," said Y Nul, 31, a mahout in Don village.

According to Y Nul, elephant tail hairs are made from synthetic resin and other products are also fake.

ANTG