VietNamNet Bridge - They do not have a degree, no smart phones, no laptops, but they have their own ways to survive in the wild with endless skills. Only living with them, can we know that it's the smart way to live. It is also the indirect way to understand the 40-year life of the “forest men” – Mr. Ho Van Thanh and Ho Van Lang – in the jungle of Quang Ngai.

After terror bombings in 1972, father and son become “wild men”

The Ruc tribe

Ruc people still love the life in caves.

The Ruc triber in the villages of On, Yen Hop and Mo O O O in Hoa Thuong commune, Minh Hoa district, Quang Binh province have been granted new homes instead of living in caves. They have been also taught with new modes of production by border guards but their basic instinct remains.  They still remember caves - where their ancestors lived.

The cave - its ancestry, where they were born, grew up and matured. Today, among those who still return to the cave to satisfy their desire are Mr. and Mrs Cao Chon, 85 years old in On village.

Although this old couple was granted with a house and monthly rice, but the caves of To Poc, Ro, Ka Chap and tens of other caves are still the places where the couple rest whenever they return to the jungle to ease their nostalgia.

The chief of On village, Mr. Tran Xuan Tu, said: "Mr. and Mrs. Cao Chon go to caves every month, with ten days each time or even for a few months."

We went into the woods, hoping to see the couple. Mr. Cao Lieu, the guide said: "If you are lucky, you may see them, but they move from this cave to another very often and caves are far from each other."

But luck came in the late afternoon when we saw two people on the peak of a limestone mountain. They were old but very healthy. They still made firm footsteps on sharp limestone. Cao Lieu said: "They were given a house a long time ago but they prefer living in caves."

Through Cao Lieu’s interpretation, we knew that the couple had only two small knives at their hip. In each cave on their route there is a small pot which is made from used canteens left by solders from the wartime.

Before Mrs. Cao Chon made a fire, her husband went around the cave to find rock snails to bake for their meal. Each meal they eat about 20 snails. They also used baked snails to trap mountain mice for their breakfast. After the breakfast, they moved to the new cave.

The next destination of the couple provided them with the drink of forest, which is very natural. It's called doac wine, which is never cooked. It is made from doac trees on rocky mountains. Normally, they will choose a limestone pit near a doac tree then cut the top of the tree, pull it to the pit for the milky water flowing from the tree into the pit.

After that, they will put a type of bark into the pit as enzymes. After two hours, doac water ferments to become wine. They roll leaves to make cups and scoop doac wine to drink until drunk and then sleep in the forest. It is very strange that they never lie down to sleep but sit to sleep all night. This is one of the unique ways of survival skills of the Ruc people, which may considered odd and outdated by lowlanders.

The water of May people

In the Giang Man Mountains in Dan Hoa commune, Minh Hoa district, Quang Binh province there is the May tribe, who are ethnic sincere and generous.

They believe that May men are the warriors who are responsible to protect the first water resource of the Gianh River and the other ethnic groups such as the Khua and Ma Lieng tribes who live at the mountain foot

Mr. Ho Khien, in Do village, told us: "The ancestors of May people selected the land which was very high, as close to heaven, with clouds all year round to live. It is the source of all water resources."

The home of May tribe is a majestic hill in the Giang Man hollow, surrounded by the rivers of Hoong Tri Pau and Hoong Pa Ai, which are the original source of the Gianh River.

According to Ho Khien, annually the May people open the water resources by organizing rituals to pray for the water resources not being polluted by anyone. They also swear together to look after the clean water resources forever for the benefit of other ethnics.

When ethnologists lived with the May people to learn about their culture, they were surprised with the unique rice pounding sound of this tribe, which make harmony in order to dispel loneliness among desolate mountains.

The rice mortar of May people is made from sang trees of more than half a meter in diameter. The mortar is placed on the ground, with a stem made of chi cup wood. By its special design, when May women pound rice in the early morning, the rice mortar creates special sound.

The mysterious skills

Deep in the primeval forests of Phong Nha - Ke Bang in Bo Trach district, Quang Binh province, there is a hidden tribe. They only have 400 people living in a village called A Rem and they are also called A Rem tribe.

If other tribes like Ruc, Ma Lieng, Khua and May have been assisted to have access to modern life, the A Rem tribe still hide themselves in the jungle, living with magical skills of their own.

The A Rem, Ruc or Ma Lieng have their own way to do family planning by using herbs or magic words. Mrs. Y Tham, over 80, is the most famous “doctor” of A Rem tribe with mysterious remedies for contraception.

According to A Rem women, after drinking a mysterious solution with the magic words of Y Tham, a woman will not be pregnant until Y Tham performs the rite again.

When the modern methods of healing have not come to the A Rem ethnic group, they have strange healing skills. Broken bones will be healed just by blowing. Sickness is cured by leaves and tree roots. They also have weird alcohol rehabilitation method that science cannot explain.

To avoid predators, they say some magic words, draw a circle, bake up tree barks and scatter the ash around the circle so tigers or bears cannot pass the circle.

Before going hunting, A Rem people use thorns to take venom from the skin of a species of tree frog to drip into their eyes. They will feel sick but then their body will back to normal after 15 minutes. Their eyes become very sharp and the hunts are very successful.

Those tribes are far away from civilization and they live in harsh life and nature but their living skills are almost endless.

SGTT