VietNamNet Bridge – There is an ancient sua tree (Dalbergia cochinchinensis - Alstonia), which has been living together the last many generations of local people in Phu Chinh village of Chuong My district in Hanoi. It is being protected by the old men in the locality from the hawk-eyes of illegal tree choppers.



The ancient tree first appeared on local newspapers one year ago, when reporters had the opportunity to visit the Phu Chinh village.

No one knows exactly how many years old is the ancient tree. However, all the people here believe that it is 500 years old already.

The old men in the village believed that the sua tree is worth 100 billion dong, if noting that two sua branches were sold at 11 million dong per kilo in 2010.

Just 10 meters away from the ancient sua tree, there was a younger tree, which was believed to be valued at no less than 50 billion dong.

Surprisingly, the two ancient valuable sua trees were then protected by the old men in the village, who alternate with each other on watches the trees throughout the night.

However, the old weak men could not protect the ancient trees from people’s cupidity. One day, when it rained heavily and local residents were busy struggling with the Son Tinh typhoon, the top of the 500-year-old tree was cut.

The ancient tree now is compared as a valiant with amputated hands and head.

As for the old men in Phu Chinh village and all local residents, the sua tree is precious not only for its value, but it is the sacred symbol of the village. Therefore, they have been doing everything they can to protect the ancient tree, which they call the “sua grand-grandparent.”

In the past, in order to raise funds to upgrade the pagoda and build a fence to protect the two sua trees, the village had to organize a “referendum.” With the agreement from 100 percent of local residents, the decayed branches of sua trees were chopped down for sale to get 20.5 billion dong.

Nowadays, in order to protect the headless sua tree, the men of the Phu Chinh village have to make an “iron medieval” for the precious tree. However, the medieval is not good, because it is made of the steel wire, which looks like a cage that keeps the grand-grandparent tree in captivity.

The old men in Phu Chinh have decided to look after the ancient tree both daylight and at night. However, no one can say for sure that the medieval can protect the tree from the illegal choppers, who have been lusting for the hundreds of billions of dong.

According to Thuong, an old man of the village, sua wood dealers have estimated that the sua trees can provide 10 cubic meters of wood, or 12 tons. If noting that a kilo of sua wood is valued at 11 million dong, then the sua tree would be valued at no less than 100 billion dong.

Meanwhile, the younger sua tree has been valuated at 50 billion dong.

If the local residents sell the sua tree, they would have enough money to buy 10,000 buffalo and cows, i.e. that every household would have tens of cattle. If the money from the tree sale is divided to local residents, every household would have billions of dong, a huge sum of money which is the dream of everyone.

VTC