|
For a long time, the Mong people in Dong Van Karst Plateau in the northern mountainous province of Ha Giang have preserved a technique of casting a special kind of plough that is suitable for rocky soils.
With its high geological value, the plateau was officially recognised as a Global Geo-Park by the UNESCO Global Geo-parks Network (GGN) in 2010. It is the first certificate ever issued in Vietnam and only the second in Southeast Asia.
Over the years, the plateau has been home to several ethnic groups, but primarily the Mong people who survive by farming in rare plots scattered on rocky mountainsides.
The image of the plateau is one of an immense, rugged, rocky, mountain area with occasional strips of rocky earth dispersed between mountainous creeks and rivers. Predictably, it is no easy task for local people to farm here.
They cannot use the normal ploughs that are typically used in the plains because the ploughs simply break or are quickly damaged by rocks.
|