The roofs of stilts with thick green moss, lying close together on an altitude of 1,000m of the Tay Con Linh range create a unique beauty in Ha Giang.

About 20km northwest of Ha Giang city center, Xa Phin village (Phuong Tien commune, Vi Xuyen district) is located at an altitude of nearly 1,000m atop one of the mountains of the Tay Con Linh range.

Xa Phin village currently has more than 50 households living, 100% are Dao ethnic people. In this village, more than 90% of families still build and use traditional palm-leaf roof stilts, including dozens of “moss houses” – the biggest difference with the rest of the localities in Ha Noi. Jiang.

Moss houses – the way to call the houses of some ethnic groups living in the highlands, the house is covered with a dense green moss. Some localities also have similar moss houses, but the number of houses is quite limited, such as the stilt house of the Dao people in Khuoi My (Ha Giang), the house of the Ha Nhi people in Y Ty (Lao Cai)… 

With the cool weather all year round, Xa Phin village is often cloudy, covered with fog, high humidity accompanied by drizzle…

This is a good condition for plants to grow and thrive, especially with the green moss on the damp palm leaf roof of the stilt houses.

Close-up layer of moss growing, green on the roof of damp palm leaves in the early spring.

According to local people, the roofs covered with green moss must be 20 to 30 years old or more. It takes at least 5 years for moss to start appearing on the roofs of newly built houses. 

5 years is also the period for the roof of palm leaves to gradually absorb moisture over time, soften and mold to grow, multiply, and grow green moss.

Over time, the green moss layer is built up thicker and thicker, somewhat making the house warmer in winter and cooler in summer, like a blanket covering the roof.

Therefore, looking at it from above or observing closely, people and visitors can guess how many years the house was built through the thick or thin layer of moss on the roof.

Not only beautiful in the pouring season, the rice season ripens on the terraced fields, this place also becomes more colorful and vibrant with the embellishment of peach blossoms, white apricot blossoms on the mossy green roofs in summer. spring.

In the photo, a Dao couple is carrying a roll of rubber hose from the foot of the mountain to the village to carry water from the streaming home to use in daily life.

In addition to the “specialties” of tourism such as terraced fields, peach blossoms, plum blossoms, and green moss houses, the people here are also proud of the famous delicious taste of Shan Tuyet tea extracted from tea trees. A hundred-year-old ancient tree is perched on the cliffs of the Tay Con Linh range.

With the potential for tourism development, in recent years, a number of households have remodeled their stilt houses into homestays, welcomed and led domestic and foreign tourists to the locality, received many photography delegations to visit and compose.

Follow (Dan Tri)