Civilizations around the world were almost all formed by rivers: ancient Chinese civilization on the Yellow River, ancient Indian civilization on the Ganges River, ancient Egyptian civilization on the Nile River... .
European civilizations are as green as the Volga and Danube rivers, South American civilizations caress the Amazon river basin and the Red River civilization with 4000 years of history of our beloved country Vietnam. All rivers merge with the sea! Vietnam's rivers flow down to the East Sea. Inside me, a river is flowing toward the East Sea in the opposite direction, and a "culture" is taking shape along that river: the "KonTum indigenous culture" embracing the DakBla river patiently for many generations.
Che Lan Vien wrote: "When I live, it's just the land; when I go, the land suddenly turns into my soul." To me, this land has been blood and flesh since the day the footprints were still imprinted in the forest 26 years ago and the great moon of the Western Truong Son has shone on my soul since then. The land has been the soul since the beginning!
When I was in high school, I wandered every afternoon on the sandy beach of the DakBla River in Phuong Hoa. I waited for the moon to rise to drink the golden drops, to hear the "ghost" moaning somewhere, because this was once a war buffer zone between the two countries of Champa and Chenla from the 7th to the 8th century AD. After that, 300 years KonTum belonged to Champa. I am familiar with affectionate names that sound sweet from the first call such as Tan Huong (since 1874), Phuong Quy (1887), Phuong Nghia (1887), Phuong Hoa (1892), Trung Luong (1914)... That feeling is similar. The love I later had for Hue - where I "dwelled" for more than two years - AnCuu, AnHoa, Nong, Truoi; I told my friend: "The place Kon Tum is so romantic!".
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| Kon Tum people's personality Where the river flows backwards |
Since the beginning of time, this land has loved peace. The story goes that Bahnar's two sons, Jorong and Uong, were fed up with the villagers fighting with neighboring villages, so they left their old village and went to the lowland next to the lake to build a house. The land was good and the birds landed, and gradually this place became Kon Tum, which in Bahnar means Lake Village, since the 1800s.
KonTum is very sincere! Quiet land between looming mountains, the altitude above sea level is about 525 meters, there are two distinct seasons of sun and rain and most of the area is located entirely west of Truong Son, so the river flows downhill but it seems like it's going backwards. . The two national highways crawl forever to reach the bottom in the East - North and North directions. The river is gentle, weaving and hugging the edge of the city. Dak Bla alone is only about 100km, from KonPlong district in the west of KonTum province to the city, winding to the West - South, joining the Kroong PoKo river from the North down to form the majestic Sesan stream to create the YaLy hydroelectric power plant. She went to Cambodia to "get married" and then merged with the Mekong river to return to the gentle mother of the East Sea. The North Bank is a peaceful town, with glimpses of Bahnar indigenous villages such as Kon Mo Nay Kon Tu, Kon Mo Nay So Lam, Kon Klor, Kon Tum Kopang, Kon Tum Konam, Kon Hra Chot villages along the river and innocently between The heart of the city is villages such as Kon Ro Bang and Ple To Ngia. The South bank is green with sugarcane fields, and behind that color of hope are the bright villages of Phuong Hoa of the Kinh people and the villages of Dak Ro Wa and Plei Groi of the Bahnar people. I told my Hue friends: "Kon Tum has land and lifestyle similar to the ancient capital. The sacred land has the poetic and romantic Perfume stream, while Kon Tum has the rustic and thoughtful Dak Bla stream." When my friends went to Kon Tum, they smiled and seemed to understand my feelings for the lowland.
KonTum's voice is quite unique. It is not the flat Quang accent, the soft and muddy Binh Dinh accent (these are the two original hometowns of Kon Tum people), or the affectionate Hue accent, but a voice as clear and smooth as the Dak Bla river. For me, just listening to you makes me realize the quality of Kon Tum thousands of years in the making. Oh! The harmony of earth, water, sky and many regions converges here to make your voice so sweet. I wonder how the ancient migrations affected the temperament of Kon Tum people, especially the girls. You are salty, you are gentle, you are patient like a river flowing backwards. I am a descendant of the lines of people who silently tore through the forest to Kon Tum to love the lowland. I seemed to hear the ancient footsteps of three historical forest clearing periods, those were the years of King Thieu Tri's reign, when, because of the anti-Catholicism, the parishioners followed the missionary and set the first Buddhist scriptures in Kon Tum; then the forced migration during the French colonial period and then fifteen years later the forced migration from the North under the Geneva Accords. In 1883, Kon Tum had only 1,500 inhabitants with a Tan Huong canton and neighboring Bahnar and Rongao villages; By 2005, Kon Tum city had 120,000 people with about 35,000 Kinh Christians and Buddhists. No matter which lineage you come from, I'm still grateful because the gentle and patient blood flowing in you makes my heart cool when I hear my friend say: "The girls of the mountains captivate my soul!".
Inside me, all rivers always flow. Every river in Vietnam has a poetic soul but still flows silently in me the Dak Bla stream "in the opposite direction". Oh! Dak Bla is yours and mine! There, I bathe my childhood! There, mom washes each child! I said goodbye to the screaming Con River during the flood season, I left the Tra River longing for the new moon. We hold hands and wade along the mudflats of the reverse flow, we meet the moon next to the Kon Klor suspension bridge. Thank you! Thank you lowland
Tomorrow, even though we are separated from Dak Bla and the great moon, the color of the old sky still shines in me, there is still someone telling the old story "Kinh and Bahnar are brothers" from the past; and, more poignantly, there is a child there who is as patient as a person opening a new world and as gentle as a river flowing backward. Even though the current is upstream, the river still flows; Indigenous culture probably started here. Tomorrow I hope there will be a new phrase in the Vietnamese humanities dictionary, the phrase: "Kon Tum people's personality".