Sản, 62, Dwarfed By Her Load Of Palm Fronds

“These leaves are for build­ing a house (they are used as a roof). The name of this leaf? Hmm, I don’t know how to call it in Viet­namese (her native lan­guage is that of the Dao eth­nic group). I col­lect them to build my stor­age build­ing. Today I went to the for­est twice. Once in the morn­ing and once in the afternoon.”

Triệu Mui Sản, 62 years old
Red Dao eth­nic group
Ha Giang, Vietnam

It was just after the sun went down with a lit­tle ambi­ent light, descend­ing into a small vil­lage when we met Sản, haul­ing a huge bushel of palm fronds. Just a quick inter­ac­tion as she had to get home before dark. It so hap­pened that we met her next to this pris­tine cas­cad­ing water­fall! We couldn’t have asked for a bet­ter back­drop to pho­to­graph this beau­ti­ful and strong woman.

Sản is from the Red Dao Eth­nic Group and wears her hand­made clothes every­day as she works.

Dao Ethnic Group — Summary