Yểng sits on the floor of her traditional stilt house

“Tày peo­ple wear black Ao Dai (Viet­namese long dress split at the sides). Our ances­tors wore it like this.”

We met Yểng when by chance, we stopped in her vil­lage as there were many stilt hous­es. We were fas­ci­nat­ed by her tra­di­tion­al stilt house. A struc­ture of wood with bam­boo and palm fronds for roof­ing. “Tra­di­tion­al­ly, Tay peo­ple live in stilt hous­es,” she tells us. Nowa­days how­ev­er it seems to be less com­mon as more mod­ern brick-and-mor­tar hous­es dot the landscape.

“I am a farmer grow­ing rice. Now I am relax­ing at home after plant­i­ng rice and wait­ing for the har­vest sea­son. Nor­mal­ly I har­vest the rice 4 months after plant­i­ng.” When we arrived at her house she was sit­ting with 2 friends drink­ing tea, so we took off our shoes and joined them. Tea even­tu­al­ly turned into home­made rice alcohol.

“This is my liv­ing room, used for wel­com­ing guests,” she tells us. The ‘liv­ing room’ she refers to is at least 80% of her house with a small area for sleep­ing and a small kitchen.

Yểng was very warm and wel­com­ing and always quick to smile. I admired her for this and the fact that she still works as a rice farmer at age 70, though she doesn’t look it.

Yểng, 70 years old
Tày Eth­nic Group
Ha Giang, Vietnam