Cu Lao Dung - "island district" at the end of Hau Giang river

In the Mekong Delta, only Cu Lao Dung district (Soc Trang) is truly an "island district" when completely separate from the mainland. All trade routes connecting the island to the mainland until now (February 2023) are large ferries, small ferries, ferry boats... The late musician Hong Son (Soc Trang) wrote a song about Cu Lao Dung titled "Returning to An Thanh" with just more than ten sentences that describe all the scenery of this land: "Returning to my hometown when the river is full. The sugarcane banks are covered with flags, sparkling at the sunset. Cu Lao Dung forest in the changing winds, no one can go downstream in the wind. leisurely rowing rhythm...".

In the Mekong Delta, only Cu Lao Dung district (Soc Trang) is truly an "island district" when completely separate from the mainland. All trade routes connecting the island to the mainland until now (February 2023) are large ferries, small ferries, ferry boats... The late musician Hong Son (Soc Trang) wrote a song about Cu Lao Dung titled "Returning to An Thanh" with just more than ten sentences that describe all the scenery of this land: "Returning to my hometown when the river is full. The sugarcane banks are covered with flags, sparkling at the sunset. Cu Lao Dung forest in the changing winds, no one can go downstream in the wind. leisurely rowing rhythm...".

The Nguyen Dynasty's directory records: Before 1820, there were Vietnamese immigrants who came here to explore and establish 2 villages: An Thanh Nhut and An Thanh Nhi. Now this island has "bloomed and grown" into a district of Soc Trang province with 8 administrative units: An Thanh 1, An Thanh 2, An Thanh 3, Dai An 1, An Thanh Tay, An Thanh Dong, An Thanh Nam and Cu Lao Dung town with 23,606.29 hectares of natural area. The population is more than 58,000 people.

The mandarin road, the base of the fort and... "the tiger lady's creek"

The canals, roads, and ground are deeply marked by the "remains of Lord Nguyen Anh's wanderings" here, most clearly are Long An canal, Tien canal, Lo Quan, the foundation of the "old mandarin fort"... Mr. Hoa Thanh, cultural officer of An Thanh 1 commune, led us to visit the vestiges of the "foundation of the old mandarin fort" in An Thuong hamlet, right near the beginning of the small "Truong Tien canal"! Currently, this is a longan garden of more than 10 square meters of land belonging to Mr. Phan Van Lu (the land "during Mr. Co's time" was explored by him). The garden is still taller than the surrounding gardens even though it has undergone many renovations. As for the highest position in the garden, which was passed down as the "mandarin's house", he was told not to cultivate it but to keep it intact. Mr. Lu now plants yellow apricot trees on it to mark the memory of him and his grandmother, who told them to "leave room for the old people".

Cockle on Truong Tien canal.

Mr. Phan Van Lu said: "Actually, in this area, my foundation is already high, but this is the highest place! And wandering around in the garden, when I go back and open ditches, I sometimes find old things like clay bowls and braise pots made of terracotta or ceramic. My grandmother told me, back then, every time the mandarin walked on the road or in the river, there were bells and drums... Whose house passed by, that house had a mat to bow to the mandarin?!".

Visit the "former mandarin fort", comparing with the map "Nam Ky - Soc page 1889" extracted from the French national digital library Gallica BnF fr... we speculate: "Is it possible that the ancient Dao Tran Di was here"? Dao, a military post that protects and regulates the peace - larger than "ton" is a small post stationed at the river mouth, larger than "thu" is a military post that controls the trading port. Isn't it unreasonable that Di Dao Town was located here in the past?

Walking around the cool shores, sticky rice banks, dikes..., we met Mr. Lam Van Bul, who this year has been "an eighth person" in An Thanh 2, passing through the island since "nine years". Mr. Bul said: "At that time, the land in this area belonged to "Landlord Van", the old grandparents came here and chose a plot that had not yet been exploited by anyone, then built a foundation, built a house, and raised the rice fields. After clearing the land, the landowner measured it and then I paid the rent. It was calculated for 1 labor per 1 bushel. By the time of "near acquisition" this section of leafy forest and cork forest was still dark. On the high land, we cultivated fields, sweet potatoes, cassava, cassava...".

A person who can be considered a "senior" in Cu Lao Dung is Mr. Ba Ngo (Duong Van Ngo), the grandson of Mr. Council Ke - the father of landowner Mai Phat Van. He mentioned the old story clearly: "Mr. Council Ke is a council man in Dai Ngai. To say it now, it's like "doing state work" so he is familiar with land reclamation papers. If no one had registered the land on this side, he applied for an urgent application "from the edge of that canal to the canal below" and then paid taxes to the state. The old people here at that time were few. The majority living on the banks of the river were people from Vinh Binh and Tra Cu (Tra Vinh) who came to live in the lake. The farm land already has a landlord. If you come here, you can get more income from leaves and firewood. The new land has a lower tax rate, so it's easier to live. In the past, my grandfather rented a lot of land, but he didn't have the qualifications to measure the land, so he hired a "French guy - a wife". When the harvest season comes, it has a palanquin, with a dozen or twenty farmers sharing it to measure the land and collect rice... Back then, the land was low and low enough for two fishing boats to carry rice, not "squeaky" like now.

The fruit tree is still green amidst the "salty - sweet rotation"

The town is located right at two large river mouths flowing into the sea of ​​the Hau Giang stream: Tran De and Dinh An (in the past there was also Ba Sac gate), so on all sides there is water with two large and low water streams, occasionally adding "nursery water" so the residents here have long been familiar with the ups and downs of the water to build bags and banks to open up land for cultivation. The area at the beginning of the island occupies the entire An Thanh 1 commune, the orchard is covered with longan, rambutan, coconut... Along the way, the garden is interwoven with sugarcane fields, crop fields and later shrimp fields... The water in the river, in the canal or on the canal in this country keeps rotating: "When the water is high, it is salty and when the water is low, it becomes sweet". Because of this characteristic, every garden, every field, every field has a system of ditches and tanks to store and regulate water to proactively irrigate. Just about twenty years ago, "Cu Lao Dung sugarcane" was famous for both its output and sugar, but now it is "fading". But from 2000 until now, we have switched to putting sugar cane in the garden with all kinds of fruit trees following the "plant - chop" movement?! The trees on the island grow quickly and bear fruit quickly, so you only need to "eat 2-3 seasons" to have enough capital to "follow the market economy"?!

Mr. Sau Phuong next to the longan tree with "5 hands" are 5 different varieties of longan.

There must have been a chance, so I went to the garden of Mr. Sau Phuong (Le Thanh Phuong, 66 years old) in Phuoc Hoa A hamlet, Cu Lao Dung town. He is a resident of Cho Lach (Ben Tre). "His military career made him meet her on the island" and after being discharged from the army, he settled here in the 90s of the last century. With more than 20 square meters of land, he divided the area to grow 3 types of crops with the goal of "taking the short and raising the long - there will be something to sell in every season". Sugarcane, coconut and longan are the main crops. Surrounding the yard are longans and boxes of honey bees...

He excitedly told us: "When the longan garden had just been harvested, the price of longan on the market was very high! For every full tear, it was like I pocketed 2 taels of gold." Sugarcane prices going up and down have very little impact on Sau Phuong's income because there are still other sources of additional income. After 2000, he had more benefits from honey. Initially, there were 50 boxes and then gradually increased to more than 100. He also bought enough filtering machines, cleaning systems, and bottling systems to produce products with his own brand. There were years when the honey output he collected was more than 5 tons!

He revealed his experience growing trees in this estuary land: "As long as you don't let the seedlings suffer from "salt shock", the plants will gradually adapt to the soil and water?! Look at the water level to calculate the high threshold for flooding. Look at your land to calculate the height and width to place the seeds. The surface of the beds will gradually raise when the ditch slugs will push the tree roots to grow wider and less deep. If there is drought - salinity outside the canal every year or ten - half a month, don't rush to water. Just close the bags carefully to keep the water moist. Water quickly to avoid "salt shock". When the tree spreads strongly, it's like the tree has "got used to salt"?!

Perhaps this is also the experience of farmers in this country when along the "island axis" route down to An Thanh Nam, there are many gardens of four precious mangoes, Taiwanese mangoes, Thai jackfruit and even dragon fruit that are green and bearing luxuriant fruit.

The old story "words - meanings"

The place name Cu Lao Dung (Ho Chau) is recorded in Dai Nam thuc luc chinh bien, 1st century - Gia Long Dynasty (Nguyen Phuoc Anh): 8th year of Dinh Mui - 1787 - "The king resided in Ho Chau, gathered more than 300 generals, more than 20 warships, ordered Nguyen Van Ton to gather several thousand people from the two regions of Tra Vinh and Man Thit, and appointed them as soldiers, called Xiem Binh station (in the 9th year of Gia Long's reign, it was changed to Uy Vien station), making Ton the chief of the internal team to manage.

The character "Chau" (州) - the cross with 6 strokes is both pictographic and converging. According to the new Sino-Vietnamese dictionary of Nguyen Quoc Hung, Khai Tri Publishing House in 1975, the word "Chau" is "a large area of ​​land emerging between rivers and seas, habitable, the name of an administrative unit in the past." "Tiger" - in addition to meaning tiger, is also a word used to describe the shape of an object, a shape with the phenotype of a tiger. The Thieu Chuu dictionary explains this word as follows: "Anything that looks like a mouth turned up to one side is called a tiger. Like the space between the thumb and index finger is called tiger mouth. Therefore, pressing the knuckles to calculate numbers is called one tiger. The way of playing chess with three pieces standing in three corners is also called tiger." Looking at the old and present maps, you will immediately see that Cu Lao Dung is no different from the open hand with "the tiger mouth is Ba Sac gate" (now Big Vam Ho - Small Vam Ho)?!

Then “Huynh Dung Chau”. The word Dung - 10 strokes, water set, in addition to the common meanings of: melting, dissolving, circulating, also has other meanings of mixing, spacious, vast, immense. Nguyen Quoc Hung's dictionary has the annotation "Immense water shape". Currently, Cu Lao Dung Island has more than 260 canals, canals, and rivers flowing to the sea, cutting across and cutting along this island. Just the names of places, names of things, and phenomena here also make visitors curious about which ones are: large pond, deep pond, dike bank, embankment bank, fishing bank, sticky rice bank, big water, low water, small water, seaweed water, jerky water...

In the midst of vast waves of water, Cu Lao Dung has three natural ecological zones: fresh, brackish and salty. In addition to fruit, the specialty of this country must be "cork flower honey" with a light green color, mild sweetness and a slightly sour taste. Currently, although there is still "a long way to go", soon when the Dai Ngai bridge is completed, Cu Lao Dung will surely transform into a "pearl island" at the end of the Hau river. But even then, I still firmly believe that when "Returning to An Thanh" people will still remember deeply: "The bright sunlight of children's laughter. The bright sunlight of your radiant lips. The river flows like silk, smooth with alluvial life. The spring wind took the boat to the wharf. How can you remember before you leave... An Thanh?"

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Update day : 23/10/2023