Visit the ancient village of the Cil people on the Dong Iar Jieng trekking route

The mysterious mountainous of the Cil people in Lam Dong, Vietnam

The village is located 50km from the center of Da Lat city. To get inside the village, you need to pass through the vast pine forest, the murmuring streams, and the cold weather that covers the primeval forest. Deep inside the valley, Dong Iar Jieng village looms large. Bidoup Nui Ba National Park (in Lac Duong District, Lam Dong Province) surrounds the entire village, the whole village is only about 50 people, mostly elderly people.

Visit the ancient village of the Cil people on the Dong Iar Jieng trekking route

From pomu trees to flat two-leaf pine, agarwood, anise,... Besides, the forest is full of birds, gibbons, black-headed babblers, ... making the road to the village like entering a poetic fairyland.

"Forest-eating" village

Dong Iar Jieng village is completely isolated from the outside civilized world, the Cil tribe has lived in the deep forest for generations. Because of their isolated lifestyle, the Cil people have little contact with the Kinh people outside, so the scenery, people and customs here retain a pristine appearance. 

Mr. Co Lieng Ha Thanh – Local guide of Tropical Trekking

The Cil people live and "eat the forest". Hunting wild animals, catching fish in rivers and streams, and gathering in the forest are common jobs of the Cil people to earn enough food daily.They can also grow rice, corn, jackfruit, mango, coffee, cocoa, etc… Because of the love of the forest, the folk songs and proverbs of the Cil people are compared with the colors of fruits and animals. Like a poem praising the beauty of the Central Highlands girl

“Cô gái kia đẹp như lá hành nghiêng

Anh sóc bắt gặp

Cô kia trắng, anh rái cá bắt gặp

Cô kia đẹp, phượng hoàng bắt gặp

Gái mới lớn, heo rừng đâm cây.”

Translate

““That girl is as beautiful as a scallion

The squirrel sees

That girl is white skin, the otter sees

That girl is beautiful, the phoenix sees

That beautiful girl makes the wild boar nervous."

Or as lyrical folk songs

“Chiếc cườm đẹp

Chiếc cườm đá quý

Trái cây chín trên rừng

Cơm đùm trong giỏ anh phải tự đi tìm

Măng pưt măng wai, ê ê măng tre dọc bờ suối

Những cô gái, từng đoàn đi làm chòi cao.”

Translate

“Multi-coloured beads 

Sparkling Beads

Ripe fruit in the forest

The rice is in the basket, you have to find it yourself

  Young bamboo shoots, bamboo shoots along the stream bank

The girls, in groups, are going to work on the high hill."

Visit the ancient village of the Cil people on the Dong Iar Jieng trekking route

The Cil people stay in the forest forever, they do not move their house to another place. Because that is the place where ancestors lived and died for many generations. From the days when the gods created humans, to the days of the fierce Vietnam war, and the day the country was unified. The Cil people are still one with the deep green forest.

K'Ho Coffee - Coffee grown by the Cil

Young people in the village are now also very advanced, they go out to the commune to learn to read, learn to write and learn the "modern". However, because they are used to drinking spring water and eating forest rice, no matter how far they go, the Cil people still return to the forest when they are old, as the rule "Dead tiger turns to the mountain".