About La Bang to listen to tea 'tell stories'

In front of me was a vast green. The gentle windy hillside. Tea connected to tea. Tea connected to the earth. Tea connected to the sky. Tea connected people into the sediment of a cultural region. Tea connected people with stories of hardship but radiant with peace. We arrived, heard the earth turning, saw green tea leaves, saw strong tea and saw countless smiles on the lips of those who attached their lives to the product that defines Thai Nguyen. Generation after generation, the story of the tea land just kept haunting us throughout the trip.

"Green music waves".

Cultural sediments make up human habits

When the group arrived at La Bang, the rain had stopped. Before that, when we were still sitting on the bus from the provincial center to here, the rain was pouring down all over the streets. We jokingly said that Thai Nguyen welcomed the group with a great "heavenly blessing". Our group was only over twenty people, but it was the full presence of all three regions of the country gathered in Thai Nguyen, for a journey to the land of tea to listen to the stories that made the name of this land. With just a suggestion from journalist Luong Bich Ngoc and the Organizing Committee of the "One Hundred Years of the Best Tea" contest, we kept calling each other to make an appointment for this exciting trip.

La Bang is located in the west of the old Dai Tu district, only about 10km from the center and stretches across the foot of the Tam Dao mountain range. According to Mr. Truong Duc Nam, Deputy Director of the Thai Nguyen Provincial Information Center, this is a locality with rich tourism resources, from community ecotourism to cultural, historical and spiritual tourism. In the upcoming development goals, the province has oriented La Bang to gradually exploit that potential and advantage to build and develop local tourism to attract tourists to visit and experience. And most of all, to bring La Bang closer to the majority of Vietnamese or international visitors.

Perhaps, Mr. Nam was the most tired person in our group, at least during the whole trip from Hanoi to Thai Nguyen, facing more than twenty people who were journalists and writers from all over the country, so the questions were also varied. However, it was the kindness and sincerity on the weather-beaten face of this man who was always concerned about developing the tea area for the province that made us always expect information from him.

All questions, luckily, were answered thoughtfully by him. That enthusiasm, in fact, I found even among the tea pickers in the early morning on these green tea hills. They always introduced in detail each step from planting, picking to drying tea and producing finished products. La Bang was thus filled with deep affection in the eyes and hearts of our group.

It seems that the cultural sediments of this land from long ago have created a way of life for the La Bang people. A passionate personality like the scent of tea lingered around us throughout the journey. In the mind of a Southerner coming to Thai Nguyen for the first time, to be honest, I had only heard about Tan Cuong. Because everywhere in Saigon tea shops, people still introduce Tan Cuong tea as a top delicacy from the famous growing region of the North. Most of the tea shops are for Saigon tea connoisseurs or international tourists, many tea boxes have the image of Tan Cuong land printed on them.

The story of tea and the land of Tan Cuong was told clearly by the seller. So when my feet touched the land of La Bang, I was surprised by the beauty of the hills and felt even more emotional when I knew that this land had a brilliant milestone associated with the history of the country.

I was born and raised when the country was unified, so the stories of a difficult and heroic period grew in me through the stories I learned in history lessons, movies, stories from relatives and from my wanderings during my passionate life of traveling here and there. My homeland is still very beautiful! My homeland still has many stories that I myself do not know much about! So on my trips, I always seek to learn the stories of a land.

Because for me, the land shapes the people. Half a century has passed, when we are looking forward to the joys of the days commemorating the heroic milestones of the nation, I was lucky to collect a story about the land that contributed to the great history of the resistance war in the past. La Bang appeared in my mind through the story of a girl from the Literature and Arts Association of Thai Nguyen province as a testament to the cultural history that created the beauty of this land.

La Bang is the “red address” of Thai Nguyen. With his bright eyes, Hien Trinh recalled the old story with the pride of today’s youth. Here, there is a relic of the birthplace of the first Party base of Thai Nguyen Provincial Party Committee (in 1936). It was in Lau Sau hamlet and has been ranked as a National Historical Relic. The story of the children of Thai Nguyen who put aside many dreams to volunteer to go on the road to regain the integrity of the territory at that time, stirred up our hearts.

During the two wars of resistance of the nation, many Thai Nguyen children left and never returned. Many mothers waited until the wind blew their lives away and still could not see their children, even if they were only worn out bones. Or those who returned were not in their entirety, but their faith in the independence of their country still shone brightly. Hien told many stories.

I asked Hien why he remembered so well. It turned out that in this land, besides tea, there were also people who always had a heavy heart for the Fatherland. Halfway up the slope, we sat down at Cau Da tea area to rest. I told Hien about the peak days of the COVID-19 epidemic in Ho Chi Minh City, when a team of doctors from Thai Nguyen went straight to the epicenter, warming the hearts of many people in the South. There was a photo taken on a rainy afternoon, 5 volunteers from Thai Nguyen on a car from the emergency room to a small hamlet. The heavy rain and strong wind made the 5 green shirts huddle together. The photo was taken by another volunteer who took the next bus.

That same afternoon, the photo made the online community praise it. In fact, it left a deep impression on me about the love of Thai Nguyen people. Hien is a small girl, but she took me for a walk on the night street right in the center of the province. That was the night before. Hien took me around, introducing me to everything I saw.

Hien said that one round trip around the center of Thai Nguyen is enough, but to see the whole province, sometimes a lifetime is not enough, my dear! The gentle words dropped on a cold windy night made me understand how much this tea girl loves her homeland. Like that morning in La Bang, Hien also boldly invited me to go to Thanh La pagoda. To "seduce" me, Hien said that Thanh La pagoda is located in a very beautiful location, standing here you can see the entire La Bang field changing color according to the season. The story of the 9X girl started from when we followed the gentle hillside to Cau Da tea hill until we stopped to start the journey to listen to the tea story, but it still did not end.

Designation for a tea region

Tourists take photos on tea fields.

Honestly, when I arrived in La Bang and took a sip of hot green tea, I could feel the passionate, refreshing taste. The color of the water was green and shimmering golden. The beginning was bitter but the aftertaste was sweet. I brought the tea to my nose, the strong aroma spread right to my nostrils. The more I inhaled, the more I felt the strong aroma begin to permeate my nasal cavity, and if I took a long breath, I would often feel dizzy because of being drunk right away.

For someone like me who has been drinking tea made from fresh tea leaves for more than twenty years, it is indeed a very attractive aroma. But what I like most about La Bang tea is the lingering aftertaste in the throat. That aftertaste is sweet and cool, gradually penetrating deep into my intestines.

La Bang has La Bang Tea Cooperative, Ha Thai Tea Joint Stock Company has built a space for tea enjoyment, product display and tea processing area with spacious space, can welcome and serve large groups of visitors to visit and experience.

And from this experience, I immediately thought why La Bang has not been recognized throughout the country? Maybe we should start with digital media and technology to promote the culture of the land. We start on online platforms and sell the story of La Bang land, not just sell tea like now.

Enjoy tea in a cozy space.

La Bang has Kem stream originating from the green peak of Tam Dao mountain. The stream is clear and winding. There are carpets of primeval forest at the foot of Tam Dao mountain. The ethnic people here still preserve many unique traditional cultural features, such as Then singing, Tinh lute, smooth folk songs of the Tay and Nung ethnic groups; traditional cultural features, customs and practices of the Dao ethnic group such as the ritual of coming to the state, the jumping festival...

The cuisine is diverse and rich with many attractive dishes for tourists such as: wild bamboo shoots, hill chicken, five-color sticky rice, wild vegetables, sturgeon dishes... The conversation between Dr. Nguyen Kien Tho, journalist Nguyen Hong Lam and I lasted until noon, until we entered a stream flowing along, which many households use to raise sturgeon, a specialty of Thai Nguyen. That much for La Bang and me was not enough to hear all the stories about tea in this land. But, from this trip, Thai Nguyen blossomed in me not only about tea, land, people but also about the cultural identity of tea regions that few people know about.

Source: https://baothainguyen.vn/van-hoa/202509/ve-la-bang-nghe-che-ke-chuyen-c9e4921/