News Detail - Quang Tri Portal

On 12 of August, 1959 in the chasm of Phong Nha – Ke Bang caves, Quang Binh province, the soldiers of the Ca Xeng Border Defense Department came across a group of forest persons. When seeing that those soldiers, they were panic and ran disturbance in to deep forest.

With determination to find out the mysterious men, in March, 1960, a group of border guards went for searching in the cave of Phong Nha – Ke Bang National Park together with a older man of Sach people. After a few months climbing the mountains, wading streams, hard work in the jungle, the group found out an entrance of a cave where the mystery men were living.

The group of soldiers get in to the cave safety by the rope. The suddenly appearance of the soldiers made the “forest people” panic. They were members of ethnic Ruc.

“House of a Ruc family in Hung Mun cave (picture: quangbinh.gov.vn)

In 64 Vietnamese people do not see the name Ruc people, they were just a group of little people in the Chut people (in Viet-Muong language group). The Chut people includes 7 different groups such as Ruc, Book, You, Lieng, A Rem, Xo Lang, U Mo. The Ruc language origin was Austroasiatic, but little affected by Thai, Chinese as in Viet-Muong language. About the Chut people, two French researchers were A. Cheon and T.Guignard wrote a description as following: “Very, Very shy, everyone goes away when seeing strangers. They do not have clothes, men and women have to cover their by sui tree bark, sleeping together in a cave or in a tent. They eat Nhuc powder (from the Doac tree), hunt fish, small animals in the forest. Both men and women have hair tufts behind…

The soldiers had to took a whole day to convince they, then first 11 families, 34 Ruc persons reluctant to leave the cave. They followed the soldiers to go to valley outside to set upthe tents and doing farm. The salt was shared from the soldiers retain them, help them to leave the gradually burrows lives.

By the year 1971, the Ruc finally bear to leave the cave. At that time the Ruc tribal has total of 109 people. Abandoned their cave life, they set up small roof slums which are erected near the water sources…

From 109 persons of Ruc in 1971, by the end of 2006, the demographics have up to 2,400 people. They live primarily in four areas : Phu Minh, On, Yen Hop and Mo O Oh Oh of Thuong Hoa Commune. Today, the number of inhabitants more than 6,000 people.

However, Ruc people now are living in the commune, but sometime, when facing to the hard, some of them come back to the cave to live again. Living in the cave is still standing in Ruc consciousness as a habit.

A Ruc mother and her child in a cave-house

Back to the cave for living – A night time in a cave-house of a Ruc family

Source: goquangbinh.com