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Kon Tum
The most northerly of the three towns on the Highland, the provincial capital of Kon Tum is located on the banks of the Dakbla River about 900km from Ho Chi Minh City and around 200km from Qui Nhon. It’s a pleasant, unassuming sort of place. There are well over 600 ethnic minority villages and hamlets in the province, mostly Ba Na, Xo Dang, Gie Trieng and Gia Rai. A sizeable proportion of the population has converted to Catholicism.
The French used Kon Tum as their administrative centre for the Central Highlands and built a large prison to subdue the local population. They deployed the prisoners as forced labour to build Highway 19 – needless to say, many died.
One of the best-known international guidebooks has much to say about Kon Tum’s historic prison, concluding that the “local tourism authorities have not quite grasped the economic potential of this would-be war museum.” Had the authors checked, they’d have known that the prison was demolished after the war and completely rebuilt between 1998 and 2000 by the tourism department to capitalise upon an unwitting tourist market.
If you travel with Lighthouse International Tours, you get accurate information. As we’re not interested in ‘fake’ attractions, we give the prison a miss.
However, the town has two French-built churches that definitely shouldn’t be missed. The small, whitewashed Tan Huong Church was built around the 1850s. It stands on stilts, although it’s not immediately obvious. Inside, it’s a gem. Most of the stained glass is original, and there’s a splendid vaulted ceiling. The roof has been replaces, but the original ‘fishscale’ tiles can be seen on the tower.
The better-known ‘Wooden Church’ was built in 1913, and has been carefully restored. The stained-glass window includes both Christian and local imagery.
The Bishop’s Palace isn’t open to the public, but it’s worth a look from outside.
While in Kon Tum, we encourage our guests to visit the town’s Ba Na orphanage. It’s a poorly funded charitable foundation, but the children are well cared for despite the somewhat Spartan surroundings. You’ll get a very warm welcome, and they’ll get a decent donation on your behalf, a transaction that sends everyone away happy.
The main attraction of the area around Kon Tum is dozens of easily accessible ethnic minority villages. Visitors can stroll through ethnic communities, meet the people and experience their daily life. You’re very unlikely to run into beggars or other nuisances: even the children don’t cluster around or pester strangers. People are very friendly, and happy to welcome guests into their houses. Home stays are available.
‘Rafting’ down DakBla River in an inflatable dingy, a riverside picnic, swimming, dinner in the Rong house of a Ba Na village followed by wine and conversation with the locals typifies the experiences offered by this little-known area and its easygoing, good-natured people.
If you want to get further away, there are plenty of good trekking routes taking you through attractive countryside and across precarious bridges to reach more remote villages. Accommodation will most likely be in the local ‘rong’ house. You need to be flexible and adaptable, though – the local authorities have differing ideas about what’s allowed and what isn’t, which is why you need one of our expert guides to smooth the way!
Attractions in Kon Tum
1. Communal House (Rong House)
2. Ba Na Village
3. Tay Nguyen Grave House
1. Communal House (Rong House), Kon Tum
The Rong House can only be found in villages to the north of the Central Highlands, especially in Gia Lai and Kon Tum provinces. It is a large, imposing, beautifully decorated stilt house built in the middle of the village. It is where community activities take place, reception of guests, meetings, wedding ceremonies, or praying ceremonies. It is also the place for reception of guests.
The Rong House of each ethnic group has its own architectural style, design, and d�cor. Yet there are shared features. In the village, it is often the biggest house roofed with yellow-dried gianh leaves and having 8 big wood columns. The rafters are decorated with patterns of bright colours, depicting religious scenes, legendary stories about ancient heroes, stylized animals, and other familiar things of the village life. The most salient feature of the d�cor of the Rong House is the image of the brilliant God of Sun.
The Rong House is a symbol of the culture of Central Highlanders, an age-old and stable culture. The bigger the house, the wealthier the village is. It is a pride of the whole village.
2. Ba Na Village, Kon Tum
Ba Na Village is in the Central Highlands, Kon Tum Province. Ba Na Village has many beautiful wooden stilt houses. The staircases leading to the houses are made from tree trunks; each step meticulously chiselled by the skilled Ba Na men.
There are several Ba Na minority groups living in Kon Tum, or more generally in the Central Highlands, including the Ba Na Kon Tum, Ba Na Go La, and Ba Na Na Ko. Each group resides in a different area.
The Ba Na ethnic group was the first among the minorities of the Central Highlands to write and to use buffaloes and cows to plough their fields. Nevertheless, their lifestyle has remained primitive. The Ba Na is nationally famous for their hunting skills. Like other ethnic minorities, the Ba Na people keep fires burning in the middle of their houses. Family members and friends sit around the fire to drink, eat, and talk. The fire also keeps the house warm.
Men sometimes have a scar on their chest. It is a result of a wound their inflict to themselves with fire in sign of sorrow when one of their close relatives die.
3. Tay Nguyen Grave House, Kon Tum
Tay Nguyen Grave House is located in the Central Highlands, Kon Tum Province. According to aged old customs of ethnic minority groups in the Central Highlands, after the burial of the deceased they grave to shelter the grave from rain and sunshine.
The hut is usually stocked with personal belongings of the deceased. Two or three years later, family members of the deceased are going to remove the hut and build a new, bigger wooden house there. In addition, the grave is to have meticulous decorations. The grave house is surrounded with a wooden fence within there is a wooden statue resembling a human being, a bird or an animal. The practice of removing the makeshift hut is usually organized in the spring and is considered a festive day.
The ritual is called Le Bo Ma (Leaving-the-grave). In this day villagers are gathered at the cemetery ground and the family members bring food offerings including rice-distilled rice, rice, cooked pork and other meat. After the offerings are given to the deceased, villagers are to sing songs, dance and enjoy the drink and the food taken down from the altar. They have the belief that the deceased has returned to join the feast with those alive.
The French used Kon Tum as their administrative centre for the Central Highlands and built a large prison to subdue the local population. They deployed the prisoners as forced labour to build Highway 19 – needless to say, many died.
One of the best-known international guidebooks has much to say about Kon Tum’s historic prison, concluding that the “local tourism authorities have not quite grasped the economic potential of this would-be war museum.” Had the authors checked, they’d have known that the prison was demolished after the war and completely rebuilt between 1998 and 2000 by the tourism department to capitalise upon an unwitting tourist market.
If you travel with Lighthouse International Tours, you get accurate information. As we’re not interested in ‘fake’ attractions, we give the prison a miss.
However, the town has two French-built churches that definitely shouldn’t be missed. The small, whitewashed Tan Huong Church was built around the 1850s. It stands on stilts, although it’s not immediately obvious. Inside, it’s a gem. Most of the stained glass is original, and there’s a splendid vaulted ceiling. The roof has been replaces, but the original ‘fishscale’ tiles can be seen on the tower.
The better-known ‘Wooden Church’ was built in 1913, and has been carefully restored. The stained-glass window includes both Christian and local imagery.
The Bishop’s Palace isn’t open to the public, but it’s worth a look from outside.
While in Kon Tum, we encourage our guests to visit the town’s Ba Na orphanage. It’s a poorly funded charitable foundation, but the children are well cared for despite the somewhat Spartan surroundings. You’ll get a very warm welcome, and they’ll get a decent donation on your behalf, a transaction that sends everyone away happy.
The main attraction of the area around Kon Tum is dozens of easily accessible ethnic minority villages. Visitors can stroll through ethnic communities, meet the people and experience their daily life. You’re very unlikely to run into beggars or other nuisances: even the children don’t cluster around or pester strangers. People are very friendly, and happy to welcome guests into their houses. Home stays are available.
‘Rafting’ down DakBla River in an inflatable dingy, a riverside picnic, swimming, dinner in the Rong house of a Ba Na village followed by wine and conversation with the locals typifies the experiences offered by this little-known area and its easygoing, good-natured people.
If you want to get further away, there are plenty of good trekking routes taking you through attractive countryside and across precarious bridges to reach more remote villages. Accommodation will most likely be in the local ‘rong’ house. You need to be flexible and adaptable, though – the local authorities have differing ideas about what’s allowed and what isn’t, which is why you need one of our expert guides to smooth the way!
Attractions in Kon Tum
1. Communal House (Rong House)
2. Ba Na Village
3. Tay Nguyen Grave House
1. Communal House (Rong House), Kon Tum
The Rong House can only be found in villages to the north of the Central Highlands, especially in Gia Lai and Kon Tum provinces. It is a large, imposing, beautifully decorated stilt house built in the middle of the village. It is where community activities take place, reception of guests, meetings, wedding ceremonies, or praying ceremonies. It is also the place for reception of guests.
The Rong House of each ethnic group has its own architectural style, design, and d�cor. Yet there are shared features. In the village, it is often the biggest house roofed with yellow-dried gianh leaves and having 8 big wood columns. The rafters are decorated with patterns of bright colours, depicting religious scenes, legendary stories about ancient heroes, stylized animals, and other familiar things of the village life. The most salient feature of the d�cor of the Rong House is the image of the brilliant God of Sun.
The Rong House is a symbol of the culture of Central Highlanders, an age-old and stable culture. The bigger the house, the wealthier the village is. It is a pride of the whole village.
2. Ba Na Village, Kon Tum
Ba Na Village is in the Central Highlands, Kon Tum Province. Ba Na Village has many beautiful wooden stilt houses. The staircases leading to the houses are made from tree trunks; each step meticulously chiselled by the skilled Ba Na men.
There are several Ba Na minority groups living in Kon Tum, or more generally in the Central Highlands, including the Ba Na Kon Tum, Ba Na Go La, and Ba Na Na Ko. Each group resides in a different area.
The Ba Na ethnic group was the first among the minorities of the Central Highlands to write and to use buffaloes and cows to plough their fields. Nevertheless, their lifestyle has remained primitive. The Ba Na is nationally famous for their hunting skills. Like other ethnic minorities, the Ba Na people keep fires burning in the middle of their houses. Family members and friends sit around the fire to drink, eat, and talk. The fire also keeps the house warm.
Men sometimes have a scar on their chest. It is a result of a wound their inflict to themselves with fire in sign of sorrow when one of their close relatives die.
3. Tay Nguyen Grave House, Kon Tum
Tay Nguyen Grave House is located in the Central Highlands, Kon Tum Province. According to aged old customs of ethnic minority groups in the Central Highlands, after the burial of the deceased they grave to shelter the grave from rain and sunshine.
The hut is usually stocked with personal belongings of the deceased. Two or three years later, family members of the deceased are going to remove the hut and build a new, bigger wooden house there. In addition, the grave is to have meticulous decorations. The grave house is surrounded with a wooden fence within there is a wooden statue resembling a human being, a bird or an animal. The practice of removing the makeshift hut is usually organized in the spring and is considered a festive day.
The ritual is called Le Bo Ma (Leaving-the-grave). In this day villagers are gathered at the cemetery ground and the family members bring food offerings including rice-distilled rice, rice, cooked pork and other meat. After the offerings are given to the deceased, villagers are to sing songs, dance and enjoy the drink and the food taken down from the altar. They have the belief that the deceased has returned to join the feast with those alive.