Treasures of Tay Con Linh: [2] Lost in the ginseng forest

The road winding along the slopes into Ta Phin Ho, Tan Quang commune, Tuyen Quang province, curves like a silk ribbon draped across the great forest. As soon as the car stops, the chill from deep within the forest rushes in, carrying the scent of damp earth, decaying leaves, and the distinctive, faintly bitter fragrance of the mountains.

I look up. Towering ancient trees reach toward the sky, their trunks covered in green moss. Old, gnarled rhododendrons, weathered by hundreds of years of rain and sun, still clung firmly to the hillsides. Ancient Snow Shan tea trees, wearing their rough skin, stand guard over the great forest. Tay Con Linh is as beautiful as a fairyland.

But what drove me to travel hundreds of kilometers to this place was not only the forest's beauty. Deep in these misty, cloud-covered highlands, people are cultivating a plant considered the national treasure of the Ngoc Linh mountain range - Ngoc Linh ginseng.

Admiring ginseng in Ta Phin Ho

Bài liên quan

Treasures of Tay Con Linh: [1] Mac tea legendary

The road into the ginseng-growing area grew steeper by the minute. The previous night's rain had softened the forest soil. Some stretches, though only a few hundred meters long, seemed to take forever to cross, as if the earth stubbornly clung to every step.

"On the day we brought the ginseng seedlings up to this land, everyone thought: growing ginseng here is already hard enough, but keeping it alive is many times harder," said Cai Quang Binh, a representative of Vietnamese Panax Technology Joint Stock Company, who guided the group as he spoke. That sentence stayed with me for the rest of the journey.

Binh, his skin tanned by the sun and his shoes perpetually caked in mud, recounted the journey of bringing ginseng to the forests of Tay Con Linh. The company had traveled across Vietnam's most famous ginseng-growing regions, from Da Nang to Lai Chau, and even to South Korea and North Korea, to study how others cultivated, protected, and managed their precious medicinal-plant areas.

But all that experience could only serve as reference. Because Tay Con Linh was Tay Con Linh. The mountain had its own character; the forest breathed its own rhythm. For the ginseng to survive, one had to understand every underground water source, every layer of soil, every sliver of light filtering through the canopy.

Binh said some planting beds had to be abandoned entirely. Some batches of seedlings had to be replaced. There were nights the whole team lost sleep over prolonged heavy rain. "I've always believed ginseng is like people. For it to survive, you have to give it love, patience, and a sense of responsibility," he said, his voice fading into the rustle of wind through the sunlit forest canopy.

At an altitude of over a thousand meters, the ginseng forest came into view. Small planting beds nestled beneath the forest canopy. Their green, webbed leaves trembled gently in the wind - small and delicate, yet their value is anything but little.

Binh paused beside a planting bed, crouched down, and gently brushed aside the layer of decaying leaves covering the ground. Beneath that thick layer of forest humus, dozens of centimeters deep, ginseng plants were growing day by day.

He recalled that in 2019, when the first ginseng plants were brought up to Tay Con Linh, many people were skeptical about whether the climate would be suitable, the forest soil would be compatible, or a plant known as "green gold" could survive thousands of kilometers from its native home.

Those questions had no answers in any book. They could only be answered through time, sweat, and hardship.

People usually only see ginseng’s value once it sells for hundreds of millions of Vietnamese dong. Few see the years of quiet effort behind it - the days trekking through the forest, the nights sleeping in makeshift huts, the rainy seasons spent fighting landslides, the freezing winters spent watching over every planting bed. The true value of ginseng doesn't lie in money, but in the perseverance of the people who chose to live alongside it.

Sowing seeds of prosperity

I met Ly Van Chau, a member of the Red Dao ethnic group in Ta Phin Ho. His family's small house sat halfway up the mountain, where clouds seemed to brush against the roof. He and his relatives had been involved with the ginseng-growing area since its earliest days.

The Dao people of Ta Phin Ho love the forest and know every stream. They know which season the trees bud, and which season wild animals come down to the village. Their knowledge and affection breathe extra life into the precious ginseng beds.

Ly Van Chau gazed thoughtfully toward the planting beds hidden beneath the old-growth canopy. He recalled that when the company first brought Ngoc Linh ginseng up to Ta Phin Ho, many people were worried because it was a rare, high-value plant, and it might stir up trouble in mountains that had long been peaceful. But time has since answered all those concerns.

The Dao people of Ta Phin Ho remain as they always have - as honest as the trees of the forest, as sincere as the water flowing from its source. They regard the forest as home, as the shelter that has carried them through countless lean seasons. And as the ginseng takes root beneath the forest canopy, the villagers come to see it as part of their future wealth, a shared hope for the whole community. Protecting the ginseng forest means protecting the chance for their children and grandchildren to build a better life.

Chau's family of three has been involved with the ginseng forest since the very first days. Their familiar footsteps have crossed misty mountain slopes, through relentless rainy seasons and biting winters, to tend and protect each small planting bed.

Tay Con Linh has always been rich - rich in forest, rich in water, rich in the bounty nature has generously provided. And yet poverty has clung to many villages like a shadow. Generation after generation of Dao people have grown up amid the great forest, relying year-round on their fields and hillside plots, yet still struggling to get by. In some winters, the mountain wind howled through wooden walls. In years of poor harvests, villagers had only wild vegetables and forest tubers to see them through hard times.

Having lived through such hardships, Chau understands all the more the value of ginseng today. He often tells fellow villagers that if the ginseng thrives and grows tall beneath this forest canopy, the future of the community will change as well. That's why they must protect the forest and protect the ginseng - as if protecting their own hope.

His words have earned the villagers' trust. People now voluntarily keep their free-roaming buffalo away from the ginseng-growing areas, and remind one another and their children not to harm the forest.

Like Chau, many Dao people in Ta Phin Ho are placing a burning hope in ginseng - the hope that one day poverty will be buried deep beneath these cloud-covered mountains. Young people will no longer have to leave the village to find work far from home, women will have more job opportunities, and children will grow up with more chances than their parents had. It all begins with the small seeds now quietly taking root beneath the forest canopy of Tay Con Linh.

Vietnamese Panax Technology Joint Stock Company began implementing the model in 2019 with Ngoc Linh ginseng and Lai Chau ginseng varieties. To date, it has built 228 planting beds across an area of more than 1,800 square meters, with nearly 42,000 ginseng plants and about 80,000 seeds currently being preserved and propagated.

Following an on-site survey, Tuyen Quang's agriculture and environment sector assesses that the ginseng has adapted well and is growing strongly in its initial stages. However, developing medicinal plants under forest canopy must be closely tied to forest protection requirements, biodiversity conservation, and avoiding harm to the natural ecosystem.

The model aims not only to develop a high-value medicinal crop but also to create sustainable livelihoods, helping local residents raise their incomes and, in turn, become more committed to protecting the forest and its natural resources.