Ban Phu Citadel

Most people know Điện Biên through a single year, 1954. That was the year of the battle of Điện Biên Phủ, in which Việt Minh forces defeated the French. But this land has another story that fewer people tell, and it happened exactly 200 years earlier.

In 1748, a group of people from Vân Nam in China and from upper Laos swept down and seized Mường Thanh. People called them the Phẻ. They made their camp at the Tam Vạn citadel and controlled the whole wide Mường Thanh plain. They raided as far as Thuận Châu in Sơn La. For years, the peoples living here endured heavy oppression.

Two local commanders, Lò Văn Ngải and Lò Văn Khanh, stood up to resist. Both were Thái. The Thái are one of Vietnam's ethnic groups, and Điện Biên is one of the provinces where they mainly live. But their forces were not enough. They needed help.

In 1751, the two men sought out a peasant leader of the Kinh people, who was active in the Thanh Hóa region. The Kinh are the majority ethnic group of Vietnam. His name was Hoàng Công Chất, and he was born in Thái Bình. For many years he had led a peasant uprising in the region of Sơn Nam Hạ. He was no nobleman and no general of the royal court. He was a man of the fields, and he led through the respect people gave him and through his own will.

The two commanders invited him to Mường Thanh to fight beside them. That detail matters. The Thái of Điện Biên invited the Kinh up from the lowlands. The Kinh did not march into the mountains to conquer anyone. It was an alliance of equals, of people who faced the same opponent.

The fighting lasted three years, from 1751 to 1754. In May 1754, the Kinh and Thái alliance won a decisive victory. The Phẻ general, Phạ Chẩu Tin Toòng, was taken alive. Mường Thanh was won back.

Hoàng Công Chất stayed. He did not withdraw to the lowlands after the victory. With his fighters and the peoples of the area, he set about building a lasting base on the land they had just won back.

From 1758 to 1762, in four years, they raised Thành Bản Phủ.

The name Bản Phủ means a government hall in a village. It was the headquarters of his army, set in the middle of a Thái village. It was not a royal fortress standing apart from ordinary people. The citadel was built inside the community.

Look at its structure, and you can see that it was no hasty work. The wall is 15 meters wide at the base, 5 meters wide at the top, and 15 meters high. The water moat around it is 4 to 5 meters deep. There are four gates, each with a watchtower. The whole citadel covers more than 80 mẫu, with the Nậm Rốm River at its back. A mẫu is a traditional Vietnamese unit of area.

It was built entirely by human strength, with no machines, no cranes and no cement. This was a feat of engineering for the 18th century, made by Kinh and Thái people working side by side.

Hoàng Công Chất lived in Mường Thanh until he died on March 21, 1769. He died there, on the land that he and the Thái had won back and built up.

After his death, the peoples of the Điện Biên area built a temple to him inside the citadel grounds. The temple honors Hoàng Công Chất and six commanders of his army. Six commanders, not only one man, because this was a victory of many people, many ethnic groups and many generations.

Every year, on the 24th and 25th days of the second lunar month, people of the surrounding region come here to offer incense. They do not come as Kinh alone or Thái alone. They come together, because this was a victory shared by all of them, more than 270 years ago.

Mường Thanh, which is Điện Biên, has been won back twice in its history. The first time was in 1754, when Hoàng Công Chất and an alliance of many peoples drove out the Phẻ. The second was in 1954, when General Võ Nguyên Giáp and the People's Army drove out the French. The two wars, exactly 200 years apart, were both won by an alliance of many peoples against forces from outside.

Thành Bản Phủ is the witness of the first. It has been ranked a national historic site since 1981.

On those two days of the lunar year, the Kinh and the Thái still gather here to offer incense, as they have for more than 200 years. Drums sound, incense smoke rises, and the voices of many peoples blend together between the four earthen walls that have stood since the 18th century.