Con Phung Islet

Cồn Phụng, in the middle of the Tiền River, needs no famous name. The first step onto its ground tells you it is the right place.

The Tiền River is one of the two branches of the Mekong that flow through Vietnam. The islet lies in the tenth hamlet of Phú Túc commune, in Vĩnh Long province. The land used to belong to Bến Tre. It covers more than 30,000 square meters, and it is also called Tân Vinh islet.

It is one of four islets in the river that people often call Tứ Linh, the Four Sacred Creatures. They are named for the dragon, the unicorn, the turtle and the phoenix. Phụng is the phoenix.

How the islet got its name is a story passed down by word of mouth. Long ago, while a pagoda called Nam Quốc Phật was being built here, a workman found an old bowl with the image of a phoenix on it. From then on, the islet carried that name.

But what sets Cồn Phụng apart from any name is the mark of Đạo Dừa and of Nguyễn Thành Nam. Some people call this place the Đạo Dừa islet, because it was once the holy site of a folk religious movement that he began. In this area stands a courtyard called Sân Rồng, the Dragon Courtyard, with nine golden dragons. It is a brilliant image, and everyone who comes here remembers it.

The islet opens into what people of the delta call miệt vườn, the garden country. Shady green paths, the chatter of birds, the smell of coconut and honey, and fruit heavy on the branches in season. A visit here usually means sipping honey tea, eating seasonal fruit, listening to đờn ca tài tử, and riding a xuồng ba lá along a channel lined with water coconut palms.

The xuồng ba lá is a small wooden boat that carries only a few people at a time. It slips under the green fronds of the water coconut palms, with no engine, only the sound of water and the sound of the oar. People of the delta have gotten around this way for hundreds of years, and it is the best way to feel the slow pace of this land of rivers.

Beyond the scenery, Cồn Phụng is a place to meet traditional crafts. Coconut candy, called kẹo dừa, along with other coconut products and coconut handicrafts, is part of any walk around the islet. The candy makers usually work on the spot, and visitors can watch each step. They boil the coconut cream, mix in the coconut milk, pull the candy by hand, and cut it into even squares. No machine does this. It is done by human strength.

Then comes the time for đờn ca tài tử. It is an art of music and song of southern Vietnam that evokes life on the Mekong Delta's land and rivers. In 2013, UNESCO inscribed it on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. That list is for living traditions, passed on from one generation to the next. Sitting in the garden of a house on Cồn Phụng, you are hearing an art that the whole world has recognized as a shared heritage of humanity. It belongs to no one alone.

Đờn ca tài tử needs no stage. A player can sit on a rattan chair in the middle of the garden and pick up a đàn kìm or a đàn tranh, a plucked zither. A few voices join in, and a whole stream of Nam Bộ folk music simply flows out. It needs no script and no colored lights, only people and music.

There are also folk games here, such as emptying a ditch to catch fish, fishing with a line, and cycling around the islet. Not every child gets the chance to stand under a delta sky, net in hand, waiting for a fish to swim into the ditch.

The Tiền River flows on. The water coconut palms go on casting their shade. And every day the sound of đờn ca tài tử rises from this small islet in the middle of the silt-heavy stream.