Khuoi Ky Stone Village

In Khuổi Ky, stone is in the walls and the roofs. It is also in the foundations, the base stones under the house posts, the fences, the paths, the grinding mills and the stoves. In a village like this, the building material explains almost everything that happens there.

The village lies in Đàm Thủy commune, in Trùng Khánh, Cao Bằng province. The Tày have lived with stone here for so long that nobody knows exactly when it became the center of their lives. The Tày are one of the peoples of northern Vietnam.

The village has 14 stilt houses made of stone, standing on about 10,000 square meters. The village leans its back against a mountain of rock. In front of it runs Khuổi Ky Stream, and the village takes its name from that stream.

The eye goes first to how the stone is used, and only then to the houses themselves. The walls are about 7 to 8 meters high and more than 30 centimeters thick. What holds them together is sand mixed with limestone. It is not cement and not modern glue, and it is not wood or straw either. The builders used the mountain's own material to build their homes.

Inside, a house usually has two floors. The lower floor holds household things. On the upper floor, the middle room is the living room and the place of the altar. The bedroom is on the right. On the left are the kitchen and the place where rice and grain are stored. In summer, the thick stone walls keep the house cool very well. In winter, the same walls keep it warm.

This is architecture that grew out of its surroundings. It was not brought in from outside, and it does not copy anyone.

The Tày of Trùng Khánh have a folk belief in which stone is worshipped. Stone is seen as a symbol of lasting strength and protection. So stone is more than a building material here, and it is part of spiritual life as well. In this village, a stone wall is both a piece of construction and a sign of how a community chose to live close to its natural surroundings.

According to tourism sources and local telling, the story of the stone houses is tied to the time the Mạc dynasty came up to Cao Bằng. That period ran from 1594 to 1677. The story says that when the Mạc built defensive citadels, stone stilt houses were raised like small fortresses. This does not mean that every house standing today dates from that time. But the land has a far longer history than the eye can see.

Khuổi Ky lies on the eastern route of the Non Nước Cao Bằng UNESCO Global Geopark. A UNESCO Global Geopark is an area with landscapes of international geological importance, managed for protection, education and sustainable development. The village sits on the road to Ngườm Ngao Cave, close to Bản Giốc Waterfall. Visitors often combine it with the cultural and natural sights of the Trùng Khánh area.

By 2025, 13 households in the village were offering homestays. There was also one troupe that performed Then singing and played the đàn Tính. Then is a ritual practice in the spiritual life of the Tày. This singing is also a cultural heritage of the Nùng and the Thái. UNESCO has 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.

Khuổi Ky is more than an old village. It is a village where people live now. There are families at home, kitchen fires, the voices of children and old people sitting in front of their doors. That makes a visit very different from walking through a museum site.

What stays longest after leaving may not be a photograph. It may be the sight of limestone from the floor of an ancient sea, hundreds of millions of years old, standing as the wall of a house where people still live today.