Mo Luong Cave

Water runs out of the Pù Khà range, down toward a field and a lake called Mỏ Luông. The cave behind that water had another name before the one most people use today: Hang Bó Luông. In Thái, the words Bó Luông point to a great stream of water. The name tells us that the Thái people here knew the cave long before any road led visitors to it, because they knew that water flowed out of it.

Hang Mỏ Luông lies in the Pù Khà range, in the area of Mai Châu town and the former commune of Chiềng Châu. After the administrative reorganization, the area now belongs to Phú Thọ province. In 2000, the cave was ranked a national scenic site. It is one of five sites in Mai Châu recognized by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

The main entrance faces northwest. It sits only about 10 meters from National Road 15, but a climb of about 18 meters leads up to it. The opening is about 3 meters high and 2 meters wide. From there, the way goes straight into the first chamber.

The first chamber has a fairly level floor. Local people call it hang Bộ đội, the Soldiers' Cave. According to the website Mai Châu 360, the floor was once made over into an army store for weapons, with a concrete surface and drainage channels. A single cave can hold many layers of history like this. One is the natural layer, limestone millions of years old. Another is the folk layer, the name Bó Luông and its legend. The last is the layer of recent history, from the years of war.

To reach the second chamber, a stairway about 10 meters high must be climbed. This chamber holds the most formations of any in the cave. Local people describe it in many images. They see a band of white stone like a ribbon of silk, and an arch of rock, and a formation that suggests a mother dragon. They see an eagle, shapes like woven brocade, and a garden of stone flowers. These are names that people give to what they see, a language that belongs to the cave alone.

The third chamber begins with a squeeze through a narrow crack, then a passage of about 10 meters that must be crawled. After that, it opens into a wide space. Some stone shapes there look like bowls of milk. Strands of stone hang down like a curtain of rain.

For many visitors, the most gripping part of Hang Mỏ Luông is the underground stream. It runs about 240 meters. At its deepest it is about 3 meters, and at its widest about 8. On that dark, still water, small rafts once carried two people at a time beneath the stone vault.

The last chamber is the fourth. It is about 15 meters long and about 12 meters wide, with a ceiling about 25 meters high. Formations rise from the floor, and below them on the right, the stream still flows.

The cave has a second door, facing west, which looks out on Mỏ Luông Lake. The lake is tied to a local folk legend that the Hòa Bình newspaper has recorded. When a guide tells it, it should be heard as a folk tale, not as an event of history that has been checked.

From that west door, the lake glints in the light outside, and the reason for the Thái name is plain. Water comes out of the heart of the Pù Khà range. It feeds the lake and feeds the field, and it keeps the story of the cave alive in the name Bó Luông, as it did before any road led here.