Ta So Village

The clothing of the Hmong is full of color and fine detail, and the village of Tà Số is one place to find out why.

Tà Số is a Hmong village in Chiềng Hắc. The village lies in Mộc Châu, in Sơn La. It is really two small villages side by side, Tà Số 1 and Tà Số 2. Both are known as one of the liveliest community tourism sites in Mộc Châu.

The name Tà Số has a story of its own. In the Hmong language it means ngải cứu, because long ago wild ngải cứu plants grew thick across this whole area. The Hmong came here from Yên Châu in 1964. What began as a remote village in the highlands has, over more than 60 years, become a place people visit to understand the Hmong better.

What stands out most in Tà Số is that the culture is not only put on show. It lives in the daily rhythm of the people. Here they still keep the crafts of making paper, forging knives, weaving cloth and printing patterns with beeswax. The village is also home to the artisan Vàng Thị Ly of Tà Số 2, who has spent her whole life keeping alive the Hmong craft of embroidered patterns. That craft is part of the national intangible cultural heritage.

Printing with beeswax is a technique in which the Hmong draw patterns on cloth with melted beeswax before dyeing it in indigo. The waxed parts stay white, and the parts without wax soak up the indigo and turn a deep blue. The result is cloth with white patterns on a blue ground, which is why Hmong clothing is both delicate and lasting. The technique takes patience and a precise hand, and today only a few older artisans still keep it.

Besides embroidery, Tà Số is tied to the sound of the Hmong khèn, a wind instrument. The art of the Hmong khèn in Mộc Châu is also part of the national intangible cultural heritage. The sound of the khèn is a kind of language, one the Hmong use to speak to the spirit world and to one another. Each melody has its own meaning and is heard at every ceremony, from weddings to funerals.

The province of Sơn La has put Tà Số on its list of traditional Hmong villages to be preserved. It is a village people want to keep for the future, with its home life, the sound of the khèn and the patterns drawn in beeswax.

At the end of the 11th lunar month, Tà Số is at its most beautiful. That is when the Hmong begin their New Year, a celebration that lasts a whole month and starts on the 30th day of the 11th lunar month. The village rings with the khèn, bright skirts and clothes flutter on the hillsides, and the smell of beeswax and indigo seems to linger in the wind.

On a hillside halfway up the Mộc Châu mountains, an old hand dips beeswax onto a white cloth. One stroke, then another. Little by little, a whole world of the Hmong appears, quiet and lasting, through many seasons of mist.