Thap Muoi Lotus Fields

The logo of Đồng Tháp Province is a stylized lotus flower and a crane. People call this land the Land of Pink Lotus. They do not call it that only because the flower is pretty. The lotus has been part of life here for so long that it has become the way people recognize who they are, and the way Đồng Tháp introduces itself to the world.

The Gò Tháp lotus field lies in Hamlet 1 of Tháp Mười commune, and it is one of the places that shows this land best. It covers about 20 hectares. A wooden walkway links thatched-roof huts, with one hut for resting about every 50 meters. A tall tower looks out over the rice fields all around.

This is not an artificial flower park. It is part of the living Mekong Delta, where lotus is grown to be used as well as admired. Lotus leaves wrap rice. The seeds go into sweet soup or cakes. The stems are made into salad, the hearts go into tea, and the roots become many other dishes. The farmers here do not grow lotus to sell photographs. They grow it to live.

The Tháp Mười area alone once had about 300 hectares of lotus. In Mỹ Hòa commune, some farming families moved from growing lotus for its seed pods to adding ecotourism, to earn more from the crop. Visitors come to look at the flowers. They also buy fresh lotus seeds, stems, leaves and lotus products on the spot.

On the wooden walkway into the middle of the field, the scent of lotus is the first thing to notice. It is not the smell of cut flowers in a vase. It is fresh lotus on the water, mixed with the smell of mud and the water of the delta. Then come the colors: pink lotus, white lotus, big green leaves, and old brown seed pods. Nothing is uniform, and nothing stands in rows. This is a natural lotus field.

On the thatched huts, people sit and rest, look out over the field and eat dishes made from lotus. There is grilled fish, called cá lóc nướng, then lotus rice, lotus-stem salad, lotus tea and lotus milk. A whole meal grows out of the very field in front of them.

A small boat carries people deeper into the field, closer to the water and the plants. The lotus leaves rise above head height, the flowers open right beside the boat, and the splash of the paddle is the only sound.

From the tall tower, the whole view opens: the field of lotus spread wide, the wooden walkway winding, the huts dotted about, and the rice fields far off. Tháp Mười sits inside a much wider region. Gò Tháp and Xẻo Quýt lie in it. So do Gáo Giồng and Tràm Chim. Together they form one long arc of ecology and culture, from archaeology to wild nature.

Lotus at Tháp Mười begins to bloom from about July each year. From then on, the field can turn into a sea of pink and white, with green leaves rippling in the wind off the delta.

When the sun climbs and the scent of lotus fills the water, it is easy to see why the people of Đồng Tháp call their home the Land of Pink Lotus. It is easy to see, too, why a single flower can speak for a whole region.