Tien Son Cave of Lai Chau

Tiên Sơn Cave in Lai Châu holds nature, history and belief inside one mountain.

The cave lies right beside Highway 4D, in Bình Lư commune, in Tam Đường. It is only about 4 kilometers from Tam Đường town and about 50 kilometers from Sa Pa.

In 1996, the Ministry of Culture issued a decision recognizing Tiên Sơn Cave as a national historical, cultural and scenic site. That is not a title given to just any cave. It rests on three things: the beauty of its natural geology, its part in the history of the resistance, and its role as a spiritual place for many peoples of the region.

This karst cave system took shape over millions of years. It runs through two sides of a mountain in a series of chambers, each wider than the one before. A clear stream flows through the inside, a feature that not every cave has. The water comes out from inside the mountain crystal clear, and it murmurs between the rock walls and the stalactites.

The first thing a visitor notices, just past the cave mouth, is a sudden change in temperature. Outside it may be hot and sunny. Inside the mountain it is cool at once. The stalactites here took shape over millions of years.

The chambers are named for sacred figures of Vietnamese folk culture and local belief, such as Mẹ Âu Cơ and Lạc Long Quân. Mẹ Âu Cơ is a mountain princess of Vietnamese legend. Lạc Long Quân is a sea dragon lord of Vietnamese legend. These are names from culture and belief, not official geological names. Still, they show that people come here to pray and to ask for protection as well as to look at the scenery.

And the people here are not of one ethnic group. Every year on Rằm tháng Giêng, the 15th day of the first lunar month, thousands of people from many ethnic groups gather at the cave. Kinh and Thái people hold the festival there together. So do the Giáy and the Lự. The Kinh are the majority ethnic group of Vietnam. For the whole community, it is the biggest cultural and spiritual gathering of the year.

The Lự have a legend of their own tied to this land, about 99 mountains and 99 lakes. It stands for the strength of the young men and the beauty of the young women of the northwest. It is a folk legend, not a historical event. Still, it shows that this place has been bound to the spiritual life of the local people for a very long time.

There is one more chapter of history that few people know. During the resistance war against the French, the cave served as a food store and a base for revolutionary activity. It lay hidden deep in the mountain and was hard to spot from outside. Its low temperature kept the food from spoiling. That made it an ideal place for the resistance. So the cave once served a very practical purpose, in a harsh period of history.

Outside are the sun and wind of the northwest. Inside the mountain, an underground stream can be heard, the stalactites glitter under the lamps, and cool air wraps around the whole body.

This is the moment when the long work of geology and centuries of spiritual life welcome the visitor.