Bac Ha horse racing festival (Bac Ha district, Lao Cai province) has just been included in the list of National Intangible Cultural Heritage by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. This is considered a great opportunity for Lao Cai province to preserve the unique cultural features in the Northwest highlands, exploiting and developing green economy.
Bac Ha district, Lao Cai province, which is known as the white plateau because of its cool climate, is also the “capital” of the famous Tam Hoa plum. Every spring, plums bloom on the Bac Ha plateau. dream, love.
Bac Ha horse racing festival In addition to the fresh climate and beautiful natural landscape, Bac Ha is also a land with many famous monuments, such as Hoang A Tuong Palace, Bac Ha temple, Trung Do temple, Thien Long cave. Along with that, the villages still preserve the unique cultural features of ethnic groups such as Ta Van Chu, Ta Van Chu commune; Trung Do village, Bao Nhai commune, Ban Pho village, Ban Pho commune… Especially, Bac Ha cultural market attracts a lot of domestic and foreign tourists to visit and shop. Bac Ha is also known by tourists near and far for its unique festivals, especially the nearly 100-year-old traditional horse racing festival, which takes place in June every year. According to the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Lao Cai, in 1975, in Bac Ha held a parade with over 200 horses going around the central area to celebrate the liberation of the South and reunification of the country. In the spring of 1980, Bac Ha District Team (Military Command) organized a horse race, shooting to choose good horsemen and gunners to join the militia and transport food by road. After that, Bac Ha did not organize another tournament. In 2007, the Bac Ha traditional horse racing tournament was officially restored. Since then, the award has become an annual festival of Bac Ha district, held once a year, meeting the needs of people to enjoy the cultural and spiritual life, contributing to the preservation and promotion of cultural and sports traditions of ethnic minorities in Bac Ha; promoting the image of people and tourism in Bac Ha to domestic and foreign tourists, becoming a highlight to attract tourists to Bac Ha. In the past, horse racing took place around fields and hills and the finish line was in the center of town. When nearly reaching the finish line, the horsemen quickly jumped to the ground, pulled the flintlock on their shoulders and aimed at the target, fired 5 shots, then snatched the red ball, jumped on the horse and returned to the starting point. Whoever is both fast and hits the target the most is the winner. Today, the horse race in Bac Ha is no longer a shooting competition, the jockeys also have a separate arena, the race is organized and more attractive to viewers. Not a commercial, not a professional race, horse racing in Bac Ha is a race of farmers (jockeys) and racehorses are pack horses. A special feature of horse racing in Bac Ha is the carpentry race, where the jockeys ride on horseback without a saddle, without pedals to hold their feet, but only with a horse belt, two iron hooks tied to the ropes on either side of the jaw to control. With the courage, skillful horse control and endurance of both the rider and the fighting horse, the race took place fiercely, thrillingly, and attractively from qualifying to the final. With that distinction, the Bac Ha horse race is always expected and becomes a unique cultural feature of the ethnic minorities here. Ms. Chu Thi Duong, Vice Chairman of Bac Ha District People’s Committee – said that maintaining the Bac Ha traditional horse race is one of the local efforts to honor the good cultural values of the people. Bac Ha highland minority in general and praised the unique and emotional attachment between upland people and animals that are extremely attached and familiar in their daily life and spiritual life. Bac Ha is a land that also contains many unique cultural values After becoming a national heritage, many culture and tourism experts believe that the Bac Ha horse racing tournament will enrich the culture of this land, especially improve tourism attraction with tourists. become a lever for tourism development in the coming time. Because of the fact, despite possessing abundant tourism resources, Bac Ha tourism still has not developed commensurately, tourist growth is low due to the lack of unique products, tourism facilities have not been invested in the same way. the set; the system of hotels and new houses is only on a small scale and still lacks high-quality facilities; tourism human resources have not met the requirements; the advertising, promotion, investment attraction to develop tourism products and services is not effective; ability to connect with Sa Pa, Lao Cai city, Si Ma Cai, Xin Man (Ha Giang) in coordinating tourists is still limited… Recognizing the difficulties in tourism development, and determined to create breakthroughs for Bac Ha’s green economy, according to the tourism development planning of Bac Ha district up to 2020, with a vision to 2030, Bac Ha will focus on multi-faceted development. To form tourism product lines (types of tourism) such as: cultural tourism, eco-tourism – community, sightseeing tourism, historical sites, festivals to meet the needs of discovery and experience. of visitors; Promote promotion through special publications, Internet system, social network; To promote the attraction of investment in the district’s tourism technical facilities, in which to give priority to the construction of 3-star or higher-class hotels in townships, and to develop community-based tourism; Building and upgrading routes connecting tourist attractions; Focus on training tourism human resources towards perfecting basic skills according to Vietnam Tourism Professional Standards; Strengthen the ability to connect, coordinate and transfer guests with localities in the province and Ha Giang province.
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