More ancient rocks with terraced field carvings discovered in Mu Cang Chai

Culture

More ancient rocks with terraced field carvings discovered in Mu Cang Chai

Tuesday, November 1, 2022

YBO - Some rocks with ancient carvings were recently discovered at a site in Hang Chua Say hamlet of Che Cu Nha commune, Mu Cang Chai district. The site is about 4km to the east of the headquarters of the communal People’s Committee.

Lu A Tru, a cadre of Che Cu Nha commune, besides a newly discovered carved rock.

The site, situated in a protection forest, houses many big sandstone rocks that about are 1 - 20 cubic metres and located 7 - 80 metres from one another.

Among them, there is one that is more than 2 metres long and about 2 metres wide, and fully covered with different shapes, including seven concave circles, one concave lozenge, one convex circle, and lines symbolising terraced fields, creating a unique rock painting.

Lu A Tru, a communal cadre, said about 20 metres to the east of this rock – called "mother rock” by local Mong ethnic residents, there is a larger one, about 20 cubic metres, called "father rock”. People often come to worship the "father rock” to pray for good health. About 150 metres to the east and west of the "father rock” are two cylindrical rocks about over 1.3 metres tall and also covered with terrace field and concave circle carvings.

A preliminary survey shows that the carvings are relatively sophisticated. Their main topic is terraced fields, the same to what has been found on the 14 rocks in Lao Chai commune in 2015, 2020 and 2021.

One difference of the ancient rocks in Che Cu Nha commune is that they are also carved with concentric convex circles and concave lozenges.

Ly Kim Khoa, Deputy Director of the Yen Bai provincial Museum, said the carvings are neither symbols of landmarks nor maps like many people used to guess, instead they are designs or drawings of terraced fields on stone by local residents.

The discovery of ancient carved rocks in Che Cu Nha and Lao Chai is said to hold potential for research and also laid a foundation for authorities to include the rocks, together with the terraced fields and wildlife reserve in Mu Cang Chai district, in the tourism development policy.

Thanh Trung

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