Learning about Thai ethnic culture in Che Can village

Che Can village is located in Muong Phang commune, Dien Bien district, Dien Bien province, about 40 km to the northeast of Dien Bien Phu city. The peaceful space makes it an ideal place for people who want to keep away from noisy atmosphere of city.
Che Can village is home to nearly 100 black Thai ethnic households. Thanks to advantageous location near Pa Khoang lake and Muong Phang historical relic, local people have developed community-based tourism combining cultural, historical and ecological tourism. Currently, Che Can village has become a characteristic community-based tourism site and attracted a large number of visitors every year.
One of Che Can’s unique features is architecture of traditional stilt houses. According to concept of Black Thai people in Northwestern region, stilt houses are usually located in high, dry and airy places putting back to mountains and facing rivers, streams or fields. The stilt houses are equipped necessary equipments as televisions, refrigerators… to improve life quality of people and serve visitors. Local people also invested to build a cultural stilt house with traditional architecture to display instruments, introduce information on history, culture of the village and organize community activities.
Apart from traditional architecture, Che Can also attracts visitors by specific festivals (Xen ban, Kin lau no festival…); exquisite folk songs, dances (Thai folk song, khan pieu dance…); diversified culinary culture (sticky mountain rice, grilled fish, chicken…) and unique traditional games (to ma le, to ma hap, to phai, tu lu…)
In addition, aiming to impress visitors, Che Can village has established an art team including 12 members to perform Thai songs and dances in festivals and in welcoming guests in the cultural stilt house.
Although Che Can village has promoted community-based tourism in a few recent years, it has achieved certain successes and become a specific community-based tourism site in Dien Bien province. In the future, Che Can would be a must-see destination in the journey to visit the historical relic and scenic landscape complex of Muong Phang.