The culture and history in Phong Nha – Ke Bang area

Landscapes and Historical sites: Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park has many important historical and cultural relics such as Ho Chi Minh trail, Xuan Son ferry, Nguyen Van Troi ferry, information line, the Quyet Thang Road No 20 (Winning Road No 20), Tam Co cave (Eight Girls Cave), Cua Chu A (The Road-turn of A letter); and famous landscapes and beautiful sites such as Bong Lai lake (Fairyland’s lake), Nuoc Moc stream (Water Rising stream), Sinh Ton valley (Existing valley), Wind waterfall, U Bo Mountain, Vooc Well (Langur well), and etc;
Traditional festivals: There are also special cultural features of ethnic minorities as Drum Beating festival of the Macoong people in Thuong Trach commune, Fairy’s Water Begging festival of residents in Son river’s valley, Tuong singing of the Khuong Ha villagers, Hung Trach commune, the full moon festival in Third Lunar month of the Lunar Year in Minh Hoa district and etc.
Buffer Zone: There are 10 communes of the buffer zone with a total population of 51,865 people in 10,752 households, of which Tantrach commune has 42 households and 202 people in the core zone of Phong Nha - Ke Bang NP( District statistics, 2006). There are 3 ethnic groups that are Kinh, Bru-Vankieu, and Chut. 10 communes shared lands and boundaries with core zone as Hung Trach, Phuc Trach, Son Trach, Xuan Trach, Tan Trach, Thuong Trach and Phu Dinh (Bo Trach district), Thuong Hoa and Trung Hoa (Minh Hoa district), and Truong Son (Quang Ninh district). The Buffer Zone is priority management to reduce human impacts to the National Park. Lands and natural resources in the Buffer Zone are managed by local authorities.
Cultural heritage: The oldest evidence of human occupation of the area are Neolithic axe heads and similar artifacts found in some of the caves. There are some relics of Ham Nghi King, a final King of the Nguyen dynasty before the French colonial period, at the Maria Mountain in the north of the Park. Currently the Arem, Ma Coong ethnic groups live in two villages in the core zone while the Ruc people live in the buffer zone of Phong Nha - Ke Bang NP. Until 1962 these indigenous people lived in the forest in houses made of bamboo and leaves or in the caves, living from forest products and hunting. They used simple tools and their clothes were made from the bark of a toxic forest tree (Antiaris toxicaria) and lianas. Since 1992 the Government of Vietnam has set up two new settlements for these 475 people, who are the two smallest ethnic groups in Vietnam. These people are familiar with a number of economically valuable species, especially precious timber such as Mun and Hue (Diospyros spp. and Dalbergia tonkinensis), and oil-extraction from species such as Tau (Hopea hainanensis) and many medicinal plants. The Phong Nha Cave has long been a site of religious and touristic importance, with an old Cham Temple discovered in the cave and it was a site of worship in the ninth and tenth centuries. During the war with the USA the Phong Nha - Ke Bang forest and caves were a garrison and weapons store for the Vietnamese army.