Cat cat village in Sapa, Vietnam

[Nguyen Ngoc diep]

Cat Cat village is a H’mong ethnic village, 2 km from Sapa town. This is a popular tourist destination for trekking tour in Sapa. Cat Cat village was initiated from 19th century by an ethnic group gathering in the mountain foot.

The village was built after a motive that houses leaned on the mountain and villagers live by agriculture on the foothill. The main produces of them are rice and corns. They also raise some animals such as pigs and chicken. In addition, they also plant cotton trees themselves to make garments and do weabing.

Visiting this village, people can find out the traditional handicraft of villagers. The most well-known is brocatelle weaving.

H’mong people dye the garment after weaving by indigo dyer by natural method. Then they polish the garment by rolling it with a round chunk of wood on a flat stone that was applied honey wax on. For some products, they will embroider colorful tribal prints on.

These handicrafts have become the favourite souvenirs to foreigners when they visit this place.
H’mong architecture is also very distinctive and special to discover. H’mong house was built after the 3-section form with P’mu wood. The whole construction is carried by big pillars.

The main door is right in the middle of the house, 2 other secondary doors are on 2 sides. The main door is usually kept closed and only open on special events such as wedding, funeral, festive days, etc.