The mountain is filled with gold and jade?
Located completely separate from the other seven villages, Tien Nong village in Thieu Long commune, Thieu Hoa district, Thanh Hoa province is famous throughout the region for its mountain known as the fairy mountain. To get here, we had to cross a pontoon bridge "cast" by the people of cement on Cau Chay river. Currently, the bridge has been degraded,
According to the locals, behind the village there is a rocky mountain called Tien Nong. In this area, people have found many valuable antiques made of gold and copper. They have sold them and built spacious and beautiful houses.
According to Mr. Le Van Sanh (born 1942) residing in Tien Nong village, exactly 20 years ago, a young man named Vu Van Lam went up the mountain to play and unexpectedly picked up two gold discs. He sold the discs for more than 20 million to build a high-rise building and live right near the foot of this rocky mountain.
There was another strong young man whose house was near the foot of the mountain. While plowing the field, he suddenly encountered a strange object that broke his plow in half. When he stopped to see what the strange object was that could break the plow, he was extremely surprised because it was a golden bell. After selling it for money, this young man returned to live a prosperous life of "being content with his lot in the fish pond" until today.
The mountain with many mysterious and thrilling things in Thanh Hoa
Not only that, most recently 4 years ago, Mr. Vu Van Truong's house right next to the foot of Tien mountain, while digging a pond, he and his family unexpectedly found a Buddha statue with "a thousand eyes and a thousand hands" made of jade. This Buddha statue is only the size of a lighter but it has a very sparkling halo. Like the villagers, Mr. Truong sold the statue for 10 million VND.
The story told to us by Mr. Trinh Van Tam is even more thrilling and fascinating. According to Mr. Tam, while digging a hole to plant a tree, his family dug up a golden horse under a large banyan tree in their garden near the foot of Tien Mountain. "According to my father, every night at 12 o'clock when it was drizzling and windy, on Tien Mountain, an animal shaped like a horse appeared running around the hill. This horse changed color constantly, when seen from afar it was red, but when closer it turned green."
In addition to the mysterious and rich “treasure”, Tien Nong mountain is also home to giant pythons. Thirty years ago, people in Tien Nong village caught a larger python weighing more than 100kg, swallowing almost a whole mountain goat. The villagers cut up the python’s meat to share among themselves. According to many people here, there is currently a very large python nest on the mountain, but no one has dared to go in to catch it for fear of the king python’s revenge.
The fateful "chessboard"
After listening to the somewhat mysterious stories about a mountain with fairies woven by the local people, following the rocky and bumpy road, Mr. Tam led us to climb to the top of the mountain behind the village to "see with our own eyes" this mysterious mountain.
Mr. Trinh Van Tam is pointing at the chess board.
Perhaps because many curious people still came to watch, especially the children herding cows, the smooth rocks and grass on the path were flattened to the sides. Mr. Tam led us to a large stone slab under the canopy of acacia trees and said this was the “fairy chess board”.
The stone slab was covered with a thick layer of rotten leaves and dust. Brushing away the leaves on top, we saw a chess board with diagonal lines on a large, shapeless stone surface. According to Mr. Tam: "When I was young, I could see the fairy chess board very clearly, but now it has become blurred by the rain and sun of time. I myself heard the village elders tell me that once on a bright full moon night, they saw two fairies playing a "fated" chess game. When they heard footsteps, the two fairies quickly pushed a stone slab next to them to cover it up to hide the mortal world from the game. Perhaps because the power of these fairies was so great that when they pushed the stone slab, they created a centrifugal force between the two stone slabs, so now the stone was split in half."
After a long time observing the chess board, Mr. Tam continued to lead me down the mountain by another path to a very large python nest that he had previously said no one dared to catch for fear of revenge.
To verify the authenticity of the mysterious stories we had just heard, we went to meet Mr. Vu Dinh Thu (born in 1960) - Head of Tien Nong village. Talking to us, Mr. Thu also confirmed that the story of people picking up antiques to sell and catching giant pythons was completely true.
Mr. Vu Dinh Thu, Head of Tien Nong village, is telling the history of Tien Nong mountain.
He said: "Tien Nong Mountain was formerly called Nuong Mountain. The chessboard on the stone slab has been around for a long time, but no one knows exactly when it was built. Previously, on this Nuong Mountain, archaeologists from the Provincial Department of Culture discovered ancient Vietnamese remains dating back thirty thousand years."
Chairman of the People's Committee of Thieu Long Commune, Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Tinh shared: "According to rumors, some people often pick up valuables there, especially households near the mountain. The story of seeing two fairies playing chess is just a fabricated story, without any basis for verification. It is considered a folk tale, and folk tales are often subject to many variations," Mr. Tinh shared.
