Luke Wood

Sapa is a picturesque town and district in the Lào Cai province in North West Vietnam. The town of Sa Pa lies at about 1600 meters of altitude and lies in the Hoang Lien Son mountain range near the Chinese border. These mountains are often referred to as "the Tonkinese Alps".  To view these photos, please click here and select ‘Hills and Mountains’. 

There are eight ethnic groups which inhabit the Lao Cai provice: Dao, White Thai, Hmongm Hao, Xa Pho, Tay, Giay and Muong. The most prominent groups in Sa Pa and the Dao (pronounced Zao) and Hmong.

There are between 6 and 8 million hill tribe people in Vietnam . The French named them Montagnards, or mountain people, a word perfumed with a colonial-era sort of romance. Many Vietnamese refer to them as moi - "savages" so the Government has recently started bundling them together under the politically correct  "national minorities''.

The Dao are one of Vietnam's largest and perhaps most distinctive ethnic groups in with a population of slightly less than 500,000. The Dao worship Ban Ho (spirits) which includes the sacrificing pigs and chickens.
As the Dao live along the borders of Laos and China which may explain the common use of traditional Chinese medicine and the similarity of the Nom Dao script to Chinese characters.

The women wear colourful costumes identifiable by black trousers embroidered with flower or small star patterns. The jackets are either red or black usually with embroidered borders. Most Dao women shave off their eyebrows and foreheads as this is traditionally regarded as a sign of beauty and.wear a kind of red tri-corn hat, decorated with silver and old French coins. A woman's beauty is said to be in the coins which she carries.

The H'mong are one of the largest minority group in Vietnam Around the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th they emigrated from China to Vietnam and built villages in highland regions of Ha Gian and Lao Cai provinces.  They cultivate dry rice, vegetables, fruit and plants used in medicine (including opium). They also raise livestock such as pigs, cows, chickens and horses.

The H'mong live highest in the mountains. They are renowned for their musicality, songs and word-play. The women are characterised by tunic-style dresses of hemp fabric, dyeing with natural indigo to a deep purple-black. H'mong women typically wear large silver necklaces and lots of silver bracelets and earrings.