Cat Tien in Lam Dong province is a land carrying secrets with thousands of years old, and has been called as “holy land” by archaeologists. Thousands of artifacts found in this area 30 years ago have been waiting to be fully decoded
According to historical documents, the Dong Nai River is the major trade routes for residents in the south-central coast and the south with those in upstream the Central Highlands. Cat Tien plays a bridging role between the two regions.
Tapping into the “holy land”
To set foot in Cat Tien, one has to travel a distance of above 200 km from Da Lat down to the south. Mr. Luong Nguyen Minh, Head of Cat Tien Relics Management Board, said: “Since its discovery, VN archaeologists have suggested that this was probably a religious center, the “capital” of a forgotten ancient kingdom. However, after eight excavations up to date, the origin of Cat Tien artifacts is still in controversy amongst the scientific community”. According to Mr. Minh, Cat Tien archaeological site stretches for about 15 km along the left bank of the Dong Nai River. However, the artifacts of Ca Tien relics concentrate mostly in Quang Ngai commune and part of the two communes of Gia Vien and Duc Pho in Cat Tien district. In 1984, two officials from Lam Dong Museum accidently discovered Cat Tien relic in a sightseeing trip to the countryside and this discovery attracted immediate attention of scientists. According to an initial assessment by researchers, this relic site may be a religious urban of ancient inhabitants in this land.
The debate on the ownship of the holy land
At the 2nd seminar on archeology of Cat Tien relic, Dr. Bui Chi Hoang from the Southern Institute for Social Sciences commented that the ownership of Cat Tien relic is a controversial story and should be clearly indicated. The identification of the ownership of Cat Tien relics has been based on indirect materials, but most scientists agreed that, the origin of Cat Tien relic related to such cultures as Oc Eo and Champa. Some people claim that the ownership of this holy land belongs to Ma people or even Chan Lap people.
In a book “A Country of Vietnam”, Prof. Dao Duy Anh showed a relationship between the holy land and Ma people – one of ethnic minority people currently living in Lam Dong province that Ma and Stieng peoples traditionally occupied a small country covering a mountainous land belonging to Champa (currently southern Binh Thuan province) and Chan Lap (currently Bien Hoa city). When the Nguyen Lords took all the land occupied by Champa and began to take Bien Hoa and Gia Dinh under Chan Lap state, the Stieng and Ma state lying in the middle between Khanh Hoa province and region of Bien Hoa and Binh Thuan controlled by Vietnamese could no longer maintain its independent state.
At the conference of Cat Tien relic in 2001, Prof. Tran Quoc Vuong stated that Cat Tien relic belongs to Ma people. However, according to Dr. Le Dinh Phung from the Vietnam Archaeological Institute, Ma people did own this land historically but there was no connection between Ma people and this relic site. This observation is not without grounds, as thousands of artifacts unearthed over 8 times showed no clear signs of Ma people’s culture. In Dr. Le Dinh Phung’s opinion, those made the Oc Eo culture also created Cat Tien relic.
Meanwhile, Dr. Dao Ling Con from the Center for Archaeological Research at the Southern Institute of Social Sciences, one of few archaeologists coming to Cat Tien relic from the early days of discovery, shared that there have been no definite answer to the question of who created Cat Tien relic, because so far archaeologists have unearthed many times in various places in this area but found no skulls remaining for anthropologists to identify owners of the relics.
With only the reason that Cat Tien relic is located in an area historically belonging to Ma ethnic people, it is too early to say the relic belongs to the Ma people. Dr. Dao Linh Con also informed that so far in Cat Tien in particular, and Lam Dong province in general, no evidence has been found to establish a link between Cat Tien relic and other relics belonging to ethnic tribes currently residing in the land of Lam Dong province.
Chronological information of Cat Tien and its culture remain secretive. Artifacts found tell none of its chronological history and none of written historical materials available mention about Cat Tien relic. So the holy land of Cat Tien is still mysterious to scientists.
Gia Bình - Hồng Diễm(TPO)
