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O
ne night in 1972, in the
mountainous
district
of
Tay Tra in central Quang
Ngai province, a bomb was
dropped by the Americans. At the time,
a Cor ethnic minority man named Ho
Van Thanh was serving in the Vietnam-
ese army. Shocked by the death of his
mother, two sons and many other rela-
tives, Thanh took his new born son, Ho
Van Lang, and headed into the jungle
with the simple aim of getting as far
away from the attackers who had de-
stroyed his family and neighbourhood
life as possible.
He ran for many hours into the
dense jungle where he decided to stay.
Thanh and his son set up a life there. At
the start it was very arduous; however,
Thanh gradually got used to his new way
of living and raising his child.
He built a house that looks like a
bird’s nest around six metres from the
ground. The height helped keep him
and his son safe from fierce animals
and the ‘Kamot’ – a forest ghost that the
minority Cor people fear.
They used dry bark to make pants,
although Thanh also carefully kept a lit-
tle red coat and his soldier’s trousers in
a corner of the house.
The two men made their own tools,
including knives, axes and arrows for
hunting.
Daily food included cassava, corn,
and wild leaves. To make their life more
sustainable, they planted a field of
nearly one hectare in which they grew
cassava, corn, sugarcane, sesame, rice
and even tobacco.
They also grew many special plants
which can be used to treat diseases
or heal wounds whenever they were
injured.
Over more than 40 years in the jun-
gle without communication with oth-
ers, both forgot the mainstream Kinh
language, and can only speak some
words of the Cor ethnic minority.
COMING HOME
The local authorities recently decided
to bring Thanh back to civilisation. It took
many hours as they had to trek some 40
kilometres through the jungle to reach
the men’s house which had been found
by some of their family members.
Thanh, now 82, was too weak to
walk and some men had to carry him out
of the jungle on a hammock. Doctors
said he has no medical problems except
that he was malnourished. The son was
healthier, but he was afraid of people.
Ho Van Tri, another of Thanh’s
sons, found his father and brother more
than 20 years ago, but he could never
News of a man who was brought out of the jungle with his son after
hiding away for 40 years has been all over the front pages. Some read-
ers are simply curious, but others are concerned about the men being
forced back to a live a life they abandoned long ago.
Bich Ngoc
reports.
civilisation
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