Campfire nights, Then singing and the đàn tính — music no stage can reproduce.
At nightfall the campfire is lit in Mế’s courtyard. Guests sit around on timber benches, roast corn and sweet potatoes pass from hand to hand — strangers become friends within one circle of firelight. Larger groups can book a full gala night with sound and lights.
Overhead is the highland night sky — a ceiling no city has.
On 12 December 2019 in Bogotá, UNESCO inscribed “Then practice of the Tày, Nùng and Thái in Việt Nam” on the Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage — and Cao Bằng is one of its heartlands. In the Then ritual, when the master sings to the gourd lute, the “journey to the heavens” begins: prayers for peace, harvest and blessing.
At Mế, village artists bring their instruments over and Then rises plainly by the fire — no microphone, no stage, just voice and stream.
The đàn tính — tính tẩu — has a soundbox made from an old dried gourd, a thin wooden face, a long slender neck and hand-spun silk strings. No frets, no steel — which is why its sound is round, warm and honest as highland speech.
Guests who want to try are welcome — the artists will place your fingers on each note. Three strings, and the whole mountain answers.
Book a campfire-and-Then night for your group — Mế will invite the village artists over.
