Blooming ban flowers (Photo: VNA)
Hanoi (VNA) - Local people consider Ban, which bloom in March, “the king” of flowers.
In the Thai language, “ban” means “sweet”. A Ban tree is 2 to 6 meters tall and has rough, grey bark and abundant long branches. Ban flowers have soft, sweet fragrance.
In March, when Ban season peaks, mountainsides covered in flowering Ban trees create a romantic picture. The five-petaled flowers can be purple, white, or red, but the majority are white. White Ban flowers often appear in poems to symbolize the charm and beauty of Thai and Tay women.
Visitors to the Northwest can easily see the blooming flowers. The white branches of the flowers are found on the slopes of the mountains, hills, on the winding roads, or grow on the porch as an invitation to welcome guests into the house. Purple, white, and pink colors are mixed, making visitors feel like they are lost in some wonderland. The clusters of white flowers spreading pure petals or purple roses gently show off their ethereal, poetic beauty and ecstatic seductive fragrance.
Ban flowers are representative of the northwestern region. Their origin is explained in a love story about a girl named Ban and a boy named Khum, as well as in other ancient Thai legends.
As the tale goes, once upon a time, in the northwest region lived beautiful and gentle Ban. Many men in the village wanted to marry her. But she fell in love with a poor hard-working man named Khum.
However, Ban’s parents prohibited the lovers to meet and forced her to marry a rich man instead.
Ban snuck into Khum’s village to meet him but she could not find him at his house. She left her scarf at his staircase as a sign that she had been there and rushed to search for him. She wandered from mountain to mountain and called to him, before collapsing exhausted under some trees.
When Khum returned from working in the fields, he found Ban’s scarf at this house and sensed something bad had happened to her. He searched for her from forest to forest, before he perished of exhaustion and turned into a lonely bird, flying about looking for his lover.
Where Ban died a tree grew, which bloomed with white flowers in spring. People heard birds twittering like Khum calling for his girlfriend and named the tree after the woman to remember their beautiful but tragic love
When spring comes, the ban flower blooms as a symbol of the majestic Northwest and a beautiful image representing a friendly, faithful, and loyal Thai girl. Every time in the early spring, when the flowers bloom on each street, in a remote village, the northwestern region becomes both familiar and strange.
Ban flower blooming season is also an occasion for Thai ethnic people to open festivals such as Nang Han, Then Kin Pang or Ban flower. The Thai use Ban flowers for decoration, food, and offerings to pray for peace, prosperity, and happiness.
The Thai people have discovered that Ban trees have many benefits. The bark can be used as an indigo dye, the flowers and leaves can cure sore throats, and the seeds and buds can be boiled and eaten.
Ban flowers can be eaten, too, and are often mixed into salads with galangal, bamboo shoots, and wild vegetables, or stir-fried with garlic, stewed with trotters, and then boiled and served with “cham cheo” – a local spice made of wild herbs.
Dishes made with Ban are eaten as an everyday meal or served at banquets. The flower has become a signature ingredient of the Thai people.
This is a good chance for visitors to learn more about ban flower as well unique traditional culture of ethnic minorities in the northwestern region./.
