The amazing stone-roofed stilt houses in northern Vietnam

Muong Lay is situated more than 100 kilometers from Dien Bien Phu Town at the confluence of the Da and Nam Na Rivers and Nam Lay Stream. It is distinguished by rows of stilted houses with stone roofs that are clustered at the foot of a mountain. It is home to nine ethnic groups, with the Thai accounting for 70 percent.

The town’s most notable feature is the stilt house with stone roof.Other provinces such as Son La, Thanh Hoa, Nghe An, and Lai Chau also have houses on stilts, but they typically have roofs made of thatch, tiles, cement, and other materials.
In 2010, more than 4,000 families whose houses were below 195 meters above sea level had to move to higher ground to build a dam for the Son La hydropower plant.

Owning a traditional house on stilts with a stone roof is a source of pride for the Thais here. Each house typically uses over 4,000 stones in black, brown and other hues.
The stones are quarried from the Da River bed. They are easily broken into smaller pieces and shaped when freshly mined. They harden after being exposed to the sun for a period of time.

The stone tiles must be squares of 20-30 centimeters, and aligned diagonally.

Tong Thi Que, 62, has the largest and most beautiful stilt house in Na Lay Ward measuring a total of nearly 300 square meters.
She says:” My home has five rooms and four main columns. It took a few years to get the materials needed to build the house. But the construction itself only took few months.”
“Over 4,000 pieces of black stone were used to build the roof. The black stones are from the mountains slopes along the Da River. Stone roofs are extremely long lasting and almost never need to be replaced. The wood deteriorates before the stone”.

The stone roofs are stacked like fish scales, a nod to the Thai way of life associated with life along rivers.
The color does not fade even after decades.The stones keep out both the cold and heat.

The stone used for the roofing comes in a variety of colorslikeblack, brown, yellow, and others, with black being the hardest.

Traditional Thai stilt houses used to dedicated the ground floor to raise live stock and chickens. However, people stopped that practice and now keep the animals outside.
This area is reserved for storing threshing machines and drying agricultural products, and is kept clean and ventilated.

The columns are always made of large trees to support the stone roof, which weighs a ton. A strong and cohesive connection is created by using beams, trusses, columns, braces, and pedestals.

Living, cooking and weaving spaces are in the second floor, which is also the main part of the house. The floor is divided into three or five compartments depending on the family’s condition. The wall is made of wooden panels, and on the outside is a simple patterned railing.

The roads surrounding the houses are paved and have sidewalks and large trees for shade.
Dien Bien Province’s climate is mild in winter and warm in summer but not humid and the stilt houses always have good natural ventilation.