Every day villagers of Lang Con Ca make their way to the market.
As they travel along the road in this area of the central highlands
of Vietnam, they see the great, concrete…chicken.
Many years ago, as the story goes, a young woman wanted to marry
a man from a neighboring village. Now, at this point, the story is
told in two different ways. Some say that the man's family demanded
a dowry of a rare chicken. Others insist it was her own chief who
refused to let her marry unless she brought him a chicken with nine
spurs. Either way, her fiancé couldn't find one, so she went out
to the forests to find this chicken. Sadly, the woman met her death
during her quest. The statue is seen as a tribute to her devotion
and love.
Following the Vietnam War, many Vietnamese settled in Lang Con
Ca alongside the indigenous hill people, the K'ho. The government
erected the massive, concrete chicken as a lasting monument in this
area in order to unite the two groups. However, common opinion
asserts that the government's true motive for the gift was to
encourage the K'ho to make the area their permanent home.
Traditionally slash-and-burn farmers, the nomadic K'ho were blamed
for destroying much of the forests of Vietnam.
With a unique history and an abundance of natural beauty,
Vietnam is becoming a tourist attraction for those looking for
somewhere out of the ordinary. Though not the Eiffel Tower or the
Leaning Tower of Pisa, the great chicken is a monument worth
checking out.
—by Aaron Allison
1. What is the purpose of the chicken statue?
(A) To show respect for the village gods.
(B) To stop the fighting among the different tribes.
(C) To aid in the war effort in the mountainous areas of
Vietnam.
(D) To pay tribute to a person that went to any lengths for
love.
2. How do the stories about the origins of the chicken
vary?
(A) The person who initially went out into the forest.
(B) The person that requested the chicken.
(C) The amount of time it took to find the chicken.
(D) The location of the chicken.
3. What may be the real reason behind the chicken?
(A) To attract tourists to the area.
(B) To help the development of the economy.
(C) To give the native people a reason to stay put.
(D) To help the war-torn town recover from destruction.
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