The name Châu Bình of Giồng Trôm district, Bến Tre province (the former villages of Châu Bình Thôn and Bình Khương Thôn) brings to mind the story of “Châu Bình Tiger Chief”.
Legend has it that when immigrants from five Quảng provinces settled and formed villages in this sparsely populated area of jungle full of wild animals: crocodiles, snakes, tigers, they elected Village Chief as the head of the administration of the village – confirmed by an Appointment Order from the Emperor. However, in Châu Bình village, everyone elected to this position was either stricken by illness or by “the Tiger”; hence the position was deferentially yielded to the Tiger Chief.
The villagers selected a good day in an auspicious month to invite the Chief to receive the title. The ceremony must have the Appointment Order together with the gifts of pigs, chickens, fruits, flowers and … definitely the rice wine. Among the offerings, He accepted mostly the pig head and the Appointment Order. Rice wine is an important detail in the appointment ceremony. Any year that villagers offered a good wine, good wine made from pure sticky rice fermented every month and aged a long time underground, the Tiger Chief would drink it. Any year that the Tiger Chief accepted the village wine, it would be a bumper crop year. After the Tiger Chief passed away, the villagers proclaimed Cả Non, then Cả Tiết.
Today, in the Cầu Bà Bồi, hamlet 3 of Châu Bình village, there is a temple for the Tiger Chief. Every year on the 7th day of the 1st month of the lunar year, there is a ceremony for Khai sơn and on the 10th day of the 5th lunar month, there is a ceremony at the temple for the Tiger Chief to remind younger generation of the hardship our forefathers endured during the period of expanding frontiers.
Starting from the old folklore, the present owner of Bình Khương Thôn farm in Châu Bình village has spent decades researching and learning from the descendants of the villagers who made good rice wine to present to the Tiger Chief, the secret of making aged underground rice wine bearing the old village name of Bình Khương Thôn. Tiger Chief today exists only in the memory of old villagers and in children stories. However, Bình Khương Thôn aged rice wine remains a grateful gift to our forebears who expanded our nation’s frontiers. It is a good wine we offer to our ancestors on auspicious days, praying for good weather, for success of our children, and for prosperity of our business ….
