In 1950 all French Indochi­na was com­plete­ly explored, mapped, resist­ing trib­al strong­holds were sub­mit­ted, author­i­ta­tive­ly con­trolled and admin­is­trat­ed. All, expect Cau Maa’ con­fed­er­a­tion heart, a rugged moun­tain range locat­ed inside the bound­less loop formed by Daa’ Dööng riv­er (Dong Nai), only two hun­dred kilo­me­ters north of Saigon and, para­dox­i­cal­ly, impen­e­tra­ble, impal­pa­ble, uncon­trol­lable; a last fron­tier caught in the night of time, local­ly known as Nggar Yang, the Domain of the genies. In old­en times the region remained sacred for south­ern Proto-Indochinese’s and Pro­to-Chams groups, con­sid­ered as ancient’s gods gen­e­sis, as a celes­tial res­i­dence out­lawed to unini­ti­at­ed souls. The land was wor­shiped for her excep­tion­al forestry for­ma­tions on mid-alti­tude basaltic sols, for her own pecu­liar, for some spec­tac­u­lar nat­ur­al won­ders for­mer­ly believed to be inhab­it­ed by wood denizens and oth­ers intrigu­ing divini­ties. Maa’ Huong, stern, impres­sive and unpre­dictable com­bat­ants were the con­se­crat­ed guardians, hos­tiles to French expan­sion­ism and devot­ed to pro­tect the holy for­est mighty heart.

Since 1882, all offi­cials explo­rations were doomed to fail­ure, unfor­tu­nate colo­nial per­son­als and their dubi­ous escorts wan­dered through gloomy forests, deep­ened inside end­less wilder­ness, nav­i­gat­ed on errat­ic waters: ambigu­ous soli­tudes secre­tive­ly allied with the dread­ed guardians, specters of ambush and slaugh­ter. There­fore the region became a myth, termed as explor­er tomb, reversed-jun­gle, back-jun­gle and rebel hin­ter­land, the depths of Viet­nam wood­land world.

Nev­er­the­less, ethno­g­ra­ph­er Jean Boul­bet man­aged to set­tle an alliance with the Coop’s, a Cau Maa’ sub-group, in 1952 he was final­ly the first allowed for­eign­er to enter, explore, then until 1963 to study the Domain. The enti­ty prompt­ly reclosed dur­ing the Viet­nam wars, trans­formed in a NVA maquis, then, after 1975 van­ished from the col­lec­tive memory.

In the late 1990s, Nico­las Vidal, Secret Indochi­na vice-pres­i­dent decides to re-dis­cov­er the myth. After bib­li­o­graph­ic research­es and numer­ous pre-sur­veys, in May 2015, in col­lab­o­ra­tion with Fran­cois Bou­very, co-founder of Ta Lai Longue House, a first recon­nais­sance approach­es the south­ern bor­der; in April 2016, a sec­ond mis­sion sur­veys the cen­ter. Most of the Domain edges van­ished, odd­ly, sev­er­al cen­ter parts have per­sist­ed unseen, a mirac­u­lous­ly untouched, imma­te­r­i­al and time­less sanc­tu­ary. Hence­forth locat­ed in south­ern Lam Dong province, the remain­ing cen­ter is con­sti­tut­ed by an ensem­ble of sin­u­ous ridges, shad­ow­ing nar­row vales, ances­tral groves, primeval forests shreds, sea’s of bam­boo for­est, soli­tary ponds and mean­der­ing streams. Grass­land areas cov­er cen­tral Laac Ddang Yaang (Spir­it Highs) domes and oth­er bucol­ic mead­ows; some hills such as the Ddang Klaa (Tiger Highs) are cov­ered by majes­tic undergrowth’s com­posed of dacriodes, swin­to­nias (riol), arbores­cent byras, bom­bax (blaang), banyans, dipte­ro­car­pus ala­tus, hopeas odor­a­ta, giant tree ferns, palm trees and oth­ers specimens.