Vietnamese Mowgli: The Amazing Story of a Man Who Lived in the Jungle for 41 Years

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

One day, Ho Wan Tri found out that perhaps his father and one of the brothers survived the war, and they are still alive and living deep in the jungle. He spent several years searching before he actually found them. His brother, who at that time was 42 years old, saw for the first time in his adult life that there are other people in this world.

In 1972, Ho Wan Tang, the father of Ho Wan Tri, fled his village, which was being hit by bombs. He witnessed how everything around turned to splinters, and the people he loved and knew died in terrible agony. He grabbed his youngest son, Ho Wan Lang, who at that time was a baby, and disappeared into the jungle. Each time, hearing the echo of the explosions, he deepened further and further, until he finally stopped in a place inaccessible to local residents. Here he equipped himself with a primitive house, made various tools with his own hands and began to raise his son. It was here that they lived for 41 years.

Ho Wan Tri visited his elderly father over and over again to convince him to return to civilization. The old man was no longer feeling well and he clearly needed medical attention, but he was afraid to return to people, since all these forty years he lived, thinking that a terrible war was still going on outside the jungle. It was with this thought that he raised his son - he was curious, but he always followed his father's instructions that people should be avoided at all costs.

In the end, they both managed to be persuaded to be taken to a nearby village - the local authorities also got involved in this operation, since the story had already become quite famous in the country by that time. Thus began the slow adaptation of 42-year-old Lang to a life completely unfamiliar to him.

Lang was very thin, it was strange for him to see so many people around him. And it was especially strange for him to see women - all his life he did not even suspect about their existence, his father decided to hide this fact from him in order to "suppress his instincts." Actually, he was unfamiliar with the very concept of "woman" and he did not see the difference between men and women, either outwardly or in behavior. And even a few years later, he still could not understand what the difference was.

Lang had never seen artificial light sources before, and even far on the horizon from their home, nothing had ever illuminated the night sky. He did not know about the existence of other sources of energy besides the sun and fire. The very concept of time (hours, minutes, months, years) was incomprehensible to him - only day and night existed in his life. His father tried to talk less about the "outside world" so that Lang would not suddenly want to go and look at him. Lang only remembered his father telling him about the airplanes that crossed the sky.

For 41 years, father and son changed five places to live, although they were all relatively close to each other - always at the foot of the mountain, where it was warm, and near the river. For Lang, almost all the plants around him were edible. Since childhood, he knew how to collect fruits, vegetables and plants for food, and also hunts rats, snakes, monkeys, frogs, bats, birds and fish - Lang especially liked fish. However, Lang recalls that he ate fish only until he was 20 years old - after that he and his father had to go higher into the mountains, as people began to approach the reservoir.

“For Lang, there were no unnecessary parts from the captured animals,” says Alvaro Cerezo, who two years after the “rescue” went with Lang to the jungle where he spent his life. like olives."

Lang's father made all his utensils and tools in the early years of his life in the jungle. He used mine fragments and everything he found in the crashed helicopter. Thus, the couple had a kind of pots, pans, knives and hatchets. The main thing was to constantly maintain fire - it was not so easy to get it in the jungle.

Between themselves, Tang and Lang spoke a dialect, but their vocabulary was rather small - there was no need to discuss anything. For example, Lang knew how to count to 10, and anything more - it just didn't matter to him. “I asked him, how did you tell your father that you caught 15 mice, and he replied that he would tell him in that case that he caught“a lot”or“more than 10”. Lang can't write either - he didn't need that skill in the jungle."

My father was afraid that evil spirits lived on the tops of the mountains. And at the same time, from the side of the river, civilization crept closer and closer. Thus, the couple was literally cornered. It was at this moment that the locals sometimes began to see one or the other in the forest, and rumors spread.

The father never believed that the man who once found them in the jungle was his son. He remained confident that his entire family died during the war. Lang did not mind the sudden guest at all, especially considering that he brought them salt and seasonings. Ho Wan Tri visited his father and brother for several years before he managed to persuade them to return to the village. By that time, his father felt very bad, and Lang was constantly worried that he would die.

Lang rode a car for the first time that day. His father mentioned them, but the feeling of speed was overwhelming to him. In the village, he was surprised that animals live next to people "like friends", and in the house, when he saw the artificial light, Lang was indescribable delight. There he saw a TV - his father also mentioned it to him.

Interestingly, in 40 years of living in the jungle, neither Lang nor his father had ever been seriously ill. About once a year, both had a mild cold, and occasionally had a stomach ache. Having moved to the village, diseases rained down on them - their immunity was powerless to viruses and bacteria, to which ordinary people have long been accustomed.

By and large, Lang remained at the level of development of a one-year-old child. He does not understand the difference between good and evil, he is very obedient and does not suspect that someone can do something to his detriment. Father - Ho Van Tang - wants to go back to the jungle now, although his condition (he is 86 years old) does not allow it. At the same time, Lang has quite adapted to life in the countryside, he works in the fields with his brother and enjoys a simple but somewhat magical life among the people.

News story about how Ho Wan Lang and his father arrived in the village for the first time:

Ho Van Lang shows what tools he used in his daily life. Almost all of them are made from the remains of bombs, shells and parts of a helicopter that crashed into the jungle:

Ho Van Lang shows Alvaro Cerezo how he used to make himself lunch in the jungle:

Some time ago we also wrote about "Russian Tarzane" - a man who lived 60 years among Australian aborigines.