Central Highlands
The Central Highlands, an area covering approximately 20,000 square miles, consists of two distinct parts. The northern part, called Cao Nguyen Dac Lac, extends some 175 miles north from the vicinity of Ban Me Thuot to the Ngoo Aug peak. Irregular in shape, it varies in elevation from about 600 fest to 1,600 feet, with a few peaks rising much higher. This area of approximately 5,400 square miles is covered mainly with bamboo and tropical broadleaf forests interspersed with farms and rubber plantations. The southern portion of the Central Highlands, much of it over 3,000 feet above sea level, includes about 4,000 square miles of usable land. Da Lat, a modern hill city in the center of the area, is overlooked by Monts Lang Bian, with an elevation of 7,380 feet. The forest growth is predominantly of broadleaf evergreens at higher elevations and bamboo on the lower slopes. Coffee, tea, tobacco and temperate-climate vegetables flourish in the fertile soil. The sparsely settled plateaus of the Central Highlands, with their extensive forests and rich soil, are particularly important to South Vietnam for potential expansion room from the densely populated lowlands.
The Chaine Annamitique is the southernmost spur, over 750 miles in length, of the rugged mountains which originate in Tibet and China. It extends southeastward, forming the border between South Vietnam and Laos and, later, between South Vietnam and Cambodia, until it reaches the Mekong Delta where it terminates about 50 miles north of Saigon. The Chame is irregular in height and form and gives off numerous spurs which divided the. coastal strip into a series of compartments and render north-south communication difficult. The southern reaches of these mountains are quite extensive and form an effective natural barrier for the containment of the people who live in the Mekong basin.
The northern portion of the Chaine, which extends into North Vietnam, is narrow and very rugged; within the southern portion is formed a plateau area, known as the Central Highlands, which is about 100 niiles wide and 200 miles in length. The peaks of the Chame Aunamitique range in height from about 5,000 feet to the 8,521-foot height of Ngoc Aug, which is about 75 miles inland from Mui Batangan. In the mountain and plateau areas the settlement patterns are varied. Most typical among the montagnards are the simple bamboo structures, built on pilings and having thatched roofs. Some tribes often construct extended family long houses, with a long communal house located centrally in the village. Along the hillsides, villages are usually made up of clusters of dwellings, fairly close together.
The sparsely populated Central Highlands, an area of roughly 17,000 square miles, was considered to be almost exclusively in the private domain of the royal family before 1955. After World War I the area was not extensively exploited, but some rubber, coffee and tea plantations were estl>blished by the French and a few wealthy Vietnamese. These plantations caused unrest among the rrwntagnard8, who resented the invasion of their ancestral lands even though they themselves were left largely undisturbed. After independence the Central Highlands were declared to be in the public domain. The rubber plantations, reportedly covering some 250,000 acres, and a few coffee and tea plantations continued to be largely French owned.
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
