In the peaceful countryside of Hung Yen province near Hanoi, a deep cultural conflict is happening. Villages that have been working their lands Always are now asking the question of what to do with their family members’ graves as the ground has to be cleared for the development of a very large and luxury golf resort and residential area which is a $1.5billion project supported and co-produced by the Trump Organization and its Vietnamese partners.
For a lot of Vietnamese crossing ancestral graves is not only a problem of place and environment, but those graves also hold the cultural and spiritual aspect of the person buried and the family members who with love and respect remember, honor and connect spiritually with their ancestors. It is also a general belief that such disturbances bring spiritual misfortune. Still, in the Chau Ninh commune people have already started this painful matter. White X marks on tombstones tell which graves have been relocated. A few stone and tile work are either destroyed or on a verge to be demolished hidden in wild grass and weeds, a harsh visual not to mention the disruption.
Farmer Tran Minh Hai expressed the suffering of the whole village in a very humble but touching way: “Graves are a spiritual thing. It is something that people really don’t want to disturb.” Some of the cemeteries date back to at least the 1960s period of the Vietnam War and That means are the carry the historic memories of the persons and the country(ies), etc. involved. The project encompasses about 990 hectares of land which is equivalent to approximately 2446 acres and will uproot estimated 4000 households which will be a very huge impact. Firstly, the families are giving up their ancestral lands but secondly, these lands have been used by them for their farming activities such as fruit orchards and agriculture.
Firstly, the compensations have been hardly a measure for the desolation. For instance, the minimum payment – reported in a few cases – has been approximately 2,660 US$ per household or approximately 12 US$ per square meter of land. Government has been quickening the land clearance – plus hundreds of hectares are surveyed and graves of over 3,500 individuals relocated by mid-2026 – Even so, many the people consider that the procedure has been conducted in a rushed manner and the cultural norms have been ignored. It is said that the Vietnamese government has not only given priority to the approvals but has also bent its own regulations when talking about economic and trade relations with the United States and reality of the situation.
The Trump International Hung Yen project is a luxury project that includes five-star hotels, high-end villas, and golf courses from famous players to lure a lot of international tourists and the wealthy residents. But, the proponents list potential economic benefits such as jobs and tourism revenue that will bring to the region. What is more for those communities living in the project area, it seems unfair. Losing farmland is a threat to their means of survival while the exhumation of ancestors is a deep wound emotionally and spiritually which cannot be healed with money.
This case speaks for more than just Hung Yen. It shows the issues of rapid development versus cultural preservation in Vietnam where honoring the dead is an extremely important part of life and traditions. Disputes over land for infrastructure development have been common but the involvement of the Trump brand and the global attention have sparked the local outrage and brought the matter under the international spotlight. Members of the communities expressed their embarrassment, anger and feeling of cultural loss through social networks and other forms of conversations.
While the building work continues, those families who have been affected will be encountering a difficult situation of having to rebury their loved ones in the new places and what complicates the matter is Truth is they will only get little help in doing so. Leaders at the local levels and activists are advocating for openness, fair compensation and real dialogue. Such a development act as a useful reminder on the issues of reconciliation between economic growth and human rights, when human stories are the tales of final resting places of parents, grandparents and children.
