The Tragic Death Of Vietnam's Real-Life Tarzan

Publish date: 2024-03-27

Edgar Rice Burroughs' creation came from aristocratic stock and was only abandoned to the jungles of Africa after his family was marooned on the continent in an accident, as The Telegraph notes, but Ho Van Lang's story began a little differently. Lang's father had purposefully taken him to the jungle to escape the fighting that had killed some of his other sons during the Vietnam War when Lang was only an infant, according to NPR. He grew up under his father's guidance and lived in the jungle, avoiding modern civilization, for 40 years.

His life on the more primitive side of things wasn't as glorious as that of his fictional counterpart, not as far as most modern people would be concerned anyhow. Where Tarzan had a special bond with the creatures of the jungle, Ho Van Lang says in a documentary created by Docastaway that animals always ran from him. He did, however, have a knack for catching creatures and a knowledge of the Vietnamese jungle few other people were likely to possess. He caught large rats with an expertly engineered snare, built a fire with a speed that would make bushcrafters everywhere envious, weaved his own clothes from the bark of trees, and pulled bats from the hollows of bamboo for midday snacks.

Going from that life to returning to civilization, as you might expect, was a real shock for Lang, and it didn't happen to him by choice.

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