The Hoa ethnic group

Language:  The Hoa or Ethnic Chinese, speak a language belonging to the Chinese, language group (Sino-Tibetan language family).

History:  The Hoa have migrated to Vietnam in different periods since the 15th century. Later on, other waves of Hoa immigrants came at the end of the Minh, or beginning of the 20th century.

Production activities:  In rural areas, the Hoa live mainly as farmers, who plant rice in wet fields. In urban areas, they are active in trading in service businesses. Handicrafts, such as pottery making, is highly developed (in Quang Ninh, Song Be, Dong Nai provinces), as is paper and incense making (in Ho Chi Minh City). Fishing and salt production are economic of a small group of Hoa who live along the coastline. In business, the Hoa always respect the word “trust”

Diet: Rice is the main food. However, they often eat wanton, rice noodle soup, and stir-fried noodles. In middle class family people eat rice soup with salty duck eggs for breakfast. The Hoa have good cooking techniques. They prefer stir-fried dishes with lots of spices. Hoa drinks, on top of quenching one’s thirst, are also considered as medicine: good for the whole body. Ginseng tea, chrysanthemum tea…are popular drinks in every family. On festival occasions, men like to drink wine. Many people smoke tobacco, including women, especially the elderly ones.

Clothing: Hoa traditional dress can only be seen on old people, or on special occasions like weddings and funerals. Women like to wear a blouse with a high collar, buttoned down along one side, and high cuts along each side panel. The long Hoa dress, tight around the hip, and with high cut panel along one side, is also very popular. Women, especially young ones, like to dress in red, pink or dark colors. The men wear black, or dark green shirts, which have buttons on one side, standing collar, and cut panels on the two sides. The shirt with four laps, standing collar, cut in the middle and with pockets, is also popular for men. The women are fond of jewelry, especially bracelets (made of brass, gold, stone, or jade), earrings, and necklaces. The men like to implant gold teeth as an accessory.

Housing: Those who are farmers form their own villages that usually lie on the foothills, on terraces, and along beaches. The above sites have the advantage of being close to water sources, and are convenient for traffic and transportation. In the villages, those who have houses close to each other’s are usually relatives. In urban areas, they form their own Hoa neighborhoods.

There are three kinds of houses: those with 3 rooms and 2 wings, those shaped like a gate, and those with shapes like w mouth. They are usually built from stones and bricks, have earthen wall, and have either tile or thatched roofs. Altars to worship ancestors, Buddha, and God stand out in the Hoa house. Carved wooden couplets or parallel sentences, scrolls, and Chinese calligraphy on pink paper pray for luck, success, and peace and are also popular things to hang in the house.

Social organization: The Hoa are highly patriarchal and there are evident differences between the rich and the poor. Relationships among relatives are very important. Each family tree has an ancestor temple for worshipping. Every year, on a specific day, everyone in the family gets together for the anniversary of their ancestors’ death. Business groups and guilds have the same tradition as well. They all have an ancestor founder and a yearly anniversary day. The Hoa have stable, monogamous marriages, and patriarchal family structure. Marriage usually occurs within people of the same local group. The head of a family line, the matchmaker, and local officials play an important role in a marriage. Today, women get married fairly late (average age is 28, 30), and have fewer children (2 to 3 each family).

Festivals: There are many holidays in a year: the Lunar New Year, the festival of the first moon night of the year Pure Light festival, double Five Festival (on the 5th day of 5th lunar month), all Soul’s Day (15th day of 7th lunar month), mid-autumn festival. The Hoa Lunar New Year lasts from those final days of one year to the 15th of January of the next year (lunar calendar). The festival to celebrate the year’s 1st moon is the most important Hoa event, where prominent religious and traditional cultural activities occur.

Beliefs: Ancestors, family spirits, guardian Gods (kitchen God, land God, and the God of wealth), and Buddha are popular worshipped figures. Pagodas and temples are widely developed. They are also the Hoa’s place for a social headquarters or a school, and where communal activities and Festivals take place.

Education: The Chinese language is taught and studied in grade school.

Artistic activities: The Hoa have varieties of traditional culture activities, such as singing, dancing, comedy, etc. they also play a wide range of instruments: several kinds of flutes, moon-shaped flute, zither, two-string Chinese violin, etc. skylark singing (san co) is enjoyed by many younger ones. The popular amateur cultural group that has traditionally been around is called “nhac xa”. Lion, tiger, and dragon dances are popular artistic shows, which are performed everywhere in big Festivals and on New Year’s.

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The Khmer ethnic group

Language: The Khmer speak a language belonging to the Mon-Khmer language group.

History: Before the 17th century, the Khmer and their culture dominated the Mekong delta.

Production activities: The Khmer are wet-rice cultivators who use the plough. In their near-perfect and efficient agricultural tool set, there are unique tools that are well suited to the geography and ecology of southern Vietnam. For example, instead of the plough, the Khmer use something called phang, which is better for cultivating soil that has salt and alum. There is a kind of scythe called pok to gather grass, a stick called so chal which is the reminder of the pointed digging stick used in the old days to make holes in the ground when transplanting the young rice plants. And finally, a reaping scythe-like tool, called kan dieu to cut rice plants.

The Khmer are very good at fishing, mat and textile weaving, knitting, making sugar from sugar palm-tree, and making pottery. The technique of pottery making is simple: the main tools are a stone (kleng), and a shaping table (cho). The Khmer don't use a turning wheel or a firing kiln. Khmer pottery wares are generally plain, with no color, and baked in low temperature, from 600C to 800C degrees. Potters produce mainly household wares; most popular are ovens (ca rong), and cooking pots (ca om). These are fondly used by the Vietnamese and Hoa people of the Mekong delta region.

Diet: The Khmer plant more than 150 different varieties of rice. They eat both regular and sticky rice. Daily foods also include shrimp, small fish, frogs, and vegetable. They process many kind of sauces: on pu sauce made from small shrimps, po inh sauce made from a kind of small fish, but the most famous one is a sauce made from a combination several kind of fish, small shrimps, rice flour, and salt. The Khmer love sour (tamarind), and spicy (pepper, garlic, vervain, hot pepper, carry) food.

Clothing: Before, both man and women wore wrapped skirts made from silk which they wove themselves. Today, young people like to wear trousers and shirts. Middle- aged and older people often like to wear loose-fitting black blouses and pants. Wealthy men sometimes wears loose- fitting white clothes, with a bandanna wrapped around their heads, or thrown over the shoulder. Only in weddings do young people wear traditional clothes. The groom wears a wrapped skirt with a red blouse that has standings collar and a line of buttons on the breast. On his left shoulder hung a long white scarf (kal xing) and a wedding knife (kam pach); its symbol is to, protect the bride. The bride wears a purple or pink skirt (xam pot), a long red blouse, with traditional wedding veil and hat. The Khmer's long dress for women is very close to that of the Cham: shirt without lap, bigger and longer, reaching below the knees, has a short collar, is cut a bit in the front enough to pull over the body, has tight sleeves, and is covered (from the underarm to the shirt's fringe) with four extra long pieces of cloth on both sides.

Housing: The Khmer live on the Mekong delta, especially around those districts of southwest Vietnam. Moreover, they centralize around these three areas; on the delta, along the coast, and on the southwest mountainous area near the Cambodia border. Before, the Khmer live on house-on-stills. Now, however, they live in houses built on the ground, with a simple straw roof and thatch wall.

Transportation: The Khmer use a cart and wagon on the road and on dry fields, and to transport agricultural products during harvest. Since they live in an environment filled with ditches and small canals, the Khmer use many*kind of boats: speed boat, sampan, and several local kinds of boats. However, a special kind of sampan called ngo (tuoc muaj, 30 meters-long, made by hopea wood, has from 30 to 40 rowers. On the bow and side of this sampan, there are pictures of the sea eagle, elephant, lion, and waves. This ngo sampan is used only on the occasion of greeting-the-moon ceremony, ok ang bok (on the October of the Lunar calendar). Otherwise, it is kept in temple like a sacred object.

Social organization: The Khmer have small monogamous families, and are economically independent. However, in some families, 3 to 4 generations live together. There are still remnants of matriarchy in the Khmer society. The Khmer have many different surnames.

There are surnames from the Nguyen dynasty like Danh, Kien, Kim, Son, Thach. There are surnames from the Vietnamese and Hoa (ethnic Chinese) like Tran, Nguyen, Duong, Truong, Ma, Li, ect. There are also purely Khmer last names such as U, Khan, Khum. Adultery, polygamy, incest, and divorce seldom happen, and are strict taboos.

Marriage: Parents arrange their children's marriage; though the young couple are involved in the discussion. Marriage has to go through 3 steps: match-making, proposing and engagement, and finally the wedding, which is celebrated at the bride's house. When all of this is done, the groom has to stay with the bride's family for some period. After couple of years, or when they have children, the young couple will live on their own, but still reside with the wife's family.

Funerals: The custom of cremation has been with the Khmer for quite some time. After cremating a dead person, the ash is kept in a tower called Pi chet day, which is built next to the main room of a temple.

Festivals: There are two main holidays in a year. The Chuon Chnam Thmay Festival is from the 1st to the 3rd day of "Chet" month (according to Buddhist calendar), approximately April in the western calendar. Greeting- the-moon Festival (Ok ang bok) is on the middle of Oct (lunar calendar). There is boat race between different villages on this occasion.

Beliefs: The Khmer worship Buddha, and their ancestors. There are also agricultural rituals, such as worshiping the field's God (Neak Ta xie), calling the rice's spirit (Ok Ang Leok), and the Moon (Ok Ang bok).

Education: When boys are old enough, their parents send them into pagodas to be monks for three to five years. There, they will study Buddhist sutras and learn Khmer language. Only after fulfilling this requirement, could they be secularized and get marriage.

Artistic activities: The Khmer have a treasure house of folklore literature, such as mythology, legends, fairy tales, fables, and funny stories. Of particular interest is a traditional theatre of Du ke, and Di ke: musicals influence from Indian and Southeast Asian traditions. The art and architecture of pagodas and towers are considered the Khmer's most special cultural trait. In the Therevada pagoda, the main statue of Shakyamuni Buddha is placed in the centre, there are also other statues of human and animal Gods surrounding him. These are remnants of Brahmanism and folklore religions.

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The Gia Rai ethnic group

Language: Giarai language is part of the family of Malayo- Polynesian languages.

History: The Giarai are one of the earliest residents of the mountainous area of Tay Nguyen (Central Highlands), and extending into parts of Cambodia. Early Giarai history refers to Potao ia (King of Water) and Potao pui (King of Fire), which have become cults to the Sky, the Earth, to pray for favorable rain and wind... Before the 11th century, both Ede and Giarai people were called Rang Dey. Between the 15th and 16th century, the Vietnamese feudal books of history and legends acknowledged terms of address of Thuy Xa (King of Water) and Hoa Xa (King of Fire). Only men of lineage Siu were allowed to carry these royal titles, and the women of the Ro Cham lineage were selected to be their spouses. It is likely that the word Pa tao is synonymous with Mtao of Cham people, Tao of Thai people and Thao of Lao people, all referring to a leader.

Production activities: The Giarai are primarily agriculturists. Land is the essential factor in production activities, being divided into two types: uncultivated owned lands namely De, tra, or Ion which are not yet cultivated and do not yet belong to anyone; and cultivated lands called Hma, owned by each household. Hma is part-garden, part swidden field, with land prepared by the slash-and-burn method, hoeing and ploughing the land, and using a digging stick to create holes into which seeds are inserted. In wet-rice fields, the Giarai use the hoe to turn up and plough into land (today the tendency is to use the plough drawn by two oxen).

Animal husbandry includes: buffaloes, oxen, horses, elephants, pigs, chickens and dogs, etc. In the exchange of precious objects, the buffalo has a value equivalent to gongs and jars. They also serve as offerings for sacrificial rituals. Family handicrafts include carpentry, forging and weaving. Artisans create back- baskets which are used for transporting goods and produce and for holding family possessions. The Giarai weave cloth using a style of broad-loom also found in Indonesia, producing wide, beautifully designed cloth.

Diet: The major foods are rice and its substitute, corn. Dishes are prepared using vegetables, salt and chili, vegetable soups, sometimes meat and fish. At meal times, the whole family sits around the dishes with each member having his/her own portion. At festivals, can (pipe) wine is consumed. The jar of wine is placed in the middle of the room, sur¬rounded by foods served in bowls, on plates and on banana leaves. Eating and drinking be¬gin, and a festive atmosphere encourages singing, dancing and gong playing. Many adults smoke.

Clothing: Daily wear for men includes a white and colorful striped loin-cloth (toai). In festivals, men wear a 4 m-long and 0.30m-wide indigo loincloth with designs on the hem and colorful loose fringes at both ends. A small black jacket, hemmed with linear designs of colorful threads down the sides is in the style of a poncho. The patao, or the village leader, is identified by his long, pullover indigo vest, which covers the buttocks. It has long sleeves and a red band from the collar to the chest. Under these range the buttons and a red cloth is patched to distinguish the shirt from others.
 

Women wear long indigo wrapper or sarong (1.40 m-long and 1 m-wide), hemmed with designs. The upper hem is designed with white or colorful strands. The wrapper is not sewn into a tube, but is simply a rectangle of cloth that is wrapped around the body. A short pullover vest or blouse is molded to the body; it has long sleeves and is black indigo in color. The sleeves are embroidered with colorful circle designs. Often men and women leave the upper torso unclothed, due to the hot weather much of the year.

Housing: The Giarai house is usually built on stilts and houses a matriarchal family that includes the husband, wife and children. The architecture is divided into two styles. The long house on stilts is called la-yun-pa which is 13.5 m-long and 3.5 m-wide at the average size. The house is split into two sections, mang and oc. The oc door opens to the north and is reserved for women, who are in charge in the matriarchal system. This large-style of house usually has two kitchens. A second style of house, called hdrung, is smaller (9 m-long and 3 m-wide). The height from the ground to the roof-top is not over 4.5 m. The main door, which opens to the north, runs straight to the floor for drying harvested crops. There are two windows at the sides of the door. This type of house has only one kitchen.

Transportation: The most popular means of transporting goods and produce is using the back-basket. In addition, the Giarai use horses and elephants for transporting goods and riding. Elephants are also used for pulling.

Social organization: The village (ploi or bon) is considered a residential place, as well as a community with a council led by elderly men (Phun po but). The council is charged with selecting the village leader (called oi po thun, Thap ploi, Khoa ploi) according to the Kdi or customary rights. Giarai tradi¬tional society is orga- nised into a territorial alliance (To ring). The chief of the To ring is a Khoa To ring, assisted by a Po phat kdi and a Thao kdi in his judgments. To ring is a community territory which becomes a military alliance in case of war.
 

Because of the matriarchal social structure, Giarai genealogy is based on the maternal line. People of the same bloodline make up families. Each family is divided into branches or splitted into two, alternate families. Each family and branch has a distinct totem. The Giarai are characterized by small matriarchal families, distinguishing them from the large matrilineal families of the Ede.

Marriage: Laws strictly ban the marriage between people of the same matriarchy branch and family. Girls and boys are free to choose their lovers at the age of 18-19, and girls take the initiative to choose their husband. Wedding customs are simple, and are not overly commercialized. The bride's family plays a positive role. The custom of remarriage with husband's brother or wife's Sister "when the husband or the wife is dead (levirate) is conserved. After the marriage, the husband must live in the wife's house, but the contrary is not acceptable.

Birth: The mother is greatly respected. When pregnant, a woman is not allowed to do hard work. She has a great fear of difficulties or death at delivery. When the child is born, the mother must follow strict dietary rules, like not eating rice cooked with water, but only eating com lam' (rice cooked in bamboo-tubes), vegetables replace meat...

Funerals: The Giarai people obey a custom that all people of the same matriarchy family must be buried in a common tomb when they die. A dead man must be buried at his mother's grave. In the common tomb, coffins are arranged one on the top of the other across, and then down alternatively. When the tomb is full, boards are set up for the next coffins before the ceremony is held to abandon the tomb. This ceremony is called Hoa lui, Thi nga or Bo thi, a great ritual in the mortuary process.
 

New house building: The new house building starts up with the formality of looking for land through the process of divination. The landlord puts 7 grains of rice on the ground and covers them with a bowl to learn the supernatural power of the Land God. After 3 days and 3 nights, the bowl is turned up, if the number of grains of rice remain the same, it is good. In contrast, if any grains of rice are missing, then the family must look for another place to build their home. After the divination process, the family celebrates for three days with singing and dancing. Another three-day festival is organized after the completion of the house.

Belies: The Giarai are animists, meaning everything is believed to have supernatural power. The Giarai worship different kinds of spirits (yang); among those are three the most often remembered in annual festivals or festivals held every few years: - Spirit Protector of the House (Yang Sang) is honored in the interior of the family house. The construction of a new house must be accompanied by the sacrifice of a buffalo and the planting of a kapok or silk-cotton tree. - Spirit of the Village (Yang ala bon) and the Spirit of Water (Yang iaJ, who protect the village and the life of its inhabitants. They are wor- shiped at the water's edge or the foot of a mountain. - Spirit of Kings (Yang po tao): The force that helps bring about favorable rain and wind and productive crops. The spirit is worshiped in an annual ceremony by the Spirit of Fire, the Spirit of Water and the Spirit of Wind (Ptao agin). In Giarai beliefs, the soul of the deceased is transformed into a spirit. Those who possess "magic powers" are called ma lai.

Festivals: In the past, men and women filed their upper teeth in order to give them an even appearance. The work was done by an old man called Po khoa tkoi, who used a blade file or pumice stone to even out the upper incisors. To prevent loss of blood, a plant called Tkoi am is used. Small girls, usually at the age of" 1-2 years, have their lobes pierced. Gradually, their lobes are gradually enlarged by seed piths so that when they grow up, they can wear ivory earrings as large as 6 cm in diameter. Men also have pierced ear lobes. The most important festivals are the abandonment of the tomb, the sculpting of statues for the funerary house, and the construction of a house. All are celebrated by eating, drinking, dancing and gong playing.

Calendar: The first month of the new year is counted beginning with the first rains, which general correspond to the month of April in the solar calendar. The twelfth Giarai month (held in March) is called Manning, a time when agricultural work is at a standstill and cultural rites and festivals are celebrated.

Education: Giarai people now use an alphabet based on the Latin script. Like all other ethnic groups in Vietnam, students study the national language of Vietnamese.

Artistic activities: The Giarai, people have a rich tradition of oral literature particularly epic poems like Dam San, Xinh Nha, Dam Di... These  are performed in the form of songs accompanied by the Tung nung stringed instrument. Certain characters of traditional Giarai popular dances recall inter- ethnic wars of the past. The most widely used musical instruments among the Giarai are the To rung, Krong put, and Tung nung.

Games: Young people enjoy playing tug-of-war during festivals

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The Ede ethic group

Language: The Ede language belongs to the Malayo-Polynesian group (Austronesia language family).

History: The Ede have long lived in the Tay Nguyen or high plateau region of central Vietnam. Traces of their origin are reflected in their epic poems, their architecture, and their popular arts. Up to today, the Ede community remains a society imprinted with matrilineal traditions.

Production activities:  The Ede’s principal food crop is rice, cultivated on swidden fields which, after a period of time, after left fallow before being exploited anew (cleared and burned). Each period of exploitation of a field varied between 5 and 8 years, based on the quality of the soil. Crop rotation and intercropping is practiced and there is only one wet rice harvest per year. Wet rice fields are found only among the Bih near Lac Lake.

The most numerous animals and poultry raised on the family farm are pigs, buffaloes, and chickens, but they are mostly used when there are ritual sacrifices to perform. The most widespread family handicrafts are the plaiting of household objects out of bamboo, the cultivation of cotton in order to weave cloths with the aid of looms similar to those found in Indonesia. Pottery and blacksmithing are not well-developed among the Ede. Barter was the most spread marketing practice in the former time.

Diet: The Ede eat rice cooked in clay pots or in large-sized metal pots. Ede food includes a spicy salt, game meat, bamboo shoots, vegetables and root crops abstained from hunting and gathering activities. Ruou can, fermented alcohol consumed using a bamboo drinking tube or straw, is stored and served in large earthen jars. Steamed sticky rice is reversed for ritual occasions. Men and women chew betel nut.

Clothing: Women wear a long cloth wrapper or sarong which reaches to the toes; their torso may remain unclothed or they may wear a short pullover vest. Men wear the loin cloth and a vest of the same style. When they are cold, men and wears wrap themselves in blankets. Ede jewelry includes glass beaded necklaces, rings made of copper or nickel that are worn around the neck, wrists, and ankles. Men are women alike have their teeth filed, blacken their teeth, and prefer distended earlobes. Head coverings include the turban and the conical hat.

Housing: The Ede primarily live in Dac Lac province, the south of Gia Lai province, and the west of  Phu Yen and Khanh Hoa provinces. The traditional Ede house is a construction whose length is reminiscent of the shape of a boat which is cut lengthwise or across giving it a shape of a reversed trapezoid. The structure rests on two rows of columns and not on the ground. The interior space is divided into two parts along the length. The first section is called Gah; it is both the reception area of the large matrilineal extended family. The other part, ok, is divided into many small rooms, each of which is reserved for a couple in the extended family.

Transportation: The plaited carrying basket with two shoulder straps remains the principal way for the Ede to carry their goods. In the Krong Buk region, the footed basket is the most widely used, but not all that popular nowadays.

Social organization: The Ede family is matrilineal: marriage is matrilocal, the children carry the name of the mother’s family, and the youngest daughter is the inheritor. Ede society is regulated by customary laws based on the matriarchal system. The community is divided into two lineages in order to facilitate marriage exchanges. The village is called buon and constitutes a unique kind of habitat. The inhabitants of the buon can belong to many branches of the two lineages, but there is also a nuclear branch. The head of village is the po pom ea or the master of the place of water. He directs, in the name of his wife, the affairs of the community.

Marriage: It is the women who take the initiative in matrimonial relations. She chooses the intermediary in order to ask for a young man in marriage, and once the couple marries, they live with the wife’s family. If one of the couple dies, the family of the deceased’s lineage must replace the spouse according to the chue nue (continuing the line) custom so that the surviving spouse is not alone. It also ensures that the thread of love tied between the two lineages, Nie and Mlo, do not rupture-in conformity to the teachings of the ancestors.

Funerals: The chue nue must be observed for each death. In the case of the death of old age or sickness, the funerals are organized at the home before the burial at the cemetery. In the past, if the people of one lineage died on dates near to those of the death of the same lineage, the deceased would be buried in the same grave. Consider that the other world is a reincarnation of the present world, the Ede share the deceased’s goods and dispose of them in the funerary structure. From the time that the funerary house is made, the celebration of the abandonment of the tomb takes place to put an end to the cares to the soul of the deceased and to his tomb.

New house: The construction of a new h is of interest to the entire village. Villagers help bringing material (wood, bamboo, straw) or help with manual labor in a system of exchanging labor (called H’rim Zit). The inauguration of the new house will take place when one has finished planting a row of trees along the wall. However, one can move well in advances of this date if the condition is not organized for the inauguration. Women, led by a khoa sang – the female head of the matrilineal family are the first ones authorized on walk on the new floor. They carry with them water and a fire in order to give coolness and heat to the new house. It is an Ede way to wish happiness on the members of the new house.

Festivals: Festivals are celebrated in the course of the last month of the lunar year, after the harvest time. After the festival of the new rice, h’ma ngat, it is the festival mnam thun, in honor of an abundant crop. It is the largest of the year, with wealthy people killing a buffalo or an ox as an offering, and others offering a pig or poultry. The spiritthe most important is Ae Die and Ae Du, the Creator, followed by the spirit of rice, yang mdie, and others. The Ede are animists. The agricultural spirit is the good spirits, while thunder, lightning, whirlwinds, tempests, and floods are the bad spirits. There are rituals that follow the course of a person’s life, rites that ask for happiness and health. The more rites there are, and especially those with the sacrifice of many buffaloes and oxen and great quantities of jars (for the fermentation of alcohol), the more the organizer are held in esteem by the villagers.

Calendar: The traditional agricultural calendar is fixed to the evolution of the moon. The 12-month year is divided into 9 periods corresponding to the 9 steps of agricultural work: clearing the fields, burning the vegetation, turning over the soil, wedding…each month is comprised of 30 days.

Education: Apprenticeship to a trade or craft and the dissemination, and oral transmission. Ede writing based on Latin script made its appearance in 1923.

Artistic activities: The khan is a long epic poem that one recounts in vivid exclamations and illustrates with gestures. There are alternating songs, riddles, genealogical histories…In addition, Ede literature is famous for unique myths, legend, folklores...Ede music is celebrated by the ensemble of 6 flat gongs, 3 gongs with projections, a gong for rhythm, and a drum. The gongs would never be absent from a festival or a cultural activity. Aside from the gongs, there are bamboo instruments and calabashes resembling those of other Ethnic groups in the Tay Nguyen region, though they are distinctively Ede.

Entertainment: Children like spinning top, kite flying, and flute playing. Stilt-walking is enjoyed by many. Hide and seek and lance or javelin throwing at a target are also currently enjoyed.

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The Bahnar Ethnic Group

Language: Bahnar language belongs to the Mon-Khmer language group (of the Austroasiatic language family).

History: The Bahnar are long-term inhabitants of Truong Son-Tay Nguyen central highlands. They have created a unique local culture and their own socio-culture identity, perform a charming Vietnamese Culture.

Production activities:  The Bahnar live mainly on the cultivation of swidden fields and slash-and-burn agriculture. The hoe is main food used in agricultural production. Intensive land cultivation of swidden fields using the slash-and-burn method dispenses with the notion of allowing fields to go fallow after a period of time. In general, swidden fields are located near rivers and stream and have long been popular among the Bahnar. But since the beginning of the 20th century, wet rice cultivation using harrows is also practiced. Horticulture and diversified crops also appeared quite along time ago. Animal husbandry and craft production, such as basketry, cloth weaving, pottery and blacksmithing, are less developed.

Lifestyle: The Bahnar people live in vast areas from Gia Lai and Kon Tum to the west of Binh Dinh, Phu Yen and Khanh Hoa provinces. They mostly live in stilt houses, which are characterized by having the entrance door at the front of the house. The roofs are decorated with horns at either end. There is a communal house (nha rong), identified from other dwellings by its magnificent high roof. The communal house is a place where public activities are held, including education for the youth, ceremonies, trials, etc.

Transportation: The chief means of transporting things is the gui (bamboo or rattan backpacks). The gui has many sizes and types and can be woven differently, but usually follow traditional motifs.

Social organization: The village is primary social unit. Vestiges of matriarchal social structure are still in evidence in b family relations, lineages systems, and marriage. The decline of matriarchy has raised the position of men, but social relationships still tend to be closer to the mother’s family. After marriage, the Bahnar custom still prevails that the groom stays at his wife’s house. Society is differentiated among those who are rich, those who are poor, and those who are classed as servants.

Marriage: Monogamy is a basic principle of Bahnar marriage. The exchange of living places by the newly-married couples is increasingly popular. After a period of time when the husband lives at his wife’s house, and vice versa, the couple then moves to a new place to settle and becomes a new cell of the community.

Education: Education for youths takes place at the communal house, taught by the village elders. This traditional education includes job training, marital arts, combat techniques, and the values of the community.

Artistic activities: Folk songs are ample, but more popular ones are hmon and roi lyrics. Musical instruments played by the Bahnar include percussion and aero phone instruments as well as chordophones (stringed instruments). Traditional dances are popular, performed on ceremonial occasions and seasonal Festivals. The long poems and folktales of the Bahnar are unique, traditional works that are an important part of Vietnam’s cultural patrimony.

Games: Among the popular folk games are chasing (dru dra), rope seizing, stone throwing, ball kicking spinning top, and khang playing.

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The Cham ethnic group

Language: Cham language belongs to the Malyo-Polynesian language family.

History: The Cham, who have lived along the coast of central Vietnam for a long time, possess a rich culture profoundly influenced by Indian culture. Until the 17th century, the Cham had successfully maintained their own nation, known as Cham Pa. The local population is composed of two groups: those living in Ninh Thuan and Binh Thuan believing in Brahmanism, with a smaller group following Bani (old Islam). Those residing in Chau Doc, Tay Ninh, Dong Nai and House Chi Minh City follow what is referred to as new Islam.

Production activities: The Cham have a tradition of wet rice cultivation. They are experienced in intensive farming and gardening and use irrigation. Apart from wet rice cultivation, the Cham also cultivate an annual crop of rice on dried swidden fields located on the mountainsides. Meanwhile the economy of the Cham living in the South is characterized by fishing, agriculture, textile weaving and small-scale enterprise. Handicrafts are fairly well-developed, especially silkworm textiles and handmade pottery wares that are baked in open kilns. The Cham engaged early on in external trade with other population, as the central coast used to be a busy hub for commercial transactions by famous merchant ships.

Diet: The Cham eat rice cooked in large and small earthen pots. It is often accompanied by fish, meat and bulb vegetables, which are obtained from hunting, gathering, husbandry and agricultural production. Popular drinks are rice and can (pipe) wines. Betel chewing is very important to people’s daily life and traditional rituals.

Clothing: Both men and women wear long one-piece sarongs or cloth wrappers. Men wear shirts fastened down the center with buttons, while women wear long-sleeved pullover blouses. The main color of their daily dress is cotton white. Nowadays, the Cham dress like the Viet in other parts of central Vietnam, with long-sleeved blouses which is only worn by elderly women.

Lifestyle: The majority of Cham live in Ninh Thuan and Binh Thuan. They build their houses on the ground, with the rooms being arranged according to a particular order: the sitting room, rooms for the parents, children, and married women, the kitchen and warehouse (including the granary), and the nuptial room of the youngest daughter.

Transportation: Te chief means of transporting goods and produces is the back-basket. The Cham are also expert boat builders, which serves river and sea fishing. They also make heavy-weight buffalo carts for transporting large quantities of goods by land.

Social organization: The Cham family is traditionally matriarchal, though in the past Cham society was a feudal one. In areas where people follow Islam, the family structure may be somewhat patriarchal, although traces of matriarchal still exist in family relationships and ancestors worship. The local population was originally divided into two major family lineages, including Cau and Dua, such as the Nie and Mlo of Ede then became a working class, while the Dua was the class of aristocracy and priests. Under each lineage were the mother-governed sub-lineages, always headed by an aged woman, of the youngest lineage. The lineages can have numerous family branches. The ancient Cham society also set out ranks for different social classes, including that of the ancient Indian society. The social classes lived in different areas, and there were certain barriers between them that prevented cross-marriage, co-existence in the same village, eating from a shared tray of food.

Marriage:  Cham women take the initiative in marriages. The couple lives with the wife’s family, and children are named after the family name of the mother. Wedding gifts are prepared by the bride’s family. Monogamy is a principle of all marriages.

Funerals: Cham traditions have two forms of sending the deceased to the world beyond: burial and cremation. Brahmanists often cremate the deceased according to their religious principles, while other Cham bury their loves ones. Members of the same family lineage are buried in the same place as their mother.

Building a New House: the Cham living in Ninh Thuan and Binh Thuan believe that they have to perform certain religious rituals before the building of a new house, particularly praying for the land’s god and asking for his permission to cut down trees in the forest. A ritual is also held to receive the trees when they are transported to the village. A ground-breaking ceremony called phat moc is also held.

Festivals:  Various agricultural rites are performed each year. These include ceremonies for the opening of a canal and embankment, for young rice, for the appearance of paddy ears. The most important event, called Bon Kate, is held by the Cham towers in the tenth moth of the lunar year.

Calendar: The Cham make their agricultural schedule based on the lunar calendar.

Education: The Cham developed their own writing system early. Many literary works written on stelae and ancient manuscripts are still preserved today. The Cham script is based upon Sanskrit, but its use is limited to the upper classes of the aristocracy and priests. Instruction and professional training is essentially transmitted orally and by memorization.

Artistic activities: Among the more striking Cham musical instruments are their drums with leather drum heads, called Paranung, cylindrical drums, and the xaranai clarinet. Cham folk songs and ancient Cham music have influenced considerably the music and folk songs of the Viet people in the central parts of Vietnam, particularly cylindrical drum music, songs relating sad or tragic stories, and traditional songs of Hue. Traditional Cham dances are also found in the important annual event of Ban Kate held by the Cham towers.

Games: Children are font of games such as kite flying, mock combats, flag seizing, hide and seek, etc.

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Dao ethnic group

Language: The Dao language belongs to the language family of Hmong-Dao.

History: Dao people originally came from China, immigrating between the 12th or 13th century and the early 20th century. They claim themselves descendants of Ban House (Ban vuong), a famous and holy legendary personality.

 

Production activities:  Dao communities cultivate swidden fields, rocky hollows, and wet -rice paddies. These cultivation activities play a dominant role among different groups and areas. Dao Quan Trang (white trousers) people, Dao Ao Dai (long tunic) and Dao Thanh Y (blue clothes) specialize in wet-rice cultivation. Dao Do (Red Dao) people mostly cultivate in rocky hollows. Other Dao groups are nomadic, others are settled agriculturists. Popular crops are rice, corn and vegetables, such as gourds, pumpkins, and sweet potatoes. They raise buffaloes, cows, pigs, chickens, horses, goats in the middle regions of mountains and highland areas.

Cotton farming and weaving are popular among the Dao groups. They prefer garments dyed indigo. Most village wards have forge kilns serving for farming tools repairing. In some places, people make matchlock and flint-lock rifles and cast-iron bullets. The silversmith trade, handed down through generations, mostly produces necklaces, earrings, rings, silvers chains, and betel nut boxes.

Dao Do (Red Dao) and Dao Tien (Coin or Money) groups are well-known makers of traditional paper. The paper is used when writing history, story and song books, when making petitions, when sending money for funeral services, and on other occasions. Other Dao groups are noted for pressing certain fruits to extract oils which they use to illuminate their lamps. Sugarcane is also refined.

Diet: Dao people have two main meals a day-lunch and dinner. Breakfast is eaten only during the busy harvesting season. The Dao eat mostly rice. However, in some places, people eat corn or soup instead of rice. Popular rice meal is made of wood and bamboo. Mortars are divided into several types, such as pillar-shaped mortars or water sprout mortars, with rice-pounding pestles controlled by hands or feet or by water power. The Dao prefer boiled meat, dried or sour mixed meat and sour bamboo shoot soup. When eating is finished, the Dao have a tradition that they never put down the chopsticks on the bowl because it signifies that there is a death in the family. Dao people usually drink distilled alcohol. In some places, they drink a kind of local wine, having a slightly sour and hot taste. Dao people smoke cigarettes or locally grown tobacco with pipes.

Clothing: In the past, men had long hair with chignon or top tuft, with the rest shaved smoothly. Different groups have different types of head-scarves and ways of wearing them. They wear short or long shirts.

Dao women’s clothes are diverse. They usually wear a long blouse with a dress or trousers. Their clothes are colorfully embroidered. When embroidering, they create designs based on their memories. They embroider on one side of the cloth so that the design is seen on the other side. They have several designs such as the letter “van”, the pine tree, animals, birds, humans, and leaves. Their method of creating batik garment is unique. They put the batik stylus or pen into hot bee’s wax and then draw the design onto the cloth. The portion of the cloth receiving the waxed patterns resists the indigo blue dyeing a cloth of beautiful blue and white patterns.

Housing: Many Dao communities are found about half-way up most of the northern mountainous regions. However, there are several Dao groups that live in valleys, such as the Dao Quan Trang (white trousers), as well as high-mountain dwellers like the Dao Do (Red Dao). Wards and houses are scattered around. There are a variety of architectural styles, as some Dao build their houses directly on the ground while others build them on stilts. Some Dao houses combine both these elements.

Transportation: Dao people in highland areas use black baskets with two straps to transport goods and produce. Those living in the lower elevantor carry goods with a pair of containers suspended on each end of a carrying pole that rests on the shoulders. Cotton bags or net bags or net back-packs are preferred here.

Social organization: Village relationships are essentially regulated by parentage or by being neighbors. The Dao people have many family surnames, the most popular being Ban, Trieu. Each lineage or each branch possesses its own genealogical register and a system of different middle names to distinguish people of different generations.

Birth: Dao women give birth to their children in the seated position, and usually in the bedroom. The newborn is given a bath with hot water. The family of the expectant mother usually hangs green tree branches or banana flowers in front of their door to prevent evil spirit from doing harm to the baby. When the baby is three days old, they celebrate a ritual in honor of the mother.

Marriage: Boy and girl who want to get married must have their dates of birth compared and consult with a diviner who interprets their future in a ritual using chicken legs to see if they are a compatible match. During the course of the marriage ceremony, the Dao have the custom of stretching a piece of string in front of the procession, or exchanging songs between the couple’s families before entering the house. When the bride comes to the groom’s house, she is carried on his back, and she must step over a pair of blessed scissors when crossing the threshold into the husband’s home.

Funerals: A men called thay tao plays an important role in the funeral. When there is a death in the family, the deceased’s children will have to invite him to supervise the rituals and fine a piece of land for the grave. Care is taken so that the corpse will not be laid out at the same time someone in the family has been born. The deceased, who may be wrapped in a mat, is placed in the coffin inside the home. Then it is carried to the grave. The grave is built of earth and lined with stones. In some Dao areas, the body is cremated if the deceased is older than 12 years old of age. Funeral rituals celebrated to ensure that the deceased rests in peace may take place mane years after the burial. The ceremony usually coincides with initiation rites (cap sac) for a Dao man of the family. The celebration takes place over the course of three days. The first day liberates the spirit of the deceased, and is likened to a break from jail. On the second day, the deceased is worshiped in the house. Then, on the last day, the man’s initiation rite takes. At this point, a particular rite returns the deceased’s spirit to its homeland, Duong Chau.

Building a New House: the age of different members of the family must be considered before a new house is built. This is especially true in the case of the age of the head of the household. The Dao ritual for selecting the land for a new house is considered very important. It takes place at night and involves digging a hole as big as a bowl, arranging grains of rice to represent people, cows, buffaloes, money, rice, and property. And this is placed into the bowl. Based on the dreams that follow in the night, the family will know whether it is good to build the house. The next morning, the family inspects the hole to see if the rice remains and if it is possible to build the house.

Beliefs: Dao religious beliefs include traditional practices and agricultural rituals mixed with elements of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism. Ban vuong is considered the earliest ancestor of the Dao people, so he is worshiped together with the ancestors of the family. In Dao tradition, all grown-up men must pass an initiation rite, cap sac, which expresses the traits of Taoism and the ancient rituals.

Calendar: Dao people use the lunar calendar for all of their activities.

Education: In most wards, people know Han nom (Chinese) characters and the Dao language. Instruction is necessary for reading the ritual texts, folktales and poems.

Artistic activities: The Dao have a rich folk literature and arts with old stories, songs and verse. The Gourd and the Flood Disaster and the Legend of Ban vuong are particularly popular Dao stories. Dancing and music are performed mostly in religious rituals.

Games: Dao people like playing swings, spinning top, and walking on stilts.

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The H'mong Ethic

Language: The Hmong speak a language that belongs to the Hmong – Dao language family.

Production activities: Farming is done on terraced or swidden fields where corns, rice, and wheat are planted. The farmers inter-plant other crops together with the main product, including such crops as lotus, potato, vegetable, peanut, sesame, beans, etc. The plough of the Hmong is famous for its good quality as well as its efficiency. Growing flax, poppy (in the past), and fruit trees such as apple, pear, peach, plum, together with weaving flax are distinctive activities of the Hmong. The Hmong raise water buffaloes, cows, pigs, chickens, and horses. The horse is the most effective source of transportation in these mountainous areas, and they are beloved animals of each Hmong family. The Hmong handicraft industry is well-developed with works like embroidery blacksmithing, and the making of horse saddles, wooden furniture, rice paper and silver jewelry. All of the above items are produced according to need. Though the Hmong practice their crafts part-time, their products, such as ploughs, barrels, and wooden furniture are quite famous and well known. Local markets of the Hmong satisfy not only the trading need but also fulfill their other social pursuits as well.

Diet: The Hmong usually eat 2 meals per day, but during harvesting time, they increase to 3 meals per day. There are traditional dishes in a daily meal, like steam corn flour or rice, fried vegetables and soups. The Hmong use wooden spoons to eat the corn flour, and rice on holidays and Festivals. The Hmong like to drink wine made from corn and wine. They smoke tobacco in long pipes. Offering guests pipe which the tobacco is stuffed by the host is an affectionate gesture of hospitality. In the past, smoking opium was fairly popular.

Clothing: Hmong Clothing is rich in color and types. White Hmong women grow flax, and weave it into textiles. They dress in white skirts, and buttoned shirts ornamented with embroidery patterns on the sleeves and back. They shave some of their hair, and wrap a long scarf around their head. Chinese Hmong women wear indigo skirts with a flower patterns embroidery design. They wear quilted tops which split above the under arm. Hmong women wear their hair long, and wrapped in a bunch affixed with a twig. Black Hmong wear skirts made from indigo, ornamented with batik flower-patterns, and buttoned shirts. Green Hmong women wear long wrapped skirts. Those who are married arrange their hair in a chignon or bun on the top of their head, and fastened with a little bone or animal hoof comb. On top of that, they wear a scarf that is tied in the shape of two horns. The main decorations on their dresses are made by quilting and embroidery.

Housing: The Hmong live gathered in villages, each one composed of several dozen households. Their houses are one story, with 3 rooms, 2 wings, and 2 or 3 doors. The family altar is located in the middle room. The houses of well-to-do families may be decorated with wallpaper, have wooden columns placed on pumpkin-shaped stone, tiled roof, and wooden floors. The altar is placed in the middle room. More typical, though, are houses made with bamboo walls and straw roofs. Food-staffs are stored on high shelves. In some places, there are food storage areas right next to residential houses. Cattle barns are paved with planks, and are high and clean. In high mountainous areas, there is often a big space between two houses, and there are 2-meter-tall stone walls to separate them.

Transportation: The Hmong use horses for transportation. They use carrying baskets that have two handles.

Social organization: There are many skin lines in a village, and several prominent lines that tend to play a more decisive role in the village’s social structure. The head of the village takes care of all the disputes, either by fine or by social pressure. Inhabitants of each village voluntarily follow its rule in agricultural production, cattle raising, forest protection, and more over in helping each other. The Hmong pay a great deal of attention to family branches which share the same ancestors. Each of these has some special traits, which are evident in rituals to honor the ancestors and the spirits, and include how many incense bowls there are, where they are placed, and how to pray. There are also differences in the funeral customs of different branches of a family: where the corpse is placed in the house, how to leave the dead outside before burying, where to locate the graves, etc. People in the same kinship line, though do not necessarily always knows each other, and though they belong to different generations, could still recognize each other by these special customs, it’s a taboo for people in the same family line to marry each other, because those kinsmen are very close. The head of a family tree has much authority, is respected and trusted by every one. The Hmong have small patriarchal families. The bride, once she is introduced in the wedding ritual and walks through her husband’s family’s doorway, is said to completely belong to the husband’s family line. Husbands and wives are very affectionate, and are always side by side; they go to the market, work in the terrace, and visit relatives, etc, together.

Beliefs: There are many sacred places in the house that are reserved specifically for worshiping, such as a place for ancestors, for house spirits, door spirit, and kitchen spirit. Those men who are traditional healers or ritual specialists have altars to worship the founders of their profession, there are many rituals duding which the strangers are forbidden to walk into the Hmong’s houses and villages. After worshiping a spirit to pray for someone, a good-luck charm is worn.

Education: The Hmong writing though edited like the national alphabet since the 60s is no longer widely used today.

Festivals: While the Vietnamese are busy to finish those last days of the year, the Hmong have already started those first days of the next year. Counting by the Vietnamese Lunar Calendar, the Hmong’s New Year is in December to coincide with their traditional agricultural calendar, and it is about one month earlier than the Vietnamese Tet. During the New Year’s Festival, villages play shuttlecock, swing, flute, and sing and dance at public areas around the villages. The second biggest holiday is the 5th of May (lunar calendar). Outside these two, depending on location, some places celebrate the 3rd of March, 13th of June, or 7th of July holidays (of the lunar calendar)

Artistic activities: Young people like to play pan-flutes while dancing. Flutes and drums are also used in funerals, when visiting someone, or during worshipping. Flutes made from leaves and whistles are vehicles for young people to express their feelings.

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The Thai ethnic group

Language: Thai language belongs to the Tay-Thai group (of the Tai-Kadai language family)

History: The Thai originated from inland Southeast Asia where their ancestors have lived ancient times.

Production activities: Early in their history, the Thai adopted wet rice cultivation, using suitable irrational networks. The work can be summarized in the Thai saying “muong-phat-lai-lin” (which means digging of canals, consolidating of banks, guiding water through obstacles, and fixing water gutters) in the fields. While the Thai once grew only one sticky rice crop a year, nowadays they have converted to two crops of ordinary rice. They also cultivate swidden fields, where they grow rice, corn, and subsidiary crops, especially cotton, indigo and mulberry for cloth weaving.

Diet: Today, ordinary rice has become the main food of the Thai, while sticky rice is still being eaten traditionally. Sticky rice is steeped in water, put in a steaming pot and put on a fire and cooked. A meal can not go without ground chili mixed with salt and accompanied by mini, coriander, leaves and onion. Boiled chicken liver, fish gut, and smoked fish called cheo could be well be added to the meal. Ruminate meat should be accompanied by sauce taken from the internal organs (nam pia). Raw fish should be either cooked into salad (nom) or meat-in-sauce (nhung), or sauced. Cooked food processing ranges from roasting, steaming and drying to condensing, frying, and boiling. The Thai enjoy foods with more hot, salty, acrid and buttery tastes, in contrast to those that have sweet, rich and strong tastes. They smoke with bamboo pipes, lighted by dried bamboo pieces. Before smoking, the Thai maintain their custom of hospitality by inviting others to join in, much as they would do before a meal.

Clothing: Thai women are beautifully adorned in short and colorful blouses, accented down the front with lines of silver buttons in the shapes of butterflies, spiders and cicadas. Their blouses fit beautifully with their tube-shaped black skirts. The bell is a green colored silk band. They wear a key chain round their waists. On Festivals occasions, Thai women can wear extra black dress, with an underarm seam or like a pullover which has an open collar, thus revealing the silver buttons inside. The black dresses are nipped at the waist; include large shoulders and decorative pieces of cloth that are attached to the underarms or to the front of the shoulders in a manner similar to the White Thai. Black Thai women wear the famous pieu shawl with colorful embroidery. Thai men wear shorts with a belt; a shirt with an open collar and two pockets on either side. White Thai men have an additional upper pocket on the left and their collar is fastened with a cloth band. The popular color of all clothes is black, pale red, stripped or white colored.

On Festivals people wears long black dresses, with split underarm seams and an internal white blouse. A head turban is worn as a headdress, around the carrier’s forehead; at times, pack horses are used. Along large rivers, the Thai are famous for transporting goods and people using swallow-tailed boats.

Social organization: The original social structure is called ban muong, also known as the phia tao regime. The Thai lineage is called Dam. Each person has three key lineal relationships: Ai Noong (every born from a common fourth-generation ancestor); Lung Tay (every male member of the wife’s family throughout generations); and Nhinh Xao (every male member of the son-in-laws)

Marriage: In the past, the Thai respected the selling and buying of marriage and the son-in-law’s staying with the girl’s family. To marry a husband, the girl’s family needs to take two basic steps:

Up marriage (dong khun) – means the introduction and bringing of the son-in-law to live with the girl’s family, which is a step to test his personality and hard work. The Black Thai women generally adopt the custom of wearing their hair in as bun or chignon immediately after this first wedding ceremony. The son-in-law will stay at his wife’s home for 8 to 12 years.

Down marriage (dong long) – the bringing of the couple and their family.

Birth: Women give birth in the seated position. The placenta is put into a bamboo cylinder and hung on a branch in the forest. The mother is warmed by fire, fed rice using a bamboo tube, and must abstain from certain foods for a month. The bamboo tubes are hung on a tree branch. There are rituals to educate the child in gender-specific work and a Lung Tay is invited to the house to name the baby.

Funerals: Basically, there are two steps in a funeral:

- Pong: the bringing of offerings o the deceased and bringing the deceased to the forest for burial (White Thai)

- Xong: Calling the spirit to come back and live in the section of the house reserved for the worshipping of ancestors.

New House: Showing the host his new house, the Lung Ta kindles a new fire. In celebrating a new house, people carry out spiritual rites on the spot, reading spiritual texts to drive away bad lucks and to bring good lucks, and to worship ancestors.

Festivals:  The Black Thai worship their ancestors on the 7th and 8th month of the Lunar Year. The White Thai also celebrate the New Year according to the lunar calendar. Villagers also worship the gods of land, mountain, water and the soul of the central post of the village.

Calendar: The Thai calendar follows the ancient horoscope or cosmology (which contains 12 key animals) like the lunar calendar. But the Black Thai’s calendar has a time difference of six months.

Education: The Thai have their own Sanskirt-style writing system. Their language is taught orally. The Thai have many ancient written works on their history, traditions, customary laws, and literature.

Artistic activities: The Thai perform their xoe dance and play many kinds of flutes. They sing out verses and vivid alternate songs.

Entertainment: Thai popular games include con throwing, tug-of-war, horse racing, boat cruising, archery, xoe dance, spinning top, and mak le balls. There are many other folk games for kids.

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