Rough Guide to Vietnam - Jan Dodd [365]
There are two main subgroups: Black Thai (around Dien Bien Phu, Tuan Giao and Son La) and White Thai (Mai Chau, Muang Lay), whose names are often attributed to the traditional colour of the women’s shirts, though this is open to dispute. Both groups wear long, narrow skirts and fitted shirts, topped with an intricately embroidered headdress.
Vietnam’s ethnic minorities | Minorities in the northern highlands |
Muong
The lower hills from the Red River Valley south through Yen Bai and Son La down to Thanh Hoa are the domain of the Muong ethnic minority, with the majority now living in Hoa Binh Province. Muong people, totalling roughly one million, are believed to share common ancestors with the Viet. It’s thought that the two groups split around 2000 years ago, after which the Muong developed relatively independently in the highlands. Society is traditionally dominated by aristocratic families, who distribute communal land to the villagers in return for labour and tax contributions; the symbols of their authority are drums and bronze gongs.
Muong stilthouses are similar to those built by the Thai, and the main staple is rice, though fishing, hunting and gathering are all still fairly important. Muong people have a varied cultural tradition, including call-and-response singing and epic tales, and they are famed for their embroidery, typically creating bold geometric designs in black and white. Older Muong women continue to wear the traditional long black skirt and close-fitting shirt; a broad, heavily embroidered belt is the main accessory, and many women also wear a simple white headscarf.
Vietnam’s ethnic minorities | Minorities in the northern highlands |
Nung
Nung people are closely related to the Tay, sharing the same language and often living in the same villages. Their population is estimated at 850,000, mostly in Cao Bang and Lang Son provinces, where they have a long tradition of cultivating wet rice using waterwheels for irrigation. Nung farmers terrace the lower slopes to provide extra land, and are noted for the wide variety of crops they grow, including maize, groundnuts and a whole host of vegetables. In fact, the Nung are reckoned to be the best horticulturalists in Vietnam, while their blacksmiths are almost as renowned. Unusually, the traditional Nung house has clay walls and a tiled roof, and is built either flat on the ground or with only one section raised on stilts.
Most Nung are Buddhist, worshipping Quan Am, though they also honour the spirits and their ancestors. They are particularly adept at call-and-response singing, relishing the improvised double entendre. Not surprisingly, Nung traditional dress is similar to that of the Tay, though hemmed with coloured bands. Women often sport a neck scarf with brightly coloured fringes and a shoulder bag embroidered with the sun, stars and flowers, or woven in black and white interspersed with delicately coloured threads.
Vietnam’s ethnic minorities | Minorities in the northern highlands |
Hmong
Since the end of the eighteenth century, groups of Miao people have been fleeing southern China, heading for Laos, Burma, Thailand and Vietnam. Miao meant “barbarian”, whereas their adopted name, Hmong, means “free people”. In Vietnam the Hmong population now stands at just under eight hundred thousand, living in the high areas of all the northern provinces down to Nghe An. Poor farming land, geographical isolation and their traditional seclusion from other people have left the Hmong one of the most impoverished groups in Vietnam; standards of health and education are low, while infant mortality is exceptionally high. Hmong farmers grow maize, rice and vegetables on burnt-over land, irrigated fields and terraced hillsides. Traditionally they