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But Mayréna was more interested in money than sovereignty, and within months he had decamped, setting off in the hope of getting some mileage from his “title”. In his book, Dragon Ascending, Henry Kamm quotes an erstwhile manager of Saigon’s Continental, where Mayréna boarded on credit with assorted courtiers: “Alas, when, several days later, Mayréna moved out of the hotel, nothing was left to Laval [the then hotel manager] as payment for his services, except for a decoration, that of the National Order of the Kingdom of the Sedangs, which the king gave him before departure.” Returning to Europe, Mayréna took to selling fictitious titles and mining concessions to raise cash but, inevitably, cracks began to appear in his story, and he fled back to Southeast Asia in 1890 where he died in penury on Malaya’s Tioman Island, supposedly of a snake bite.

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Vietnam’s ethnic minorities | Minorities in the central highlands |

Koho (Co–ho) and Lat

The Di Linh plateau at the very southern end of the central highlands is the home of the Koho minority. The community of some 130,000 is subdivided into six highly varied subgroups, including the Lat people of Da Lat.

The typical Koho house is built on stilts with a thatched roof and bamboo walls and flooring. Despite the fact that many Koho were converted to Christianity in the early twentieth century, spirit worship is widely practised and each family adopts a guardian spirit from the natural world. Catholic missionaries developed a phonetic script for the Koho language but the oral tradition remains strong. Unlike many minorities in this region, the Koho incorporate dance into their religious rites, and it is an important element of them; a variety of musical instruments, such as gongs, bamboo flutes and buffalo horns, are also involved. Subgroups of the Koho minority are famed for their pottery and ironwork, whereas Lat farmers have a reputation for constructing sophisticated irrigation systems.

Vietnam’s ethnic minorities | Minorities in the central highlands |

Mnong

The Mnong ethnic minority is probably best known for its skill in hunting elephants and domesticating them for use in war, for transport and for their ivory. Mnong people are also the creators of the lithophone, a kind of stone xylophone thought to be among the world’s most ancient musical instruments; an example is on show at the Ethnographic Museum in Buon Ma Thuot (See "The Town"). The Mnong have lived in the southern central highlands for centuries, and now around ninety thousand people are concentrated in the region between Buon Ma Thuot and Da Lat. Mnong houses are usually built flat on the ground and, though the society is generally matrilineal, village affairs are organized by a male chief. Mnong craftsmen are skilled at basketry and printing textiles, while they also make the copper, tin and silver jewellery worn by both sexes. In traditional burial rituals a buffalo-shaped coffin is placed under a funeral house which is peopled with wooden statues and painted with black, red or white designs.

Vietnam’s ethnic minorities | Minorities in the central highlands |

Bru and Ta–oi

Two related minority groups had the extreme misfortune to live on the Seventeenth Parallel, near the border with Laos: the Bru (or Bru Van-Kieu), these days numbering around 56,000, and the Ta-oi, with a population of only 35,000. Bru people were caught up in the battle of Khe Sanh (See "The battle of Khe Sanh") – both as refugees and as part of an American militia force – while the Ta-oi, among others, helped keep open the Ho Chi Minh Trail for the North Vietnamese Army. During the worst years of fighting, refugees fled south to E De country or crossed over into Laos, and many never returned. Those who did move back found Viet people settled on their best land – the Khe Sanh plateau was declared a New Economic Zone – and were forced into marginal areas.

Of the two groups, Bru people have always had greater contact with the outside world