The Cong have a
collection of names ranging from Xam Khong to Xa Xeng depending on where they
are situated, though most of them can found along the Black River (Da River).
Linguistically they belong to the Tibeto-Burman language group. The Cong are
excellent at fishing, they can catch fish by hand but they also use another
approach namely; a poisonous plant. They are first and foremost farmers though,
and they cultivate their land becoming more and more modern in their approach,
now some groups even use ploughs. Cotton is grown, but the Cong are not
accomplished at weaving cloth and so they barter their cotton for cloth......
They are also skilled basket makers. They still live in stilted houses and each house has thin walls that divide the house into compartments, the central part is reserved for receiving guests. They celebrate their ancestors as many groups do, they used to marry inside their own group but now they have been known to intermarry with Thai and Ha Nhi people. The father is the boss of the family. Women wear a knot in their hair to show that they are married. In the Cong tradition a dowry is customary and a nice touch is that the husband must give the parents of the bride gifts of pieces of silver on the birth of children. The Cong have their own calendar, each month is represented by an animal.
The Co Ho population are
100,000 strong and are also known as the Xre, the Nop, The Chil, the Lat and the
Tring, they can be found in the province of Lam Dong, the Xre group has the
greatest number of members and can be found on the Di Linh Plateau.
Linguistically they belong to the language group of the Mon-Khmer. The Co Ho
cultivate rice on burn and slash land. This group is skillful in farming and
techniques related to growing. They also breed silkworms and grow all types of
fruit in their gardens. The Co Ho females play an active role before marriage
and the male lives in the house of the female after marriage. They believe in a
great number of genies, their supreme god is called Ndu, under Ndu you have
forces representing all types of natural objects such as the sun, the moon and
the mountains to name a few. Buffalo stabbing rituals also take place amongst
this group. Between crops a great feast is organized with lots of music, stories
which have been passed down are told and poems and lyrics recited. Dances take
place at many festivals and ceremonies. Organs, flutes, pan-pipes zithers and
even oboes are amongst the instruments that they play on these occasions.
The Co Tu ethnic group can
be found in the province of Da Nang and in Hue, they have many different names
including the Ha, the Ca Thang, the Gao and the Ha, linguistically speaking they
are of the language group Mon-Khmer. They are farmers who also slash-and-burn,
they grow rice and keep various animals. They are also skilled weavers and are
good in basketry. They believe in genies and worship Giang (a Genie). They are
fine hunters and fishermen. They barter their products. A form of ellipse is the
popular form for laying out houses in their villages, they also, like many
Ethnics, have a communal house (rong). It is the biggest building in the village
and is normally finely decorated, like many groups, they hold ceremonies and
many festivals and meetings here. The elderly of the village gather here quite
often and recount past tales. Co Tu clothing is simple; the men are naked from
the waist up and wear loincloths and the women wear skirts. Bracelets and
earrings and other forms of jewelry are worn by the women and are very much in
demand. There are still men who file their teeth and tatoo their bodies but they
are more the exception than the rule. The father is the head of the family and
children take his name, the sons receive the inheritance. The lineage is the
most important unit of mutual dependency, tales and songs exist about many
ancestral lines. People are buried close to each other in the village graveyard
or burial ground, a funeral house is normally erected on the site of the burial
ground and they surround it with all types of wooden statues. There are now
memorials for the dead in the Co Tu group. Lineages are not allowed to repeat in
marriages, so if a man marries another lineage another man of the same lineage
is not allowed to marry into that lineage. Wives can marry brothers of dead
husbands and you can also marry by payment of a certain amount which is quite
common here. Rich Co Tu have quite often a harem of wives. There are many
ceremonies held in which the genies are venerated, buffalo-stabbing is a village
affair, while genie worshipping is a family affair.
Mainly concentrated in
Quang Ninh Province. The Yao originated in China (where more than two million
members of the Yao nationality still reside). Most or all of the Yao in Vietnam
(where their name is officially spelt Dao) are part of the Iu Mien group. Iu
Mien is also spoken in Laos, Thailand and Myanmar. The Dao are a group who can
be found in along the borderlines with China, Laos and on the coastline above
Hanoi. There are almost a half million of them and they have great names such as
the Red Dao, the Dao with white trousers, the Dap with coins, the Dao with blue
dress and other names such as Lu Giang, Lan Ten, Tien Bang, Coi Ngang and many
more again depending on their village. This trait of given themselves different
names is also seen throughout southern China, where the Dao "are thought to have
as many as 300 different names ... making the research and classification of
this Ethnic group an almost impossible task. You also have different Yao groups
in China, but they are probably not related. The Dao are believed to have
started moving towards Vietnam the late 1700s. They tried to avoid persecution
in their native homelands in the provinces of Fujian, Guangdong and Guangxi.
Linguistically they belong to the Mong-Dao Group. Again we find ancestor
veneration here, they grow rice and some slash-and-burn but more just use burnt
land. They are skilled weavers and wood-workers, they can forge and make their
own oil and paper. They have small farm animals such as pigs and chickens. The
houses of the Dao are stilted, semi-stilted and some are built on the ground.
The women have highly decorated dress and wear their hair long, the men now
mostly have their hair short. This group sometimes cremate their dead but they
have to be in their teens for that to happen. Their rituals are expensive and
they believe in demons and souls. Names define your place in the lineage and
people of the same lineage can be very close. Chinese writing is still used with
their own brand of pronunciation, and they are skilled in medicine making.