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The vast majority of Vietnam’s minorities live in the hilly regions of the
Northern part, down the Truong Son mountain range, and in the Central Highlands.
About eight million of Vietnam’s current 92 million population comprise 53
ethnic groups divided into dozens of subgroups some with a mere hundred or so
members, giving Vietnam the richest and most complex ethnic make-up in the whole
of South-east Asia. Ethnic minority groups with members numbering upwards of
500,000 include the Tay, Thai, H’Mong, Muong, Hoa, Dao and Nung. Kinh (or Viet)
people make up about 88% of the population. On our motorcycle and motorbike
tours through Vietnam, we met 50 groups out of the total 54 and hopefully we
will meet the last four groups soon..
The vast majority of Vietnam’s minorities live in the
hilly regions of the
Northern part, down the Truong Son mountain range, and in the Central Highlands
– all areas which saw heavy fighting in recent wars. Several groups straddle
today’s international boundaries, spreading across the Indochinese peninsula and
up into Southern China.
Little is known about the origins of many of these people, some of whom already
inhabited the area before the ancestors of the Viet arrived from Southern China
around four to five thousand years ago. At some point the Viet emerged as a
distinct group from among the various indigenous peoples living around the Red
River Delta and then gradually absorbed smaller communities until they became
the dominant culture. Other groups continued to interact with the Viet people,
but either chose to maintain their independence in the highlands or were forced
up into the hills, off the ever-more-crowded coastal plains. Vietnamese legend
accounts for this fundamental split between lowlanders and highlanders as
follows: the Dragon King of the south married Au Co, a beautiful northern
princess, and at first they lived in the mountains where she gave birth to a
hundred strong, handsome boys. After a while, however, the Dragon King missed
his watery, lowland home and decamped with half his sons, leaving fifty behind
in the mountains – the ancestors of the ethnic minorities.
While the ethnic-Vietnamese and Chinese live mainly in urban centres and coastal
areas, the remaining people, an estimated 10% of Vietnam’s total population, are
found primarily in the high country. Undoubtedly the most colourful of the hill
tribes reside in the
Northwest and
Northeast, in the plush mountain territory
along the Lao and Chinese borders, while many of the tribes in the Central
Highlands and the south can be difficult to distinguish, at least by dress
alone, from ordinary Vietnamese. The French called them Montagnards (meaning
‘highlanders’ or ‘mountain people’) and still use this term when speaking in
French or English. Some have lived in Vietnam for thousands of years, while
others migrated into the region during the past few centuries. The areas
inhabited by each group are often delimited by altitude, with later arrivals
settling at higher elevations. Most of the individual ethnic groups share basic,
similar traits in their daily lives and are often most easily identified by
differences in language, physical features and traditional dress. They have a
rural, agricultural lifestyle and show similarities in village architecture and
traditional rituals and have a long history of inter-tribal warfare. Many of the
tribes are semi-nomadic, cultivating crops such as ‘dry’ rice using
slash-and-burn methods, which have taken a heavy toll on the environment.
Because such practices destroy the ever-dwindling forests, the government has
been trying to encourage them to adopt more settled agriculture often at lower
altitudes, with wet (paddy) rice and cash crops such as tea coffee and cinnamon.
Still, despite the allure of benefits like subsidised irrigation, better
education and health care, a long history of nonconformist attitudes, coupled
with a general distrust of the lowland ethnic-Vietnamese majority, keeps many
away from the lowlands. As is the case in other parts of Asia, the rich,
inherent culture of so many of Vietnam’s ethnic minorities has slowly given way
to a variety of outside influences. Many tribes have been so assimilated into
mainstream Vietnamese society that very few even dress in traditional garb. Most
of those who do are found in the remote villages of the far north, and even
there it is often only the women who do so, while the men more typically have
switched over to Vietnamese or western-style clothes. While factors such as the
introduction of electricity, modern medicine and education do create advantages,
unfortunately such evolution has brought about the abandonment of many age-old
traditions. A more recent, and perhaps equally threatening, outside influence is
the effect of tourism. With growing numbers of people travelling to see the
different ethnic minorities, further exposure to lowlanders and a developing
trend toward commercialism will likely worsen the situation. In some areas, such
as Sapa and
Bac Ha, adorable children who used to just stare, laugh or run away
at the sight of a foreigner have begun to warm up, often expecting handouts of
money or candy.
Ethnologists typically classify the Montagnards by linguistic distinction and
commonly refer to three main groups (which further splinter into vast and
complex sub-groupings). The Austro-Asian family includes the Viet-Muong,
Mon-Khmer, Tay-Thai and Meo-Dzao language groups; the Austronesian family,
related to Indonesians and Pacific Islanders, were probably the earliest
inhabitants of the area but are now restricted to the central highlands,
speaking Malayo-Polynesian languages; and the Sino-Tibetan family encompasses
the Chinese and Tibeto-Burmese language groups, originating in southern China
and at different times migrated southwards to settle throughout the Vietnamese
uplands. Furthermore, within a single spoken language, there are often myriad
varying dialectical variations.
Despite their different origins, languages, dialects and hugely varied
traditional dress, there are a number of similarities among the highland groups
that distinguish them from Viet people. Most immediately obvious is the stilt
house, which protects against snakes, vermin and larger beasts as well as
floods, while also providing safe stabling for domestic animals. The communal
imbibing of rice wine is popular with most highland groups, as are certain
rituals such as protecting a child from evil spirits by not naming it until
after a certain age. Most highlanders traditionally practice swidden farming,
clearing patches of forest land, farming the burnt-over fields for a few years
and then leaving it fallow for a specified period while it recovers its
fertility. Where the soils are particularly poor, a semi-nomadic lifestyle is
adopted, shifting the village location at intervals as necessary. |
