The Raglai prefer to build their stilt houses on high land areas near a water resource. Each hamlet has several stilt houses and the villagers are of the same clan. Traditionally the Raglai perform a ritual to find suitable land on which to build a stilt house. The mistress puts…

H’Mong minority ethnic group in the northern upland province of Son La celebrates the New Year a month earlier than the country’s traditional Lunar New Year, or Tet. When mist and freezing temperatures pervade the northern upland, young native people start the spring festival with many folk games and activities…

TYING THE KNOT IS CERTAINLY STRAIGHTFORWARD IN VIETNAM As autumn gives way to winter in Vietnam it is the season for wedding bells. I’ve been to my fair share of weddings throughout Vietnam, from the cities to the countryside, and there is always one commonality: excess and ostentation.   “When…

THE BLANCE BETWEEN THE OLD AND THE NEW ISS ESCPECIALLY EVIDENT AMONG VIETNAM’S ETHNIC MINORITIES IN THE COUNTRY’S REMOSTEST REGIONS This was my second trip up to the mountains of Ha Giang province. Something about the place struck me the first time I was there and I just had to…

As with the Chinese, the Vietnamese lunar calendar begins with the year 2637 B.C. It has 12 months of 29 or 30 days each, and the year totals 355 days. At approximately every third year, an extra month is included between the third and fourth months. This is to reconcile…

Most of habitants in Hung Yen province are farmers. Wet rice cultivation is their main livelihood, which is attached to the conquering process of the Red River Delta. Therefore, Hung Yen`s civilization and culture are the wet rice civilization and culture, and the Red River civilization and culture, too. Villages…

Locating in the southern west part of the Red river delta, Ha Nam is a half-mountain half-plain area and heavily agricultural dependent. The farmers here are now still preserving the ancient custom of worshiping the agricultural divinities; the most outstanding one is the worship for the four Dharma.  

The cult of worshiping the tutelary genie was imported from China and had become part of Vietnamese people`s spiritual life and had been diversified. The village`s tutelary genie can be a genie coming from heaven like Phu Dong Thien Vuong, a genie of mountain like Tan Vien, a peson who…

Name of ethnic group: Dao ("Dao Quan Trang" (Dao with white trousers), "Dao Quan Chet" (Dao with tight trousers), "Dao Tien" (Dao with coins), "Dao Thanh Y" (Dao with blue dress), "Dao Do" (Red Dao), Man, Dong, Trai, Xa, Diu Mien, Lim Mien, Lu Giang, Lan Ten, Dai Ban, Tieu…

Name of ethnic group: Mong (H`Mong): (Mong Do, White Mong, Mong Lenh (Variety Mong), Mong Si (Red Mong), Mong Du (Black Mong) and Mong Sua (Man Mong). Population: 787,604 people (Year 1999). The Mong are concentrated in Ha Giang, Tuyen Quang, Lao Cai, Yen Bai, Lai Chau, Son La, Cao…