To Dong Hai
Bo Y is an ethnos which, in the middle of the 19th century, migrated in groups from southern part of Qi Chou province of China southward and settled down in provinces along the Vietnam-China border, particularly Phong Tho area of Lai Chau province and Bao Lac of Cao Bang province. Due to their migration at different times, from different places and in different groups, Bo Y people in Vietnam have either lived together in different groups of the same stock such as Pau Y, Pau Na, Pau Thin, with their own communications medium, their own customs and practices and their own costumes, or lived mixedly with people of other ethnoses, having formulated new ethnic groups such as Tu Di, Pu Na, Giay… With a small population of around 1,500 now residing largely in the districts of Quan Ba and Dong Van, Ha Giang province, there appears within the Bo Y community a tendency to voluntarily integrate with other ethnoses. If this tendency develops, people worry that the Bo Y group shall, in not a distant future, be completely integrated with other ethnic groups.
Since their immigration into northern border provinces of Vietnam, Bo Y people have abandoned their traditional wet rice farming and practiced milpa cultivation with maize, long-grain rice as their principal food crops, manioc, potatoes, edible canna… as their subsidiary food crops. Thanks to their good experiences in rice farming with the use of such tools as plows, hoes, harrows, draught animals as well as with the application of weather conditions and particular farming techniques, their rice farming brings about fairly good results with an average yield of 3 to 4 tons of paddy per hectare.
In addition to milpa farming, the Bo Y people have still maintained hunting and vegetable and fruit gathering as a means to improve their living conditions. Such handicraft trades as pottery, stone carving, silver carving, carpentry, smithy, loom-weaving, tailoring, embroidery have been strongly promoted, and rearing of cattle, poultry, fish have also been practiced for long now by Bo Y people.
People of this ethnic group are accustomed to live in earth houses structured with three compartments, roofed with Alang grass and built with shelves as places for rice storage and dormitories for unmarried sons. The Bo Y people’s houses are built often by water stream banks, hill slopes or valley edges into hamlets accommodating several dozen families each. Each hamlet is headed by a Pao Ta Mua, a geomancer who is good at geology, customs and practices, who leads an exemplary life, handles fairness cases and matters in the hamlet and who gains prestige of people. The traditional Bo Y society has still preserved the communal elements in the hamlet community which has been built and consolidated with families as its cells.
Since very early days, the traditional houses of the Bo Y people have been residential units of small patriarchal families where the fathers decide and manage all affairs, including the marriage of their children, the relocation of their houses, the construction of new houses, the selection of places for milpa building, the sale and purchase of cattle, the organization of worshipings and rites for families, descents. When sons in the families get married, their parents shall have to build separate houses for them.
Intra-clan marriage is the typical feature of the Bo Y people who also advocate monogamy. If a husband, for any special reason (such as having no children), wishes to get a concubine, he must obtain the consent of his first wife.
The Bo Y wedding ceremony must comply with very complicated regulations of customs and practices, which is conducted in three steps. The first step covers marriage proposing rituals. If a couple agrees to lead a married life, the boy shall tell his parents who ask two match-makers to go to the girl’s family, proposing the marriage. If the girl’s family accept proposal, the match-maker must borrow the to be - bride’s horoscope for comparison with her intended’s age. The girl’s family send through the match-maker to the to-be groom’s family ten chicken eggs dyed in red as a token of their feeling towards the to-be groom. If the young couple are of harmonious moons, the groom’s family asks two between-goers to bring some wedding presents to the girl’s family, return her horoscope and discuss the engagement cost (usually including a pair of chicken, seven pairs of rice cakes, 14 kilograms of long-grain rice, 15 bottles of while liquor, 30 kilograms of pork, which are carried to the to-be bride’ family by four strong men under the guide of two between-goers.
After the plighting ceremony, the couple’s engagement, considered the second step, is officially recognized by both families, which can not be altered or cancelled. Those who cancel this at their own will are strongly condemned by the community and severely punished by the customary laws.
The wedding ceremony, the final step, is organized on the lucky day and lucky time advised by the Pao Ta Mua and accepted by the two families. Just one day before the wedding, the two between-goers shall bring to the bride’s family the wedding present including a pair of chicken, seven pairs of rice cake, 40 kilograms of long-grain rice, 40 liters of white alcohol, 40 kilograms of pork, the bride’s costume including clothes, scarf, canvas shoes, silver jewelry, earrings, necklace, bracelet. The costume and jewelry are put into a red trunk which shall be brought along by the bride to her husband’s home.
The delegation to meet and take the bride home is composed of about ten persons, including two unmarried couples and two married couples. The groom is not allowed to join the delegation while his younger sister leads a horse for her sister-in-law to ride home. The bride brings along a scissors (as a symbol of her needle work) and a chick to set it free on her way to her husband’s home.
After the wedding ceremony, the girl shall have to return to her parents’, staying there until she gets pregnant. Perhaps, this is one of the traces of the matrilocality which once existed among the Bo Y community long ago.
The Bo Y people’s funeral ceremony is complicated, which testifies to their perception about the dead and the living. They kill pigs and buffaloes and invite enchanter to preside over the rituals to see off the dead persons’ souls to their “home place”. Before the coffin is carried to the graveyard, four gun fires are shot into the sky in order to scare away evils. The coffin is carried out of the house with the dead person’s feet going first. The funeral procession must stop several times as prescribed on the way to the burial site. If the dead person’s spouse is still alive, the procession stops for three times. If no one is alive, the procession shall stop for four times. The mourning duration is three years, during which the sons must not drink alcohol and daughters must not wear jewel; and they are allowed to get married only after the expiry of such period.
The Bo Y people believe that a person has 36 souls which are classified into the stupid souls and the clever souls. To them, when a person dies, his stupid souls will stay in the graveyard together with the corpse while the clever souls will return to the family altars to receive offerings made by their relatives and to assist their family members.
Under Bo Y customary laws, adultery, incest and polygamy are brought to public trial before the entire community. In addition to penalties, the sinners shall have to organize rituals to ask for forgiveness from deities who, according to people of this ethnic group, are offended by the offenses and may punish the entire community if such worshiping rituals are not organized.-