>>The “La Chi” customs and practices
Ta Thi Tam
Ethnology Institute
The La Chi lives in the northern mountainous provinces of Ha Giang and Lao Cai with a population of over 13,000.
The La Chi, also called Cu Te, Tho Den, Man La Chi or Xa, has inhabited in the northern part of the country for generations long time, living mainly on farming.
The group was good at reclaiming unused hilly land into fertile terraced fields. La Chi people often reclaim land in the rainy season from April to July when land becomes softer. Using such tools as hoes, spades and rakes, men dig soil and uproot trees while women and children level the ground. The group grows maize, rice, cassava, taro and other subsidiary crops. To grow maize and rice, the La Chi digs holes with a hoe and sows seeds together with fertilizer into these holes. The group saves best fields for growing indigo and cotton which receive special care as weaving is their traditional craft. La Chi women are known for their beautiful and durable knitwear.
The La Chi lives in villages on mountain slopes. Each village has its own name given after a region or a field and consists of around 15-20 houses. The La Chi lives in a stilt house which has an additional earth part as the kitchen. The kitchen has a roof lower than that of the stilt house and is connected to the house by a stair. The stilt house usually has three parts and a lean-to. The middle part of the house is further divided into two: the front is for worship ancestors and the back is the sleeping place of the parents where a stove is placed for warming and cooking. The other two parts are for the families of the oldest and second oldest sons. The lean-to has two sections: one for keeping the parents’ stuff and the other as the sleeping place of daughters. The kitchen is also a place for keeping the rice mortar, farming tools and domestic utensils.
The La Chi wears simple but unique costumes. A man wears an indigo-dyed tunic buttoned at the left underarm. La Chi men used to wear long hair and a turban. Most La Chi women wear blouses and trousers but some wear dresses. A woman costume includes a four-paneled long blouse with an open collar made of colorful cloth, an embroidered bodice, a cloth belt and a long headdress.
The La Chi lives in a patriarchal family of three generations which gives inheritance to sons. The oldest son inherits housing and the youngest son receives rice fields. The La Chi follows monogamy and endogamy. Marriage between members of the same family lineage is allowed only after four generations. The group does not allow marriage between children of a brother and a sister, but between children of sisters. Under La Chi custom, a man can marry his older brother’s wife when the brother dies, but not his younger brother’s wife. When his wife dies, a man is disallowed to marry her sister.
La Chi people are free to choose their partners, but they can also marry a person under their parents’ arrangement. A La Chi wedding goes through three steps: the engagement, offering to the bride’s family on the lunar new year occasion and the wedding, which are conducted by a matchmaker. To have a daughter-in-law, the groom’s family must offer numerous wedding presents which include six silver coins as payment to the bride’s parents for raising her, bracelets for the bride, 72 kg of buffalo meat for the bride’s parents, 40 kg of meat her relatives and another 12 kg as offering to her ancestors. The groom’s family can also offer another 70 kg of meat for the bride’s family to make a party for guests. On the wedding day, when the groom comes to take his bride home, the bride’s family pretends to tie the groom and his groomsmen with a 9m-long white cloth band while the matchmaker attempts to stop the bride’s family. While the groom and his family are taking leave of the bride’s family, a female matchmaker tries to take the bride from her room but she resists. Only when the bride is put on a conical hat that she leaves home for her husband’s. Arriving the groom’s home, the couple prays in front of the ancestor altar and greets relatives and villagers. After that, the bride returns home and stays there till the next afternoon. Thirteen days later, the bride comes home again to greet her parents and stays overnight.
The La Chi has some abstinency in childbirth. A woman must give birth under the floor of the stilt house or in the kitchen. The placenta is buried carefully. Only after giving birth that the mother can take her child into the house and warm herself by the stove. At the naming ceremony, offerings are made to the family ancestors. When the baby is thirteen days old, another ceremony is held to call in his spirits. After that, the mother takes the child to his maternal grandparents’ home for several days. If the child is ailing, the family must make offerings to mieng pho, the goddess believed to give shape to and protect children, and find an adoptive father for the child. The family will visit the man who is chosen to become the adoptive father, asking him for some rice which will be cooked and fed to the baby. After eating the rice, if the child stops crying at night, it means he has a good adoptive father. His parents then offer a bottle of wine and a chicken to the future adoptive father, asking him to adopt and give a new name to the child. The family can also find an adoptive father for the child by placing a bowl full of water next to the ancestor altar. A red thread is put on this bowl. The first visitor of the family after the child is born will become his adoptive father who is supposed to tie the red thread to the child’s wrist.
The La Chi believes each person has twelve spirits with two in the shoulders the most important. When an old person dies, his spirits are believed to stay around his home while the spirits of a person who suffers sudden death are believed to go away. The spirits of a dead person are believed to gradually die in pairs, turning into plants and insects. The group also believes rice and maize have spirits which are escorted to the warehouse in a ritual held in mid December after the harvest time.
The La Chi possesses a rich folklore treasure with numerous myths, legends and fairy tales explaining the group’s ancestry, the origin of rice, natural and social phenomena and customs and habits. During the lunar new year festival, the group plays folk games such as nem con (throwing a cloth ball through a ring), top spinning and swinging. La Chi boys and girls sing nica songs and play dan tinh (three-stringed musical instrument), dan la (lip lute made of tree leaves) and beat drums and gongs.-