To Dong Hai
With a small population of 1,473 as recorded in the 1989 census, the Co Lao ethnic minority group resides concentratedly in the districts of Dong Van and Hoang Su Phi, and scatteredly in the districts of Meo Vac, Yen Minh and Quan Ba, of the northern border province of Ha Giang. It is divided into three subgroups: Red Co Lao, White Co Lao and Blue Co Lao.
The Red Co Lao, which used to be the largest subgroup, is so labelled because its women wear skirts made of red threads. The White Co Lao was given to the second subgroup as its members often wear white head-bands while in mourning of the deceased, while the Blue Co Lao, the smallest among the three, had such name because its men used to wear blue tunics.
Unlike many other ethnoses, the Co Lao subgroups have well preserved their own customs and practices and even their own languages. Perhaps, it may be due to the fact that they had moved from different areas and geographically far away from one another. According to many ethnologists, Co Lao people migrated from Gui Chou region of China into Vietnam. Some 200 years ago, the first stream of Co Lao moved into the country through two main routes: From Wunan to Dong Van and from Wunan to Hoang Su Phi.
Dong Van and Hoang Su Phi have become the main habitats of the Co Lao people, with the Red Co Lao residing largely in Hoang Su Phi district and the White Co Lao and the Blue Co Lao inhabiting largely in various communes of Dong Van district. Due to different soil and climatic conditions, the Co Lao minority people in these two districts have followed different customs and practices in their daily life and farming as well.
In Hoang Su Phi where the cultivated land is abundant and the climate is hot with large annual rainfall, the Co Lao people, mainly the Red Co Lao, have practiced terraced field farming, with rice as their main food crop added with maize and some other subsidiary food plants. Date-palm, an industrial tree, is widely grown in the district by Co Lao people.
Unlike Hoang Su Phi, the district of Dong Van is a highland region with numerous rugged rock mountains but little cultivated land, few rivers and water streams, and little annual rainfall. As a result, the Co Lao dwellers here (mainly White and Blue Co Lao) have practiced rock mountain milpa farming with maize as their main food crop, added with beans, field peas, green vegetables.
For long now, the Co Lao people have settled down for sedentary farming. Their hamlets are usually built on rugged rock mountain slopes like the Mong people, or on earth mountain slopes like the Dao ethnic minority. Each hamlet accommodates between 15 and 20 earth-floor houses. Each house is made with three compartments and two lean-tos and roofed with Alang grass or bamboo gutters. The house walls are made of wood planks, bamboo wattles, bamboo rods or small trees.
Each Co Lao subgroup bears different family names such as Min, Cao Su, Cheng, Chao for the Red Co Lao in Hoang Su Phi; Ly for Red Co Lao in Dong Van; Van Ho Senh for the White Co Lao; and Sang for the Blue Co Lao. People of the same family name are usually bound together by blood ties.
The traditional family of the Co Lao is often a small and patriarchal one where the father holds the power, deciding every thing in the family. Monogamy is strongly advocated by people of this ethnic group. Polygamy and divorces are rarely seen in this ethnic community. Boys and girls of the same forebear (the same blood tie on the paternal side) are strictly forbidden to marry each other. Marriages between many daughters of a family and many sons of another family are also prohibited while the marriages between children of a brother and children of his sister are permitted by the Co Lao customary laws. A Co Lao man may marry his elder sister-in-law when his elder brother dies, but an elder brother is not allowed to marry his younger sister-in-law when his younger brother dies. When his wife dies, a Co Lao man marries an elder or younger sister of his deceased wife.
It is customary for the Red Co Lao people that the bride will stay in her husband’s house for only one night after the wedding, then return the next day to her parents’ and live with them for one year. During that period, the husband only pay several visits to his wife, each lasting for few days. After one year, the couple will return to the husband’s house and actually start their spousal life. The traces of matrilocality is still found here and there within the Red Co Lao community.
In cases where the bride’s family has no sons, the groom is allowed to stay matrilocally. The Red Co Lao people stipulate that the matrilocal men shall not have to change their family names into their wives’ family names and shall not have to worship the ancestors of their wives. Yet, their children (both sons and daughters) shall bear the family names of their wives and worship the maternal forebears. This custom is observed for only one generation, and the grand children will again bear the family names and worship the forefathers of their paternal side while continuing to worship the ancestors of their maternal side. The worshiping of ancestors of the maternal side shall be abandoned in the generation of great grandchildren. Meanwhile for the Blue Co Lao, the matrilocal grooms may also keep their own family names and, beside worshiping their paternal ancestors, have to set up a small altar for worshiping their wives’ forefathers. This, however, goes on only for their generation and their children shall abandon the worshiping of their materal ancestors and only worship the paternal forebears.
The Co Lao think that a person has three souls which reside in his/her ear-hole, body and feet respectively, according to the Red Co Lao; or in his/her ear-hole, outside his/her body and together with the cattle herd respectively, according to the White and Blue Co Lao. Of these three, the soul resides in one’s ear-hole is most important. People of this ethnic group are also convinced that paddy, maize and domestic animals also have souls. During harvest time or May 5th (lunar month) rites, people organize the worshiping of deities, praying, among others, the four paddy souls: the soul of father paddy, the soul of mother paddy, the soul of wife paddy and the soul of husband paddy, for their good harvests.
The funeral service is organized by the Co Lao through two ceremonies: The burial ceremony and the ceremony to see off the dead’s soul to his/her former native place. During the second ceremony, a soul-seeing off song titled “Chan San”, namely returning to Gui Chou, China, is sung by people. The Red Co Lao people are accustomed to arranging around the tombs rocks in circles, each representing 10 years of the dead’s age. Later, such rock circles are fully covered with earth and another rock circle is arranged on top of that earth layer.
For long now, the Co Lao people respect the private ownership of property. All acts of infringement upon the land, fields, food, clothings of other persons are strictly prohibited and brought to trial. The family properties owned by the father shall be inherited by his sons when he dies, with the eldest son taking the parents’ house used as the place to worship their parents and paternal ancestors. Where a family has no sons, the eldest son-in-law is entitled to inherit the properties owned by his parents-in-law provided that his children bear their mother’s family name and he worships the forebears of his wife.
Though small, the Co Lao community has maintained and preserved its customs and practices which reflects its particular cultural identity. To help this ethnos develop in a sustainable manner under the current conditions, its progressive customs and practices which suit the present stage of development can be selected and inherited while others which are backward and outmoded shall be got rid of. That is the correct way to help the Co Lao group integrate itself with the general development of the country while being able to preserve its own particular cultural traits.-