>>“Co Lao” people and their customary laws
Ta Thi Tam
Ethnology Institute
The Co Lao, a small ethnic minority group living in the northernmost mountainous
The Co Lao originally came from
The Co Lao lives mainly on farming, growing maize as the main crop on terraced fields and rock hollows. The group also grows bean, oat, pea, kohlrabi and some other vegetables. Despite infertile soil, crops yield high thanks to the Co Lao’s use of muck.
The Co Lao is known for bamboo and wood handicrafts such as wattle, winnowing basket, basket, wood desk, case and horse saddle. The group also does blacksmithing and repairs farming tools.
A Co Lao village often lies on a rock mountain slope, having between 15 and 20 houses. A Co Lao house, made of earth with a thatch or bamboo roof, has three parts and two lean-tos. Walls are made of bamboo or small trees tightly put together. Some Red Co Lao build earth houses.
The Co Lao lives in a small patriarchal family of one generation. Co Lao family names include Van, Ho, Senh, Chao and Sang.
Co Lao custom does not allow marriage between members of the same family lineage or between two brothers and two sisters even if they belong to different family lineages. But it allows marriage between children of a sister and her younger brother. The group also allows a brother to marry his older brother’s wife when the brother dies.
A Co Lao wedding goes through three steps: the engagement, the groom’s visit to the bride’s family on the lunar new year occasion and the wedding. In some places, the Co Lao retains the wife kidnapping custom. On the wedding day, the groom in a long green coat with a red scarf crossing his body takes his bride home. Before entering her husband’s home, the bride, with her hair rolled into a bun on her head, must step on a bowl and a wood ladle placed on the gate. The bride stays with her husband’s family for just one night and returns home the next morning. She then lives with her parents for a year without visiting her husband’s family. During this time, the husband only visits his wife a couple of days. After a year, the groom’s family takes the bride home without holding a wedding party. If the bride’s family has no son, the groom can stay with her family and inherit the property of her family. In addition to worshiping his own ancestors, the son-in-law must worship his wife’s ancestors but for only one generation. A small group of the Red Co Lao does not require a son-in-law to change his family name after his wife’s or to worship his wife’s ancestors, but his son will have to do so for one generation.
A Co Lao woman wears a long dress falling below her knees. The dress is decorated with colorful bands of cloth. The Green and White Co Lao often wear another short-sleeved dress outside.
The Co Lao has some abstinency in childbirth. When a woman has a difficult delivery, her family invites home an old villager who will wash his hands in a basin of water and scoop water from that basin for the expectant mother to drink. In Co Lao belief, this act aims to dispel a curse imposed on the woman and her husband by an old villager who had been hurt by the couple in the past.
The Co Lao burns the placenta, which is regarded unclean, and puts the ash into a rock hollow in the forest so that it is not trampled upon by dogs or pigs in the belief that such might cause deadly thunder and lighting.
A naming ceremony is held by the parents after three days and three nights if the child is a boy, and two days and three nights if the child is a girl. If the baby is the first child, he will be named by the maternal grandmother. The maternal grandparents and uncle must be present at the naming ceremony and give the baby a gift. After bathing the child and wearing him new clothes, the father kills a chicken for offering to the ancestors and ghi trenh (the god believed to protect children). At the naming ceremony, the family also makes offering to hoa nhiang san, the goddess believed to take care of children, and shave the child’s head.
The naming ceremony is followed by another ritual to expel evil spirits from the child. In this rite, baked stones are placed at all doors of the house and in the place where the child was born. A mugwort plant is put on each stone. Holding the child in her arms, the mother raises him above every stone while another person sprays some water onto the stone for it to steam up and concurrently cuts the air with the scissors which has been used to cut the umbilical cord while the mother mutters the word “cleaned” for three times. After this ritual, the family has a meal together.
A Co Lao funeral is held in two rituals: the burial and memorial service. The memorial service can be held either on the same day with the burial or several years later. At the memorial service, the wizard sings three times a song to take the dead’s spirit to the Co Lao’s native land in
The Co Lao believes each person has three spirits: one in his ears, one wandering and one going with cattle. The group also believes rice, maize and cattle have spirits, with rice alone having four spirits, namely father rice, mother rice, husband rice and wife rice. After the harvest time, on the 5th of the fifth lunar month, the Co Lao holds a ceremony dedicated to the rice spirits.
The Co Lao worships ancestors of four generations. The altar, set up at the right corner of the house, is decorated simply with a string of pig jaw-bones hung close to the corner of the house. The number of jaw-bones corresponds to the number of generations worshipped. When a new year comes, the family replaces the oldest of the pig jaw-bones with a new one. When a family member dies, a jaw-bone is removed from the altar and is added again when the lunar new year comes. Next to the altar is a container of incenses. Before making offerings to the ancestors, the family must place a live coal in front of the altar pillar and then pour some water onto it. When sacrificing chicken, the family must stick some feather daubed with the chicken blood on the altar pillar above the incense container. This formality must be done in the belief to enable ancestors to receive the offerings.
The lunar new year is the biggest festival of the Co Lao. The group also celebrates thanh minh, a festival in memory of the dead held on the 3rd of the third lunar month; doan ngo, a middle year festival for prevention of disease and evil spirits held on the 5th of the fifth lunar month (the day of transition from spring to summer), and ram thang bay, a Buddhist festival held on the 15th of the seventh lunar month, which is for children to express their gratitude and appreciation to their parents.-