>>Si La girls follow their hearts
By To Dong Hai
Being one of the smallest ethnic group in Vietnam, Si La has a population of 594 only (according to the 1989 census’ figures), who reside in the westernmost region of Northwest Vietnam, largely in three hamlets: Xeo Hay and Xi Thao Chai of Can Ho commune, and Nam Xin of Muong Nhe commune, Muong Te district, Lai Chau province.
It is reported that Si La people had formerly lived in the mountainous areas of Phong Sa Ly province, Upper Laos, before their migration to Northwestern Vietnam in a bid to escape the cruel suppression by local Lao rulers. They arrived first in Muong Tung of Lai Chau province, then gradually moved to settle down in Muong Te until nowadays.
Also known under various former names such as Cu De Xu, then Kha Pe, Si La people used to lead a nomadic life, staying in their hamlets for 10 to 15 or 20 years at most before moving to new places to build new fields and earn their living. They have cultivated maize and rice on milpas. Husbandry has been underdeveloped while forest fruit and vegetable gathering still play an important role in their economic life.
Si La people shelter themselves in small earthen houses suitable to their nomadic life, which are traditionally built with two compartments, two gables and a small front pent-roof. The house door and the ancestral altar are never arranged in the same compartment. It is customary that the middle pillar of the clan head’s house is used as the altar for the family line’s forefathers. Erected in the innermost left corner is the parents’ altar made of a bamboo wattle hung high against the back wall, on which worship objects including a small alcohol cup and a dry gourd are placed. The altar compartment is partitioned with wattles into small rooms for different members of the family.
Si La people’s traditional house often has two cooking stoves, the main one is in the middle of the house, where lays a trivet made of three rock slabs as the symbol of three kitchen gods.
Though small, the Si La community has been subdivided into different family lines, of which the largest are Hu (Ho) and Po (Bo). People of the same family line worship the same ancestors even though they belong to different branches. Each family line, calculated according to the paternal side with all children bearing the father’s family name, is headed by the oldest person called A Lu Lu Co i Ai (meaning big brothers), regardless of his position in the clan. Annually, the clan chief has to organize two big rituals: one in the twelve moon (lunar Tet festival) and the other in the new rice festival. Worship offerings for these two rituals often include squirrel meat, crabs, gobies, several rice ears, taro potatoes and an alcohol jar.
Besides these two rituals organized for the entire family line, the A Lu Lu Co i Ai also plays an important role in weddings, funerals. He also acts as a “judge” to try cases of violating the clan’s folk laws and settle disputes among clan members. When a clan chief passes away, his successor still has to organize the ancestral worshipping at the deceased chief’s house for three consecutive years before being allowed to move the worship objects to his newly built house.
The Si La family is patriarchally structured, with the father playing the decisive role. It consists of the parents and children. Sons, when married, shall have to separate themselves from the family and live independently. No traces of big families where live together people of three, four or even five generations can be found in this ethnic community.
Formerly, the Si La society was dominated by officials of the Thai ethnic minority. Each Si La hamlet was ruled by a Si La official called “tao ban” or “ky muc”, and all the three hamlets were governed by a Si La official called “Sa qua”, who was tasked to collect taxes, mobilize corvee labor for Thai officials, settle disputes and violations of customary laws which could not be settled by “tao ban.”
Under Si La folk laws, people of the same family line (on the parternal side) are not allowed to marry each other while marriages between children of brothers and sisters or between children of sisters are accepted. The laws also forbid the widowers to marry their deceased wives’ elder or younger sisters or the widows to marry their deceased husbands’ elder or younger brothers.
The people of this ethnic group are accustomed to organize two weddings for a couple. Several months after the couple agrees to marry each other, the first wedding shall be organized. Early in a morning (pre-appointed), a younger sister of the to be- groom goes to the bride’s family, informing them thereof then return. Four days later, a delegation of the groom’s family shall go to the girl’s, asking for permission to take the bride home. The bride’s mother or sister-in-law takes her to the door and the groom’s delegation shall escort the bride into forest and stay there until late at night before returning to the groom’s family. Upon their return home, the bride and her entourage must sit outside the house on the veranda. Her mother-in-law shall bring the bride new clothes, necklace, bracelet and scarf for the wedding day. Meanwhile, inside the house, the clan chief organizes the ancestral worshipping in a bid to inform their forefathers that the clan has a new member and pray for the happiness of the newly wed couple. Until late at night when the guests have all left and the parents have gone to bed, the groom shall take her into the house. They have to sleep in the living room for the first night before they can move into their own room the following day.
One year later, the couple has to organize their wedding for the second time. According to Si La customs, for this ceremony, the groom’s family shall hand a wedding sum to the bride’s family. On the next day, the couple will come to the girl’s family, visiting her parents.
The Si La funeral services also reveal many particularities. Only after the shrouding ceremony, shall the bereft find land for grave building. Graves are built often lower than the hamlet’s ground, and graves of people of the same family line are built close to one another. After the land is found for grave building, people in the hamlet will build thereon a catafalque and the burial hole shall be dug right thereunder. The coffin is made right in jungle of a tree trunk which is split into two and holed for the corpse. While the dead body is still kept in the house, worshipping rites shall be organized to see off the dead’s soul to Muong U, the Si La people’s native place in Upper Laos. After the burial ceremony, the attendants shall all have to leave a finger-sized and bamboo-woven dummy in the graveyard and call back their own souls (which are feared to follow the dead’s soul). Upon his return home, the house master shall water out the flame on the stove, take the ashes out of house, then rebuild a new fire as the indication to start a new life. When the funeral service is over, a small mat shall be spread on the place where the dead body was laid in state, for seven days if the dead is a male or nine days if the dead is a female so that his or her soul may return and take his/her personal effects left during the funeral.
While in the mourning for their parents, sons shall have to tie up their hair on top of their heads and girls shall not wear necklaces, bracelets, earrings, and children shall be allowed to get married only after three years from the burial of their parents.
In late January and early February of the lunar calendar, the Si La people organize their hamlet worshipping, their biggest community worship in the year, praying for good health, good business and happy life to every one. The date for this ritual shall be decided by the hamlet sorcerer called “mu phe” who is nominated by the hamlet inhabitants. If everything goes smoothly after the ritual, the sorcerer shall continue his job in the following year. On the contrary, if things do not go well, he will be dismissed from such job and another person shall be elected as the new “mu phe”.
In their production activities, the Si La people observe many particular customs. For instance, in the second moon, before sowing seeds for a new crop, the entire hamlet puts a day on taboo, on which no stranger is permitted to enter their hamlet and their houses. Also on that day, called “mia lo lo”, people are not allowed to cook squirrels, birds, fish… in cooking spots but only in bamboo sections or in leaves. To the Si La’s belief, those who fail to observe this, their rice seeds sown on milpas shall be destroyed by birds, rats, and their domestic animals and poultry shall die of epidemics.
People of this ethnic group respect the private property ownership by individuals, families and clans. Those who violate this by stealing or robbing shall be severely punished. Hence, thievery and robbery were formerly rarely seen among the Si La people.
In a nutshell, the Si La customs, practices and folk laws have greatly contributed to the community cohesion, thus enabling this ethnic group, though small, preserve its own identities. If all these are properly brought into full play, they would further contribute to building a Si La society of peace, prosperity and sustainable development.-