To Dong Hai
A small ethnos, Pa Then now has a population of around 3,700, residing largely in a number of communes of Chiem Hoa and Yen Son districts of Tuyen Quang province, and some other communes in Bac Quang district of Ha Giang province.
Living mixedly with people of other ethnic minority groups such as Tay and Dao, the Pa Then people in Tuyen Quang province have been influenced by such groups in terms of customs and practices. Meanwhile, the Pa Then in Ha Giang who live concentrately in an area have maintained and well preserved their traditional culture.
From time immemorable, perhaps several centuries ago, the Pa Then reportedly migrated from the Than Lo region of China into Vietnam by land and by sea (Quang Ninh province).
The Pa Then used to lead a nomadic life. Milpa farming has become their main economic activity, with rice, maize and other food crops such as bean, sweet potato, vegetables... being cultivated on terraced fields by rudimentary tools. Most recently, hunting and forest products gathering remain to be important sources of their living. Such family sidelines as loom weaving, bamboo weaving have been maintained and developed with assorted products used to exchange for goods turned out by nearby people of other ethnic groups.
People of Pa Then live in their traditional houses built in three types — houses on stilts, earthen houses and half-stilted and half-earthen houses — along water streams winding by mountain foots. Formerly, they had been almost enslaved by rulers of other ethnic groups.
A Pa Then hamlet is inhabited by people of various lineages which have been branched out from the same big family line. People often think that they are children and grandchildren of eight lineages (because Pa Then means eight lineages in their own language). Each lineage has grown into many branches. People of the same lineage share a blood tie, an ancestor, the same customs and practices and the same rites. However far they are apart from one another or even they haven’t met one another before, they always consider themselves brothers and sisters. The intra-lineal marriage is strictly forbidden by Pa Then customary laws even when the two people have already belonged to different lines. Though patrilocality is a common practice and custom among the Pa Then community, the matrilocality, a matriarchical vestige, is still seen here and there, though rarely.
The Pa Then customary laws prohibit polygamy though very few men have got concubines. Divorce is not encouraged by law. Those who initiate the divorce shall have to pay a heavy fine. Adultery is also prohibited.
It is customary among the Pa Then that after their weddings, men have to stay matrilocally for a period of time decided by their wives’ families. There have existed two types of matrilocality: The temporary matrilocality and the life-time matrilocality. The maximum time limit for a matrilocality is 12 years, which can be cut by half to 6 years at the most, provided that the bridegroom pays a sum of money, a silver coin for each year.
For the life-time matrilocality, a bridegroom has to stay with his wife’s family for his whole life, to worship the ghosts of both families and to have his children born bearing the family name of his wife. The wedding for a marriage with life-time matrilocality is less expensive due to lower sum of demanded wedding presents. Like people of many other ethnic groups, married women shall be called by their husbands’ names. Boys are given names in a complicated ceremony which are not held for girls.
The ancestral worship is regarded as an important thing by the people of this ethnos. The ancestral altar is erected in every house of Pa Then, though it is very simple, being built with a converted U-shape piece of wood. Placed on the altar are a bowl of clear water with lid on and a joss-stick bowl. Sticked on the wall near the altar is a sheet of color paper called “do quo”. If the house owner knows how to worship and pray, the sheet of paper is painted with flowers, rice ears and animals of different species, which, according to Pa Then people’s conception, are all hell soldiers to be commanded by the worshippers.
Worshipping rites are often organized by the Pa Then when new houses are built. When the construction of a house is completed, the house owner shall have to choose a good day, good month and good hour for such a rite.
At the first-watch cock-crow, the house owner shall have to invite the eldest man in the lineage to build the first fire in the new house. Then, members of the family bring to the new house some kitchen ashes, the ancestral altar, some paddy and maize, a number of domestic animals, implying that the life is carried on and constantly developed in the new house.
Under the Pa Then customs and practices, the funeral services are held in solemn ceremonies. When a person dies, members of his/her family shall fire three gunshots in the air; and after the corpse is shrouded; 12 bowls are put upside down on the dead person, symbolizing the 12 souls. The coffin is made of tree trunk cut vertically into holed halves. For the burial, the lower half of the coffin is placed into the grave first, then poured with 12 cans of roasted rice, and lined with tissue papers and a mat or a blanket before the corpse is placed therein, with his/her head turning to the mountain, which is covered with tissue paper, then a blanket, and finally the coffin lid. The eldest man at the burial ceremony shall cut two carrying poles and take two shorter sections, putting upon the coffin before people fill the grave with earth. The shovels and hoes used for digging the grave will be put on trees for about three days before they are taken home.
The Pa Then people also organize rituals to worship soil, rice, rain and other deities when building their terraced fields, harvesting their crops, hunting. They believe that such worshipping rituals will make the deities support them, making their life better and that any insults to deities will make them angry and punish people by causing crop diseases, droughts, floods, crop failures to people. Consequently, all violations of Pa Then customs and practices, insulting deities and gods will be severely punished by the customary laws.