Ta Thi Tam
Ethnology Institute
The Khang, a Mon-Khmer language group, lives in the northern mountainous provinces of Son La and Lai Chau with a population of nearly 14,000.
The group, also known as Khang Dang, Khang Hoac, Khang Don and Khang Sua. The Khang, is called by other groups as Hang (or Ma Hang, Bu Hang), Ma Hang Ben, Bu Hang Coi and Bren.
The Khang lives on both nomadic and settled farming, growing sticky rice, maize, soya and cotton in upland and terraced fields in combination with forest product picking, hunting and fishing.
The group is known for its handicraft. Khang rattan stools, baskets, sieves, rice containers (le or bay), water or firewood containers (le hoong) and cotton containers (le ta) are favored by other neighboring groups. A rattan bem (a chest for keeping clothes) can be bartered for a quilt or cushion while baskets are exchanged for rice or clothes.
The group is also good at making dugouts for fishing, wet farming or carrying goods for sale. Khang boats are even praised in a Thai saying “Hua di bau to hua Xa, pa di bau to pa Lao” (No boat is better than that of the Khang, no knife is better that that of the Lao).
A Khang village is built at the foot of a mountain along a river or stream without surrounding bamboos. A village with dozens of houses is led by quan cai, who is selected by villagers to take charge of village affairs. In a large village, quan cai may assign some families to be his nhocs (servants).
A Khang stilt house has three parts without lean-tos, two doors at the gables and two windows in the main walls. Its tum Klac (roof at the front) is the sleeping place of the family while boong ko (roof at the back) is for receiving guests and working. Family spirits are worshiped close to the wattle at which the parents sleep. The middle part is for the son’s family and next to it is for the daughter’s. A house has two stoves. The big one placed near water containers is for daily cooking while the small one is for warming and cooking rice for offering to a dead parent. At the two gables are placed water and rice containers.
A Khang family follows patriarchy and primogeniture. The oldest son has the right to own unique articles of the family such as sticky rice cooker, pan and shotgun. He also receives larger portions of other assets such as cattle, poultry and home utilities.
Khang costume is similar to the Thai’s. Khang women have their hair coiled up with a silver round brooch carved with flower patterns. Men wear long hair rolled in a bun at the nape of the neck.
The group likes sticky rice and hot and sour dishes. It makes dishes from wild vegetables such as ba tam, a pickled vegetable, tam tin, a mixture of wild vegetables, banana buds, fried rice powder, chilly, onion and garlic, and pickled bamboo shoots. The group also dries meat and salt fish, an indispensable dish in a Khang wedding party.
The Khang retains tu mui custom (pouring into the nose a liquid extracted from a mixture of pickled bamboo shoots, chilly powder, garlic and vegetables). Tu mui can prevent runny nose and cold.
Khang men and women are free to choose their partners. A man can date with a woman in her house and stay overnight without having to ask for her parents’ permission. He can visit her for 4 or 5 nights. After that, he will propose engagement if he loves her. The man’s parents have to find me lam (usually an aunt of the man) who acts as a matchmaker.
On a good day, me lam brings two bags of betel and areca (as betrothal gifts) to the woman’s family and talks with her parents. If accepting the groom, the parents receive the betel and areca and give a shirt of the bride for me lam to bring to a fortune teller for foreseeing the couple’s future.
Before the main wedding, the groom has to stay at the bride’s family for three years. Choosing a good date, the groom’s family sends po xu (an uncle of the groom) to take the groom to the bride’s home, bringing some chickens and three jars of wine for the bride’s family to make offerings to her family’s spirits. The bride’s family then invites villagers to a wine party, informing them of the marriage. Ten days later, the couple brings to the groom’s family a mat, a sieve, four banh chung (square glutinous rice cake filled with pork and green bean paste) and a boiled chicken as gifts for the groom’s parents.
After three years, the groom’s family holds a big wedding. Wedding offerings include two big pigs, 12 chickens, 12 containers of salted fish, 24 baskets of dried fish, 4 baskets of grilled fish, 12 handfuls of rice, four jars of wine, one kilo of salt and one kilo of rice, which are given by po xu to her parents and uncle. These offerings are used to make a meal for villagers. The remaining is given the bride’s relatives with her uncle receiving the largest portion. The groom’s family also kills a big pig to make plot um nha, a ceremony for sending the bride to her husband’s home. At the night the bride is taken to the groom’s family, her relatives bring four arms’ spreads of cloth, two bowls, two spoons, two cups and one chicken as gifts for the couple. In addition, the bride’s uncle gives the couple a pig and a flock of chicken. After the ceremony, the groom’s family gives the bride’s mother three silver coins called ca om mum, which symbolizes their gratitude to the mother for raising the bride.
In mourning rites, the Khang has a custom to prepare articles for the dead in the other world such as kleu mon (a tomb like an earth house), quilt, cushion, bamboo chest of clothes, spoon, ruou can (rice wine drunk out of a jar through stalks), knife and a stick placed in the middle of the grave. At the front of the grave is buried a pillar with a wooden bird at the top (which symbolizes a horse for the dead to ride to the other world). On the pillar is also hung a shirt of the dead for ancestors to recognize the dead in the other world. After the funeral, before entering the house, family members must make a fire under the floor of the stilt house where the dead used to sleep. The dead’s uncle also cuts some hairs of family members and drops them into a bowl containing water and a shelled boiled chicken egg or a dried fish, which is then thrown to the path leading to the grave in the belief that the dead will not come back to disturb the life of living family members.
The Khang believes each person has five souls. The main one stays in the head and the others in the four limbs. When a person dies, his five souls stay separately. The main soul stays on the family altar. The one in the right arm stays in heaven while that in the left arm stays in the tree from which the coffin is made. The soul in the right leg is in the grave and that in the left leg becomes a ghost in heaven.
The Khang owns a rich and diversified folk culture with numerous folksongs sang during festivities.-