To Dong Hai
With a small population of about 6,500, Phu La ethnos resides in a number of highland districts of Lao Cai, Ha Giang, Son La and Lai Chau provinces, northwestern Vietnam. It has been divided into many subgroups such as Phu La Hoa (Flower Phu La), Phu La Den (Black Phu La), Phu La Han, Phu La Trang (White Phu La), Phu La Chu La, Phu La Xa Pho. In Lao Cai,Son La and Lai Chau, its ethnic name of Xa Pho has been commonly used while the name of Pu Dang has been used by Giay ethnic minority people to refer collectively to both Phu La and Ha Nhi minority groups.
Worthy of note is that the language used by Phu La people varies from subgroup to subgroup. The Phu La people in Lai Chau, Son La and Lao Cai use a common language while those in Bat Xat (Lao Cai) use a slightly different language which is influenced by that of Ha Nhi ethnos, and people of Phu La Han subgroup use the Han language in southern China....
From time immemorable, milpa farming has been practiced by people of this ethnic minority group, with the cultivation of rice, beans, maize as main food crops. Some small groups of Phu La people in Lao Cai know how to build terraced fields as well as irrigation network for wet rice growing. Phu La males are very good at hunting while the female undertake cotton growing, loom weaving, tailoring clothes for family use.
The Phu La live in high-mountain hamlets, each accomodating nine or ten houses which lie scattered and far from terraced fields for fear that their domestic animals may destroy crops. Meanwhile people of this ethnic group in Bac Giang province (Lung Phinh) reside together in quarters intertwiningly with people of Mong, Dao or Hoa ethnic minorities. Some subgroups such as those in Muong Khuong and Bac Ha districts of Lao Cai provinces stay in earthern houses while others such as those in Bat Xat district of Lao Cai province... in stilted houses. Right in the middle compartment of a house, the ancestrial altar is set up.
The Phu La women are dressed in square-necked T-shirts and skirts with upper hems being larger than the lower hems and thin lines of flowery designs running around the middle.
The Phu La society has not been highly disintegrated, with heavy dependence on the administrative apparatus of neighboring ethnoses and having no contingent of local officials of its own. Each hamlet is represented by a sorcerer called “apo” who will adjudicate cases of violation of the group’s customary law, settle disputes and quarrels among people. He will also represent the hamlet inhabitants in discussing the settlement or implementation of tasks put forth by local officials.
There live in each hamlet one or two descents with various derivations, big or small, among which exists discrimination in worshipping rites: the small derivations offer sour meat for worshipping while big ones offer fresh meat. People of big and small derivations can marry each other according to the Phu La customary law.
Boys and girls are free to choose their intended, without being imposed any ideas by their parents. If a boy and a girl agree to a married life, they just only report their plan to their parents respectively, then the two families organize a cordial party to the witness of their relatives before they become allies by marriage, and the boy and girl become husband and wife. The wedding ceremony may be organized immediately after this or two to three years later, depending on the economic conditions of the two families who have to prepare rice, meat, alcohol... Like people of most ethnic groups in Vietnam, the Phu La are accustomed to virilocal marriage. When moving to live with their husbands’ families, Phu La girls may bring along some essential things for daily life such as cooking utensils, clothings, blankets and mosquito-net, jungle knives and hoes, rice seeds, pigs, chicken. Wedding presents offered by the bridegroom ‘s family often include a suit, a silver necklace, some 50 kilograms of meat, two to three jars of alcohol for the wedding which is organized simply, lasting for half or a day only.
When a person dies, his body lies in state in the house for around two days before the burial. Thirteen days after the funeral, a ritual is held to see off the dead soul to meet his/her ancestors, for one day from the afternoon of the preceding day till the following day. To the Phu La, this ritual is more important than the funeral because, they think, this is the time the living bid farewell to the dead. On the lunar new year festival of the third year from the funeral, the deceased family shall tend the grave and organize the worshipping thereat before it is abandoned for good without tending and without worshipping.
In the Phu La society, traces of the communal clan society have been found here and there, where people help one another in their daily life and productive labor. When a family gets something to do, people in other families shall come to help. During the harvest time, people spread to help the needy families first.
As the society is not characterized by deep class disintegration, the sense of private ownership remains low; almost no burglary and thievery happen; the life goes peacefully. Minor violations of Phu La customary laws and disputes, though rarely seen, are handled right in the hamlet by the “Apo”, while bigger cases are transferred to local officials in areas inhabited by people of other ethnic groups. Among the Phu La, there exist no written customary laws like in other groups, but only the conception of the right and the wrong, the guilty and not guilty, the serious offense and non-serious offense. Basing themselves on such conceptions and customary laws handed down from generation to generation, the “Apo” shall handle cases and affairs. The common punitive form is a chicken and a jar of alcohol paid by the violator as the offerings in a worshipping to ask dieties and hamlet people for forgiveness. For serious cases, the offerings shall include a pig and a jar of alcohol.
Living scatteredly, the Phu La people have little opportunity for collective activities, including customary law activities. Hence, the formation of “conciliation teams” to regulate relations within the Phu La hamlets and community as a whole, based on the application of good customs, practices and folk laws, will certainly help build a harmonious society within this ethnic community.-