Ta Thi Tam
Ethnology Institute
Sa Pa love market is an original cultural trait of H’mong and Dao ethnic minority groups in the northern mountainous province of Lao Cai.
Opened in Lao Cai’s Sa Pa town every Saturday night, love market is not merely for selling local commodities but is a place for young people to date with or look for partners through responsive love singing and flute or pan-pipe (khen) playing.
This old-time cultural activity of the H’mong and Dao creates an attractive feature for Sa Pa, a mountain town lying in a temperate sub-zone with cool weather all the year round, luring both domestic and foreign visitors.
From Saturday afternoon, one can spot in Sa Pa women in beautifully embroidered costumes stuck with silver rings, buttons and coins. On their heads are red scarves with tiny bronze tintinnabula which ring along their treads. They also wear silver necklaces, bracelets and rings. Drawing the attention of these women are Dao and H’mong men in indigo costumes with a watch on their wrists. They also carry a cassette recorder on their shoulders to record love songs sang by the girls.
When the night falls, under the pale yellow lighting of the market, young people gather in groups, singing love songs in flute sounds, chatting or learning the languages of one another. These activities may last throughout the night. Sitting close in groups, girls still reveal their costumes and men use a flashlight they carry along to see the sewing, patterns and colors of these costumes as a way to learn about the talents and deftness of the girls.
The market gives people a chance to show their talents and thus hopefully find their match. After chatting and singing in groups, congenial couples talk privately and exchange objects of belief, which is a handkerchief, a small bag or a bracelet, dating for the next market session. After a market day, many couples become close, and next spring, not a few turn into life partners.
Particularly, love market is not just for young people to find their soul mates but also for married couples to make new friends or meet their former lovers. In this market, a married woman can meet her former boyfriend, explaining about happenings in the past and sharing her daily life problems to seek his advice and encouragement. When morning dawns, she parts with him, finding her husband who might have just left his friend, and together with him, go shopping before returning home with her routines.
Although Dao people are free in love, their marriage is mostly decided by parents for commercial purpose. Since a boy is still little, his parents have consulted a fortune teller for choosing a girl born in a year matching with him. But more importantly, the parents have to consider their financial conditions before “buying” a bride, the “price” of whom depends on her beauty and deftness. The Dao is afraid of getting into debt for buying a bride. This debt must be paid out even through generations of a family. In the past, the “price” of a bride ranged from 80 to 140 silver coins, let alone pigs, chickens, wine and cash as well as expenses for marriage proposal formalities. After a family finds a bride and reaches agreement with her family on her “price,” it will find a matchmaker to propose marriage.
H’mong and Dao people often get married at the age of 13-15. The bride’s family gives the daughter part of the money from “selling” her as her dowry. It shares a small portion to its relatives of higher ranks and keeps the remainder for buying a bride for their son. The groom’s offerings of livestock, rice, wine and cash will be used for a wedding party attended by villagers.
Given such arranged marriage, H’mong and Dao married people can make new friends or meet with their former lovers in the love market. But they are not supposed to go beyond limit as they are under the eye of the community. An adulteress who is caught red-handed must go through a formality called rua mat (washing faces for her parents and siblings). Under this complicated and costly formality, the woman must give her parents and siblings each two or three silver coins, a pair of chicken, two liters of wine and kowtow them in the witness of villagers. If she is pregnant, she is not allowed to make abortion. Her child is often accepted by her husband’s family and has the right as other children of the family. If the woman is single, the father must take care of the child. Nevertheless, adultery is rare since it is heavily fined and seriously hurts the dignity of involved persons.
In Lao Cai, most H’mong and Dao people live in Muong Hoa valley far from Sa Pa town. To reach the market, they have to walk for half a day. People often set out early morning and stay overnight in Sa Pa, making the charming town truly lively on Saturday night.
For H’mong and Dao youth, Sa Pa love market is a not-to-be-missed social event which creates an opportunity for them to mix, mingle and find a match. Whether they find a partner or not, the happy memories of the day linger in their minds. And anyway, there is always another awaiting them next week.-