Assoc. Prof. Dr. BUI XUAN DINH
Ethnologist
The Si La, a Tibeto-Burmese language group, is one of the five smallest ethnic minority groups in Vietnam with a population of merely 840.
The group, which lives in Can Ho commune, Muong Te district of the northern province of Lai Chau, originated from a tribe in middle Europe and then moved to the Tibeto Highlands, southwestern China, eastern India and north Indochina with a branch moving to Vietnam around 130 years ago.
The Si La lives mainly on upland cultivation on terraced fields. They also grow wet rice. Their main foods include ordinary and sticky rice and corn. The group used to grow opium for barter trade and offer to Thai landlords.
The Si La raises buffalos and cows for sale and rituals and makes some handicrafts such as knitting and blacksmithing. Those living along the Da river live on fishing and exploitation of mineral sands on alluvial grounds.
The Si La’s residential unit is village which is built at the foot of mountains close to streams. Houses in a Si La village, which are densely built, often face a mountain or stream in the hope that a family’s property will be as high as mountain and as much as water.
Community spirit is relatively high in Si La villages, which is clearly seen in community rituals or when villagers have family affairs such as wedding and funeral.
Hospitality is seen in Si La villages which warmly welcome guests of villagers who are considered guests of the whole community.
A Si La village spends two days in a year, which are chosen by the village wizard, on a ritual to worship the village genie. During the ritual, which is conducted at the village front, all the farm work is ceased and strangers are not allowed to enter the village.
The Si La makes offerings to their ancestors on two occasions: in June to pray for favorable weathers for crops and in October to welcome the new year.
The Si La lives in ground houses with 3 to 6 pillars. The entrance door is built at the house front in the main or left or right part of the house. A house is divided into small rooms in the inner side lengthwise. The last room on the left (in the house’s direction) is where the altar is placed. It is also where the household head sleeps. Strangers, pregnant women and mothers with newborn babies are not supposed to enter this room. A stranger who breaches this rule is fined a pig and wine.
Other family members live in rooms next to the household head’s room in the order of generation and age, except grown-up girls who sleep in the right room close to the entrance door because the Si La allows girls to sleep with their boyfriends in their room.
The outer part of the house is for cooking and daily-life activities and is where to store family utensils. It is also the sleeping place of guests.
In a Si La house, the second rooftree (from the left in the house’s direction) is the main beam which must be built first when building a house. This rooftree is connected with the family’s holy pillar on which strangers are not allowed to touch. Close to this pillar on the right side is the main kitchen which, however, is not for cooking, but for old people and guests. In the holy kitchen is placed a stove made of three stones, which is used only to boil water for guests. The main stone in the middle at the back side symbolizes the wife of the household head. The second stone on the left in the direction of the household head’s room symbolizes the kitchen god who is believed to protect the family’s warmness. The third stone facing the entrance door is to prevent evil spirits from entering the house. These stones are strictly protected because they symbolize the family’s peace. A visitor who breaks these stones is subject to heavy fines. The household head only cleans up ash in this stove when a family member dies and fire new wood after the funeral. The coffin of the dead is placed between the holy kitchen and holy pillar.
On the entrance door is hung a bamboo wattle called Ta leo. A new Ta leo is made every year during the village’s ritual as an offering. After the ritual, it is hung in front of the house to prevent evil spirits.
The Si La lives in a patriarchal family mostly with two generations where men make decisions on important family affairs, but women are main laborers to generate incomes for the family. Daughters have to work hard at early age but do not have the inheritance right.
In Si La families, brothers rely on their sisters rather than maternal uncles for arrangement of their marriage. A sister will represent the groom’s family to take the bride home and conciliate conflicts of her brother’s family. When a brother divorces, his sister will take his wife to her own home.
First cousins may marry each other provided that their grandparents have died and two sisters must marry two cousins bearing different family names. Daughters are not allowed to set up an altar to worship their ancestors. A couple who has no son must live with an unmarried daughter who must remove the family altar when her parents die. She is not allowed to set up a new altar when she moves to a new house.
A Si La man only lives permanently with his wife’s family when he cannot afford wedding offerings asked by the girl’s family. In this case, he has to change his family name after his wife’s and worship her ancestors, but may inherit like sons. A son-in-law may be invited to live in his wife’s family when her family does not have a son. In this case, he is not required to change his family name and may worship his dead parents in the wife’s family. In both cases, the son-in-law must take care of his parents-in-law and worship them after they die.
The Si La’s family names include Hu, Po, Ly and Giang which all have the taboo against eating cats. The Hu line does not eat tigers either. A Si La who finds a dead cat will bury it and place a ta leo on its grave for notice. Persons of the same family line may only marry one another after seven generations. Each family line has a head who is the oldest wise man. The head’s house usually has an entrance door at the left gable which will be closed when he dies. On every new year occasion, a family line meets in the head’s house where they bring offerings to pay tribute to ancestors and pray for happiness.
Si La boys and girls who used to get married at the age of as early as 14 or 15 are free to choose their partners. The concept of virginity does not exist in Si La society. If accepting a man (through the sound of his leaf-horn blown in front of her home), a girl will open the door to let him sleep with her. After three nights, if the couple agree to be lovers, the boy may sleep with the girl in her house until they get married. If the girl does not agree, the boy must leave.
A Si La marriage is conducted in many steps through a matchmaker. A wedding is held twice. The first time is to receive the daughter-in-law. Sisters of the groom must go to the bride’s family three times (on three days) to ask for permission to take the bride home and may only take her on the forth time. When arriving at the groom’s home, the bride must wait for her mother-in-law to bring her new clothes and for the head of the family line to conduct a ritual in the holy kitchen to inform the family’s ancestors of the new daughter-in-law. After that, the groom gives the bride an egg and a handful of sticky rice, which symbolizes faithfulness and full happiness of the couple. These formalities are only conducted in the groom’s family.
The second wedding is held a year later when the two families make full preparations. The two families will slaughter pigs to make offerings to ancestors and hold parties which are attended by villagers and friends of the bride and groom.-