Associate Professor BUI XUAN DINH
Ethnologist
The La Ha, a Kadai language ethnic minority group, lives in the northern mountainous provinces of Lai Chau and Son La with a population of nearly 5,700, ranking 40th among 53 ethnic minority groups in Vietnam.
Linguistic, ethnological and historical proofs show that the La Ha and other Mon-Khmer language groups, were indigenous inhabitants, originally living along Da river in mountainous areas of Quynh Nhai district, Son La province.
The La Ha, also called Khla Plao, Xa Cha, Xa Bung or Xa Khao, lived in groups in valleys, grew wet rice and organized a relatively complete social structure. Each group was led by a head who was assisted by a rather complete apparatus. A head might pass his position to his son.
In the 10th century, the Thai from adjacent areas in Thailand, Burma and China migrated into the northwestern region, occupying areas of the La Ha and other Mon-Khmer language groups, which were forced to move to higher mountainous areas.
Although in the dominating position, the Thai had to respect the La Ha and other groups. Before 1954 when North Vietnam was liberated, in a ceremony to worship village deities which were Khun Cha and Khun Uong, the ancestors of the La Ha, the Thai had to display the La Ha’s stuff such as papoose and gourd which contained water to be poured into the nose. La Ha people fetched water by taking it in a cylinder on their back rather than carrying it with a shoulder pole. Offerings in this ceremony included pork, chicken and wine. Village deities were believed to give bumper crops and ensure peace for the village and health for villagers.
The La Ha lived on upland cultivation and thus led a nomadic life. Fishing, picking up forest products and making handicraft were their other sources of income. The La Ha’s trade barely developed. They mostly bartered handicraft and forest products for salt and clothes from the Thai and Viet.
Living together the Thai with a much larger population and higher level of socio-economic development for centuries, the La Ha gradually lost many of their social and cultural traits and became dependant on Thai landlords, who were considered representatives of the central feudal government. Forests, rivers and their products all belonged to Thai landlords to whom La Ha people must give part of whichever specialty products they got. The quantity to be given was specified in rules set by Thai landlords.
The La Ha no longer maintained their own village which became part of muong (residential unit of the Thai). La Ha villagers had to work for Thai landlords, doing farm work and housework for them and building roads and irrigation works for Thai muong. Each La Ha village had a head who took charge of affairs assigned by Thai landlords. The La Ha language was thus no longer used in many areas and only a small number of native words was used in the La Ha’s daily life. La Ha houses and costumes were also largely influenced by Thai culture.
In 1954, the La Ha was liberated from the Thai lord’s oppression. The group could now promote and preserve its own culture and live in peace with the Thai and other ethnic minority groups.
The La Ha lives in stilt houses with a rather simple structure. All transverse beams of a house must lie to the same direction (toward a mountain). When sleeping, the La Ha also lie to this direction with their heads toward the mountain. A house, which has two doors at two gables, is divided into two parts widthwise. The part for receiving guests is the one at the side of the main stairway, which is for guests and men. In this part is placed a stove for warming and boiling water, not for cooking. The part at the side of the sub-stairway, which is for women, is for cooking and sleeping. Green vegetables and leaves, other green stuff and raw meat are not allowed to be brought through the door of this part, but the other’s, because these stuff are only used when a family member dies.
The La Ha has another taboo. When cooking, they are not allowed to put firewood in all the three sides of a tripod stove, which symbolizes obstruction of family members to escape a fire. Firewood are put only in two sides and the main side is left only for broiling meat. A pot on the stove must have its two handles placed widthwise, not in the direction to the entrance door, which is the lying direction of a dead person.
Family members are also not supposed to strike empty rice mortars, an act which is believed to prevent evil spirits from entering the house and is done only after the burial of a dead person.
The La Ha lives in a patriarchal family where the husband-father makes decision on all family affairs. Only sons have the inheritance right. Daughters are given some dowries when getting married. Unlike the Thai and other groups in the region, traces of the La Ha’s matriarchy were not clearly seen. During the time a son-in-law stays with his wife’s family, which lasts up to one year now (previously four to eight years), he does not need to change his family name and children can bear his family name. After a ceremony called thu ma phu to take the wife to her husband’s home (after the husband’s stay with his wife’s family), the wife must change her family name after her husband’s and is not allowed to live with her parents again even when her husband dies. When a widow marries, her new husband must hold a small wedding (thu coi pong) to inform such to the soul of the previous husband without having to inform her parents. Children of a couple who die without conducting thu ma phu yet must conduct this ceremony for their parents in the belief that they can live together in the other world. The La Ha believes that the soul of a woman will stay with her first husband’s.
The La Ha attaches importance to worshiping ancestors called ma nha (family spirits), which are parents of the family owner. The altar of ma nha is placed at the wattle separating the guest receiving part with the living part of the house. An altar can be a 30 cm x 40 cm bamboo wattle hung 1.6 m above the floor or a bamboo pillar from the floor to purlin near the ceiling leaned against the wattle.
The La Ha has the unique custom of striking up brotherhood. A man who does not have sons or brothers can strike up a brotherhood with another man with many brothers. If being accepted, such man will bring a chicken, a jar of wine, some taros and a pumpkin to the house of the other man as offerings to the latter’s ma nha. The two men together will take the chicken’s liver before the altar of ma nha, asking for their permission to become brothers. They will then press the liver into a piece of sticky rice, wrap them in a banana leaf and put it on the altar. A sworn brother is treated as a natural brother in the family and has the inheritance right.-