Ta Thi Tam
Ethnology Institute
The Bo Y is a small Tay-Thai language group with a population of nearly 2,300 living in Ha Giang, Lao Cai, Yen Bai and Tuyen Quang northern mountainous provinces.
The Bo Y, also called Chung Cha or Trung Gia, comprises three branches, namely Pau Y, Pau Na and Pau Thin. Some ethnic minority groups belong to these branches, such as the Tu Di in Lao Cai province, which belongs to Pau Y, the Pu Na, to Pau Na, and the Giay, to Pau Thin.
The group migrated from different parts of
The Bo Y lives mainly on swidden cultivation even though they are good at wet rice cultivation. The group grows maize, which is the main crop, rice, cassava, sweet potato and arrowroot, using aerated soil rather than fertilizer. When rice yields strains, Bo Y people drain water out of the field and leave it dry till harvesting. They plow before the lunar new year festival and aerate soil for half a month, then water the field again before raking for the last time. Before transplanting, the group leaves mud deposit on the field to raise crop productivity. Each family also has a plot for growing vegetables. Bo Y farming tools include hoe, knife, plough and rake. Buffaloes are used for plowing.
The group raises cattle and poultry. Hunting and picking up forest products are other sources of food supply. The Bo Y also has other trades, including weaving, blacksmithing, silver engraving, knitting and pottery.
A Bo Y village is usually located by a stream, on a hill side or in a valley, consisting of 10-20 houses. The Bo Y lives in earth houses with heightened floors. A house with two square thatched or tiled roofs has three parts and an open-air front corridor. The house frame is made of bamboo or wood, having two single beams and five lines of pillars. A house has a main door leading to the middle part of the house, a sub-door at the gable leading to the kitchen and two windows facing the open-air corridor. The house has a garret for storing food, which is also used as the sleeping place for unmarried men of the family.
Bo Y family names include Lo, Luc (or Lu), Duong (or Zang), Ngu, Vu, Vi (or Vay) and Phan. Each family name has its own middle names according to certain rules. Each middle name is used for a generation. A Bo Y name consists of the family name followed by the father’s middle name, then the child’s middle name and finally the given name.
A Bo Y family consists of three generations. When a son gets married, his parents build a house for him to live separately. The oldest son of a family who has a grandchild or is over 40 years old will celebrate his birthday annually, inviting all his siblings, nephews and nieces to the birthday party.
The Bo Y woman costume comprises a long skirt (coong phin) with flower patterns on the white background, a short blouse (coong pu), which is put inside the hem of the skirt, a bodice (vay zao), which covers the chest and falls to the waist, and a long indigo headgear, which is wound in the shape of the Chinese character of human at the forehead with two ends falling at two sides of the head. Bo Y jewelry includes necklace (cha van), ear ring (xoai) and bracelet (quan).
A Bo Y man wears a short four-panel shirt and indigo trousers.
A Bo Y wedding goes through three steps:
At the first step, the groom’s parents ask two female matchmakers to go to the bride’s home to make marriage proposal. If accepting the proposal, the bride’s family gives the matchmakers 10 red-colored chicken eggs to show their love for the future son-in-law. The matchmakers borrow the bride’s nativity and bring it to a fortune teller who will foresee the future of the couple. If the couple is well matched, the groom’s family sends two male matchmakers to the bride’s family, returning the bride’s nativity and bringing offerings, including wine, sugar and a chicken and asking for permission to bring engagement offerings to her family. Offerings for the engagement, usually held in February or March, include a pair of chickens, seven pairs of banh day (round sticky rice cake), 14 kg of rice, 15 bottles of wine and 30 kg of pork. The offerings are brought to the bride’s home by two old men, who represent the groom’s family, and four other men.
The second step is wedding. Before the wedding day, the groom’s family brings wedding offerings which are the same as for the engagement and a costume for the bride, including clothes, a scarf, a pair of cloth shoes and silver jewelry, consisting of a pair of ear rings, a pair of necklaces and a pair of bracelets. The bride costume is kept in a red trunk and brought together with the bride on the day she is taken to the groom’s home.
The third step is taking the bride home. The procession taking the bride to the groom’s home comprises 8-10 people most of whom are close friends of the groom, including two unmarried and two married couples. The groom is not present in this procession. The groom’s younger sister takes a pink horse for the bride to ride to her husband’s home. The bride’s family sends a similar procession to escort the bride. The bride will bring along a pair of scissors, her needlework tool, to her husband’s home. She also brings a chicken which will be released to the forest on the way. The groom’s younger sister will lead the bride’s horse. Arriving at the groom’s home, the bride and groom kowtow the family ancestors, heaven and earth in front of the family altar and then go to their room. After that, the couple is accompanied by two couples of friends to invite wine to relatives who in return give them money presents. Three days after the wedding, the couple moves to live in the bride’s family, only returning to the groom’s home when the bride is pregnant.
According to their customs, Bo Y women sit when giving birth. The umbilical cord is cut with a piece of bamboo and the placenta is buried under the mother’s bed. After giving birth, the mother is not supposed to go out for one month. When the baby is one month old, the family conducts a ritual, making offerings to ba mu, the goddess believed to create and protect babies, and nickname the baby. If the baby is ailing, the mother will find a foster father to help the child get healthy. When the child is two or three years old, he/she is given an official name.
The Bo Y shrouds the dead at home. The coffin of a person who dies outside the house is placed in the courtyard. In the funeral, the family kills a pig or buffalo as sacrifice, inviting a sorcerer to conduct a ritual to take the dead’s spirit to his/her native land. Before carrying the coffin to the grave yard, the family fires four rifle shots to expel evil spirits. The coffin is carried with the dead’s feet in the front. While carrying the coffin, young villagers can stop for a rest three times if the dead’s spouse is still alive; if not, they can take four rests. Children of the dead wear white mourning headbands and lean against a stick when escorting the coffin to the grave yard. The Bo Y only makes offerings to the dead at the first death anniversary. Before this anniversary, the dead’s sons are not allowed to drink wine while daughters cannot wear jewelry. Children can get married only after their parent’s first death anniversary.
The Bo Y believes a person has 36 minh phan (spirit) which are divided into two groups, one of unwise spirits which stay inside the corpse at the grave and the other of wise spirits which stay on the altar and protect their descendants. On a Bo Y altar are placed three censers: one dedicated to heaven, one to the kitchen god and one to the ancestors. Under the altar is placed a censer dedicated to the god of earth. For a family without a son, the son-in-law sets up an altar at the middle part of the house next to doorway. When his parents-in-law die, he will place two censers on this altar.
Bo Y annual festivals include dun chinh (lunar new year), sip ha (the 15th of the first lunar month), chenh dap (the 30th of the first lunar month), chenh xam (the 3rd of the third lunar month), toan vu (the 5th of the fifth lunar month), chenh xoc (the 6th of the sixth lunar month), chenh xip phay (the 15th of the seventh lunar month) and chenh o mua (new rice festival). During these festivals, the Bo Y cooks sticky rice dyed in different colors and make banh chung (square sticky rice cake filled with green bean paste and pork) and banh chay (round sticky rice cake filled with green bean paste) for offering to gods, praying for bumper crops, growing cattle herds and health for family members.
The Bo Y owns a rich folklore treasure with folksongs, verses, proverbs, legends and folktales. The group plays clarions in weddings and beats drums and cymbals in funerals.-