To Dong Hai
Being a small ethnos of the southern Asian language group, Mang resides in Muong Te, Sin Ho and Muong Lai districts of Lai Chau province, which lie in hilly and mountainous areas between Da and Nam Ra rivers. According to the State’s statistical figures in 1989, the Mang population stood at only 2,247 people of over 250 households, who have lived interwovenly with people of Thai, Mong and Ha Nhi groups. Formerly, this ethnic group was called “Xa Mang”, meaning a small ethnos living dependently on the Thai people.
Though not being divided into local subgroups like other ethnoses, the Mang has been temporarily classified into two: The “Mang Gung” living on highland areas and greatly influenced by Mong and Ha Nhi ethnic groups, and the “Mang He” living in valleys and small plains near the Thai people.
Formerly, the Mang people led a miserable nomadic life with primitive milpa farming as their main economic activities besides hunting, forest fruit and vegetable gathering which have, however, played an important position in their life. Things become better for them now due to their shift to sedentary farming though with low productivity due to poor farming techniques and conditions.
Like people of many other ethnic groups, the Mang also live in hamlets called “Muy”, each of which embraces from 15 to 20 houses built on the same mountain slope or a flat area on hill top.
The Mang houses are made on stilts with two roofs, two doors and two gables which are linked together by a bar of wood trimmed into a stylized monster-like serpent called “puong nhua”. Living in such a house is a small patriarchal family with the father as the house master. Yet, in some cases, such families develop into big ones with 30 to 40 members each, who still live under the same roof. Perhaps, this is one of the traces of the big families which once existed among the Mang community.
People of this ethnic group are accustomed to patrilocality. When a girl and a boy commit themselves to a married life, the boy’s family asks a match-maker to go to the girl’s family, proposing the marriage. If nothing comes in their way, after a short period of time, the boy shall move to stay matrilocally with the girl’s family and the wedding shall be organized. In addition to all wedding expenses, the boy’s family shall also have to pay a sum of money, called “lo cha” or “chang ha” to the girl’s family as remuneration for bringing her up. It is customary that after the wedding party a sham fight is held between the two families of the bride and the groom in order to snatch the bride, which is certainly a trace of the wife-snatching practice which once existed among the Mang community. After the wedding, the boy may stay matrilocally either for life or for several years before returning to his family.
With five lineages: To o (under the family name of Pan), To giuang (Chinh), To lot (Lung), Van Nenh (Eng) and Van No, the Mang people strictly adhere to extra-lineal marriage. The intra-lineal marriage is considered incest and strictly prohibited as well as strongly condemned by the community. Each lineage is headed by a man called Mon Dam, who is the eldest person of the head branch of such lineage, knowledgeable about the customs and practices as well as rituals of this ethnic community and the lineage, who is also honored and respected by every people. Mon Dam is also the person who decides matters related to the productive labor, cultural and religious activities, rites of the lineage itself. Formerly, each lineage had its own habitat. After the infiltration into the northwestern regions of Vietnam by the Thai people from the West, the Mang’s lineal social structure was disintegrated and the regime of Mon Dam no longer existed. Yet, in their houses, Pli Dam (the ghost of the ancestors of the lineages) are worshipped at the most solemn places. The disintegration of the lineal habitats (typical image of clan communes) led to the formation of Muy (hamlet) which is typified as neighborly communes, where still exist big lineages as members of such Muy with special influence and the heads of such lineages are often selected as the hamlet chiefs (called To Muy) who, together with the Councils of Village Elders (called Pla Muy) run social and religious affairs, customs and practices and adjudicate cases of violation of customary laws, customs and practices in their respective hamlets.
When the Thai con-solidated their position in the northwestern region of Vietnam, they imposed their rule on the Mang society where the people of this ethnic group were heavily exploited and suppressed by Thai mandarins and landlords. In each Mang hamlet, a Thai official, called “Tao ban”, was appointed besides the “To Muy” to take care of the tax collection and compelled the Mang to serve corvee labor for the Thai. However, such a situation came to its end after the region was liberated and governed by the revolutionary administration.
Polytheism was once the firm belief of the Mang people who held that many deities had existed, which have been called “pli” by Mang or “ma” (ghost) by the Viet people, such as the lineage deity, house deity, forest deity, ferry deity, sun deity, moon deity. To them, when such deities are well treated by people, they would render support to the latter in daily life and work. If not, the deities will mete out punishment, bringing droughts, floods, crop failure, earth-quakes, diseases or epidemics to people and/or animals or bringing even death to people or whole lineages….
Therefore, when someone in a hamlet commit sins (for instance, incest), thus offending deities, the hamlet chief (To Muy) and the Council of Village Elders (Pla Muy) have to bring such person to trial for the purpose that the sinner shall have to organize a ritual to ask for forgiveness from deities and the hamlet dwellers. All cases of violation of customs and practices, or the regulations on people’s behavior towards the nature, the lineage as well as community, which may offend deities, shall be adjudicated and punished. Depending on the nature and seriousness of such violations, the hamlet chief and the Council of Village Elders shall set the level of penalties, namely the amount of offerings paid by the sinners for the rituals.
Despite strong influence of the Thai rulers throughout their ruling years, the Mang people have still kept and preserved what are their own customs and practices as well as customary laws, which shall be of great value for building and developing a new life and for promoting democracy in areas inhabited by the Mang people, if their positive elements are brought into full play.-