By TO DONG HAI
As a multinational country, Vietnam, though not very large in area, is inhabited by 54 ethnic groups of which the Viet is the largest making up some 80% of the national population. Throughout their millenary history of cohabitation, the ethnic groups have helped one another in their daily life and stood shoulder to shoulder in the fights against foreign aggressors for their own survival and development and for the nation's independence and sovereignty, thus creating a brilliant autochthonous culture - the South Asian culture.
The ethnic minorities in Vietnam vary greatly in the size of their populations, ranging from a mere 100 or so to more than one million. They live mainly in the northern mountain regions and the Central Highlands, except the Cham and Khmer groups who live in the coastal plains of south Central Vietnam and the Mekong river delta.
They are classified into three main groups based on the systems of their languages: South Asian (including the Viet-Muong, Mon-Khmer, Tay-Thai and Mong-Dzao); the Malayo-Polynesian; and the Sino-Tibetan (including the Han and Tibetan-Burmese).
From time immemorial, each of the ethnic minorities in Vietnam has had its own customs and practices, which, over the years, became rules, oral or written, and eventually conventions governing all aspects of the community life and a person's life, from birth to death. These conventions differ from community to community, depending on the social characters and development process of the groups. Corresponding to a specific type of social structure of an ethnic minority group is a different form of conventions, customs and practices. The social structure called “ban-muong” of northern groups like the Tay, Thai, Mong, Dzao, Muong..., with a system of local chieftains called “phia”, “tao”, “lang” or “dao”, differs from that of the “buon” or “plei” among the Central Highland groups like the Ede, Bahnar, Jarai, Xedang or M'Nong with a system of local chieftains called “tu truong” (tribal chiefs) or “po”; hence the difference in their customs, practices and conventions.
The process of social development also varies from one group to another. Some groups are autochthonous such as the “Muong”, others migrated from other regions like the “Dzao” or “H'Mong”, while others like the “Cham” had once established their own state. All this greatly affects their customs, habits and conventions.
Those conventions cover all aspects of life. They are discernible mostly in the following:
- The family, with a hierarchical order among family members: the parents, brothers and sisters, children, husband and wife, relatives; marriage, housing, place of residence...
- The social aspects, including the hierarchical order in society, property and the right to property ownership, social responsibilities, relations between men and women...
- The material and spiritual life, including costumes, household utensils, religions, beliefs, rituals and festivals, education and examinations, cultural activities...
- The administrative work such as birth and death registration, marriage certificates, taxation, rewards and sanctions...
- The productive labor, including the organization of production, the use of production tools, the distribution of production means (land, forests, lakes, rivers, sea...), the division of the fruits of labor, the modes of trading, the preservation of professional secrets...
In a sense, the conventions are concrete and clear indications of the community's culture and strength as well as of the interwoven relations among its members.
The process of formation and development of an ethnic group has played an important role in the process of formation of its conventions. For instance, the conventions of the “H'Mong” in Vietnam are in many ways similar to the conventions of other groups of the same origin, such as the Mieu in China or the Meo in Laos. Among the conventions of the Dzao group, many took shape during its migration from China to Vietnam at different periods and through different roads, which gave rise to many sub-groups of the Dzao with different traditional costumes, different customs and habits, hence different conventions. The development of Taoism with such ceremonies as “cap sac” (the rite to celebrate the maturity of a youth) have greatly influenced the spiritual life of the Dzao people due to their close association with the Chinese culture. Meanwhile, the conventions of the “Cham” are strongly influenced by the Indian culture and religion. Though the origin of the Cham group has not been clearly determined (whether it is autochthonous or alien, or mixed), the presence of the Indian culture and religions in the cultural and spiritual life of the Cham is obvious. Brahmanism and Islam divided the Cham ethnic group in Binh Thuan and Ninh Thuan provinces into two sub-groups: Ba Cham (followers of Brahmanism) and Ba Ni (followers of Islam) with their different practices, customs and conventions.
The ethnic characters classified according to languages are clearly reflected in the conventions. Groups of the same language family share similar conventions as is the case of the ethnic groups of the Malayo-Polynesian language family, the Tibetan-Burmese family, the Mon-Khmer or the Tay-Thai family, etc.
Besides, the natural and ecological conditions of the region inhabited by each group have also exerted no little impact on the formation of its conventions. In the Northwest of Vietnam, the Thai have always established “ban” (hamlet) on hill slopes or at the foot of mountains overlooking a valley. In whatever location, a Thai hamlet is always built beside a stream, big or small, to get water for their fields. Therefore, the valley agriculture has been given a strong boost, giving rise to an agricultural culture closely associated with the irrigation system, rivers and streams. So, not surprisingly, the “Xem ban” (worshipping rite) rituals of the Thai are always organized close to a water source; and the water deity plays a very important role in their spiritual life.
Gong is a kind of musical instrument so popular in Central Highlands that the region is sometimes called the country of the gongs. To the mind of the local inhabitants, gong is not only a musical instrument but also a means of communicating with the spirits. Indeed, it has become the most effective means of communication among the members of the community, especially in the thinly-populated areas where the technical foundations are poor and where the distance from one home to another, from one hamlet to another, and from a village to another is so long.
As a special cultural phenomenon, the conventions are interactions that have led to the natural acculturation which has occurred in the process of development of each ethnic group. A convention of one group can also be found in others'. This reflects the cultural similarities and relations among these ethnic groups, which have been formed in the process of ethnic grouping as well as in the culture exchange among the groups.
Guided by the spirit of democracy, equality and community, the conventions of ethnic minorities have contributed to their strengthening and development. They prevail upon the material and spiritual life of each member. For a number of groups, their conventions have gone beyond regulations and become institutions and even pre-state codes, thus helping further tighten the relationship within a community, making it durable. Conventions are also considered the criteria for people to tell right from wrong, good from bad, and to respect the community's customs, practices and conventions and to defend the community against natural disasters or a hostile force.
Established a long time ago and handed down from generation to generation, the conventions of each ethnic group have become more and more perfect, meeting the requirements of all members of the community in its practical conditions. So far, the customs, practices and conventions of the ethnic minority groups in Vietnam have existed alongside the State laws. They have helped regulate social relations in a more efficient way because they have been built on the basis of traditional concepts and philosophies and long been accepted and strictly observed by all members of the communities. If these customs, practices and conventions can be well applied in the present-day life, they will become a useful instrument to support the State laws, contributing to building a new society from grassroots units such as the family, hamlet. In some localities, the conventions have been used as the legal basis for court trials or settlement of disputes or violations, by the so-called “convention tribunal” which have a judge, assessors and also lawyers to ensure justice and accuracy in the trial. Almost all decisions of the courts of this kind took effect and were strictly implemented. Meanwhile, the imposition of alien laws failed to bring in results, as remarked by Pierre Bernard Lafont, a French ethnologist at the Far East Institute of France, in his research into the conventions of the Jarai ethnic minority, called Toloi Djuat: The intervention of the French legislation on entire Indochina (the then French-ruled Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia) was demonstrated at first through the reform of the jurisdiction and legal proceedings. We studied the juridical system and legal proceedings of the Jarai group during the 1954-1956 period and came to the conclusion that... colonialization had never succeeded in changing, transforming and even re-establishing the traditional structures and concepts of this nationality.(1)
Now in some localities, people of various ethnic groups have transformed the previous “convention tribunals” into “reconciliation teams” to settle disputes within their communities. According to a preliminary survey, the activities of such re-conciliation teams have yielded good results.
However, having been formed and developed on the basis of primitive concepts of a backward society, the conventions of the ethnic minorities in Vietnam could not avoid limitations, such as regulations influenced by superstition, backward customs and practices of wedding, funerals, worshipping; parochialism... All this has, to one extent or another, hindered the enforcement of State laws, the abolition of backward practices, the liberation of man as well as prevented the release of the production capacity from out-dated relations.
In its coming issues, “Vietnam Law & Legal Forum” will present the fundamentals of the conventions of each ethnic minority group in Vietnam. For groups with similarities in their conventions, we will underline in one article, while for very small groups with small populations which we have not studied thoroughly, we will try to give a broad outline.-
Footnote:
(1) Pierre Bernard Lafont: Toloi Djuat, coutumier de la tribu Jarai. Ecole francaise d'extreme-orient, Paris, 1963. p.18, vol.LI.-