Ta Thi Tam
Ethnology Institute
The Phu La, one of six Tibeto-Burman language groups in Vietnam, lives in mountainous areas of Lao Cai, Lai Chau, Son La and Ha Giang northern provinces with a population of nearly 11,000.
The Phu La comprises four sub-groups, namely Lao Xa Vo (or Xa Pho or Pho Kho Pa), Phu La Hoa (the Phu La wearing flowered skirts), Phu La Han (the Phu La influenced by Chinese culture) and Phu La Den (the Phu La wearing indigo ankle-length clothing).
The group lives mainly on swidden farming combined with farming on terraced fields. It also raises buffalos, horses, chicken and pigs. Phu La people are known for their beautiful rattan and bamboo baskets which are sold or bartered with other ethnic groups.
A Phu La village has between 25 and 30 houses. Boundaries between villages are streams. A Phu La house often faces a water source with a mountain in the back. The Phu La Hoa and Pho Kho Pa live in stilt houses while the other sub-groups in Lao Cai province live in earth houses.
Phu La people worship their ancestors in the middle part of their house. Next to the altar is a 20cm wide dummy door called spirit door, which is opened during worshiping rituals. On the wall near the altar are stuck some chicken feathers, a yellow paper and a small bag of leaves.
The Phu La lives in small patriarchal families. They have six family lines, namely Phung, Dang, Luong, Ly, Bo and Hoang. Pa pa e cong (family head) is responsible for public affairs of the clan.
A Phu La woman wears an indigo kerchief embroidered with colorful patterns and grass beads, a closefitting square-collar blouse, a long skirt embroidered with patterns and a belt. A Phu La man wears a short round-collar shirt with split flaps.
Phu La young people are free to choose their partners. When in love, a couple exchanges objects of belief such as handkerchief or ring.
The Phu La has a custom called do ma cho dieu pa (climbing a pillar) in which at midnight a boy climbs a pillar to enter a girl’s room to sleep with her. If accepting the boy, the girl will open the door for him. If she loves him, she will let him share the quilt with her. If not, the boy has to convince her to do so. After many pillar climbs, the boy will ask his parents to find matchmakers to come to the girl’s family.
A Phu La engagement ceremony is held simply. A delegation from the boy’s family, comprising the groom, his parents and the matchmakers (a man and a woman), brings offerings to the bride’s family. The offerings are fish, a bottle of wine, a chicken and most importantly a silver bracelet, which will be given to the bride by the woman matchmaker as the object of belief after the two families fix the wedding date.
A Phu La wedding is held for three days. The groom’s family delegation must have 9 persons or more, but in an odd number, while the bride’s family delegation seeing her off must have 10 persons or more, but in an even number. On the way to the bride’s home, if the groom’s family meets a dead buffalo, dog or goat, which is regarded a misfortune, the family will return and choose another time to depart. If they continue going, they must invite a sorcerer to conduct a ritual to get rid of evils after bringing the bride home. When the groom’s family arrives, the bride’s family shows their hospitality by scooping water for the guests to wash their feet. The groom’s family must enter the bride’s house through the main stairway, not the sub-stairway, in the belief to keep misfortune away from the young couple. The man matchmaker then sings to ask the bride’s family to open the door for the groom’s family. After that, the bride’s father will weigh the offerings of the groom’s family to see if they are sufficient. Before the bride is taken to the groom’s home, her mother ties a thread to the groom’s wrist while the woman matchmaker does so with the bride. The bride’s family rolls two small balls of sticky rice, putting them in the scarves of the bride and groom in the wish for prosperity and happiness for the couple. Before leaving the bride’s home, the bride and groom and delegation members must fall on their knees to thank the bride’s parents and relatives. Arriving at the groom’s home, the bride is received by her mother-in-law who waits at the stairway to give her a pot of sticky rice and take her into the house. The man matchmaker hands over the bride to her parents-in-law and the groom. A ceremony is then held to inform the groom’s ancestors of the new family member.
A Phu La funeral undergoes different formalities, including killing a chicken, beating a dog, building a tomb and dividing assets to the dead. After placing the dead in the coffin, the family must slaughter a pig, boil and put it on the coffin. Before carrying the coffin to the cemetery, the family must kill a cock, a dog and a pig which are believed to accompany the dead to the other world. The cock will wake the dead up, the dog will keep the house while the pig will make him rich.
Twelve days after burying the dead, family members bring rice, meat and wine to the grave, conducting a ritual called lo bo y (opening the grave). After that, they neither visit the grave nor set up an altar to worship the dead. The Phu La does not have the exhumation custom because exhumation is believed to make spirits return to hurt the living. Three days after the funeral, the family sets up a temporary altar in front of the house, conducting a rite to invite the spirit of the dead to stay on the family’s altar of ancestors. After this ceremony, the dead is believed to settle in the other world.
The Phu La separately worships forefathers who are believed to protect the family’s health and foremothers who are believed to protect the family’s crops. The rite to pay tribute to the rice spirit is conducted by a woman representative of the family and women eat rice before men can during this ritual.
The Phu La conducts an annual ritual to worship the village genie in the second lunar month. The group also has different farming ceremonies conducted in the field.
The Phu La celebrates the lunar new year (Tet) for five days. During Tet, Phu La people kill pigs and chickens, make banh chung (square sticky rice cake filled with green bean paste and pork) and banh day (round sticky rice cake) and drink ruou can (wine drunk out of a jar through stalks). They also dance, sing and play folk games such as nem con (throwing a ball through a circle), keo co (tug of war), danh quay (playing with a top), shooting and shooting with a crossbow.
According to Phu La customs, in the seventh month of the lunar year, every family must prepare a tray of fruit, including pear, pineapple, eggplant, cucumber and banana, of which eggplant is the most important because it (si chu) bears the name of the seventh month (si di). They also cut green, red, purple, yellow, white and black papers into human figures which are placed in seven lines, each line comprising seven figures of the same color. These paper figures symbolize their ancestors who come back home to enjoy the offerings. The tray of fruit is placed at the left corner opposite the ancestor altar. The family also makes boats and money in yellow paper for use by the ancestors on their way home.
To invite the ancestors home, the family kills a cock as the sacrifice, dipping the paper money into the cock’s blood, then burning the money. This aims to inform the ancestors of the sacrifice for them. The cock is then boiled and placed on the altar together with wine, meat, rice and chopsticks. The family owner burns incenses and paper money, inviting the ancestors to enjoy the offerings. After these formalities, relatives and villagers are invited to share the meal with the family.-