Vietnam

Six to seven million of Vietnam's 81 million people comprise an estimated 54 ethnic groups divided into dozens of subgroups some with a mere hundred or so members, giving Vietnam the richest and most complex ethnic make-up in the whole of Southeast Asia.

The vast majority of Vietnam's minorities live in the hilly regions of the north, down the Truong Son mountain range, and in the central highlands - all areas that saw heavy fighting in recent wars. Several groups straddle today's international boundaries, spreading across Indochina’s peninsula and up into southern China.

Little is known about the origins of many of these people, some of whom already inhabited the area before the ancestors of the Viet arrived from southern China around four to five thousand years ago. At some point the Viet emerged as a distinct group from among the various indigenous peoples living around the Red River Delta and then gradually absorbed smaller communities until they became the dominant culture. Other groups continued to interact with the Viet people, but either chose to maintain their independence in the highlands or were forced up into the hills, off the ever-more-crowded coastal plains.

While the ethnic-Vietnamese and Chinese live mainly in urban centres and coastal areas, the remaining people, an estimated 10% of Vietnam's total population, are found primarily in the high country. While several of these groupings,such as the Tay, Tai, Muong and Nung, number in the vicinity of a million people, others, like the Romam and O-du, are feared to have dwindled to as few as 100. Undoubtedly the most colourful of the hill tribes reside in the northwest, in the plush mountain territory along the Lao and Chinese borders. The French called them montangards (meaning 'highlanders' or 'mountain people') and still use this term when speaking in French or English. Many of the individual ethnic groups share basic, similar traits in their daily lives and are often most easily identified by differences in language, physical features and colourful and varied traditional dress. The communal imbibing of rice wine is popular with most highland groups, as are certain rituals such as protecting a child from evil spirits by not naming it until after a certain age. Some of Vietnam’s largest ethnic minority groups include:

TAY The Tay are Vietnam's largest minority group living in the highlands, with an estimated population of 1.2 million, concentrated in the northeast, from the Red River Valley east to the coastal plain, where they settled over 2000 years ago. Through centuries of close contact with lowlanders, Tay society has been strongly influenced by Viet culture, sharing many common rituals and Confucian practices. Many Tay have now adopted Viet architecture and dress, but it’s still possible to find villages of thatched stilt houses, characterized by a railed balcony around the building. Tay farmers are famous for their animal husbandry, and they also specialize in fish farming and growing high value crops such as anise, tobacco, soy and cinnamon. In the 16th century, the Tay developed their own written script and Tay literature and arts have gained substantial renown. The Tay have also had a written language since the sixteenth century, fostering a strong literary tradition.

MUONG The lower hills from the Red River Valley south through Yen Bai, and Son La down to Thanh Hoa are the domain of the Muong ethnic minority, with the majority now living in Hoa Binh Province. Muong people, totalling fewer than 1 million, are believed to share common ancestors with the Viet. It's thought that the two groups split around 2000 years ago, after which the Muong developed relatively independently in the highlands. Aristocratic families, who distribute communal land to the villagers in return for labour and tax contributions, traditionally dominate society; the symbols of their authority are drums and bronze gongs. The male-dominated Muong live in small stilt-house hamlets called quel, which are grouped into larger village units called Muong. Though their origins lie close to the ethnic-Vietnamese and they are nowadays difficult to distinguish, the Muong have a rich culture and are more similar to the Tai.

EDE (OR RHADE) Further south in Vietnam’s central provinces, around 200,000 people of the polytheist Ede minority live in stilt houses grouped together in a village or ‘buon’. These longhouses, which can be up to 100m in length, are beamless, boat-shaped with hardwood frames and topped with a high thatched roof. Families allot about a third of the living space for communal use, with the rest partitioned into smaller quarters to give privacy to married couples. Like the Jarai, the families of Ede girls make proposals of marriage to men, and once wed the couple resides with the wife's family and children bear the mother's family name. Inheritance is also reserved solely for women, in particular the youngest daughter of the family. As many as a hundred family members may live in a single house, under the authority of the oldest or most respected woman, who owns all family property, including the house and domestic animals; wealth is indicated by the number of ceremonial gongs. Ede people worship the kings of Fire and Water among a whole host of animist spirits, and also erect a funeral house on their graves. Both the original longhouse and its gravesite replica are often decorated with fine carvings.

KHMER Ethnic Khmers are the indigenous people of the Mekong Delta, including Cambodia. Nowadays only about 900,000 remain in the eastern delta under Vietnamese rule, and some of these only arrived in the late 1970s as refugees from Pol Pot's brutal regime in Cambodia.