Dao, Pa Then, San Diu Ethnic Groups in Vietnam and Yao Ethnic Groups in China

Chau. The Lu people's villages are similar to those of the Thai and Tay people (Vietnam Thai Studies Association 1998). Among the Thai groups in China, there is a group of people who call themselves

―tai lu‖ （傣泐） with a relatively large population. In the local records before

The People's Republic of China was founded and all of them were written in

“路人” ( lu ren ) was later written as “卢人” ( lu ren ) or “鹿人” ( lu ren ). This may be a variation of the word傣. “傣” (dai) in Thai means people. The Thai people in Xishuangbanna have a set of “Lư sử” (泐史), so the word泐may be the official writing to indicate the ethnic name of this group. The word ―泐‖ in Thai

means abandoned, left behind. ―傣泐‖ ( tai lu ) means those who are left behind, those who fall behind. This self-proclaimed group is mainly distributed in the Xishuangbanna area of Yunnan Province, northeastern Thailand, northeastern Myanmar and part of Laos (Fan Hong Gui 1999). Among the Daihua people in Yunnan today, there is still a group called ―tai ya lu‖ which has the same meaning as in

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above. It is possible that the Lu ethnic group in Vietnam originated from this Dai group in China (Fan Hong Gui, 2005:48). The culture of the Lu people in Vietnam is not much different from the Thai culture in the same living area.

The Lao ethnic group in Vietnam has a population of 11,611 people (1999 data) living mainly on the Vietnam-Laos border and in the Northwestern provinces. The Lao people in Vietnam belong to the Lao Boc and Lao Noi groups and are closer to the Thai people than the majority Lao people (Institute of Ethnology 1978:166). There is a group of Thai-speaking residents living along the Vietnam-Laos border who are identified by Vietnamese ethnologists as Lao. In fact, there is no major difference between them and other Thai groups in terms of language and culture. The two main reasons that Vietnamese ethnologists rely on as the basis for their classification are: 1) this group has ancestral ties with the Lao Boc and Lao Noi groups living across the border in Lao territory, and 2) they follow Theravada Buddhism (Institute of Ethnology 1978:166-170; Dang Nghiem Van 2003: 291). Some studies by Cam Trong (1978:43) and Dang Nghiem Van (2003) indicate that the Thai people in the Moc Chau area (Son La) also had Buddhist temples. However, these authors believe that the Buddhist temples in Moc Chau were closely associated with the Thai groups migrating from Laos and were forgotten when this group moved elsewhere.

3.3.11. Dao, Pa Then, San Diu ethnic groups in Vietnam and Yao ethnic group in China

The Yao people in China have a population of 2,637,421 people (2000 data), residing concentratedly in the mountainous areas of the provinces of Guangxi, Yunnan, Hunan, Guizhou, and Guangdong with a general residential characteristic of "small concentration, large dispersion". The Yao people have many different self-names such as Laka, Umong den, Mian, etc.

There are many different views on the origin of this ethnic group. Some believe that the Yao people originated from the Son Viet block or "Ngu Khe Man", while others believe that they originated from "Ngu Khe Man". However, the vast majority of scientists believe that the Yao people are related to the "Kinh Man" and "Truong Sa Ngu Lang Man" groups (Luo Xian You.2009). During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the Yao people in the Liangguang and Guizhou regions migrated to the Van Son region of today's Yunnan province, then migrated to the Red River and Heijiang river basins and gradually migrated to Vietnam. Through the ethnic division of Vietnam into the Dao and Pa Then ethnic groups (Fan Hong Gui 1999).

The Yao people live mainly in the mountainous provinces of northern Vietnam, along the Vietnam-China and Vietnam-Laos borders. Although they live together with the Tay-Thai and Mon-Khmer groups, the Yao people often prefer to live at an average altitude of 700 to over 1000 meters. Although the Yao population in Vietnam is only about 700 thousand people, they include many subgroups with different names. Previously, the name "Man" was widely used to refer to this ethnic group. However, the Yao people call themselves " Kiem mien ", " Yu mien ", " In mien " or " Bieo mien ", depending on each group and specific area of residence.

Documents on the Yao people in Vietnam (Phan Huu Dat - Hoang Hoa Toan 1971; Be Viet Dang 1972) all state that the Vietnamese Dao people have 7 local groups with different names. These groups include:

1. Red knife also known as Toad Knife, Horn Knife, Bowing Knife (Guilin) and Big Knife.

2. The Quan Chet knife is also known as the Son Dau knife, Tam Dao knife, Nga Hoang knife, and Dot Cot.

3. Gang Lo knife or also known as Thanh Phan knife, Doi Bo knife, Toad knife, Embroidery knife.

4. Knife Money or also known as Small version .

5. White Pants Knife or Family Knife .

6. Dao Thanh Y

7. Lan ten knife or Tuyen knife, Ao dai knife, Binh dau knife, Slan chi knife

The division into such groups is mainly based on the traditional costumes of women. Be Viet Dang believes that in fact, the Dao people in Vietnam have only two main groups if considering the differences in their languages, including: a) Dai ban ( Yao Mien ), including the groups of Dao Do, Dao Quan Chet, Dao Lo Gang and Dao Tien); b) Tieu ban ( Yao Mun ), including the groups of Dao Quan Trang, Dao Thanh Y and Dao Lan Ten (Be Viet Dang 1971:34). Phan Huu Dat and Hoang Hoa Toan (1971:187-215) also agree with this assessment and suggest that the Dao should be divided into only two branches, called Dao Do and Dao Trang. However, this proposal did not attract much attention from the academic community.

During the 1960s and 1970s, Vietnamese scholars published many elaborate research works on the Dao people (Tran Quoc Vuong 1963, 1967; Nguyen Khac Tung 1966; Be Viet Dang 1972, 1974; Phan Huu Dat and Hoang Hoa Toan 1971). These studies laid a solid foundation for understanding the settlement process of the Dao people in Vietnam. The main sources that these studies focused on exploiting to understand the origin of the Dao people in Vietnam were written documents, genealogies, prayer books, and oral history and epic sources.

Based on ancient Chinese documents, Tran Quoc Vuong (1963; 1967) believes that the Dao ethnic name first appeared around the 6th century and by the 10th century this name had become popular. According to him, the Dao people belonged to the Bai Viet ethnic group in South China and their ancient homeland was in the Yangzhou, Hunan, Guizhou and Fujian regions on the Chinese side. This hypothesis is supported by another fact that in funerals, the Dao people in Vietnam often have a ritual to bring the soul of the deceased to their ancestral homeland in the Yangzhou region. Be Viet Dang (1972) believes that the Dao people migrated to Vietnam very early. This migration process probably occurred from the 13th century in several waves, lasting until the 19th century. Although there is still debate about the time of migration of Dao groups into Vietnam, basically, their migration route is believed to have started from the provinces of Fujian, Guangdong and Guangxi to the northeastern coastal region of Vietnam, and from here, they spread to many other places in the mountainous regions of Northern Vietnam.

The relationship between the Pa Then and the Dao people has been studied since the beginning of the 20th century and has yielded many results. In a very early ethnographic study of the ― Man Pa-teng ‖, Lajongquiere (1904) compared the language of this group with other Dao groups and concluded that the Pa Then was only a subgroup of the Dao. This view was supported by Diguet (1908). On the contrary, Bonifacy (1906) believed that the Pa Then was an independent ethnic group with its own cultural and linguistic characteristics. He emphasized that linguistically, apart from some common characteristics, the Pa Then language has many differences compared to other Dao groups.

Previous Vietnamese ethnographic documents tended to favor Lajongquier's opinion that the Pa Then were only a local group of the Dao people (La Van Lo 1959). However, in 1973, Phan Huu Dat (1973: 271-280) and Be Viet Dang (1974: 10-23) published their survey of the Pa Then group in Tuyen Quang and Ha Giang, which basically accepted Bonifacy's hypothesis. According to these researchers, the Pa Then people called themselves Hong or Pa Hong while other groups called them Hung Dao (Red Dao), Thau Dao (the Head Branch of Yao), and Dao San San (the Yao who live in the mountain). Fan Hong Gui (2005: 57) based on Chinese ethnographic documents showed the closeness of the name Pa Hong to the Dao group whose self-name was Ba Xing.

(八姓) in China. The Pa Then people originally lived in the Guizhou region of China.

and they migrated to Vietnam about a century ago. Currently, the population of this group is only about 6 thousand people. According to their memories and oral stories, the Pa Then and Hmong people have the same ancestors. However, in reality, the Pa Then people worship Ban Vuong as their ancestors like the Dao people. Based on linguistic data, researchers have found that the Dao, Hmong and Pa Then languages have many common characteristics, especially the closeness between the Pa Then and Hmong languages. Therefore, both Phan Huu Dat (1973) and Be Viet Dang (1974) came to the conclusion that perhaps in history, the Hmong, Dao and Pa Then people had a common origin but over time, they separated into groups with their own identities. These differences are enough to consider the Pa Then as an ethnic group instead of considering them as a subgroup of the Hmong or Dao people (Nguyen Van Chinh 2009).

The relationship between the Song groups in Tuyen Quang and the Pa Then and Dao groups has also been studied in depth by scientists. In 1966, ethnologist Nguyen Khac Tung came to study a Song village (Nguyen Khac Tung 1975:

306-316). He said that this group of over one hundred people spoke a language belonging to the Hmong-Yao group, they called themselves " Nhin Cam " or " Cam Nhan " while the neighboring residents called them Tong or Guizhou . Mr. Tung said that the mother tongue of the Tong people had many similarities to the Zhuang language but only a few old people could speak this language. Currently, Dao is their daily language of communication and so he wondered whether this group should be considered a part of the Dao ethnic group. At the 1973 ethnic verification conference, the Institute of Ethnology considered Tong to be a separate ethnic group belonging to the Hmong-Yao language-speaking ethnic group (Institute of Ethnology 1975, 1978; Khong Dien 1995:51). By 1979, this Institute again believed that the Tong were only a part of the Pa Then ethnic group (Ethnology 1979: 59-63).

The Pa Then ethnic group in Vietnam often calls itself Pa Hung, the surrounding ethnic groups often call the Pa Then people Meo Lai, Meo Hoa, Meo Do. In ancient documents, the Pa Then people are also mentioned as the Bat Tien clan. The Pa Then people migrated to Vietnam about 200-300 years ago from the Than Lo region of China (Institute of Ethnology 1978) along with other Dao groups. In their stories, the Pa Then people in China are often called Hung Dao or Thau Dao by other ethnic groups. The outline of the migration process of the Pa Then people to Vietnam is mainly through the stories that are still passed down in the Pa Then community about the process of crossing the sea to Vietnam through Mong Cai, Thai Nguyen. From there, they spread everywhere and resided in the areas as they are today. The Pa Then people live next to the Tay and Nung ethnic groups, so their culture is more or less influenced.

In Vietnam, the San Diu ethnic group has a relatively small population, residing in separate hamlets mixed with the Chinese, Kinh, Tay, and Nung people in mountainous communes of Bac Giang, Tuyen Quang, and Phu Tho provinces. The San Diu people identify themselves as San Diu Nhin, or San Diu people, but the surrounding ethnic groups often call them Trai Dat, San Nhieu, and Slan Dao. According to genealogical documents and the words of the elderly, the San Diu people migrated to Vietnam from China about 300 years ago. In 1904, Bonifacy claimed that the San Diu people were a part of the Yao people, but this did not receive support from Vietnamese scientists. According to Ma Khanh Bang (1975), this group of residents called themselves San Deo Nhin while neighboring tribes called them Trai, Trai Dat, or Man Quan Coc (La Van Lo 1959; Ma Khanh Bang 1975,1983; Dang Nghiem

Van (1986, 2003) believes that the mother tongue of the San Diu people is a Cantonese dialect while they also use other languages such as Tay, Nung and Kinh. Thanh Hai (1960) believes that the San Diu people migrated to Vietnam from Guangdong province about 300 years ago and currently, they still maintain kinship relations with their relatives in Guangdong, China. According to researchers, the San Diu people formerly belonged to the Thai group but during the long-term contact with the Han people, they were linguistically Sinicized. However, up to now, this view has not been confirmed. Chinese ethnology classifies the San Diu people as a group of the Dao people (Fan Hong Gui 1999: 76) on the basis of cultural similarities. Ma Khanh Bang (1975: 365-376) based on the strong ethnic self-awareness of the San Diu people through their self-name and cultural differences compared to the Dao people as in the language, affirmed that this is a separate ethnic group. This point of view is also consistent with the point of view of those who work on determining ethnic composition and the San Diu people are recognized as a separate ethnic group. The San Diu people have their own language but the phenomenon of bilingualism and multilingualism is very developed. The culture of the San Diu people is greatly influenced by the culture of surrounding ethnic groups such as Kinh, Tay, Thai.

3.3.12. The Hmong ethnic group in Vietnam and the Miao ethnic group in China

The Miao people in China have a population of about 8,940,116 people (2000 census data), mainly distributed in Guizhou, Hunan, Yunnan, Hubei, Hainan, and Guangxi. The Miao people in China have a long history. According to ancient documents, the ancestors of the Miao people appeared about 5,000 years ago. The ancestors of the Miao people were the founders of the Tam Mieu country. This is consistent with the conjectures and confirmations of Vietnamese scientists about the origin of the Hmong people in Vietnam. The history of the Miao people is a history of constant migration to many places, including Vietnam.

Vietnamese ethnographic descriptions indicate that the Hmong in Vietnam have many subgroups with different names, namely the Hmong Lenh (Flower Hmong), Hmong Douz (White Hmong), Hmong Njuoz (Green Hmong), Hmong Duz (Black Hmong), Na Meo (Na Miao), and Man Trang groups . Vuong Duy Quang, an ethnologist of the Hmong people, believes that the only difference between these groups is in their costumes. Previously, the Hmong were often called Meo. Hmong population in Vietnam

less than 1 million people, mainly distributed in the northern border provinces and since 1990, a part of the Hmong people spontaneously migrated to the Central Highlands to find new land.

Among the Hmong-Dao speaking groups, there is another group with a population of several thousand people, living mixed with the Tay-Nung ethnic groups in the northeastern mountainous region of Lang Son, Cao Bang and Tuyen Quang provinces. Some neighboring ethnic groups call them Black Cats, but they identify themselves as Na Miao . In the early 1970s, Nguyen Anh Ngoc (1975:377-388) investigated this group and found that they were a multilingual population. In addition to their mother tongue, they also spoke both Dao and Tay languages fluently. Nguyen Anh Ngoc compared the Na Miao language with the Hmong-Dao and Tay languages and came to the conclusion that the Na Miao language is actually just a dialect of the Hmong language. Therefore, the Na Miao group is considered a local group of the Hmong people. However, Nguyen Van Thang (2007) re-studied this group and found that the Na Miao may have the same ancestors as the Hmong but they have changed their lifestyle and culture to adapt to the political culture and ethnic policies of the state. This group is quite vague about their history and ancestral relationship with the Hmong. In fact, they do not want to consider themselves as a part of the Hmong and are in the process of restructuring their cultural identity as a separate ethnic group (Nguyen Van Chinh, 2009).

Regarding the historical origin of the Hmong people, Vietnamese researchers all believe that there is no basis to suggest that their homeland was in Siberia as hypothesized by Savina (1924). This view is also acknowledged by foreign researchers Tapp (2004:18); Culas and Micheau (2004:62). Up to now, the widely accepted hypothesis is that the origin of the Hmong people was in the Yellow River basin about 3000 years ago. They once ruled an ancient state called Tam Mieu based on a rice-growing agricultural economy (Tran Quoc Vuong 1962; Dang Nghiem Van 2003). It was the expansion process of the Han people that pushed this ethnic group out of their homeland and began their migration to many other places such as Hunan, Guizhou, Sichuan, Yunnan in Southwest China and the mountainous regions of Southeast Asia (Vuong Duy Quang 2005:22).

Vietnamese ethnographic documents (Cu Hoa Van - Hoang Nam 1996; Tran Huu Son 1996; Vuong Duy Quang 2005; Institute of Ethnology 1978, 2005) all tend to assume that the first wave of Hmong migration to Vietnam occurred around

300 years ago. They migrated from Guizhou to Yunnan and then into the Dong Van and Meo Vac areas of present-day Ha Giang province. After that, many waves of Hmong migration to the mountainous areas of Northern Vietnam continued but by different routes. Some Hmong groups migrated from Yunnan to Lai Chau and from Xieng Khouang (Laos) to the Western Nghe An region (Ky Son District Committee 1995).

3.3.13. The Co Lao ethnic group in Vietnam and the Gelao ethnic group in China

The Gelao ethnic group in China mainly resides in Guizhou province, with a small group residing in Yunnan, Guangxi, and Sichuan. During the Ming Dynasty, the Gelao people in southwestern Guizhou were oppressed and ruled by local authorities, forcing them to leave their homeland to find new lands to live. Before leaving, everyone stipulated that wherever the person in front went, they had to cut down banana trees along the road to mark the path for the person following them to follow. However, they did not expect that after cutting down banana trees, new trees would grow very quickly. When the person following them reached the Wenshan district of Yunnan province, they could not find any trace of the previous people, so they stayed in this area to settle. Another group of Gelao people continued to move down to Vietnam (Fan Hong Gui 1999).

The Co Lao people in Vietnam currently have 1,864 people (1999 data), mainly distributed in Tuyen Quang and Ha Giang provinces. This is also the residential area of the first Co Lao groups to enter Vietnam.

Documents from Vietnamese researchers all talk about the migration process of the Co Lao people in Vietnam, according to which, the ancestors of the Co Lao people in Vietnam originated from Guizhou province, China, then they gradually migrated to the South. The earliest migration groups to Vietnam and with the largest numbers of people were the Red, White, and Blue groups. The White Co Lao people called themselves Tu Du, the Blue Co Lao people called themselves Ho Ki, and the Red Co Lao people called themselves Voa De. The Co Lao people migrated to Vietnam by two routes: the first route was from Yunnan to Dong Van district, the second route was from Yunnan to Hoang Su Phi district. The Co Lao people in Vietnam are residents who still retain the custom of connecting the line, in which when an older brother dies, the younger brother gets to marry his sister-in-law.

Summary

1. The Vietnam-China border was formed as a result of a long process from the first independent dynasties of Vietnam to the prosperous period under the feudal regime.

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