Ta Oi people - Business

Culture of the Ta Oi in A L District Th Thin Hu province br The Ta oi ethnic group speaks a language in the Mon Khmer language family and is regarded as one of Vietnam s indigenous groups The Ta Oi call themselves Taoih or sometimes as Taoih or Ta Uot and is called by the Paco sub group as Can Tua or Can Tang which means highlanders According to the April 1 1999 census on population and housing the Ta oi have a population of 34 960 accounting for 0 07 of the national population At present the Ta oi live in both Vietnam and Laos in the latter nation where they the Ta oi mainstream population and also call themselves as Ta oih Another sub group of the Ta Oi is called as Paco Pa coh which means persons who live behind the mountains Judging by the family clan origin marriage and family relationship and language the Ba hi people who mainly lives in Huong Hoa district Quang Tri province can be regarded as a local sub group of the Ta oi The Ta oi in Nham commune explain that they called themselves as Ta uot but the members of the Kinh ethnic group coming from the lowlands of Thua Thien Hue called them as Ta oi The Ta uot group lives mainly in middle level of mountains and are sparsely distributed in the mountain tops In addition to swidden cultivation they are adept in growing cotton weaving cloth and brocades in sewing or fastening glass beads on costumes and in making some musical instruments drums pan flutes etc The Paco live at the foot of mountains and hills are conversant in slope field cultivation in bamboo and rattan weaving but are not adept in cloth weaving But they are good traders who earn profits through exchanging cloth and clothes blacksmith goods beautiful shoulder baskets honey against other more valuable goods The Ba hi live in valleys close to the lowland areas and are adept in trading and in wet paddy cultivation Thus the Ta oi do take into account various elements of topography environment and economic activities in order to ass ess and analyze their own ethnic group and sub groups and their different characteristics 2 Main method of research Doing research on the Ta oi ethnic group I used many different methods but the main method is participant observation Because anthropologists have discovered that the best way to really get to know another society and its culture is to live in it as an active participant rather than simply an observer This is called participant observation From many Ta oi hamlets I have chosen as my main research A Huor village a typical Ta Oi village that still preserves many traditional elements of this ethnic I have approached many local inhabitants and tried to learn from them about the history of the village the family clan relationship the means of livelihood as also the customs and habits religious beliefs and compared them with those of neighboring villages Doing reaseach I have received assistance from many Ta Oi people mainly the elders who are conversant with the cul tural traditions of the ethnic group We have on many occasions invited many inhabitants to come to his house for discussing and elucidating the issues I have raised or over which I still have doubts and for providing more precise and accurate information I still remember vividly these discussions which are quite lively and involve a good number of different and even contradictory views 3 Contents This is the first time a deep research on the Taoi will do in Vietnam This is also a good opportunity for myself to present my detailed research about the Taoi culture in this dissertation within the content below I An overview of the Ta Oi ethnic group 1 The Ta Oi ethnic group 2 Information on the researche area II Village and houses 1 History of A Huor village 2 Social relations 3 Village common property 4 Rong house the community house 5 Long house 6 Residential houses III Family clan and marriage 1 Family clan relatives 2 Form of family and marriage relationship IV Means of live lihood 1 Wet paddy fields 2 Slope fields and crops planted therein 3 Industrial crops 4 Forest trees 5 Livestock breedong 6 Handicraft trades 7 The role of male and female labour in the Ta Oi society 8 Diet habits 9 Hunting 10 Exchange of goods in the past and at present 11 Traditional agricultural calendar and method of calculating hours 12 Slope field cultivation and related agricultural rituals V Life rituals 1 Pregnancy and child delivery 2 Customs about marriage 3 Customs about funerals VI Religious beliefs 1 Souls and supernatural spirits 2 Water spirit 3 Family house spirit 4 Spirit of the long house 5 Ritual dedicated to the Tiger spirit 6 Love magic br Religious beliefs br Only a small number of cultural anthropologists possess any understanding about this ethnic group s belief systems Fundamental to the Ta Oi s spiritual life is animism the belief that natural objects are animated by spirits This belief can take diverse forms Things in nature may all have within th em different spirits each rock tree and cloud may have its own unique spirit In contrast all things in nature may be thought of as having the same spirit A Initially animatism and animism may seem to be the same thing In fact both beliefs are often found in the same culture The difference however is that the power of animatism does not have a personality it is an impersonal it rather than a he or she with human like characteristics Spirits are individual supernatural beings with their own recognizable traits a Souls and spirits The Ta oi follow animism and believe that all things have souls Mention must first be made about souls The soul lies from the breast to the head when a human being is still alive When the human being dies there is only one soul avai ving which wanders in the cemetery If the deceased is not happy with his her family his her soul used to disturb and disrupt the lives of human beings in the family concerned The souls of the dead used to come back during rituals as also through various dreams am bo of the living The Ta oi believe that the soul can integrate itself into the voice can create a force that can exert an impact on other things For example the soul can come back and knock at your door The Ta oi also believe that if no asset is distributed to the deceased after three days its soul may come back and demand assets As a precaution against this the Ta oi used to spread firewood ashes in front of their doors in order to identify the footprints of the soul In 2003 Mr Vo Dau died and his wife Mrs Ka Dau spread ash at her door As she could see his foot prints on the ash she concluded that he had come back Some other persons say that they could hear certain noises that show that the soul has come back has poured water into a cup or has taken some foodstuffs out of the pot It is not until the third day following death that the deceased become conscious of his her death Before that there was no awareness because he she was in a state of sleep and dream or half asleep and half awake Bad souls are the souls of women who died in child delivery of men who were devoured by tigers etc They would appear in the graves would cry or return to the village and tease the living They may come back and demand clothing shoulder baskets knives etc In such cases poor families would cut banana leaves into various forms the T symbolizing clothing the V symbolizing pants and thrust them across the door Rich families would hurl out 2 pieces of cloth And all these families say almost the same thing to the souls e have given you presents please refrain from asking more please refrain from disturbing us please bless us Spirits are different from the soul of deceased humans and there are many types of spirits The brau brieu spirit is a kind of forest spirit that can bless human beings but can also cause illnesses It can also direct tigers snakes and other wild beasts and cause them to harm human beings br In the past the Ta oi held annual rituals dedicated to the spirits the heavens spirit abang the earth spirit katek the forest spirit krum kaek br The ritual dedicated to the heavens spirit giang abang was held once every 10 12 years In case prosperity bumper harvest are enjoyed by the village along with absence of illnesses and death the village must hold a thanksgiving ritual dedicated to Giang kmuk ma ng ch ni chung In case the village is hit by floods and other natural calamities it must hold ritual dedicated to the heavens spirit the earth spirit the Rong house spirit and the house spirit Rituals dedicated to the heavens spirit must involve 12 types of foodstuffs to the earth spirit 8 types of foodstuffs to Giang kmuk 5 types of foodstuffs These foodstuffs are buffalo meat pork chicken blood pudding grilled meat mon thai soup glutinous rice Rice must be put in bowls oak liquor must be served in jars cups Incense sticks must be burned b Water spirit giang dak The Ta oi inhabitants imagin e the water spirit as a short old man with white hair and white beard They also respectfully refer to him as ncle Avo It is believed that the water spirit can give people a lot of fish as food and a Ta oi legend has it that the water spirit creates fish by putting grains of rice in a banana leaf and dropping them into the brook thus turning them into fish It is reported that when they were still in Laos Mr Quynh Say Mr Quynh Chay have seen the water spirit at the water sources The Ta oi believe that the water spirit has a special relationship with the water supply pipe of the village when water is first brought to the village through lo o bamboo pipes no one is allowed to use it the village head and the heads of family clans perform a ritual dedicated to the water spirit with a cock as offering beseeching it to make sure that the water flow would never dry up and that water would not cause belly ache to those who drink it Thereafter the cock is slaughtered near the Rong hous e and its blood is buried in the place of arrival of water In that very place the pillar where is attached the village water pipe is beautifully decorated and is strengthened and repaired each year and some chicken blood is buried there sol rtang dak Before using the water for the first time a ritual must be performed by the village head with a pig and a goat and a chicken as offerings to the water spirit aul avo dak The inhabitants of other villages are not allowed to use that water c The house spirit giang an teng In the past the Ta oi lived in long houses where each family had its own room where it worships its house spirit In his dream the family head may see the house spirit integrating itself into a loin cloth a eng piece of cloth or any other thing Thereafter he would put that loin cloth or reng cloth into a kang a shoulder basket made for this specific purpose which is put at a corner of the house and would slaughter a chicken and perform a ritual on the arrival of t he house spirit giang an teng into his house From then on when the family holds a ritual in connection with a funeral a wedding a ritual dedicated to the forest spirit or the water spirit the ritual must also be dedicated to the giang an teng house spirit Any achievement of the family used to be attributed to the help given by the house spirit The family does not open the ang where lies the house spirit except in the A ja annual celebrations when each family must open the ang and use the sacred item therein for rituals inside the family and in the Rong house When a ritual is held the family head used to put some cooked rice some rice grains and meat in front of the ang and offers prayers d The spirit of the Long house giang danh The long house where lived many families has its own spirit giang danh which stayed in the room reserved to visitors guests where a small house hung under the roof is the shelter of giang danh In case of illness or any bad happening in the family the family used to hold a ritual dedicated to giang an teng house spirit and thereafter another ritual dedicated to giang danh While participating in village rituals or celebrations the head of the long house must also perform a ritual dedicated to the giang danh As and when a family household in the long house eats goat buffalo or cow meat it must keep giang danh informed by performing a ritual g Tiger spirit giang avo Of all forest wild beasts the Ta oi regard tigers as the most powerful animal and as a protecting spirit of the village They regard the capture of a tiger as a gift of the forest spirit The capture of a tiger is preceded by a number of incidental dreams because of such a dream a villager sets up a big trap ti ho the trap owner sees in his dream a tiger a vo bok who expresses the desire to stay in the village When a tiger falls into the trap the hunter and inhabitants must hold a ritual dedicated to the forest spirit involving such offerings as sol leo agate bead s and a eng cloth Only after such an elaborate ritual would they cut the head of the tiger and take it to the village

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