Xinh Mun Culture: A Unique Journey at the Vietnam-Laos Border

The Xinh Mun, also known as the Puoc or Pua people, are an ethnic minority living in northern Vietnam and Laos. In Vietnam, they are recognized as one of the 54 ethnic groups in Vietnam. The Xinh Mun people live mainly in the Vietnam-Laos border area and along the Ma River in the two provinces of Son La and Lai Chau in Vietnam. Let's learn about this ethnic group with iGuide.ai!

1. Basic Information

Self-name: Xinh Mun

Other names: Puoc, Xa, Pna

Local groups: Xinh, Mun Da, Xinh Mun Nghet

2. Population

Population: 23,278 people (According to the 2009 Population and Housing Census)

3. Language

Language: Belongs to the Mon-Khmer language group (Austroasiatic language family). The Xinh Mun people are good at Thai. In the past, some people knew how to use Thai script, but now they use the common script.

4. Residential Area

Concentrated in some districts in the Vietnam - Laos border area: Yen Chau, Song Ma, Moc Chau, Son La province (majority) and a few residing in Dien Bien Dong district, Dien Bien province,...

5. National History

The Xinh Mun people are an ethnic group originating from Northwest Vietnam and Northern Indochina, one of the earliest ethnic groups to inhabit the Northwest region.

6. Production Activities

They specialize in growing rice on the fields, a few do farming.

- Food: The Xinh Mun people eat sticky rice and rice, like spicy spices, drink rice wine, have the habit of chewing betel and dyeing their teeth black.

- Dress: Their clothes are similar to Thai people.

- Accommodation: They live in a stilt house. The house has a turtle-shaped dome roof.

- Transportation support tools: Commonly used is a basket worn on the forehead.

7. Social Relationships

Small families are predominantly patriarchal, but extended families of three generations or married brothers living together in one house still exist quite strongly. The number of members in a house is about 10-15 people, some houses have up to 20-30 people. The Xinh Mun people have many surnames, but the two most common are: Vi and Lo.

8. Wedding Customs

The custom of living with the wife's family is common. In the past, a son had to live with the wife's family for about 8-12 years or for life if the wife's family did not have a son. In the wedding ceremony, the bride and groom had to change their names to a new name for both of them. This common name was given by the wife's parents and uncle, and sometimes fortune-telling was used to find a common name. The bride tied her hair up on top of her head to show that she was a married woman. On the wedding day, the newlyweds returned to the groom's house for 2 or 3 days before moving to the bride's house until the end of the time living with the wife's family. The wedding ceremony to bring the bride to the groom's house was held after the end of the time living with the wife's family, at which time the couple would have one or more children. The ceremony to return to the bride's house was held a few days later, or a year later.

9. Reproduction Customs

Pregnant women still go to the fields and forests until the day of birth. The mother gives birth sitting next to the kitchen, right in the house. The mother-in-law, husband or an old woman from the neighborhood helps the baby. The umbilical cord is cut by: pulling the umbilical cord to the baby's ankle, then tying a knot, then pulling it a little longer before cutting. The placenta is kept in a bamboo tube, hung on a tall tree where few people pass by. When the baby is almost one year old, a shaman is invited to come and hold a naming ceremony.

10. New House Building Customs

The Xinh Mun people have a custom of having the whole village come to help build a house, so the house can be completed in just a few days. They usually build houses after the harvest and choose the land to build a house by fortune telling to see if the land is suitable for the members of the family. Water days (2nd, 6th, 8th, 9th of the month) are suitable for building a house. Avoid fire days, which are the 1st and 7th.

The uncle was the one who erected the main pillar, on which were hung many objects symbolizing the prosperity and fullness of the family, such as the rice ear, the knife, the cutting board, and other objects symbolizing the yin and phallus. The uncle was also the one who lit the first fire on the stove of the new house. That fire was kept going throughout the first night.

11. Funeral Customs

The sound of a gun in the house signaled a death, at the same time the son threw the vegetable head into the ancestral altar to express traditional anger. All the daily taboos of the family as well as the son-in-law were now abolished, people cooked rice on the fireplace, placed the incense burner horizontally across the house, the son-in-law took care of all the meals.

They do not use wooden coffins, but only bamboo. They choose the land for digging the grave by throwing eggs on the designated area; wherever the egg breaks, the grave will be placed. The tomb is carefully built, with all the necessary things to represent the dead. The Xinh Mun people do not have the custom of exhumation or tomb sweeping.

12. Worship

Worshiping ancestors of two generations, parents and grandparents. Symbols of the ancestral worship place are a pig jaw bone, some betel leaves on the lid of a rice basket, and a bamboo tube containing water. Worshiping is done on the occasion of new rice, weddings, and new houses. Depending on the place, ancestral worship may be done by only the eldest brother, or it may be done by all brothers. The wife's parents are worshiped separately in a small hut next to the house, and the food and water for worship are cooked outside the house. The annual village worship ceremony is highly regarded.

13. Education

In the past, some people knew how to use Thai, now they use common characters.

14. Culture and Arts

The Xinh Mun people like to sing and dance during holidays, right in their homes. Boys and girls sing to each other very naturally.

Above is some interesting information about the Xinh Mun ethnic group in Vietnam. Let's plan to explore, meet and experience the culture of the Xinh Mun people in the near future with iGuide.ai!

References:

- Vietnamese People (National Political Publishing House Truth)

- Basic characteristics of 54 ethnic minorities in 2019 (Committee on Ethnic Minorities and General Statistics Office)

- Website of the Ethnic Committee, Website of Nhan Dan Newspaper

- Survey results collect information on the socio-economic situation of 54 ethnic groups in Vietnam)