Who are the Ba Na and how many of them are there?
The Ba Na are one of Vietnam's 54 ethnic groups, and their self-given name is Ba Na. According to the Survey of 53 Ethnic Minorities dated 1 April 2019, there are 286,910 Ba Na people. Other recorded names include Bo Nam, Roh, Kon Kde, Ala Kong and Kpang Kong. Local subgroups include Ro Ngao, Ro Long (also Y Lang), To Lo and Go Lar Krem.
According to the List of Ethnic Components of Vietnam, Ba Na is an ethnic group with an official name, and names such as Bo-nam, Roh, Kon Kde, Ala Cong and Kpang Cong are forms that have appeared in documents. The To-lo, Go-lar, Ro-ngao, Krem and Gio-long (Y-long) groups are classified as subgroups within the same ethnic group, not as separate ethnic groups.
Where do the Ba Na live?
The Ba Na live across Gia Lai and Kon Tum provinces and the western parts of Binh Dinh, Phu Yen and Khanh Hoa. This is the Truong Son and Central Highlands region, where the Ba Na are recorded as one of the long-established residents who built a distinctive local culture.
In documents about Vietnam's 54 ethnic communities, the Ba Na are described as a populous group holding an important place in the cultural and social life of the Central Highlands. This reflects their position in the region's wider picture and is not meant to rank ethnic groups against one another.
Housing and village space
The Ba Na live in stilt houses. The entrance opens toward the roof side, and both gable ends are decorated with horn shapes. At the centre of the village stands a communal building called the village house, or rong house, with two curved, soaring roofs. The rong house is the village guest house and also the place for all shared community activities such as educating young people, holding rituals, village festivals and trials.
Each village usually has a few water troughs for daily use. Water is led from a spring source. Every day villagers come here to fetch water for drinking and cooking. Each time they use many dried gourds to hold water and carry it home by basket for later use. This is mainly women's work.
Which language group does Ba Na belong to?
Ba Na belongs to the Mon-Khmer language group of the Austroasiatic family. This is consistently recorded in sources introducing the Ba Na.
A distinction is needed between an ethnic name and a language-group name. Ba Na being in the Mon-Khmer group does not mean the Ba Na are a branch of another ethnic group; it only indicates a shared linguistic origin with other groups in the same family.
Production and economic life
The Ba Na cultivate rice on dry fields and swidden plots. The hoe is the main tool in their agriculture. On dry fields, intensive cultivation without fallowing distinguishes them from swiddens. Dry fields are usually near rivers and streams.
From the early 20th century, wet-rice farming with the plough increasingly developed in many places. Specialised and mixed gardens also appeared long ago. Animal husbandry and crafts such as weaving, pottery and blacksmithing are recorded as not yet developed.
For transport, the main tool is the back basket, used by men, women and all ages. Baskets come in many sizes and types, woven tightly or loosely but all following a traditional pattern. Ba Na men are skilled weavers, making products such as baskets, winnowing trays, fish traps, hats and mats.
Social relations in the village
The village is the complete and only social unit. Matrilineal remnants remain clear in family, clan and marriage relations. The breakdown of the matrilineal system here raised men's status, but the mother's side remains closer. After marriage, residence with the wife's family is still common. Society has rich and poor people and servants.
In marriage, monogamy is the basic principle for building a family. Alternating residence after the wedding is very common. At the end of the residence cycles, first with the wife's family then the husband's, the couple moves out on their own, establishing a new household, a new cell of the village community.
Worship customs and religious life of the Ba Na
Sources introducing the Ba Na record that rituals are an important part of community life, tied closely to the rong house and village life. The rong house is where rituals and village festivals are held and where village elders educate young people. It is also where crafts are taught, combat is trained and the community's cultural traditions are studied.
It should be noted that the sources used for this article describe the general framework of community rituals and the role of the rong house, without detailing specific worship rites. Specialised ethnographic works on the Ba Na record various agricultural and life-cycle ritual systems, whose names and sequences may not be fully consistent between local groups and between sources. This article does not assert a single procedure for the whole Ba Na people.
Here, religious practices are described as part of community cultural life. Judging whether they are efficacious or not is beyond the scope of this article.
Festivals and community cultural life
The village festival is one of the shared activities held at the rong house, alongside rituals and trials. It is an occasion for the village community to gather, tied to the distinctive architectural space of the Ba Na.
Folk songs, instruments and dance
Ba Na folk songs are very rich, with the hmon and roi tunes being popular. Instruments are diverse, including strings, winds and percussion. Ba Na folk dance includes ritual dance and performance dance at festivals, and is widely loved. The epics and old tales of the Ba Na are also recorded as unique traditional folk works of value in Vietnam's folk literature.
Folk games
Common recorded games include chase and catch (dru dra), rope grabbing, stone flicking, rhythmic jumping, kite flying, shuttlecock kicking, stilt walking, spinning tops and hoop rolling.
Quick reference table on the Ba Na
| Criterion | Information |
|---|---|
| Self-given name | Ba Na |
| Other names | Bo Nam, Roh, Kon Kde, Ala Kong, Kpang Kong |
| Local subgroups | Ro Ngao, Ro Long (Y Lang), To Lo, Go Lar Krem |
| Population | 286,910 (Survey of 53 Ethnic Minorities, 1 April 2019) |
| Language | Mon-Khmer group, Austroasiatic family |
| Area of residence | Gia Lai, Kon Tum; western Binh Dinh, Phu Yen, Khanh Hoa |
| House type | Stilt house, with a rong house at the village centre |
| Main farming tool | Hoe (dry fields, swiddens); wet-rice farming with plough developed from the early 20th century |
| Means of transport | Back basket |
| Typical folk songs | Hmon and roi tunes |
| Shared activity space | Rong house |
How do the Ba Na learn and pass on their culture?
Traditional education for young people is regularly held at the village house (rong house), led by village elders. The rong house is therefore not only an architectural work but also an educational and cultural transmission institution of the village community. Teaching content includes crafts, combat training and study of the community's cultural traditions.
The place of the Ba Na among Vietnam's 54 ethnic groups
On 2 March 1979, the General Statistics Office of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam announced that the country has 54 ethnic groups. The Kinh (Viet) make up more than 85.4% of the national population, while the remaining 53 groups are called minorities, about 14.6% of the total. The Ba Na are among these 53 ethnic minorities.
Under Decision No. 861/QD-TTg dated 4 June 2021, there are 3,434 communes in ethnic minority and mountainous areas across 51 centrally governed provinces and cities. Ethnic minorities today live throughout the country but mainly in high mountainous, border, remote and far-flung areas. The Central Highlands, where many Ba Na live, is recorded as having about 2 million ethnic minority people.
Documents on ethnic communities also note common challenges of ethnic minority and mountainous areas such as social stratification, wealth gaps, the fading of traditional cultural values and the quality of human resources. This is general context, not a feature specific to the Ba Na.
Points to note when researching the Ba Na
When comparing sources, readers will find different population figures. The source from the National Centre for Ethnic Information and Communication cites the Survey of 53 Ethnic Minorities dated 1 April 2019 as 286,910, while some introduction pages cite the 2009 Population and Housing Census as 227,716. These are two different survey points, not a substantive contradiction.
On worship customs, popular sources usually give only the general framework of community rituals at the rong house. To understand each rite in detail, one needs specialised ethnographic works, and must accept that descriptions may differ between local groups such as Ro Ngao, Ro Long, To Lo and Go Lar Krem.
