TL;DR: The Bru - Vân Kiều is one of Vietnam's 54 ethnic groups, with 94,598 people recorded in the April 1, 2019 survey of 53 ethnic minorities, living mainly in western Quảng Bình, Quảng Trị, and Thừa Thiên Huế. Their language belongs to the Mon - Khmer group of the Austroasiatic family and is close to Tà Ôi and Cơ Tu, with some vocabulary differences among local subgroups such as Vân Kiều, Tri, Khua, and Ma Coong. Their spiritual life centers on ancestor worship, spirits called Yang, and a cycle of rituals tied to swidden farming, with the buffalo sacrifice ceremony considered the most important.
Who are the Bru - Vân Kiều and where do they live?
Bru - Vân Kiều is the official name of one of Vietnam's 54 ethnic groups, per the list of ethnic components published on March 2, 1979. According to the April 1, 2019 survey of 53 ethnic minorities, the group has 94,598 people living in the Trường Sơn and Central Highlands region, in western Quảng Bình, Quảng Trị, and Thừa Thiên Huế provinces.
According to the Government Portal's ethnic list, the Bru - Vân Kiều are also called Vân Kiều, Măng Coong, Tri, Khua, and Bru, with residence recorded as Quảng Bình and Quảng Trị. A source from the Committee for Ethnic Minority Affairs (cema.gov.vn) lists local subgroups as Vân Kiều, Tri, Khua, and Ma Coong, and notes that some consider Bru to be the self-designation.
It is important to distinguish clearly: Vân Kiều, Tri, Khua, and Ma Coong here are local subgroups within the same ethnic group, not separate ethnicities. Naming and subgrouping can differ slightly among sources; this article follows the presentation of the Committee for Ethnic Minority Affairs and the Government's official list.
Why are there two names, Bru and Vân Kiều?
Reference sources all record the alternative names Bru and Vân Kiều but do not fully explain the origin of each. The Committee for Ethnic Minority Affairs source only states that some consider Bru the self-designation. The name Vân Kiều is common among groups living east of the Trường Sơn range, while Bru is often associated with groups to the west and in border areas. This is a point where ethnographic documents remain not fully consistent, so readers should treat the two names as two ways of designating the same ethnic group in the official list.
What is distinctive about the Bru - Vân Kiều language and script?
The Bru - Vân Kiều language belongs to the Mon - Khmer group of the Austroasiatic family and is close to Tà Ôi and Cơ Tu. A new script was formed by transliteration using Latin letters. There are some vocabulary differences among local subgroups.
A notable point is the closeness among languages in the same Mon - Khmer group in central Vietnam. The closeness of Bru - Vân Kiều to Tà Ôi and Cơ Tu indicates a long-standing linguistic area along the Trường Sơn range rather than isolated communities. The fact that the script was only recently formed by Latin transliteration also reflects a common reality for many ethnic minorities: oral tradition plays the main role in preserving knowledge, while writing is a later addition.
Why do Bru - Vân Kiều stilt houses have the hearth on the floor?
The Bru - Vân Kiều often choose relatively flat land for settlement. Each village is a clustered settlement, with houses built around the village's common yard. Houses have high floors and rounded roofs at the gable ends. Each family has its own house, living in a stilt house, with the fire hearth placed right on the floor, and there is a taboo against lying across the floor.
Among the Tri, Khua, and Ma Coong, houses are often partitioned into rooms for the sleeping quarters of the household head and spouse, for elderly parents if any, and for grown children. This partitioning shows a distinction of living space by generation and by married couple, unlike the single shared space stilt house of some other ethnic groups.
According to the Committee for Ethnic Minority Affairs source, this traditional architectural style is more or less maintained today.
What are the main production activities of the Bru - Vân Kiều?
Swidden farming and a simple set of farm tools
The Bru - Vân Kiều practice swidden farming, mainly growing rice. Tools include axes, machetes, dibble sticks, and a curved-blade weeding tool. Production involves clearing forest, burning, then poking holes to sow seeds, weeding, and threshing rice by hand. On each swidden plot, they practice multi-cropping and intercropping, lasting for years from March to October. Besides regular and glutinous rice varieties, they also grow cassava, gourds, bananas, eggplant, pineapple, sweet potato, and sugarcane.
Forests and streams provide much food and other resources. Raising buffalo, later also cattle, along with pigs, chickens, and dogs is common. Handicrafts are not developed. Trade relations are mainly with Vietnamese and Lao people.
Food, clothing, and transport
The Bru - Vân Kiều like grilled dishes. Soup is often cooked with vegetables, rice, and fish or frogs. They eat regular rice daily; on festivals they use glutinous rice cooked in fresh bamboo tubes. They are used to eating with their hands, drinking unboiled water, and using jar wine, though distilled liquor is now more common. Both men and women smoke tobacco with clay pipes or pipes made from le plants.
By custom, men wear loincloths, women wear skirts and sleeveless, pullover shirts. Fabric is mainly bought in Laos. Vietnamese-style clothing has now become common, but the custom of wearing skirts is still preserved. Previously, people often used crushed forest bark to get fibers to cover their bodies. Common jewelry includes neck rings, bracelets, and earrings. In the past, both men and women wore their hair in buns; young women wore their bun tilted to the left, and after marriage the hair was bunned on top of the head.
The main means of transport is the carrying basket. People carry it on their backs, with the two straps over both shoulders. The Committee for Ethnic Minority Affairs source describes the basket as being attached to each person like a shadow and as a versatile transport item. Weaving is a task exclusively for men, producing baskets, bags, and many other necessary household items.
Social relations and property
Villagers belong to different lineages and live together in one area. Cultivated land belongs to each family, even when left fallow. Village elders play an important role in village life. Wealth differences have formed, but according to the Committee for Ethnic Minority Affairs source, most households in a village are relatively similar, and exploitation of people by people is not common. Property is measured in gongs, bronze drums, jars, bronze pots, and buffalo.
How are Bru - Vân Kiều worship customs practiced?
The Bru - Vân Kiều emphasize ancestor worship. In their belief, the embodiment of the souls of deceased relatives is pieces of pots and bowls placed in a small hut built separately. In some places they also worship the guardian spirit: each family member has a bowl placed together on the household altar.
They believe in spirits called Yang, including the rice spirit, hearth spirit, mountain spirit, land spirit, and water spirit. The wife's family spirits, called Yang cu gia, are also worshipped by the son-in-law. This is a notable point: besides the patrilineal worship line, the son-in-law also has the duty to worship the wife's family spirits, showing that marriage creates long-lasting religious obligations between two lineages.
It should be emphasized that these are religious practices described as part of the ethnic group's cultural life. The article recounts them according to sources and does not assert the efficacy of these practices.
What festivals and rituals do the Bru - Vân Kiều hold each year?
The Bru - Vân Kiều have many different rituals during swidden rice cultivation to pray for harvests, tied to clearing, sowing, and harvesting stages. In particular, the ritual before sowing rice takes place as a village festival day. In a person's lifetime, each person also has a series of rituals for themselves: at birth, when ill, at death, and at marriage.
The ritual with buffalo sacrifice is the most important. Tet comes at different times for each village, but always after the rice threshing period. Funerals and buffalo sacrifice festivals often include dancing combined with singing.
How they calculate the calendar and views on good and bad days
The Bru - Vân Kiều rely on the moon to determine days and day names in the month. They believe there are good days, especially the 4th, 7th, and 9th, and bad days, especially the 30th and 1st. Each year, their agricultural calendar has 10 months, followed by a period of rest and play before entering the new swidden season. The fact that an agricultural year has only 10 months reflects a way of dividing time by crop cycles rather than purely by the solar calendar.
What are Bru - Vân Kiều marriage, childbirth, and funeral customs?
Marriage
The bride goes to live in the husband's house. The groom's family organizes the wedding for their son and must give betrothal gifts to the bride's family, including a sword and often a bronze pot. After the wedding, the couple must also hold a second wedding when economic conditions allow, called the Khoi ceremony, so that the wife is officially considered a member of the husband's lineage.
By custom, a son of a maternal uncle marrying a daughter of a paternal aunt is encouraged. Marriage between a widow and her husband's brother, as well as between a widower and his wife's sister, is accepted. When lineage A has given a daughter to lineage B, lineage B no longer gives a daughter to lineage A.
Childbirth
Pregnant women avoid eating meat of animals caught in traps and do not step over a tree lying across the path. They give birth at home, with a village midwife assisting. Newborns are named after about three months, avoiding names of deceased lineage members, but household names often share the same rhyme.
Funerals
Among the Vân Kiều, the deceased is placed lying across the floor, feet toward the window. Among the Khua and Ma Coong, the deceased is placed along the floor, feet toward the main door. After 2 to 3 days the body is taken for burial in the village's common cemetery.
Coffins are carved from a single log, consisting of a box and a lid. In the past, in some places the dead were wrapped in bark or woven giang or bamboo sheets. Grave land is chosen by dropping a chicken egg; if it breaks, the spot is accepted. Before burial, the bereaved family offers rice daily, placing food in the mouth of the deceased 3 times in the morning, at noon, and in the evening. At burial, many things must be set aside for the dead, from clothing to ordinary items and even sugarcane, corn, and taro.
What folk arts do the Bru - Vân Kiều have?
The Bru - Vân Kiều have many orally transmitted folktales about the origin of lineages, the origin of the ethnic group, and the theme of orphans. Singing styles include: Oat, a call-and-response courtship song; Prdoak, a song of joyful congratulations on festive occasions; Xuot, a joyful song in large group gatherings; Roai tol and Roai trong, heavy, reproachful lament songs; and Adang kon, a lullaby for children. Funerals and buffalo sacrifice festivals often include dancing combined with singing.
Common instruments include gongs, bronze drums, the Achung, Plu, Ta-lu, Amam horn, Ta-ral, Pi pipe, two-string fiddle, jaw harp, drum, and flute. This diversity of instruments shows that musical life is tied not only to rituals but also to daily community life.
Quick reference table on the Bru - Vân Kiều people
| Criterion | Information |
|---|---|
| Official name | Bru - Vân Kiều |
| Other names | Bru, Vân Kiều, Măng Coong, Tri, Khua |
| Local subgroups | Vân Kiều, Tri, Khua, Ma Coong |
| Population | 94,598 people (Survey of 53 ethnic minorities, April 1, 2019) |
| Language family | Austroasiatic, Mon - Khmer group |
| Close linguistic relations | Tà Ôi, Cơ Tu |
| Residence area | Western Quảng Bình, Quảng Trị, Thừa Thiên Huế |
| House type | Stilt house, hearth on floor, rounded roof at gable ends |
| Main occupation | Swidden farming, rice growing; weaving done by men |
| Central beliefs | Ancestor worship, Yang spirits |
| Most important festival | Ritual with buffalo sacrifice |
| Tet timing | After rice threshing, different for each village |
What should you note when researching the Bru - Vân Kiều?
First, the population of the Bru - Vân Kiều differs between surveys. The Committee for Ethnic Minority Affairs source cites 94,598 people according to the April 1, 2019 survey of 53 ethnic minorities, while dantocmiennui.baotintuc.vn cites 74,506 people according to the 2009 Population and Housing Census. These are two different points in time, not a substantive contradiction, but readers should clearly note the year of the data they use.
Second, the local subgroups Vân Kiều, Tri, Khua, and Ma Coong have certain differences in customs, for example how the deceased is placed in funerals, and differences in vocabulary. When a source describes a custom, readers should check carefully which group and locality the source records it for, avoiding attributing it to the entire ethnic group.
Third, many customs in this article were recorded in ethnographic documents from decades ago and have changed in contemporary life, such as the case of jar wine and distilled liquor, or Vietnamese-style clothing becoming common. Sources also note a common reality that traditional cultural values of many ethnic minorities are tending to fade, an issue raised in Nhân Dân newspaper documents about Vietnam's ethnic communities.
