Who are the Cho Ro and where do they come from?
The Cho Ro are one of the 54 ethnic groups recognized in Vietnam. Under the List of Ethnic Components of Vietnam issued with Decision No. 121-TCTK/PPCD dated 2 March 1979, the official name of the group is Cho-ro, with other names appearing in the literature being Chau-ro, Do-ro and Moi. Some other documents also record the names Chau Ro, Do Ro, Chro and Thuong. The terms Moi and Thuong are now rarely used in official texts because they carry unsuitable connotations.
On origins, documents introducing the Cho Ro people state that they are a population that has lived since ancient times in the mountains of southern Indochina. This is the common wording on pages about the community of 54 ethnic groups, and it indicates that the Cho Ro belong to a long-established population of the southern forested highlands rather than a group that migrated there recently.
What is their current population?
Population figures for the Cho Ro differ between surveys. According to the 2009 Population and Housing Census, there were 26,855 Cho Ro people. By the Survey of 53 Ethnic Minorities on 1 April 2019, the figure recorded was 29,520. When looking up data, readers should note the date of each source so as not to confuse the two numbers.
Where do the Cho Ro live?
The Cho Ro now live concentrated in the low mountain areas of southwestern and southeastern Dong Nai province. The places with the largest Cho Ro populations are the communes of Xuan Binh, Xuan Truong, Xuan Tho and Xuan Phu in Xuan Loc district. Next are the communes of Hac Dich, Phuoc Thai, Ngai Dao and Bau Lam in Chau Thanh district. Scattered Cho Ro households also live in Song Be province (now the area of Binh Duong and Binh Phuoc) and Ba Ria, along National Highway 15.
Before settling in the places mentioned above, the Cho Ro mainly lived in Ba Ria - Long Khanh. Documents also record that since the mid-twentieth century, the Cho Ro have increasingly absorbed the culture and way of life of the Vietnamese in the Southeast region.
Why is their residence tied to low mountains and many streams?
The Cho Ro homeland is a low mountain area with many streams. This feature is directly tied to livelihood: they not only used poisonous leaves with tools such as baskets and traps to catch shrimp and fish, but also wove keep-nets to hold fish and store food. In other words, the stream and low forest environment shaped both how the community obtained food and how it made tools.
Which language group does Cho Ro belong to?
Cho Ro speech belongs to the Mon-Khmer language group of the Austroasiatic family. This is stated consistently in sources introducing the group. It should be clearly distinguished: the Mon-Khmer group is a branch within the Austroasiatic family and does not coincide with any single ethnic group. Placing Cho Ro in this group reflects a linguistic relationship, not a blood or political one.
Traditional Cho Ro society had no writing system. Learning and the transmission of knowledge to later generations were carried out orally. This is a point to note when studying Cho Ro culture: most folk knowledge exists through speech, through antiphonal singing and through practice, not through texts.
How do speech and writing differ in this case?
Having a spoken language does not mean having a writing system. The Cho Ro have their own speech, but traditional society did not develop its own writing. Therefore, when speaking of preservation, two tasks should be distinguished: keeping the language alive in community life, and recording that language in a writing system. These are two different tasks with different levels of difficulty.
Worship customs and main festivals of the Cho Ro
When and how is the rice spirit offering held?
The rice spirit offering day is the major annual festival of the Cho Ro. On this occasion, cakes such as banh tet, banh ong and banh giay mixed with sesame are prepared by every household to celebrate and welcome guests. This festival is tied to the swidden farming cycle, since upland rice is the main crop in traditional economic life.
A notable point is that the Cho Ro have their own agricultural calendar based on the swidden cycle and on the phases of the moon. In other words, the timing of the festival depends not only on the common calendar but on the rhythm of the swidden season and the lunar phase. This makes the rice spirit offering closely tied to agricultural production.
What is special about the forest spirit offering?
The forest spirit offering is held as a village festival. According to current records, this rite is celebrated solemnly every three years. That the forest spirit offering takes the form of a village festival shows it is not only a ritual of prayer but also an occasion for the community to gather, share joy and reaffirm relations among the lineages in the village.
What other rites are tied to the life cycle?
Besides the rice spirit offering and the forest spirit offering, the Cho Ro also hold a housewarming ceremony. This is always an occasion for the household to share joy with its lineage and the village. In funerals, the Cho Ro follow the custom of earth burial, with the grave mounded up in a hemispherical shape. During the first three days, people call the soul of the deceased to come and eat rice; after that comes the ceremony of opening the grave with 100 days of rice offerings. The custom of using votive paper has appeared in funerals, and every year on the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month, people visit graves as the local Vietnamese do.
It should be noted that these belief practices are best understood as cultural practices of the community. The sources referenced here describe customs; they do not affirm or deny the spiritual efficacy of the rites.
| Rite group | Name in sources | Timing, cycle | Main features |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agriculture | Rice spirit offering | Major annual festival, following the agricultural calendar and lunar phases | Making banh tet, banh ong and banh giay mixed with sesame to celebrate and welcome guests |
| Community | Forest spirit offering | Held as a village festival, currently every three years | Occasion for community gathering, held solemnly |
| Life cycle | Housewarming ceremony | When the household builds a house | Occasion for the household to share joy with its lineage and the village |
| Funerary | Earth burial, opening the grave, 100 days of rice offerings | First three days calling the soul to eat rice, then opening the grave | Grave mounded in a hemisphere; votive paper used; grave visiting on the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month |
What is notable about Cho Ro social structure and marriage?
In Cho Ro social structure, matrilineal family relations have broken down, but patrilineal family relations have not been established. Bilateral family characteristics have many expressions. Inheritance rights still belong to daughters. Within the family, women are still more respected than men. The new society has only begun to show differentiation in property. A village consists of many lineages living together.
Regarding marriage, both forms exist among the Cho Ro: the groom's family asking for a wife or the bride's family asking for a husband. The wedding is held at the bride's house, after which the couple resides with the wife's family, and after a few years they build a separate house. The coexistence of both wife-asking and husband-asking forms is a difference from many communities that have only the one-way wife-asking. This expresses the bilateral character of family organization.
Traditional economy: swiddens, weaving and the carrying basket
The Cho Ro mainly farm swiddens, cultivating by slash-and-burn and then dibbling seeds into holes. The arrangement of crops on the swidden is quite distinctive: the outermost ring grows climbing plants such as gourds, pumpkins, luffas and sword beans; the inner ring grows cassava; the entire remaining area inside grows rice intercropped with sesame. Today, besides upland rice, some places have wet rice fields worked with buffalo ploughs. Hunting and gathering are usually concentrated in the slack farming period, around the sixth and seventh lunar months.
Gardening, household livestock raising and handicrafts have not developed. Only weaving with bamboo, rattan and nua bamboo is widespread. Every Cho Ro man knows how to weave proficiently. Their products are various baskets for transporting food, gathering vegetables and fruit, and many other household items. One of the distinctive products of local weaving is a hammock woven from rattan. The main means of transport is the carrying basket woven from bamboo and rattan, carried on the back.
As for food and drink, the Cho Ro mainly eat ordinary rice, smoke shredded tobacco in a pipe, and have rice wine as a drink; both men and women enjoy betel and areca. As for clothing, in the past men wore loincloths and women wrapped themselves in cloth skirts; in summer they went bare-chested or wore short blouses, and in cold weather they usually draped a blanket. Today, the great majority of Cho Ro dress in the manner of the local Vietnamese. What a passer-by can recognize is that they often carry a basket on their back. Women often wear strings of five-colored beads or bronze, silver or aluminium bracelets around the neck; young women often wear torques, necklaces and wide-rimmed earrings.
Housing and architectural change
Previously, the Cho Ro lived in high stilt houses with the entrance opening at the gable end. Today, ground-level houses are common. They have adopted the house architecture of Southern farmers: houses with roof trusses. The old feature still kept in the house is the sleeping platform, which occupies half the width and runs the full length of the interior. Some houses have brick walls and tiled roofs. Documents record that the traditional architectural feature of the Cho Ro now survives only in the kitchen.
Folk arts and games
The folk arts repertoire of the Cho Ro now retains only a few antiphonal songs on festival occasions, in which they raise prayers to the rice spirit; very few people today know them. A notable instrument is the set of seven bronze gongs, comprising four small and three large. In addition, bamboo tube zithers and vertical flutes are still commonly seen in the mountains of Chau Thanh. Children enjoy tug-of-war, snatching leaves, blind man's buff, kite flying and spinning tops.
Cultural exchange with the Vietnamese of the Southeast
A recurring point in sources introducing the Cho Ro is the increasingly strong cultural exchange with the Vietnamese of the Southeast region since the mid-twentieth century. The clearest expressions are in clothing, house architecture, the custom of using votive paper in funerals and the grave-visiting custom on the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month. Describing these changes does not imply a judgment of better or worse; it merely records an exchange process that has taken place and continues.
An appropriate approach when studying the Cho Ro is to note both sides: features that have been retained, such as weaving, the carrying basket, the sleeping platform, the rice spirit offering and the forest spirit offering, and features that have changed over time. No single period should be taken as the standard by which to measure others.
Some notes when researching the Cho Ro
Existing sources are not entirely consistent on population figures, depending on the survey date. Names also have many variants, of which the official name under the list is Cho-ro, while Chau Ro, Do Ro, Chro, Thuong and Moi are other names that have appeared. When citing, the official name should be used, with other names noted if needed so readers can recognize them.
Another point is the scope of recording. The descriptions of Cho Ro customs in the sources above are general for the community, but the degree to which they are maintained may differ between localities such as Xuan Loc, Chau Thanh or areas along National Highway 15. Therefore, when discussing a specific custom, the scope recorded by the source should be stated rather than assumed for the whole community everywhere.
