Who are the Chu Ru and how many are there?
The Chu Ru are one of the 54 ethnic groups recognised in Vietnam, also known as Cho Ru, Kru and Thuong. According to the Survey of 53 Ethnic Minorities of 1 April 2019, the Chu Ru population is 23,242. Earlier, in the 2009 Population and Housing Census, the figure recorded was 19,314. The gap between the two data points reflects both natural population growth and differences in survey method and scope, so any citation should state the source and the year.
In the List of Vietnamese Ethnic Components, Chu Ru is the official name, listed 34th. Other names such as Cho Ru, Kru and Thuong are labels that have appeared in documents and in popular usage, not names of separate ethnic groups.
Where do the Chu Ru live?
According to the Committee for Ethnic Minority Affairs, the Chu Ru now live in the two communes of Don and Loan in Don Duong district, with others in Duc Trong and Di Linh districts of Lam Dong province. In An Son and Duc Linh districts of Ninh Thuan province there are also a few thousand Chu Ru. The List of Vietnamese Ethnic Groups records the Chu Ru homeland as Lam Dong, Ninh Thuan and Binh Thuan.
This is a transitional zone between the highlands and the coastal plain, with both wet fields along rivers and streams and swidden land on hillsides. The Chu Ru live in village units called plei, and related families usually build houses close together. The traditional house is a stilt house made of bamboo, wood, bương, mai and thatched with tranh grass.
Why does the homeland matter when studying this ethnic group?
Location explains many cultural features. Living near the Co Ho, some Chu Ru speak Co Ho, and most Chu Ru women's clothing is produced by the Co Ho. Living near the Cham, many men's garments are bought from the Cham. In other words, an interwoven homeland creates a network of goods and language exchange among neighbouring ethnic groups.
Which language group does Chu Ru belong to?
Chu Ru belongs to the Malayo-Polynesian group of the Austronesian language family, close to Cham. This distinguishes the Chu Ru from most ethnic minorities in the Central Highlands and nearby areas, who speak languages of the Mon-Khmer family. However, some Chu Ru living near the Co Ho speak Co Ho, a Mon-Khmer language.
Previously the Chu Ru had no writing, and all communication and information passed orally. This has a direct consequence: the store of folk songs, proverbs, and knowledge of seasons and farming calendars was preserved through community memory and practice, not in writing.
How is the historical origin of the Chu Ru understood?
Documents from the Committee for Ethnic Minority Affairs put forward a hypothesis: perhaps long ago the ancestors of the Chu Ru were part of the Cham community; later they moved up into the mountains and lived separately from the original community, becoming the Chu Ru. Note that this is an interpretation presented with a conjectural tone, not a firm conclusion.
This explanation fits two facts already noted: Chu Ru is close to Cham, and some Chu Ru men's garments were bought from the Cham. Nevertheless, relations among ethnic groups in the region are multi-directional, so the origin story should not be reduced to a single line.
What was the traditional economy of the Chu Ru based on?
The Chu Ru are settled and practise fixed cultivation on the basis of a long farming tradition. Fields are of two kinds, wet fields and dry fields, and irrigation by canals, weirs, dykes and dams is emphasised. Gardens exist on swidden land and near the house. Livestock includes cattle and poultry. Hunting, gathering and fishing are regular activities. Common household crafts are basketry and coarse pottery.
The staple food is ordinary rice, cooked in self-made earthen pots. Supplementary foods include maize, sweet potato and cassava. Foods include forest bamboo shoots, vegetables and beans, stream fish, and hunted birds and animals. Drinks include ruou can and distilled liquor. Both men and women enjoy smoking tobacco through a pipe. The woven back-basket carried on the back is the means of transport used regularly by everyone.
| Activity | Features recorded in the documents |
|---|---|
| Cultivation | Wet fields and dry fields, with emphasis on irrigation by canals, weirs, dykes and dams |
| Gardens | Gardens on swidden land and near the house |
| Livestock | Cattle and poultry |
| Natural harvesting | Hunting, gathering, fishing |
| Household crafts | Basketry, coarse pottery |
| Transport | Woven back-basket carried on the back |
| Clothing | Weaving not developed, garments bought or exchanged with Cham, Co Ho, Raglai, Ma |
How does the Chu Ru matrilineal system operate?
The dominant relationship in Chu Ru social structure is the matrilineal family, with honour given to women, the heirs of the family and the mother's lineage. The documents describe a notable detail: if one looks at the self-governing body in the villages, men take on every area, but in reality they act according to the will of their wives, the owners of the house in which they reside under the custom of taking a husband.
Society has differentiation between rich and poor, but the documents record no conflict between these two strata in the village. The Chu Ru store of folk songs and proverbs is very rich, reflecting the high regard for women's role and praise for the matrilineal family system.
What is special about marriage and post-marital residence?
Women take the initiative in courtship. Asking for a husband and marrying a husband is done by giving the young man a ring and a string of beads. After the wedding, the bride must stay at the groom's family for half a month to wait for the ceremony bringing the groom to her house. The couple resides at the wife's house.
A clear distinction is needed: matriliny here is a system governing inheritance, residence and social roles, not a judgement about who is higher than whom. Ethnic groups in the region have different variants of this model, and the strength of matriliny also varies between groups and periods.
How are funerals and house-related rites carried out?
The Chu Ru practise inhumation in the village's common cemetery. The documents record that in the past funerals were often held lavishly with buffalo and cattle sacrifices. This describes past practice, not a claim about the present situation.
Building a new house is taken seriously, with the household's concentrated effort and active support from the village community. When the new house is inaugurated and the family moves in, relatives and the whole village gather to help. The household holds a savoury feast to pray to the spirits, receive blessings and share joy with relatives.
What are the main worship and festival practices of the Chu Ru?
In a year tied to the wet-rice farming cycle, the Chu Ru hold many rites: worshipping the dam spirit, the canal spirit and the rice spirit when sowing, celebrating the new rice, and worshipping after the harvest. This is a system of farming rites in which spirits are tied to each stage of water management and rice growing.
Notably, there is the bonung spirit rite in the second lunar month, when villagers often sacrifice a goat. And there is the Yang Wer rite, for a large tree near the village regarded as the dwelling place of the spirits. In this rite, people often make wooden or banana-stem effigies of wild animals to place at the foot of the tree.
Why is the Yang Wer tree rite notable?
This is a form of worship tied to a specific tree near the village, not to a temple or shrine built by people. The large tree is regarded as the dwelling place of the spirits, and placing wild-animal effigies at its foot shows that the rite is tied to the natural world around the village. Such a description helps distinguish Chu Ru worship from systems tied to temples, shrines or clan halls.
Note that the documents record these rites only as a list and short description, without going into the order of the ceremony, the participants or differences between villages. Therefore one should not generalise into a single description for all Chu Ru in every locality.
What is there in Chu Ru artistic life and games?
In musical instruments, drums, wind instruments and gongs are notable. There are also other instruments such as r'tong, kwao and terlia, recorded as distinctive Chu Ru instruments. At festivals, traditional music is often played together with the tamga dance.
Children enjoy spinning tops, flying kites including butterfly kites and flute kites, playing tug of war, walking on stilts and chasing each other. As for carrying babies, the documents record several ways: carried on the back and carried in front.
The Chu Ru follow the lunar calendar, counting months by the farming cycle of their ancestors. This is worth stressing: the calendar here is not only a tool for measuring time but also a tool for organising seasons and rites.
How is traditional Chu Ru clothing described?
One style of traditional women's dress is a skirt and a shawl leaving one shoulder bare. Most Chu Ru women's clothing is produced by the Co Ho. The traditional outfit of a Chu Ru man consists of white trousers, a long black shirt and a white turban, usually worn only on wedding, festival or funeral occasions, and these products are mostly bought from the Cham.
Weaving is not developed, so garments such as skirts, shirts, loincloths, blankets and baby carriers are obtained through exchange with neighbouring groups such as the Cham, Co Ho, Raglai and Ma. This is a clear example of the interwoven regional economy: an ethnic group may not make its own clothing yet still maintain a clothing system with its own ritual and social meaning.
What should be kept in mind when studying the Chu Ru?
First, population figures differ between survey points, so citations should include the year and the name of the survey. Second, some descriptions in the documents use the past tense, for example lavish funerals with buffalo and cattle sacrifices, so they should not be presented as the contemporary situation. Third, rites and customs may differ between villages and between groups living in Lam Dong and in Ninh Thuan and Binh Thuan; existing documents are not enough to assert a single unified description for the whole ethnic group.
The description of worship practices here is given as a description of a cultural practice, recording what the documents state, neither affirming nor denying the efficacy of the rites.
