Who are the Co people and where do they live?
The Co call themselves Cor or Col, and are also known by names such as Cua and Trau. In the List of Ethnic Groups of Vietnam, the Co are one of the 54 ethnic groups, belonging to the ethnic minorities of the Central region and the Central Highlands. Their traditional homeland is northwestern Quang Ngai province and southwestern Quang Nam province, concentrated in Tra Bong and Tra Mi districts.
According to the Survey of 53 Ethnic Minorities of 1 April 2019, the Co population is 40,442. Earlier, according to the 2009 Population and Housing Census, the figure was 33,817. The gap between the two statistical points reflects both natural population growth and changes in data collection methods between the two surveys.
The Co are recorded as having lived in this area for a very long time. This is worth noting when studying them: available sources all describe the long-standing presence of the Co in northwestern Quang Ngai and southwestern Quang Nam, tied to mountainous forest terrain and streams.
Which language family does Co belong to?
Co belongs to the Mon-Khmer language group, Austroasiatic language family. In the northern Central Highlands and nearby areas, Co is relatively close to the languages of the Hre, Xo Dang and Ba Na peoples. These are ethnic groups with close linguistic and cultural ties to the Co, forming a linguistic region with many shared features.
As for writing, according to sources from the Committee for Ethnic Minority Affairs, a Co script appeared before 1975 based on the Latin alphabet. However, the same source also states clearly that this script is no longer widespread today. This is an important detail: having had a script in the past does not mean that script has been maintained and widely used in contemporary life.
What production activities do the Co live on?
Swidden farming is the main livelihood of the Co, with upland rice as the staple food source. Traditional cultivation follows the form of clearing forest, burning, making holes with a dibble to sow seed, and threshing rice by hand. Co farming techniques include intercropping and polyculture on each plot and rotation between plots.
A notable point in the traditional economy of the Co is cinnamon. The betel and cinnamon of the Co have long been famous. Precious and abundant cinnamon is a major source of income, including both forest cinnamon and planted cinnamon. Each family's cinnamon swidden is an important kind of property, usually taking ten years or more before harvest. Thanks to selling cinnamon, families have money to buy prized possessions such as gongs, ching, jars, buffalo, and later bicycles, radios, watches, to build houses and make wooden furniture. Barter is a form of exchange the Co favour.
As for livestock, buffalo, pigs and chickens are kept first of all for rituals, and almost every household has a dog. Weaving and blacksmithing are not developed, while basketry is beautiful and rich. Products from gathering and hunting also play no small part in Co life.
What is special about Co housing and transport?
The Co live concentrated in Tra Bong and Tra Mi in northwestern Quang Ngai province and southwestern Quang Nam province. Traditional housing is the long stilt house, with entrances at the two gable ends. Inside, the house is divided lengthwise into three parts: a central walkway, one side partitioned into small rooms for each family's private living, and the other side used as common space for receiving guests, holding discussions, organising festivals, communal eating, basketry and recreation.
In the past, each village usually lived together in a few houses of this type, sometimes hundreds of metres long, with outside fences and weapons arranged for defence. Recently, throughout the Co area a trend has grown for each family to separate and build its own house, a single-storey house built in the style of local Vietnamese houses, and many houses are now roofed with corrugated iron or tiles, including brick houses.
As for transport, the Co have various types of self-woven baskets used for carrying, very convenient and suited to sloping land, forests and streams. Everything is put in the basket, and the basket is carried on the back with two straps over both shoulders.
Traditional clothing and food of the Co
Co clothing is mainly bought from the Xo Dang and the Vietnamese. In traditional style, men wear a loincloth and go bare-chested, women wrap a skirt and wear a short-sleeved shirt; in cold season they drape a cloth over the shoulders. The long outfit with a turban, introduced from the plains, was once worn for show on festival days, especially by fairly well-off elders. Today Vietnamese clothing is used everywhere; skirts are still seen on some women but all use industrial fabric. Jewellery such as bracelets is also only rarely seen and simple, and it is no longer easy to find women wearing many strings of beads around the head, wrists, ankles, chest and waist as before.
An ordinary meal is rice with salt and chilli, forest vegetables, and whatever meat or fish is obtained. In the past, people were used to eating with their hands. Drinks are plain water and jar wine; today many have taken to boiled water, green tea and distilled liquor. The betel and areca custom is maintained only among older people, but smoking tobacco is still common.
How is traditional Co society organised?
Each Co village has a village elder respected and obeyed by everyone. Villagers live in a stable territory with boundaries, and even when the village moves its settlement, it stays within that territory. Within the village there are usually kinship relations, either by blood or through marriage.
Although each family works separately and privately owns its swidden land, the sense of village community is quite strong. Traditional Co society has developed differences between rich and poor, but according to sources from the Committee for Ethnic Minority Affairs, forms of exploitation such as domestic slavery or usury had not developed.
What rules govern Co marriage and funerals?
Patrilocal residence after marriage is common among the Co. Custom allows a man whose wife dies to marry her younger or older sister, but a widow cannot marry her husband's younger brother. If two brothers marry two sisters, the older brother must marry the older sister and the younger brother the younger sister. If a daughter of one house has become a daughter-in-law of another, then two to three generations later that other house may give a daughter in marriage to the first house. Children of a paternal aunt, maternal uncle, or of siblings sharing the same parents may not marry each other. For those of the same origin, if they are brothers, their great-grandchildren or later may marry, but if they are sisters, or one sister and one brother, their grandchildren or great-grandchildren may marry. Weddings are simple and light, not costly, simply an occasion for people to drink and celebrate the couple becoming husband and wife.
As for funerals, the wooden coffin is carved in dugout style. The dead are buried in the village cemetery, placed not far from the dwelling. The bereaved family distributes property to the deceased, bringing to the grave not only the person's utensils and personal items but also jars and gongs. In the past the Co also built grave houses for the dead. Today graves are only fenced in, with a mat placed over the top. Beside it a small pole about 1.5m high is erected, hung with a black cloth, and another pole hung with a basket, symbolising the rice granary, the share distributed to the deceased.
What are the worship customs of the Co?
The worship system of the Co is quite rich. High mountain peaks are called by the Co "Ong mountain" and "Ba mountain", and they believe deities reside there. The system of spirits (ka muych) and deities (koi, ma) is very large, including spirits of ordinary dead, spirits of those who died unnaturally, cinnamon spirits, banyan tree spirits, water spirits, and the kitchen fire deity. Therefore the Co have many taboos and offerings tied to production and daily life.
It is worth noting how these concepts are understood. In ethnographic sources, terms such as spirit and deity here are used to refer to supernatural forces according to the community's own classification, not necessarily matching the classification of religions with systematic doctrine. Describing these practices is describing a cultural practice that exists in community life.
What is the main festival of the Co?
The Co have many festivals, the largest being the buffalo sacrifice to the deities, which is also the great village festival. In addition, Tet, tied to the end of the upland rice season, is a lively occasion. On these two occasions, ethnic dishes, ethnic arts and ethnic costumes are presented in concentrated form, reviving traditional culture.
In the buffalo sacrifice festival, the Co have many types of buffalo sacrifice poles, of which the banner pole is the most important, with many parts and decorative motifs. Co decorative art is most concentrated on the ceremonial pole and the gu in the buffalo sacrifice festival.
As for music, the Co love music and commonly use a set of three gongs. Instruments also include drums and various fiddles. Drums are covered with serow skin and hollowed from a log. On festival days, the Co often use a small drum to keep rhythm with the gongs. Dance appears only in the buffalo sacrifice. Folk songs such as Xru (Klu) and Agioi are widely handed down. Their store of folk tales is quite rich, with myths, legends and fables.
How does the Co calendar differ?
The Co way of counting days and months corresponds to the Vietnamese lunar calendar, but has only 10 months, followed by a rest period after the farming season. In addition, the Co attach importance to determining good and bad days for carrying out different tasks. This is a point showing that the Co knowledge system about time is closely tied to the swidden farming cycle.
Summary table of basic information about the Co people
| Criterion | Information |
|---|---|
| Self-name | Cor, Col |
| Other names | Cua, Trau |
| Population | 40,442 (Survey of 53 Ethnic Minorities, 1 April 2019); 33,817 (2009 Census) |
| Language | Mon-Khmer group, Austroasiatic family |
| Script | Appeared before 1975 based on the Latin alphabet, now no longer widespread |
| Area of residence | Northwestern Quang Ngai (Tra Bong, Tra Mi), southwestern Quang Nam |
| Main economy | Swidden farming, upland rice; famous cinnamon and betel |
| Traditional housing | Long stilt house, doors at two gable ends, divided lengthwise into three parts |
| Largest festival | Buffalo sacrifice to the deities |
| Typical instruments | Set of three gongs, drum, fiddle |
| Folk songs | Xru (Klu), Agioi |
The place of the Co in Vietnam's community of 54 ethnic groups
The Co are one of the 54 ethnic groups recognised in Vietnam under the List of Ethnic Groups of Vietnam attached to Decision No. 121-TCTK/PPCD of 2 March 1979. In the List published by the Government Portal, the Co stand at position 30, with other names including Trau, Cua, Moi, Col, Cor, Khua, and their area of residence recorded as Quang Ngai, Quang Nam-Da Nang.
According to general information about Vietnam's ethnic communities, alongside the Kinh, who make up more than 85.4% of the national population, the remaining 53 ethnic groups are called minorities, making up about 14.6% of the country's population. Ethnic minorities often live in communities, interwoven with one another and with the Kinh. Ethnic minorities today live throughout the regions of the country but mainly still in high mountainous, border, remote and far-flung areas. The North Central and South Central Coast region alone has about 1.9 million ethnic minority people.
The Co belong to the group of ethnic minorities living in mountainous areas with complex, fragmented terrain and difficult travel. This is also a socio-economic region with a low starting point, where material and spiritual life still lags behind the national average. In that context, the traditional cultural values of many ethnic minorities, including the Co, face a trend of fading. Recording, preserving and presenting cultural values such as the Co language, festivals, decorative art and folk songs is important for safeguarding the cultural identity of the community.
