The Giay People: Where They Live, Their Language, Worship Customs and Main Festivals

Who are the Giay people and where do they come from?

The Giay are one of the 54 ethnic groups recognised in Vietnam, self-named Giay and also called Nhang or Giang. According to the official list of Vietnam's ethnic groups, they are also recorded under the names Sa Nhan, Pau Thin, Chung Cha, Pu Nam, and the subgroup Pu Na (also called Cui Chu or Quy Chau).

According to the Survey of 53 Ethnic Minorities of 1 April 2019, the Giay population is 67,858. The 2009 Population and Housing Census recorded 58,617. The difference reflects both natural population growth and differences in method and timing between the two censuses.

On history, available sources all record that the Giay migrated from China to Vietnam about 200 years ago. This is a relatively late migration compared with many other peoples of the northern mountains, which may partly explain why many Giay cultural elements, especially festival cooking, show clear Han Chinese influence.

Where do the Giay people live?

The Giay live in concentrated areas in Bat Xat, Bao Thang and Muong Khuong districts of Lao Cai province; Yen Minh and Dong Van districts of Ha Giang province; and Phong Tho and Muong Te districts of Lai Chau province. This is northern mountainous terrain, with divided relief and many valleys suited to wet-rice farming.

Like other peoples of the Tay-Thai language group, the Giay often settle in valleys with good conditions for wet-rice fields. Their homeland landscape is often described as fertile and lyrical, associated with terraced fields.

What is special about the traditional Giay house?

The stilt house is the traditional dwelling of the Giay. Today stilt houses remain common among the Giay in Ha Giang, while those in Lao Cai and Lai Chau have moved to earth houses but still keep a drying floor at the front. Houses usually have three bays, with the altar in the middle bay.

This arrangement shows a unity between house architecture and belief structure: the middle bay is the centre of spiritual life, and it also reflects adaptation to local terrain and farming habits.

Which language family does Giay belong to, and do the Giay have their own script?

Giay belongs to the Thai-Kadai language family. This is one of the major language families of mainland Southeast Asia, including many peoples in Vietnam such as the Tay, Thai, Nung, San Chay, Lao, Lu and others.

On writing, the Giay have no script of their own, and only a very small number know Han characters. This is common among many ethnic minorities of the northern mountains, where traditional knowledge is mainly passed on orally and through ritual practice.

In their folk arts, the Giay have folk tales, poetry, proverbs, children's rhymes and folk songs. Notably, they have three singing styles they call vuon or phuon: singing beside the wine tray, night singing, and farewell singing. These three styles accompany different occasions, from receiving guests and courtship to farewells, showing a rich spiritual life organised by specific occasion.

How is the Giay ancestor altar arranged?

The Giay altar is placed in the middle bay and usually has three incense bowls, ordered left to right, for the kitchen god, heaven and earth, and ancestors. This is the basic worship structure, reflecting the order of priority in Giay spiritual life.

If the householder is an adopted child or a son-in-law continuing the line who wishes to worship his birth parents' lineage, the family adds one incense bowl on the left. Families who do not worship the midwife spirit in the bedroom add one incense bowl on the right. In some families, besides the main altar there is a small altar for the wife's parents. Below the main altar, directly on the ground, is an incense bowl for the earth god; on either side of the main door are two incense bowls for the door guardian spirits.

This altar structure shows a multi-layered belief system: from spirits tied to natural space (heaven and earth, kitchen god, earth god, door guardians) to lineage ancestors, and even special cases such as worshipping the wife's parents or the birth parents of an heir. Placing the midwife's incense bowl in the bedroom or to the right of the altar also shows flexibility of arrangement according to each family's conditions and choices.

How do the Giay view childbirth and midwife worship?

When pregnant, a Giay woman must observe many taboos: not feeding firewood from top to base for fear of a breech birth, and not attending funerals or places of worship for fear of losing her soul. Near the due date, the family must worship the midwife. A child at one month is reported to the ancestors, named, and given a horoscope chart so that later it can be used to compare ages at marriage and to choose the hour of encoffining and burial at death.

Making a horoscope chart from one month old shows that the Giay see the human life cycle as shaped very early, and that key life stages such as marriage and funerals are referenced back to the time of birth. This resembles many other peoples in the region, where age calculation and the choosing of dates and hours play an important role in life-cycle rites.

What is notable about Giay festivals and life-cycle rites?

The Giay celebrate Tet like other peoples of the Northeast, including Lunar New Year, Thanh Minh and Doan Ngo. The Giay follow the lunar calendar in daily life and traditional rites.

On marriage, the rites include several steps: matchmaking, sending a go-between, betrothal, wedding and return visit. At the betrothal, the groom's family gives the bride's family a necklace and a bracelet as a mark. At the wedding, besides food costs, the groom's family must bring the bride's family certain foods and money as gifts for close relatives, one chicken, one duck and one silver coin each. The Giay also practise wife-catching like the Hmong.

On funerals, the Giay believe that if a person dies and the funeral is properly conducted, the soul goes to heaven to live happily with the ancestors; if not, it is sent to the underworld or turned into an animal. Thus in wealthier families a funeral may last 5 to 7 days and include rites such as floating lanterns on the river and parading the soul. Children mourn their parents for one year, and the mourning-release ceremony is usually held at year's end.

These life-cycle rites show that Giay spiritual life is tightly organised by stage, with community participation and clear rules on responsibilities between family and lineage.

Production and economic life of the Giay

The Giay have much experience growing wet rice on terraced slopes. They also work swidden fields growing maize, rice, root crops and vegetables. Livestock are raised by free grazing. Some handicrafts exist but are not well developed.

Tile-making is one Giay craft in Ha Giang. Yin-yang tiles, also called trough tiles, are shaped on a potter's wheel into tubes, dried, then cut into slices before firing. This craft is tied to local architecture and natural conditions.

On food, the Giay eat ordinary rice. The rice is boiled until partly cooked, then put in a steamer and steamed like sticky rice. The rice water is used as a drink. Cooking, especially for festivals and Tet, is deeply influenced by Han Chinese practice.

For transport, the Giay carry loads with baskets, and use packhorses and buffalo carts. These suit mountainous terrain where roads remain limited.

How does Giay clothing differ by locality?

Women's dress carries strong local style. Formerly women wore flared skirts like those of the Hmong. Today they wear dark indigo trousers with a red cloth band on the waist, a five-panel blouse with slits longer than the hips, buttoned under the right arm, with collar and cuffs edged in contrasting cloth bands. Hair is coiled around the head with pink threads trailing down the hair. A shoulder bag is embroidered with coloured thread in zigzag patterns.

Men wear loose trousers and a slit blouse open at the chest. Local differences are clear: women in Ha Giang wear skirts and long blouses, close to Nung dress, while women in Lao Cai wear trousers and short blouses.

The table below summarises some basic features of the Giay from available sources:

Traditional social relations of the Giay

Before the August Revolution, Giay society had clear class division. The upper class were officials in the communal and village administration, many enjoying communal fields worked by villagers, cardamom forests planted by villagers, servants, people to handle funerals and weddings, and sometimes a dance troupe. Peasants, besides paying taxes, had to perform corvee labour and pay tribute to officials.

This social structure reflects a traditional model tied to residence and land relations, in which the official class mediated between the state apparatus and the community. This is the historical context needed to understand the movement of Giay society in the twentieth century.

The Giay within Vietnam's community of 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, of which the Kinh (Viet) make up more than 85.4% of the national population. The remaining 53 groups are called minorities, about 14.6% of the national population. The Giay are one of those 53 ethnic minorities.

Ethnic minorities today live across all regions of the country but mainly in high mountainous, border, remote and far areas, concentrated chiefly in some northern mountainous provinces (about 6.7 million people), the Central Highlands (about 2 million), North Central and South Central Coast (1.9 million), and the Mekong Delta (1.4 million).

In that context, the Giay communities in Lao Cai, Ha Giang and Lai Chau are part of the cultural diversity of the northern mountains, where peoples live intermingled and interact culturally. The diversity in Giay dress, housing and rites by locality is evidence of the community's adaptability and creativity under different natural and social conditions.

It should be noted that in available sources, some information about the Giay is recorded by specific locality or local group and does not necessarily apply to the whole people. For example, yin-yang tile-making is recorded as a Giay craft in Ha Giang, not a general trait of the whole group. Similarly, differences in housing between provinces show that a single model should not be assigned to the whole community. This approach avoids excessive generalisation and respects each people's internal diversity.

Frequently asked questions about the Giay people

Which provinces do the Giay mainly live in?

The Giay live mainly in three provinces: Lao Cai (Bat Xat, Bao Thang, Muong Khuong districts), Ha Giang (Yen Minh, Dong Van districts) and Lai Chau (Phong Tho, Muong Te districts). This is northern mountainous terrain with valleys and terraced fields.

Which language family does Giay belong to?

Giay belongs to the Thai-Kadai language family. The Giay have no script of their own, and only a very small number know Han characters. Traditional knowledge and culture are mainly passed on orally and through ritual practice.

How is the Giay altar arranged?

The altar is placed in the middle bay of the house and usually has three incense bowls, ordered left to right, for the kitchen god, heaven and earth, and ancestors. Depending on the case, a family may add an incense bowl for the birth parents' lineage of an heir, for the midwife, or a small altar for the wife's parents. Below the main altar is an incense bowl for the earth god, and on either side of the main door are two incense bowls for the door guardians.