Who are the La Chi and what is distinctive about their names?
The La Chi are one of the 54 ethnic groups recognised in Vietnam, with the self-name Cu Te. In commonly encountered documents, this group is also called by other names such as Tho Den, Man, Xa, and the Government's list adds La Ti and Man Chi. Having several names for one group is common in the northern mountainous region, because names usually come from how neighbouring groups refer to them or from administrative classification over different periods, not from the community's own self-name.
According to the List of Ethnic Groups of Vietnam, the La Chi hold position 36 in the table of 54 groups. This list records their main settlement area as Ha Giang.
What is the current La Chi population?
La Chi population figures differ depending on the survey date. According to the 2009 Population and Housing Census, the La Chi numbered 13,158 people. By the Survey of 53 Ethnic Minorities on 1 April 2019, the figure was 15,126. The gap reflects both natural population growth and different survey methods between the two censuses, so any citation should state which year's data is being used.
Where do the La Chi live?
According to available sources, the La Chi have a long history of settlement in Ha Giang and Lao Cai. Their concentrated area is specifically recorded as Hoang Su Phi and Xin Man districts in Ha Giang province, where they usually live in villages in the mountainous uplands.
This is a fragmented terrain in the northern mountainous region. In the general context of Vietnam's ethnic minorities, such settlement areas are often linked to difficulties in transport and production conditions, and are also the environment that shapes particular farming techniques such as terraced fields and swidden plots.
What is distinctive about La Chi housing?
House architecture is among the most carefully described points in the sources. Each La Chi family's home is not a single separate unit but a complex of stilt house, ground-level house and rice granary within a narrow spatial range. Each house has two parts of roughly equal area, with interlocking roofs: the stilt section for living, the ground-level section for the kitchen.
This close combination of stilt and ground level is recorded as a distinctive cultural creation. As for related ritual, when moving into a new house, the householder must invite a ritual master to perform a rite to drive away spirits by striking the four corners of the house with three leafy plants, starting with the parents' corner first. If a son already has an altar in the old house, that altar is taken down and reassembled in the new house, placed at the position of the household head. For 13 days from the move, the kitchen fire must stay lit for the household to be considered fortunate.
Which language group does La Chi belong to?
The La Chi language belongs to the Ka Dai group, within the Thai-Ka Dai family. The same group also includes La Ha, Co Lao and Pu Peo. This classification is used consistently by sources introducing the La Chi.
It should be noted that placing a language in a family is the result of comparative linguistic research, and researchers may classify certain details differently. The presentation in this article follows the convention used by the ethnic affairs state management agency's introductory source.
In terms of transmitting knowledge, La Chi folk knowledge and experience are passed between generations orally. Their body of myths and fairy tales is recorded as particularly rich, used to explain to younger generations many natural and social phenomena according to folk belief.
How do the La Chi farm swiddens and rice fields?
The La Chi are recorded as skilled at clearing land and making terraced fields, growing wet rice. Harvesting differs by rice type: they reap sticky rice with a small hand reaper, and reap ordinary rice with a sickle, then thresh the rice into a wooden trough to get grain right in the field.
For swidden farming, they use all three types of swidden with different production tools including the digging stick, hoe and plough. The best swidden is reserved for indigo and cotton, that is, priority goes to raw materials for dyeing and weaving, matching this group's indigo-dyed clothing.
What is noteworthy about cooking rice and preserving food?
One described detail is cooking and steaming rice with steam. Rice is cooked in a large pan, and when it boils it is lifted into a steamer to steam like sticky rice. Because it is cooked through by hot steam, the rice when taken out is not mushy but dry and chewy.
For food preservation, the La Chi have many ways to keep food for later use, of which drying and making sour meat are the most common. Dried buffalo skin is recorded as a highly favoured dish.
Another detail in the realm of beautification: the La Chi like blackened teeth, and the blacker the teeth the more beautiful they are considered. Young people have a custom of filling teeth with gold, seen as a way to enhance charm and a sign of maturity.
What does traditional La Chi clothing include?
Sources describe La Chi men's and women's clothing with their own features.
- Men wear a five-panel long shirt, buttoned under the right armpit, with hair past the shoulders, and a rolled or folded turban. They like to carry indigo cloth bags with red trim around the edges for matches, tobacco and small items.
- Women wear trousers, and a few still wear skirts. The traditional outfit is a four-panel long shirt split at the centre, an embroidered bodice and a cloth belt. At Tet and festivals, people wear three long shirts layered over one another. Women favour headscarves nearly 3 metres long.
- Deep indigo black is much favoured in clothing. Women wear earrings and bracelets, men only bracelets.
- Ritual masters have their own clothing when officiating: a long robe past the ankles, split at the centre, with a cloth belt, and a wide cloth hat with a chin strap. In some rituals, the officiant also wears a piece of dried buffalo skin or a conical hat.
How are La Chi ancestor worship customs organised?
This is the part sources describe in relative detail, and also the part easily misunderstood if only skimmed.
The La Chi worship ancestors at festivals and Tet. Ancestors are worshipped for three generations on the male side and two on the female side. A house has many altars, each altar for one man. Altars are set up in the order of father, youngest son, middle sons, and innermost the eldest son. Each altar is considered complete only after three worship ceremonies, then taken down and a new altar set up.
By custom, the day of burying one's parents is remembered for life, and on that day people do not sow seed, lend or borrow. The belief behind this is that the day is not a day of growth and development.
As for clan roles, each lineage has one person who takes care of worship. This person is not the clan head but simply someone who knows the rituals, chosen by divining with a chicken thigh bone.
How does the custom of choosing godparents for newborns work?
The custom of choosing godparents for newborns is recorded as fairly common. Three mornings after a child is born, the household places a red thread on a bowl of full water on the altar, then waits for the first person to step into the house. That person is accepted as godparent and names the baby. If a child cries a lot, folk belief holds that the name does not fit, so divination is used to find a suitable lineage to act as godparents and name the child.
What is distinctive about La Chi naming?
The La Chi have a patrilineal linked naming rule. The formula for naming a man is: surname, po (father), child's name, then the person's own name. A woman with children is called by the formula: Mia (mother), eldest child's name, husband's name.
As for social relations, three-generation families or couples of the same generation living together are recorded as common.
What steps are involved in the wedding and bride-receiving ritual?
One detail mentioned in descriptions of La Chi weddings: when the bride is received at the foot of the stilt house stairs, the groom's family prepares a tub of warm water for the bridesmaid to wash the bride's feet and her own before stepping up the stairs into the house.
Another symbol tied to marriage is the pair of bamboo boxes. The La Chi weave square bamboo boxes with beautiful patterns, reserved for the bride to hold her belongings when she moves to her husband's house. That pair of bamboo boxes is seen as a symbol of marital happiness. Only if a couple divorces might the pair of bamboo boxes be abandoned; otherwise they are used until death and buried with them.
What are the main festivals and folk games of the La Chi?
Tet and festivals are the time for many artistic activities and group games.
For arts, young men and women often sing alternating verses, play the three-string tinh lute and the mouth harp. Drums and gongs are widely used.
For games, at Lunar New Year, men and women often gather in a wide field to play con throwing, spinning tops and balance swinging. At the eighth-month Tet, they play rope swinging. Children like playing the pop gun.
The table below summarises games and activities by occasion:
| Occasion | Activity, game | Participants |
|---|---|---|
| Lunar New Year | Con throwing, spinning tops, balance swinging | Men and women |
| Lunar New Year | Alternating songs, three-string tinh lute, mouth harp | Young men and women |
| Eighth-month Tet | Rope swinging | Community |
| Year round | Drums, gongs | Community |
| Children | Pop gun | Children |
What is noteworthy about transport and daily life?
La Chi transport is recorded as combining the ways of highland and valley dwellers.
Women commonly use baskets woven from giang or cloth carriers, with a strap across the forehead for carrying. Men use carriers with two shoulder straps in the Hmong style, or a carrying pole with two baskets. The La Chi also carry children on their backs when travelling far or working.
For bringing water, the wooden flume is a common means of bringing water right to or near the house. From the water landing, people store water in bamboo tubes up to 1.5 metres long and carry them up to the stilt house near the dish rack for later use. Using horses to carry goods is also common.
One daily habit mentioned is the use of chopsticks, even when eating quickly on the road.
What should be kept in mind when learning about the La Chi?
There are a few points to note to avoid misunderstanding.
First, differing population figures between sources are due to different survey dates, not substantive contradiction. Citations should state the year.
Second, the customs described here are cultural practices recorded in certain areas and at a certain time. They should not be generalised into unchanging common traits for the entire La Chi community everywhere and at all times, because the scope of the sources is limited.
Third, existing introductory sources mainly describe customs at a general level and are not fully consistent in how they present certain details. This article follows the presentation of the introductory source from the state management agency for ethnic affairs, and notes that sources differ rather than quietly choosing one.
Descriptions of beliefs and rituals here are presented as cultural practice, not to affirm or deny the efficacy of any ritual.
