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

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

The Lự are one of the 54 ethnic groups recognised in Vietnam, with the self-name Lừ, Thay, or Thay Lừ. Other recorded names include Phù Lừ, Nhuồn, and Duồn. According to the List of Ethnic Components of Vietnam, the Lự are also called Lừ, Duôn, and Nhuồn, and their residence is recorded in Lai Châu.

According to documents from the Information and Communication Centre of the Committee for Ethnic Minority Affairs, the Lự were present in the Xam Mứn area (Điện Biên) at least before the 11th to 12th centuries. There they built the Xam Mứn citadel, also called Tam Vạn, and opened up much rice land. During wartime, the Lự were dispersed, and a small part moved up to live in the mountains of Phong Thổ and Sìn Hồ.

As for local subgroups, in Vietnam only the Black Lự (Lừ Đăm) are recorded, living in Bản Hon commune, Phong Thổ and Sìn Hồ districts of Lai Châu. The White Lự (Lừ Khao) are recorded in Síp Song Păn Na, China. This distinction matters: Black Lự and White Lự are local subgroups of the same ethnic group, not two separate peoples.

Population and current residence

According to the Survey of 53 Ethnic Minorities dated 1 April 2019, published by the Information and Communication Centre of the Committee for Ethnic Minority Affairs, the Lự population is 6,757. Earlier, according to the 2009 Population and Housing Census, the figure was 5,601.

The Lự live in Phong Thổ, Sìn Hồ, and Điện Biên districts of Lai Châu province. This is a northern mountainous area with divided terrain and difficult travel. In the general context of Vietnam's ethnic minorities, this is also an area with a lower socio-economic starting point than the national average.

Which language family does the Lự language belong to?

The Lự language belongs to the Tày-Thái language group, within the Thái-Ka Đai language family. This group is present in many countries of mainland Southeast Asia and southern China, including peoples such as the Tày, Thái, Nùng, Sán Chay, and others.

As for writing, the Lự used script based on the Pali alphabet. They used thorns or sharpened iron sticks as pens to write on forest palm leaves, recording many myths and folk tales. They could also use dried guột bark, sharpened, dipped in Chinese ink, and written on white cloth. In the past, children aged 7 to 8 had the custom of going to learn writing from the chẩu hua, meaning teacher.

Their own calendar and way of reckoning time

The Lự have their own calendar, in which the first month by the Lự calendar corresponds to the 10th lunar month. This is worth noting when studying Lự rites and customs, because many events such as ancestor worship or communal offerings are reckoned by this calendar.

How do the Lự live and produce?

The Lự created a traditional system of canals and weirs to lead water into the fields. They grow glutinous rice using the technique of transplanting seedlings twice. In some places they already knew how to use green manure, rubbish, and animal manure to fertilise fields. They also make swidden fields by slashing, burning, and dibbling seeds or ploughing, a ploughing technique adopted from the Mông.

Weaving is developed, especially brocade weaving with many fine decorative lines. The Lự are known for sword forging. Gathering, hunting, and especially fishing in streams are regular activities.

In food, the Lự eat glutinous rice and favour dishes made from fish, including a sour salad with fresh fish meat. Pigs, buffaloes, and cows are slaughtered for eating only on festivals, not for sale. For transport, they use carrying baskets, buffalo-drawn carts, and pack horses.

Housing and living space

The Lự live in four-roofed stilt houses, with the roof extended to cover a veranda where the loom and cloth-making tools are placed. Inside there are blankets, mattresses, mosquito nets, curtains, and a hearth placed in the middle of the house. The stilt house is not only a dwelling but also where many important rites take place, including ancestor worship and the new-house ceremony.

What is special about traditional Lự clothing?

Lự women use indigo-black fabric as the background colour for skirts, shirts, and scarves, and avoid white. They embroider borders of horizontal and vertical lozenge patterns to form two-tiered skirts. Shirts have silver rings on the chest and are worn crossed, fastened with a band on the left side. Women wear indigo shirts split at the chest, and skirts of black indigo fabric embroidered and woven into two decorative parts, giving the impression of a skirt made of two joined tiers. A neck ring is joined at both ends by a chain of silver xà tích. The head is covered with a scarf rolled tilted to the left, revealing the front with folded lines of embroidered borders along the length. They dye their teeth black and wear silver and bronze bracelets.

Men wear clothes of black indigo fabric, with a chest-split shirt fastened by cloth buttons, two pockets on the two flaps and one pocket on the left chest. The part of the trousers below the knee is embroidered with patterns. They wear black turbans, folded and rolled in many turns, and also like to dye their teeth black. Men often carry swords, not only for self-defence but also as a decorative custom.

How are Lự worship customs practised?

The Lự worship their ancestors in the hóng chamber of the house, once a year in the first month of the Lự calendar, corresponding to the 10th lunar month. In this rite they light ten beeswax candles around the offering tray. The head of the house, also called chảu hô, recites the prayer.

In the first month, the Lự hold a communal offering called kiêng bản, or căm bản, with an offering tray of 3 yến of pork. The offering is made at the head of the village and beside rivers and streams. On the 3rd day of the 3rd month, they hold an offering in the sacred forest, called đóng căm, with a tray of 3 yến of pork. On the 6th day of the 6th month, an offering is held with a tray of 6 yến of pork.

After the village head completes the rite, the whole village eats, drinks wine, plays tug of war and ném én, and sings to the double flute. During this time, the Lự observe a ban on going out and outsiders coming in for 3 to 9 days, collectively called kiêng bản kiêng mường.

Rites in the human life cycle

Besides seasonal offerings, the Lự have many rites tied to the life cycle. When someone dies, members of the paternal lineage wear white scarves in mourning. They slaughter a black buffalo, avoiding a white one, to offer and send the soul to the void. The body is kept in the house for 3 days, then eight people outside the lineage are hired to carry it to the ghost forest. The Lự bury without raising a mound. Those who attend the funeral must bathe cleanly before entering the house. Close relatives of the deceased in the paternal lineage must observe 3 days of abstention from work.

When building a new house, the Lự avoid holding the new-house ceremony at midday. After sweeping the house clean, they invite four elders from outside the lineage to drink wine around a basin with four cups of wine placed in the middle of the house. A young man comes to the doorway, squats, and asks to buy the house, and the elders drinking wine reply that the owner is coming to receive it. The husband and wife are already standing at the foot of the stairs, the husband carrying a fishing net on his shoulder, the wife carrying a tripod on one side and a rice steamer on the other. The husband goes first, the wife follows up the stairs and places the items in the house. Next, two young women light two torches and step up into the house. Another girl at the top of the stairs holds a water tube to put out the fire on the leading torch. The second holds a torch still burning brightly and brings it to light the hearth. The fire must be kept burning for 3 days and 3 nights. The owner holds an ancestor rite with a pig's head, and villagers are invited to eat, drink wine, and sing to the double flute.

Regarding childbirth, when a child is one month old, the family asks the ông máy to bring a pen whittled from guột bark, a piece of white cloth, and a plate of Chinese ink to divine and find a name for the child. He places a chicken egg on a bowl of rice and scatters rice grains over the egg to see even or odd. If it matches what he calls out, that name is given to the child, written on the cloth and returned to the parents to keep as a birth record. Girls often have names such as Kẻo, meaning jade, and boys such as Khăm, meaning gold.

What are the Lự festivals and bun rites?

About three generations ago, roughly 60 to 70 years, the Lự still performed Buddhist rites called bun. These include the new-year rite, bun pi mày, in the first month; the water-splashing rite, bun huất nặm, in the 11th and 12th months; and the rite of floating light tubes, bun bẳng phay, in the 2nd and 3rd months of the Lự lunar calendar.

These are rites with Buddhist influence, reflecting cultural exchange between the Lự and neighbouring communities in the region. Available documents record that these rites were performed in the past, about 60 to 70 years ago, and do not assert that they are still maintained intact today.

Lự singing and folk games

Lự singing, also called Khắp Lử, is how girls use a red cloth scarf to cover their faces and sing to the double flute played by boys. In this style, called ỉn khống, as night falls, pairs of young men and women sit on mats spread in the yard, singing and playing the flute together until midnight.

The Lự have tug of war and ném én. Young men like sword dancing. These activities often appear on festival occasions and in community life.

What is notable about Lự marriage and social relations?

Neighbourly relations are the dominant relation in Lự society. They follow the custom of mutual support among families in production, when building a new house, at weddings, and at funerals. The two lineages Pu Da, the paternal lineage, and Ta Nai, the maternal lineage, are the two most important.

As for marriage, the Lự encourage cross-directional marriage, expressed in the proverb dao khâu đồng, marriage returns to the old way. A younger brother takes a wife, and the brothers of the wife in the cross collateral line two or three generations back marry the husband's sisters. There is no forced marriage. By custom, a couple lives with the wife's family for 3 years, then with the husband's family for 2 years, after which they may live separately as a nuclear family in their own stilt house.

Weddings have three steps: ăn giáp tối, the rite of entering the room; ăn mới, the feast where the groom's family presents offerings to the bride's family, including a sword; and the reception of the bride. The sword among the wedding offerings reflects the role of sword forging and the custom of carrying swords in Lự culture.

Summary table of main offerings by the Lự calendar

After the offerings, the community eats, drinks wine, plays tug of war and ném én, sings to the double flute, and observes the kiêng bản kiêng mường abstention for 3 to 9 days.

What should be noted when studying the Lự people?

Available documents on the Lự come mainly from state sources and pages about the community of 54 ethnic groups. Some content differs in population figures between survey times, for example 5,601 in the 2009 census and 6,757 in the 2019 Survey of 53 Ethnic Minorities. This difference reflects different data collection times, not a contradiction in substance.

As for the bun rites, the documents state clearly that these were performed about 60 to 70 years ago. Readers need to distinguish between customs still maintained and customs recorded in the past. The most honest presentation is to state clearly the time range the source records, rather than assuming that all customs remain intact today.

In addition, the names Lự, Lừ, Duôn, Nhuồn, and Phù Lừ are different names used in different documents for the same ethnic group. Correctly identifying the official name and the other names helps avoid confusion when looking up information about this people.