Who are the Mnong and how is their name understood?
The Mnong are one of the 54 ethnic groups recognised in Vietnam, with the self-name Mnong. In administrative and ethnographic documents this ethnonym is also written M'nong. According to the official list of Vietnam's ethnic groups, Mnong is a single ethnic group, while names such as Mnong Gar, Mnong Nong, Mnong Chil, Mnong Kuenh, Mnong Rlam, Mnong Preh, Mnong Prang, Mnong Dip, Mnong Bhiet, Mnong Sito, Mnong Bu Dang, Mnong Bu Nor and Mnong Bu Deh are local subgroups, not separate ethnic groups.
The Mnong population recorded in the 1 April 2019 survey of 53 ethnic minorities was 127,334. Earlier, the 2009 population and housing census recorded 102,741. The difference reflects both natural population growth and differences in survey timing and method, which should be noted when consulting ethnic statistics.
Where do the Mnong live?
The Mnong are long-established inhabitants of the central Central Highlands. Their present settlement area is concentrated by subgroup, mainly in the districts of Lak, M'Drak, Dak Nong, Dak Mil, Krong Pach, Ea Sup and Buon Don in Dak Lak province. Some live in the north of former Song Be province (now Binh Phuoc and neighbouring areas) and in southwestern Lam Dong province. To the west, their distribution reaches eastern Cambodia along the border. In the official list of 54 ethnic groups, the Mnong area is given as Dak Lak and Lam Dong.
Housing is tied to terrain and to each group's customs. Depending on the region and subgroup, Mnong build ground-level houses or stilt houses. Ground houses have thatched roofs close to the ground and an earthen floor as the living surface, common among the Mnong Gar, Mnong Preh and Mnong Prang. Stilt houses are usually low, only about 0.70 m to 1.00 m above the ground, common among the Mnong Kuenh, Mnong Chil and Mnong Bhiet. The Mnong Rlam around Lak lake build tall stilt houses in the Ede style. Whether stilt or ground level, roofs are thatch, frames and rafters combine bamboo with wood, and joints are made with forks, tenons, rattan and forest vines.
| Subgroup | Common house type | Recorded features |
|---|---|---|
| Mnong Gar, Mnong Preh, Mnong Prang | Ground house | Thatched roof close to the ground, earthen floor as living surface |
| Mnong Kuenh, Mnong Chil, Mnong Bhiet | Low stilt house | Floor about 0.70 m to 1.00 m above the ground |
| Mnong Rlam (Lak lake area) | Tall stilt house | Architecture in the Ede style |
Which language group does Mnong belong to?
Mnong belongs to the Mon-Khmer language group of the Austroasiatic family. This group is present in many mainland Southeast Asian countries, and in Vietnam it includes the languages of many peoples living along the Truong Son range and in the Central Highlands. Mnong subgroups have their own speech varieties, closely related within one system.
In traditional society the Mnong had no writing and only oral literature. Education and learning were carried out by direct instruction, modelling and imitation. Writing has appeared only in recent decades, but widespread use still faces obstacles. This is a common situation among many ethnic minorities in Vietnam and one of the issues raised in language preservation work.
What is distinctive about traditional Mnong social organisation?
The basic settlement unit of the Mnong is called bon or uon, corresponding to a village or hamlet. Families in a village are linked by neighbourhood, blood and marriage. A small village has about ten households, while a large one may gather several dozen. Blood relations are traced through the mother's line, and traces of matriliny remain strong in many social relations. However, matrilineal custom has been dissolving at different levels in different subgroups, a process of change that should be seen as variation between regions rather than as one region being better or worse than another.
In traditional society the head of each village was called Rnut or Kroanh bon, assisted by a deputy called Rnoi or Rnop. When fighting was needed, the community appointed an official called Ne tam lam lo as military leader. Mnong society operated by customary law, and the customary law song was passed down orally through generations as the standard for all conduct in life. Transmitting customary law through sung recitation is a notable feature of this people's intangible cultural heritage.
How are Mnong marriage and family organised?
Women are often more active in marriage arrangements. The wedding is organised by both sides. After marriage, residence at the wife's house is the common form; in many subgroups bilateral alternating residence is common. Children take the mother's surname. Wedding custom includes three ceremonies: Sa ur, Tam op and Tam nsong, corresponding to the initial meeting, the engagement and the wedding.
Monogamy is a strict rule in marriage. Mnong customary law imposes very severe fines for incest and adultery. These rules show a system of social norms maintained by community opinion and collective sanctions, not only by state institutions as in modern society.
How are Mnong worship customs and funerals practised?
When someone dies, the whole village stops field work to join the burial and funeral. The body is kept at home for about two days for those who die old or of illness. The Mnong greatly fear and reject funeral rites for deaths caused by accidents such as drowning, falling from a tree, snakebite, tiger attack, or death in war or by stabbing. For deaths considered untimely, the body is not brought into the house but must be buried immediately and quietly.
Burial in the ground is the only form of funeral; there is no custom of reburial. Every dead person is given a share of property to take to the world of the ancestors, called Phan. Dividing property for the dead reflects a belief in a parallel world where the deceased continue to live and must be fully provided for. This is a belief practice described here as a cultural practice, not to assert or deny spiritual efficacy.
Regarding housing, when a house is completed, a housewarming ceremony is held with a day of savoury feast and pig sacrifice. After the meal comes lively rice-wine drinking to the sound of gongs. The pig sacrifice here functions as a rite of passage for living space, marking the house's change from a building into a dwelling recognised by the community and the spirits.
What is the main festival of the Mnong?
The buffalo sacrifice is the most important traditional festival. At the end of the annual rice harvest, each village holds a new rice festival to thank heaven, earth and the rice spirit. A buffalo is sacrificed in a joyful celebration to prepare for a new season full of hope. Note that buffalo sacrifice here is a ritual within a community festival tied to the agricultural cycle, different from ordinary slaughter. Today some buffalo sacrifice festivals in the Central Highlands are held as cultural re-enactments at regional events.
The traditional Mnong agricultural calendar follows the lunar calendar, based on swidden farming. Each year has 12 months, each month 29 to 30 days. The calendar is tied closely to the farming cycle, so agricultural rituals are distributed by season rather than by a calendar system separate from production.
What is notable about economic life and material culture?
The Mnong grow upland rice on swiddens by slash-and-burn: clearing, burning, then dibbling seeds; harvesting by hand-stripping. They grow wet rice by swamp cultivation in marshy areas, using buffalo to trample the field into mud and then sowing, without transplanting seedlings as in the lowlands. The role of the hoe in traditional Mnong agriculture is recorded as notable. Alongside crop production, hunting and gathering remain important in daily life.
Common household handicrafts are weaving household items from rattan, bamboo and leaves; next is cotton growing and cloth weaving done by women. In each village some people know how to make rough pottery, shaped by hand and fired in the open, producing various clay pots, rice bowls and jars. Blacksmithing of tools is not well developed in Mnong areas. Especially in Buon Don, people have a famous trade of hunting and taming wild elephants; this trade continues today though the number of elephants caught each year has fallen considerably.
In food, the Mnong eat plain rice cooked in clay pots; in the past bamboo-tube rice was common. A midday meal in the fields is often sour soup in a dried gourd. Main foods are salt and chilli, forest vegetable soup, and hunted bird, game and stream fish. Livestock and poultry raising is not developed. Vegetables are grown on swiddens to supplement gathered food. The common drink is rice wine.
In dress, in hot weather men formerly wore a loincloth bare-chested, and women wrapped a skirt and were also bare-chested. In cold weather they added a blanket, a style very common in the Truong Son and Central Highlands. Today Mnong dress has absorbed many Vietnamese elements. The custom of filing teeth and stretching ears was common in traditional society, and now remains only among the elderly. The decoration at each end of the Mnong loincloth, with clusters of bright tassels along the borders, edges and narrow patterned bands in both directions, is one of the notable features distinguishing it from similar dress of other peoples in the Truong Son and Central Highlands.
For transport, the main means is the back-basket carried by two shoulder straps. Elephant transport is a special method emphasised in Mnong areas. Travel and transport on rivers and lakes use dugout canoes.
What is in the Mnong folk arts treasury?
The treasury of folk tales, especially epics and customary law songs, holds many values and is being studied and introduced. Proverbs, folk songs and lyrical songs are very rich. Instruments include gongs, gourd pipes, buffalo-horn horns, lip pipes, one-string fiddles, eight-string fiddles and vertical flutes. In particular, dried gourd shells are widely used to make sound amplifiers in many bamboo instruments. In the Mnong area, the famous ancient lithophone was found in the mid-20th century. Children often enjoy kites, spinning tops, blind man's buff, running and jumping.
The Mnong epic treasury is an important part of Central Highlands epics generally, alongside the epics of other peoples in the region. Collecting, recording, translating and presenting these works is long-term work requiring both researchers and the indigenous community, especially as the class of traditional singing storytellers grows smaller.
What should be noted when learning about the Mnong?
When researching the Mnong, several points are easily confused. First, names such as Mnong Gar, Mnong Chil and Mnong Rlam are local subgroups, not separate ethnic groups; the official list recognises only the Mnong ethnic group. Second, population figures differ by survey and timing, so sources should be stated clearly when cited. Third, descriptions of customs may differ between subgroups and between sources; where sources disagree, this should be stated clearly rather than quietly choosing one presentation. Fourth, many traditional customs have been and are changing; describing the present differs from describing traditional society, and the two should be clearly distinguished.
Studying the Mnong is therefore not only recording a list of features, but also following the transformation of a long-established community in the central Central Highlands amid rapid economic, social and environmental change.
