Who are the Muong people and where do they come from?
The Muong are one of Vietnam's 54 ethnic groups, self-named Mol (or Mon, Moan, Mual). According to the List of Ethnic Groups of Vietnam issued with Decision No. 121-TCTK/PPCD dated 02/3/1979, the Muong are also known as Mol, Mual and Moi, with recognized local subgroups including Moi Bi and Ao Ta (Au Ta).
On population, the 01/4/2019 Survey of 53 Ethnic Minorities recorded 1,452,095 Muong people. Earlier, the 2009 Population and Housing Census recorded 1,268,963. They are the most populous ethnic minority in Vietnam.
On history, available sources agree that the Muong share origins with the Viet people and have long inhabited the Hoa Binh, Thanh Hoa and Phu Tho areas. The close relationship between the two peoples is clear in language, customs and belief systems.
Where do the Muong live and how do they live?
The Muong live in concentrated villages at the foot of mountains and on hillsides, on sloping land near rivers and streams, mainly in Hoa Binh, Thanh Hoa and Phu Tho provinces. According to the List of Ethnic Groups of Vietnam, their residence area also includes Vinh Phu, Yen Bai, Son La and Ninh Binh.
Each village has about a few dozen households. Each family compound typically features rows of areca palms and jackfruit trees. Most Muong live in stilt houses of the four-roof type. The upper floor is the living area, while underneath are animal pens, rice mortars and other production tools.
Within the village, neighborly relations are the main form of social tie. Families of two to three generations are common. Children take their father's surname. The rights of the eldest son are respected and sons inherit family property.
What is special about the Muong language?
The Muong language belongs to the Viet-Muong branch of the Austroasiatic language family. This branch is closely related to Vietnamese, reflecting the long historical link between the two peoples.
According to available sources, Muong exists alongside a traditional writing and calendar system tied to rituals. The traditional Muong calendar is called sach doi, made of 12 bamboo slips corresponding to 12 months. Each slip is carved with different symbols for calculating and choosing auspicious days and hours to begin work.
Notably, the Muong in Muong Bi calculate the calendar differently from Muong elsewhere, called the method of backward days and forward months. Under this method, the first month of the Muong Bi calendar corresponds to the 10th month of the Muong calendar elsewhere and the 10th lunar month. This difference shows the diversity of indigenous knowledge across Muong regions.
Worship customs and beliefs of the Muong
The spiritual life of the Muong is closely tied to the role of the mo priest. The mo priest presides over and leads important rituals such as funerals, healing ceremonies, and rites to ward off harm to mother and child after birth. When performing rituals, the mo priest wears special clothing: a five-panel long shirt buttoned under the right arm, dyed blue or black, with a white belt and a pointed cloth hat. When conducting healing ceremonies, the moi priest often wears a ceremonial hat.
One distinctive worship custom is the fire-lighting ceremony when building a new house. When erecting the kitchen pillar, the householder cuts banana sheaths into three large fish shapes and ties them to a bamboo strip fastened to the kitchen pillar, and places a green squash on the main kitchen pillar. Before cooking in the new house, the householder performs a fire-lighting ritual asking the kitchen deity to place three dau rau stones and the main stone. That night the householder invites everyone to drink can wine by the light of a fire that is not allowed to go out. This ritual shows the importance of the kitchen deity in Muong life.
In funerals, the Muong have a distinctive ritual of offering to the fan spirit. During this rite, the daughters-in-law of the household and clan of the deceased must wear the fan spirit outfit: a black skirt, a new waistband, a short shirt, a white long shirt, a red bodice, strings of beads on both wrists, a palm fan in the right hand, a staff in the left hand, and a fan hat decorated with bead tassels on the head; a rattan chair is placed in front.
When someone dies, the eldest son holds a knife, holds his breath and strikes three times on the window frame of the family altar, after which the family sounds the gong to announce the mourning. The body is wrapped in many layers of cloth and clothing according to custom, then placed in a coffin made from a hollowed tree trunk, covered outside with a dragon-scale cloth shroud. The funeral is led by the mo priest.
Festivals and cultural life of the Muong
The Muong have many cultural activities tied to labor and community life. Common folk songs include Xec bua (also called Xac bua or Khoa rac), Thuong (also called Rang thuong or Xuong), a folk song praising labor and the beauty of ethnic customs, Bo meng, a form of singing for courtship and sharing love, and Vi dum, also a popular folk song. There are also lullabies and children's songs.
Particularly notable among the Muong is le ca, the mo passages and prayers recited and sung by the mo priest at funerals. As for instruments, besides flutes, fiddles, drums and horns, the gong is a distinctive instrument.
Muong folk games suit all ages. Some are carefully and elaborately organized, such as crossbow shooting, swinging and con throwing. Games for children and teenagers are organized flexibly anywhere and anytime with simple, convenient conditions, such as danh ca cat, co le, danh cho or buon cho, danh mang, and cham chi, cham chan.
What is notable about Muong clothing and cuisine?
Muong women's clothing is described in sources as elegant and modest, including: a rectangular white headscarf, a short shirt, a skirt reaching the ankles, and a bodice. The headscarf is a plain rectangular white cloth without embroidery. The common blouse is white, with a very short body usually split at the chest. The ankle-length skirt has two main parts: the skirt body and the waistband. The waistband is famous for its intricately woven patterns. Jewelry includes bracelets, bead strings and a xa tich set of two or four silver chains hung with a peach-shaped box and silver-capped tiger or bear claws.
In cuisine, the Muong enjoy steamed dishes such as steamed glutinous rice, steamed ordinary rice, vegetables and steamed fish. Cooked rice and vegetables are spread on a winnowing tray to cool and separate before eating. Muong can wine is famous for its preparation and rich yeast flavor, offered to honored guests and drunk at group gatherings. Women as well as men enjoy smoking tobacco through large pipes. Notably, women have a custom of passing a single pipe among several people.
Production activities and means of transport
Wet-rice agriculture holds the leading place in the Muong economy, with rice as the main staple. Common soil-working tools are the chisel plow and the small single harrow with wooden or bamboo teeth. When rice ripens, it is harvested with a sickle, bundled into cum, carried home in a gùi basket, dried and stored on the loft; when needed, each cum is put into a wooden trough, threshed with the feet, and then pounded. In wet-rice farming, the Muong have much experience in small-scale irrigation.
Besides wet fields, the Muong also practice slash-and-burn farming, household livestock raising, hunting, fishing, gathering, and handicrafts such as weaving and basketry.
For transport, women commonly use a gùi basket woven from giang or bamboo, with four corners bound upright and a strap over the forehead or shoulder for carrying. The dậu, a carrying pole with hooks at both ends, and the shoulder spike are also commonly used. Clean water is stored in large bamboo tubes over 1 meter long, carried on the shoulder from the water landing and stood against the wall for gradual use.
Marriage and childbirth according to Muong customs
Muong boys and girls are free to love and get to know each other, and when they agree they inform their families to prepare the wedding. The steps to a wedding include: preliminary inquiry (khao theng), betel-offering ceremony (ti nom banh), wedding request ceremony (nom khau), first wedding ceremony (ti chau), and bride-receiving ceremony (ti du).
On the wedding day, the matchmaker leads a groom's party of about thirty or forty people including both paternal and maternal relatives and friends, bringing gifts to the bride's house for the wedding. The groom wears fine clothes, wraps a white turban, and carries a chon (gùi) of cooked steamed rice (about 10 dau of rice), with two boiled live capons placed on top. In the bride-receiving ceremony, the bride wears a conical hat and fine dress, with a black long shirt tied at two flaps in front as the outermost layer. The bride usually brings to her husband's house two blankets, two mattresses, two bolster pillows to offer her parents-in-law, and dozens of small pillows for the groom's family to give to aunts and uncles.
On childbirth, when the wife is about to give birth, the husband must prepare plenty of firewood, make a separate hearth in an inner room and surround it with bamboo panels to form a closed room for the birth. When the wife goes into labor, the husband goes to inform his mother-in-law and relatives on both sides so they can come and wait together. The midwife cuts the baby's umbilical cord with a bamboo knife taken from the tip of a dui on the roof. If the baby is a boy, the knife from the front roof is used; if a girl, the knife from the back roof. The umbilical cords of the children in a family are kept together in one bamboo tube, as they believe this will make the siblings love each other as they grow up.
On the birth day, the family holds a celebration and invites the mo priest to ward off all harm to mother and child. Three to seven days after birth, many relatives and neighbors usually visit and give gifts. The maternal grandmother's gift always includes a few squares of home-woven cloth, wealthier families add a silver necklace, and close relatives give rice or money. The mother usually eats black glutinous rice with tac chieng leaves, drinks water boiled with medicinal leaves, and during the confinement period (7 to 10 days), especially the first 3 days, must always be warmed by the fire. A newborn boy is affectionately called lo ma (seed rice), and a girl is called cach tac (vegetables and grass). Usually a child is given its official name at about 1 year old.
Summary table of basic Muong ethnic characteristics
| Criterion | Information |
|---|---|
| Self-name | Mol (Mon, Moan, Mual) |
| Other names | Mol, Mual, Moi |
| Local subgroups | Moi Bi, Ao Ta (Au Ta) |
| Population (2019) | 1,452,095 |
| Population (2009) | 1,268,963 |
| Language | Viet-Muong branch, Austroasiatic family |
| Main residence | Hoa Binh, Thanh Hoa, Phu Tho |
| Other residence | Vinh Phu, Yen Bai, Son La, Ninh Binh |
| Housing | Four-roof stilt house |
| Main occupation | Wet-rice agriculture |
| Distinctive instrument | Gong |
| Typical folk songs | Xec bua, Thuong, Bo meng, Vi dum |
| Distinctive rituals | Fan spirit offering, fire-lighting ceremony |
| Traditional calendar | Sach doi (12 bamboo slips) |
Points to note when learning about the Muong
Available sources on the Muong are mostly compiled from ethnographic surveys and population censuses. Because their residence area is wide and Muong regions differ, some customs may vary locally. For example, the calendar calculation of the Muong in Muong Bi differs from that of Muong elsewhere, as noted above.
In addition, names such as Xec bua, Xac bua, Khoa rac or Thuong, Rang thuong, Xuong show that the same melody may be called by different names depending on locality. This is a common feature of folk culture, reflecting the diversity of Muong cultural heritage.
The Muong are among the peoples with a rich cultural heritage, from the mo system, le ca and folk songs to rituals tied to the life cycle and spiritual life. Learning about the Muong not only helps understand one of Vietnam's most populous ethnic minorities, but also contributes to recognizing the close historical link between the Muong and the Viet in the formation of Vietnam's community of peoples.
