TL;DR: The O Du are one of Vietnam's 54 ethnic groups, speaking a Mon-Khmer language of the Austroasiatic family, living mainly in Xốp Pột and Kim Hoà hamlets, Kim Đa commune, Tương Dương district, Nghệ An province. They worship the house spirit at the corner of the second compartment, celebrate Lunar New Year and the new rice festival, and their biggest festival is the thunder welcoming ceremony. With a small population living among the Khơ Mú and Thai, many aspects of their culture show the influence of these two groups.
Who are the Ơ Đu people and where do they live today?
Ơ Đu is one of the 54 ethnic groups of Vietnam. The self-designation of this people is Ơ Đu or I Đu, and another name for them is Tày Hạt. According to the Survey of 53 Ethnic Minority Groups dated 1 April 2019, the Ơ Đu population is 428 people. Previously, according to the 2009 Population and Housing Census, this figure was 376 people.
As for their area of residence, in the past the Ơ Đu lived throughout a region along the two rivers Nặm Mộ and Nặm Nơn, most concentrated along the Nặm Nơn river. Due to many successive historical upheavals in this region, they were forced to leave for elsewhere or to live intermingled with newly arrived residents. Today, the two villages with the largest Ơ Đu populations are Xốp Pột and Kim Hoà, Kim Đa commune, Tương Dương district (before July 2025), Nghệ An province. In Laos, the Ơ Đu join with the Tày Phoọng group living in Sầm Nưa province.
In the list of Vietnam's ethnic groups published by the Government Portal, the Ơ Đu people hold number 54, with the alternative name Tày Hạt, and their area of residence listed as Nghệ An.
What language do the Ơ Đu speak?
Ơ Đu belongs to the Mon-Khmer language group, Austroasiatic language family. Today the Ơ Đu retain only their mother tongue, and most of them use Khơ Mú and Thái as tools of daily communication. This is a notable linguistic feature: a people with its own language belonging to the Austroasiatic family, yet in daily life using the languages of neighbouring ethnic groups in the same region.
What are the production activities and economic life of the Ơ Đu like?
The Ơ Đu live mainly by swidden fields and partly by wet rice fields. Each year they cultivate only one crop: clearing, burning and sowing from the 4th to 5th lunar months, harvesting in the 9th to 10th months. Swidden tools include axes, knives and digging sticks.
Besides rice as the main crop, the Ơ Đu also grow cassava, gourds, pumpkins, maize, Job's tears and beans. Gathering and hunting still hold an important place in their lives. Herding buffalo, cattle, pigs, chickens and goats is quite developed. Buffalo and cattle are used for draught power, pulling the plough; pigs and chickens are used on occasions of weddings, belief rituals and offerings to spirits. The Ơ Đu weave household items from giang and rattan, partly for their own use and partly for exchange. In the past they also knew how to weave cloth.
As for food and drink, the Ơ Đu usually eat a light meal in the morning and two main meals at midday and in the evening. Previously they ate steamed glutinous rice, and now also ordinary rice; in years of crop failure they eat nâu tubers, mài tubers, or cassava and maize in place of rice. They enjoy drinking alcohol and smoking thuốc lào.
As for clothing, today both men and women dress in the style of the Thái and Việt people of the region. Very few sets of traditional costume remain.
What are the traditional houses and means of transport of the Ơ Đu like?
In the past, the traditional house of the Ơ Đu was a stilt house, which had to be built with its head facing the mountain, that is, built lengthwise. When erecting the pillars, a certain order had to be followed. Today this type of house no longer exists; the Ơ Đu live in stilt houses similar to Thái stilt houses, with four roofs thatched with nứa or tranh.
The most common means of transport is a back-basket with a strap worn across the forehead. The Ơ Đu back-basket is recorded as very beautiful and durable. This is also the most distinctive means of transport of this people.
What is special about the social and family relations of the Ơ Đu?
Because of their small population and their intermingled life with the Khơ Mú and Thái, the social and cultural relations of the Ơ Đu are heavily influenced by these two peoples. The Ơ Đu take surnames according to Thái and Lao surnames. Clan organisation is very faint. The clan head is a person of prestige, respected and with a major role in the clan.
Ơ Đu families are small patriarchal families. Men decide all household matters. Women do not receive inheritance. The custom of uxorilocal marriage is common. Indispensable offerings at weddings are squirrel meat, dried rat meat and salted fish.
As for childbirth, a woman gives birth sitting in the corner of the house in the section reserved for women. The placenta is placed in a bamboo tube and buried right under the floor. The child's age is counted from the day thunder is heard in the year. At that point the baby is considered to have reached one year, and the parents hold a naming ceremony.
How are the worship customs of the Ơ Đu carried out?
The Ơ Đu believe that when a person dies, the soul becomes a spirit. The soul of the body resides at the graveyard, while the root soul at the crown of the hair stays to become the house spirit. The house spirit stays with the descendants for only one generation, in order from the eldest son to the younger sons. When all the sons have died, people hold a ceremony to send the house spirit back to the ancestors. The place of worship for the house spirit is set at the corner of the second compartment. The altar is simple, hung high close to the roof.
This understanding shows that the Ơ Đu conception of the soul distinguishes two parts: one part attached to the body and remaining at the graveyard, one part attached to the crown of the hair and remaining in the house to be worshipped. The worship of the house spirit for a term of one generation, after which a ceremony sends it back to the ancestors, is a notable point in the worship customs of this people.
What are the main festivals and celebrations of the Ơ Đu?
The Ơ Đu celebrate Tết Nguyên đán and the new rice festival. The biggest festival is the ceremony welcoming the thunder in the year. On that day, residents from everywhere gather to hold a festival worshipping heaven, slaughtering buffalo, cattle and pigs in celebration at Xốp Pột village, Kim Đa commune, Tương Dương district (before July 2025), Nghệ An province.
According to Văn Hoá newspaper (9 May 2026), the ceremony welcoming the first thunder of the year is also called the Chăm Phtrong ceremony, tied to the custom of worshipping the thunder god. On the morning after the night of the first thunder, people in the village bring pots, pans, trays, bowls, knives and back-baskets to the Nậm Ngân stream to wash them, in the belief that the stream water carries away the misfortunes of the old year; they also wash their faces, hands and feet. On 27 June 2025, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism added the Ơ Đu Ceremony of Welcoming Thunder in Nga My commune to the National List of Intangible Cultural Heritage under Decision No. 2192/QĐ-BVHTTDL. The Ơ Đu community now lives concentrated in the Văng Môn resettlement village, Nga My commune, where they moved when giving up land for the Bản Vẽ hydropower plant.
It can be seen that thunder plays a special role in the cultural life of the Ơ Đu: it is both the marker for counting a small child's age and the occasion of the biggest festival of the year. This is a point showing the close bond between belief life and natural cycles in the conception of this people.
What are the folk arts and games of the Ơ Đu?
The Ơ Đu are proficient in using the musical instruments of the Khơ Mú and Thái such as flutes, khèn, gongs and drums. They know the folk melodies of the Khơ Mú and Thái and tell historical tales.
As for games, the Ơ Đu have the games of đánh khăng, spinning tops, ném còn and ô ăn quan.
Summary table of basic information about the Ơ Đu people
| Criterion | Information |
|---|---|
| Self-designation | Ơ Đu or I Đu |
| Other names | Tày Hạt |
| Population | 428 people (Survey of 53 Ethnic Minority Groups, 1 April 2019); 376 people (2009 Census) |
| Language group | Mon-Khmer, Austroasiatic language family |
| Main area of residence | Xốp Pột and Kim Hoà villages, Kim Đa commune, Tương Dương district (before July 2025), Nghệ An |
| Number in the list of 54 ethnic groups | 54 |
| Main livelihood | Swidden fields and partly wet rice fields |
| Biggest festival | Ceremony welcoming the thunder in the year |
| Place of worship for the house spirit | Corner of the second compartment, altar hung high close to the roof |
| Distinctive means of transport | Back-basket with a forehead strap |
Why is Ơ Đu culture influenced by neighbouring ethnic groups?
The answer lies in population size and settlement distribution. With a population of only a few hundred people, the Ơ Đu live intermingled with the Khơ Mú and Thái. This is precisely what leads them to take surnames according to Thái and Lao surnames; to use Khơ Mú and Thái in daily communication; to use the musical instruments and folk melodies of the Khơ Mú and Thái; and today both men and women dress in the style of the Thái and Việt people of the region.
A clear distinction must be made: this is mutual influence in a context of intermingled living, not a judgement of superiority or inferiority between ethnic groups. The Ơ Đu themselves still keep their own features such as the custom of worshipping the house spirit for a term of one generation, the ceremony welcoming thunder, counting a child's age by thunder, and the back-basket with a forehead strap.
Points to note when learning about the Ơ Đu people
First, population figures differ between surveys: 376 people according to the 2009 Population and Housing Census, and 428 people according to the Survey of 53 Ethnic Minority Groups dated 1 April 2019. When citing, the corresponding data source should be clearly stated.
Second, some information in the reference sources differs slightly in presentation, for example in how village, commune and district names are written. This article follows the writing of the Committee for Ethnic Minority Affairs source: Xốp Pột and Kim Hoà villages, Kim Đa commune, Tương Dương district (before July 2025), Nghệ An province.
Third, the cultural features stated in the article are the observations already present in the reference sources. In some areas such as marriage, childbirth and worship, the sources do not state differences between localities, so the article does not add its own inferences.
Fourth, learning about an ethnic group with a small population such as the Ơ Đu should be placed in the general context of Vietnam's community of 54 ethnic groups, in which ethnic minorities live as communities, interwoven with one another and with the Kinh people.
