Who are the Phu La people and how many are there?
The Phu La are one of the 54 ethnic groups recognised in Vietnam, per the List of Ethnic Components issued with Decision No. 121-TCTK/PPCD dated 2 March 1979. According to the Survey of 53 Ethnic Minorities of 1 April 2019, there were 12,471 Phu La people. Earlier, the 2009 Population and Housing Census recorded 10,944.
The Phu La call themselves Lao Va Xo, Bo Kho Pa, Phu La. Other names formerly used include Xa Pho and Can Thin. In the List of Ethnic Components, the Phu La are also recorded under the names Bo Kho Pa (Xa Pho), Mun Di Pa, Phu La Den, Phu La Hoa, Phu La Trang, Phu La Han, and Chu La Phu La.
It is important to distinguish clearly: Phu La Lao, Phu La Den and Phu La Han are local groups within the Phu La ethnic group, not three separate ethnic groups.
Where do the Phu La live?
According to the Committee for Ethnic Minority Affairs (cema.gov.vn), the Phu La live concentrated in Ha Giang, Lao Cai, Yen Bai and Lai Chau provinces. The Government's List of Ethnic Components also records the Phu La's residence area as Lao Cai, Lai Chau, Son La and Ha Giang.
These two sources do not fully match on the list of provinces (one records Yen Bai, the other Son La), showing that recorded residence areas can differ by time and survey scope. A reasonable reading is that the Phu La live in the northwest and northern mountainous region, most concentrated in Ha Giang, Lao Cai and Lai Chau.
In terms of settlement form, Phu La villages are often far from their swidden fields. Phu La Lao households tend to live scattered in small clusters, while other groups live more concentrated. Depending on the place, the Phu La live in stilt houses or ground-level houses. Rice granaries are usually grouped in one area away from the house to prevent fire.
Which language family does Phu La belong to?
Phu La belongs to the Tibeto-Burman language group, within the Sino-Tibetan family, and according to the Committee for Ethnic Minority Affairs it is closer to Burmese. This is notable because most ethnic groups in Vietnam's northwest speak languages from other families.
Some Phu La in Muong Khuong, Bac Ha and Xin Man districts traditionally used Chinese characters and treated southern Chinese as a daily communication tool. This reflects the long cultural contact of the Phu La Han group with the Chinese script environment in the region.
How does the historical origin of the Phu La groups differ?
According to the Committee for Ethnic Minority Affairs, the Phu La Lao - Bo Kho Pa group were relatively early inhabitants of Vietnam's northwest. Other groups arrived later, roughly 200 to 300 years ago. The integration process of the Phu La Han group continued until the 1940s.
This difference in settlement timing partly explains why the Phu La groups differ in clothing, customs and settlement organisation, though they belong to one ethnic group.
Production and economic life
The Phu La work swidden fields and terraced rice fields. Their woven rattan and bamboo products with many patterns and colours, such as containers for clothes and food, are recorded as famous. They are familiar with crossbows, poison-tipped arrows, cotton growing, cloth weaving, and spinning with a slider.
The Phu La Lao group still maintains cotton growing and cloth weaving to meet the family's clothing needs. Women use time at home to card cotton, and spin thread even while walking to the fields.
For transport, the Phu La Lao - Bo Kho Pa group carry baskets with a forehead strap. By contrast, the Phu La Han and Phu La Den carry baskets on their backs or use pack horses.
For food, the Phu La pound rice daily with a hand pestle, eat plain rice twice a day in the early morning and evening, suited to swidden farming. Sticky rice dishes are used in offerings and cakes. Sticky rice with fish and meat dishes marinated with ground roasted rice, chilli, herbs and grilled meat are favourites.
What is special about traditional clothing?
Women's clothing differs between groups. Women of the Phu La Lao - Bo Kho Pa group wear skirts, short pullover shirts with square collars, both embroidered and decorated with beads, and belts studded with mountain snail shells. Other groups wear trousers, long shirts split at the chest, or short shirts split at the armpit.
The shirt of Phu La Lao men is recorded as unique, with many beads attached at the back. The shirt has no buttons, usually only the hem is crossed to tighten the body before tucking into the waistband. Phu La men and women often carry cloth bags.
Social relations and clan organisation
Neighbourly relations are the dominant relationship in Phu La villages. During harvest days, families in the village often exchange labour and eat dinner together with the host. When a family has a major event such as a wedding, house building or funeral, they receive help from other village members.
A village has many different surnames, each divided into several branches. Besides surnames with Han, Sino-Vietnamese, Vietnamese and Thai sounds, there are also separate surnames in the ethnic language. Traces of totem worship in clans are especially clear in the Phu La Lao group. According to the Committee for Ethnic Minority Affairs, Phu La clan relations are not very tight.
Marriage and childbirth according to custom
Phu La boys and girls are free to court before marriage. In the evening, unmarried boys and girls gather to play at a friend's house and sleep in the guest room reserved for unmarried people. If they love each other, the boy may sleep with his sweetheart. After several nights, if both are truly satisfied, the girl returns to sleep at her own home, then at night her lover comes to sleep with her. Then come the usual proposal, asking and wedding ceremonies.
At weddings there is a custom of drinking wine and singing alternating verses to be allowed into the house to receive and escort the bride to the groom's and bride's homes. There is a custom of splashing dirty water and smearing soot on the faces of the groom's party before they leave, along with a return-visit custom 12 days after the wedding.
For childbirth, the mother gives birth in a sitting position. She may not sleep on the bed but must sleep on a straw mat. The placenta is buried under the bed or at the foot of a pillar under the floor, on the sleeping room side. After birth, the family avoids strangers entering the house for 3 days, marked by a conical hat placed upside down on a post in front of the door or a blackened post with leaves stuck outside the door. The naming ceremony is held 12 days after birth, led by a shaman. Each person is given two names, one used only to report to ancestors or in death rituals.
What is distinctive about Phu La worship customs?
A notable point in Phu La worship is the separate worship of male and female ancestors. Male ancestors are worshipped to bless health, while female ancestors bless crops. The new-rice ceremony is mainly offered at the female ancestor altar, represented by women, and women in the house eat first.
This division shows the role of women in the agricultural religious life of the Phu La. This is a difference from many other ethnic groups in the region, where worship is usually led by men.
In addition, the Phu La perform many agricultural rituals in fields. A new fishing net must also pass a ritual before use. Shamans hold an important position in society and are usually taught orally during the first-month and seventh-month Tet.
Festivals and main Tet occasions
The Phu La celebrate Lunar New Year, the fifth-month and seventh-month Tet, and the new-rice Tet. The village ceremony is usually held in the second lunar month each year.
The table below summarises the main festivals according to the Committee for Ethnic Minority Affairs:
| Occasion | Time | Main features |
|---|---|---|
| Lunar New Year | Start of the lunar year | The biggest Tet, also when shamans are taught orally |
| Village ceremony | Second lunar month yearly | A communal ceremony of the village |
| Fifth-month Tet | Fifth lunar month | One of the main Phu La Tet occasions |
| Seventh-month Tet | Seventh lunar month | A Tet tied to the harvest, also when shamans are taught |
| New-rice ceremony | Harvest season | Offered at the female ancestor altar, represented by women, women eat first |
Arts, games and spiritual life
The Phu La folk literature treasury is recorded as rich, with many fairy tales very close to Vietnamese motifs. The Phu La use horns and drums. Boys and girls enjoy singing love duets. The Phu La Lao group also know the xoe dance in the sound of Thai folk melodies.
Phu La children enjoy swings, shuttlecock, hide and seek, grass fighting and spinning tops. At festivals and Tet, even adults join the games with a manner described as very innocent.
The hearth is the centre of family life in the stilt house. When moving into a new house, the first and very sacred act is to light the fire and keep the flame on the hearth.
Why distinguish local groups from ethnic groups?
In writing about Vietnam's ethnic groups, distinguishing between an ethnic group and a local group is an important principle. The List of Ethnic Components of Vietnam recognises exactly 54 ethnic groups. Names such as Phu La Lao, Phu La Den and Phu La Han are local groups within the Phu La ethnic group, not separate ethnic groups.
This understanding helps avoid two common errors: first, splitting a local group into a separate ethnic group; second, merging groups with different cultural features into one uniform block. Differences between Phu La groups in clothing, transport or settlement are cultural differences within one ethnic group, not better or worse, right or wrong.
The Phu La in the wider picture of ethnic minorities
According to Nhan Dan newspaper on Vietnam's ethnic communities, the 53 ethnic minorities make up about 14.6% of the national population. Ethnic minorities often live in communities, interwoven with each other and with the Kinh. Ethnic minorities are mainly in high mountainous, border, remote and far areas, concentrated in the northern mountains, Central Highlands, North Central and South Central coasts, and the Mekong Delta.
In that context, the Phu La are among the groups with a modest population, living in the northern mountains. The traditional cultural values of many ethnic minorities, including the Phu La, are affected by socio-economic development, urbanisation and integration. Recording, studying and preserving cultural values such as language, clothing, worship customs and festivals is long-term meaningful work.
