Who are the Si La and how many are there?
The Si La are one of the 54 ethnic groups recognized in Vietnam, with the self-name Cu De Su and another name Kha Pe. According to the Survey of 53 Ethnic Minorities dated April 1, 2019, the Si La population is 909 people. Earlier, according to the 2009 Population and Housing Census, the figure was 709 people.
In the official list of Vietnam's ethnic groups, Si La is the official name, belonging to the group of small-population ethnic minorities. In the government list, the Si La are recorded as residing in Lai Chau.
Names and identification
The self-name Cu De Su is how the Si La refer to themselves. The other name Kha Pe is used by neighboring groups to refer to them. Distinguishing self-name from other name helps avoid confusion when consulting older documents, since many earlier texts used Kha Pe instead of Si La.
Where do the Si La live?
The Si La live in a few villages in Muong Te district, Lai Chau province. This is a mountainous area near the border with difficult travel. Their concentrated settlement in small village groups reflects the characteristics of a small community living close together for farming and kinship ties.
According to the Committee for Ethnic Minority Affairs, the Si La originated from migration from Laos. This is historical information recorded in documents introducing this ethnic group.
Houses and living space arrangement
The Si La live in earthen houses with two main rooms and two small lean-tos, with a veranda and one entrance. The altar is placed in the innermost left corner, with a small cup of wine and a gourd on it. The main hearth is in the middle of the house, with three stone cooking stones. The most important cooking stone is where ancestors reside, guarding the fire, with its back toward the altar.
This arrangement shows the hearth is not only for cooking but also a sacred space tied to beliefs about ancestors and family continuity.
What language group does Si La belong to?
Si La belongs to the Tibeto-Burman language group, and according to the Committee for Ethnic Minority Affairs, Si La is closer to Burmese. This language group is present in many countries in the region, and the closeness of Si La to Burmese is an indicator of this community's linguistic relations.
Previously, the Si La had no writing system. Production experience, customs, and folk knowledge were passed down orally or through direct practice. This is common among many small-population communities in the northern mountains.
Social organization and kinship relations of the Si La
Si La villages were formerly under the administration of Thai officials, with no class differentiation. Community solidarity was high. This is a social organization model common among small communities living intermingled within the influence of larger local political systems.
Kinship relations are quite close. There are many different surnames, with Ho and Po being the most populous. Because sharing a surname is believed to mean sharing ancient ancestors, and due to distant residence, people from one lineage can request to join another lineage to worship ancestors together.
Each lineage has its eldest person as head, regardless of senior or junior line. The lineage head plays a major role in regulating relations among members, in marriage, funerals, and in allowing people to leave or join the lineage. People of the same lineage may not marry each other.
Role of the lineage head
The role of the lineage head is not only as representative in rituals. The lineage head also regulates relations within the lineage, including deciding to let a person leave or join the lineage. This is a community management mechanism based on bloodline and age hierarchy, not class differentiation.
Worship customs of the Si La
Children worship deceased parents. Each altar must have a cup taken from the rice offering cup to parents on the funeral day. A family with how many sons has that many cups, all placed on the altar. When a son sets up his own household, he takes his cup to establish his own altar.
Worship of ancestors from the grandfather's generation upward is undertaken by the lineage head. This distinguishes family altars from the lineage's common altar.
Common lineage ancestor rite
Twice a year, at New Year and the new rice festival, the Si La hold a common ancestor rite at the lineage head's house. Offerings are distinctive: squirrel meat, crab, goby fish, a symbolic pipe of rice wine, a few rice ears, taro, and a bundle of bead-leaf. On the offering tray, no incense is used; instead, beeswax candles are lit.
Lineage heirloom worship items displayed on the altar include a drum, horse bells, a gourd, and a wine cup. When the lineage head dies, only after 3 years may the successor move these items to his own altar.
The altar rite and the rice spirit rite
The altar rite is the most important, praying for the whole village to be free from illness, and for pigs and chickens not to be taken by wild animals during the year. This ritual is tied to the life of the whole village community, not just one family.
Every 7 years, the Si La hold the rice spirit rite. In this rite, they use a fishing net and guiding rice to bring the rice spirit from the field to the village, into the house, and store it carefully on the rice granary. This ritual reflects the central role of rice in the community's economic and spiritual life.
Festivals and Tet of the Si La
The Si La New Year falls at the start of the 12th lunar month. They also celebrate the new rice festival. These two occasions are also the two times for the lineage's common ancestor rite, showing the link between the agricultural production cycle and the community's ritual cycle.
Forms of folk performance
The Si La sing courtship songs between young men and women and sing historical chants. Courtship singing is tied to youth activities, while historical chanting is a way of passing on history and community memory through song.
Marriage, childbirth and funeral customs
Boys and girls in love may be intimate, and the boy may sleep overnight at his beloved's house. The Si La have a double wedding custom. The first is bringing the bride to the groom's house. The second takes place after one year, when the groom's family gives the bride price to the bride's family.
Women give birth at home, in a sitting position. The placenta is placed in a bamboo tube, covered with a layer of hearth ash, and stood in the corner of the hearth until the child is named. Usually an elderly woman in the village is invited to name the child, wishing the child a long life. After naming, this woman seals the placenta tube with banana leaves, tying nine strips for a boy and seven for a girl, then hangs or buries it. The soul rite for the newborn is performed 3 days after naming.
The cemetery is usually below the village, and graves of the same lineage are often close together, with a taboo against placing graves far apart among different lineages. When suitable land is chosen for a grave, one hoe stroke is made and a piece of charcoal placed in it, marking the land as claimed. The next morning, the funeral house is built and the grave dug. The coffin is made from a hollowed half log. The rite to send the deceased's soul back to the old homeland at Mo U is performed. After burial, the bereaved family pours water to extinguish the hearth, takes all old charcoal outside, and only then relights the fire. The Si La have no reburial or grave-visiting custom. Mourning is shown by sons tying a tuft of hair on the crown, and daughters removing bracelets and necklaces.
Clothing and cuisine of the Si La
The Si La are used to eating both sticky and plain rice with forest vegetable soups as the main dish. Plant protein comes mainly from hunting and fishing. They like net bags woven from hemp thread. Women's bag straps are embroidered with colored thread. Bag weaving is women's work.
Unmarried Si La girls coil their hair around their head and wear a simple white scarf. When married, they bun their hair on top and wrap a dark indigo scarf. Women wear skirts, bare the midriff, and wear shirts buttoned on the right side. A striking feature is the chest panel covered with silver and aluminum coins. Collars and sleeves are decorated by attaching strips of different colored cloth. Skirts are black or indigo, tucked out at the back when worn. Headscarves distinguish age and marital status. Women often carry bags woven from hemp string.
Teeth dyeing is common, with men dyeing red and women dyeing black.
Transport and games
The Si La commonly use back baskets. They also know how to use boats and rafts on rivers. Si La children often play with toys made from bamboo, wood, or clay, and have group games.
Summary table of basic information about the Si La
| Criterion | Information |
|---|---|
| Self-name | Cu De Su |
| Other name | Kha Pe |
| Population | 909 people (Survey of 53 Ethnic Minorities, April 1, 2019) |
| Language group | Tibeto-Burman, closer to Burmese |
| Writing | Previously no writing system |
| Residence | A few villages in Muong Te district, Lai Chau province |
| Origin | Migration from Laos |
| House type | Earthen house, two rooms and two small lean-tos, veranda, one entrance |
| Main livelihood today | Rice and corn farming on fields, gathering plays an important role |
| Main festivals | New Year (start of 12th lunar month), new rice festival |
| Important rituals | Altar rite, rice spirit rite (every 7 years) |
Points to note when researching the Si La
First, different population figures across survey times are normal. The 709 figure in 2009 and 909 in 2019 reflect two different survey points, not a substantive contradiction.
Second, some documents use Kha Pe instead of Si La. When researching, both names should be checked to avoid missing information.
Third, the descriptions of customs here reflect records published in documents introducing the ethnic group. The scope is mainly the Si La community in Muong Te district, Lai Chau province. They should not be generalized to other communities without corresponding sources.
Fourth, religious practices such as ancestor worship, the altar rite, and the rice spirit rite are presented here as cultural practices of the community. Studying these practices helps understand the spiritual life of the Si La, and does not aim to affirm or deny the efficacy of the rituals.
