Who are the Xo Dang and where do they live?
The Xo Dang is one of the 54 ethnic groups of Vietnam. Under Decision No. 121-TCTK/PPCD dated 02/3/1979 of the General Statistics Office, this list identifies exactly 54 ethnic components nationwide, in which the Xo Dang is a separate component, also known as Kmrâng, Hđang, Con lan, Brila. The Xo Dang are not a single scattered local group but an ethnic group with several affiliated subgroups.
As for residence, according to the Committee for Ethnic Minority Affairs (now the Ministry of Ethnic Affairs and Religions), the Xo Dang live in Kon Tum province, the two districts of Tra My and Phuoc Son in Quang Nam, and Tay Son district in Quang Ngai, most densely in the Ngoc Linh mountain cluster. This is a high, fragmented mountain area where the residents of the Truong Son and Central Highlands have long settled. The subgroups Xo Teng, To Dra, Mnam, Ca Dong, Ha Lang, Ta Tri and Chau are distributed interwoven in the same area and have marriage, exchange and mutual contact relations.
The Xo Dang population changes with each survey. The Survey of 53 Ethnic Minorities dated 01/4/2019 recorded 212,277 people, while the 2009 Population and Housing Census recorded 169,501 people. When citing, the survey date should be stated clearly to avoid confusion.
Which language family does Xo Dang belong to?
Xo Dang belongs to the Mon-Khmer language group within the Austroasiatic family, close to Hre, Ba Na and Gie Trieng. Among Xo Dang subgroups there are some differences in vocabulary, reflecting the process of group separation and long contact with neighbouring ethnic groups. The script uses the Latin alphabet, formed only a few decades ago according to records from cema.gov.vn.
The linguistic closeness between Xo Dang and Hre, Ba Na and Gie Trieng shows a cultural and linguistic region of the northern Central Highlands and the central mountainous area, where ethnic groups both keep their own identity and share many common cultural motifs such as stilt houses, communal houses, woven baskets, gongs, and the custom of dividing property for the dead.
What does the traditional economy of the Xo Dang include?
The Xo Dang economy combines swidden farming, wet rice cultivation in some subgroups, animal husbandry, gathering, hunting and handicrafts. Swidden farming plays the leading role. Cultivation methods include felling trees with axes, machetes or billhooks, burning with fire, making holes and sowing seeds with sharpened sticks or sticks with iron tips, weeding with hoes with forked wooden handles and curved one-sided scrapers, and harvesting by hand-stripping rice.
Besides rice, the Xo Dang grow millet, maize, cassava, gourds, pumpkins, tobacco, melons, pineapples, bananas and sugarcane. The Ca Dong area grows cinnamon. Traditional livestock include buffalo, goats, pigs, dogs and chickens. Some groups cultivate wet rice, typically the Mnam, farming in a rudimentary way: driving buffalo herds to trample the soil and using wooden hoes, now with iron-bladed hoes. Weaving exists in many areas, blacksmithing developed among the To Dra with techniques of making iron from ore, some places know alluvial gold panning, and basketry developed to supply baskets, winnowing trays, baskets and many other items.
| Field | Recorded characteristics |
|---|---|
| Main cultivation | Swidden farming plays the leading role, some groups grow wet rice, the Mnam farm rudimentarily |
| Crops | Rice, millet, maize, cassava, gourds, pumpkins, tobacco, melons, pineapples, bananas, sugarcane, cinnamon in the Ca Dong area |
| Livestock | Buffalo, goats, pigs, dogs, chickens |
| Handicrafts | Weaving, blacksmithing (prominent among the To Dra), basketry, alluvial gold panning in some places |
| Means of transport | Baskets of many types: loosely woven, densely woven, with lids, without lids, with patterns, three-compartment bat-wing style baskets |
How do the Xo Dang live in their houses?
The Xo Dang live in stilt houses. Previously houses were long, often with the whole extended family living together, now separate households are common. The arrangement of houses in the village differs by area: some cluster around a communal house in the centre, others are built in tiers along the slope and have no communal house. House-building techniques mainly use mortise joints and tying with cords, each row of columns running along the house is linked into a column frame.
The difference between areas in housing and communal houses is a difference in custom, not that one place is more correct than another. The source cema.gov.vn clearly records that houses in the village are arranged according to the customs of each area, showing diversity within the same ethnic group.
How are traditional social relations organised?
Each Xo Dang village had a self-governing life, headed by the village elder. The village territory was common property, on which each person had ownership of farmland for their livelihood. Society had already formed rich-poor differentiation but without clear exploitation; according to the source, bought slaves and former servants were not treated harshly. Community relations in the village were highly valued, shown in the whole village sharing condolences and helping with funerals, and joining efforts to build houses and open swiddens.
What is notable about marriage and funerals?
Wedding customs are not entirely the same between areas. A common point is alternating residence, the couple living several years on each side, usually only settling in one place when the parents pass away. The wedding has rituals where the bride and groom feed each other chicken thighs, offer each other wine, and eat from the same tray of rice to symbolise their bond. The source states clearly that marriage is not commercial in nature.
As for funerals, the whole village shares condolences with the bereaved family and helps with the funeral. Coffins are carved from a single log. Ordinary deceased people are buried in the village's common cemetery. Specific customs are not entirely uniform between subgroups. The Xo Dang do not have the grave-leaving ceremony like the Ba Na and Gia Rai, but the custom of dividing property for the dead, including clothing, personal belongings, tools and household items, is widespread.
What conception underlies Xo Dang worship customs?
The Xo Dang believe in supernatural power. Spirits or ghosts are called Kiak (Kia), or called Ong, Ba, with only some places calling them Yang. Important spirits include the thunder spirit, sun spirit, mountain spirit, rice spirit and water spirit. The water spirit is embodied as a water serpent, or a giant eel, or a white-nosed pig. The rice spirit has the form of an ugly but kind old woman, often transforming into a toad.
This describes religious practice as a cultural practice, not to affirm or deny its efficacy. In life and swidden farming there are many rituals of worship to supernatural forces, focused on praying for harvests, peace, and avoiding risks for the community and individuals.
Why is the water spirit ceremony important?
The water spirit ceremony is tied to the annual repair of water channels. For swidden and field farmers, water is a vital condition, so rituals related to water are held solemnly and are among the most important ceremonies according to records from cema.gov.vn.
How is the rice spirit imagined?
The rice spirit is embodied as an ugly but kind old woman, often transforming into a toad. This image is tied to the farming cycle and harvest-praying rituals, reflecting the central role of rice in economic and religious life.
When do festivals and main rituals take place?
According to cema.gov.vn, important ceremonies include the water spirit ceremony on the occasion of annual water channel repair, the ceremony opening the new working year, opening the sowing season, when the rice reaches the girl stage, at harvest, ceremonies when sick, building a communal house, building a new house, and when children grow up. Many occasions of religious activity also carry the festive character of the village community, typically the ceremony before the sowing day, the water spirit ceremony and the buffalo sacrifice ceremony of the village as well as the family.
The ethnic Tet is held at different times depending on the village, usually in the solar January and lasting 3 to 4 days. The Xo Dang calendar is tied to the swidden cycle: a year has 10 months, each month 30 days, followed by a production rest period lasting until the new swidden season begins. Within a day there are specific named times. The Xo Dang distinguish good days and bad days, for example if maize is planted on the last day of the month there will be many grains, and if bamboo is cut for use it will not be weeviled. This way of counting the calendar shows local knowledge closely tied to the farming season.
What are Xo Dang arts and musical instruments like?
The Xo Dang have many kinds of musical instruments: fiddles, two-string fiddles, vertical flutes, the kloongbut percussion tube, drums, gongs, cymbals, horns, percussion tubes, and water-powered tube racks. Some are used for ordinary entertainment, some for festivals. The specific instruments and tunes differ somewhat between subgroups.
Popular singing styles include alternating songs of young men and women, singing by older people and lullabies. On some festival occasions, people perform dances: there are dances for men only, for women only, and dances in which both men and women take part. Xo Dang folktales are assessed by the source as rich and distinctive.
What are traditional clothing and cuisine like?
Men wear loincloths and go bare-chested; women wear skirts and blouses; in cold weather they use a cloth to cover the body. Previously many places had to use clothing made of tree bark. Now men usually wear clothes like the Kinh, women's blouses are also blouses and shirts, skirts of industrially woven fabric. Traditional Xo Dang fabric has a plain white fibre background or black, with few patterns mainly in black, white and red.
As for food, the Xo Dang eat plain rice and sticky rice with salt and chilli and foods obtained from the forest; only when worshipping is there meat from livestock and poultry. Common are soups cooked with vegetables or bamboo shoots mixed with meat, fish, snails and grilled dishes. They drink raw water, now many have boiled it, and jar wine. Wine made from duck-foot millet is recorded as tastier than wine made from rice or cassava. Some places have the custom of chewing betel and areca. Both men and women smoke tobacco; in some places people grind tobacco into powder and put it in the mouth instead of smoking it in a pipe.
What should be noted when learning about the Xo Dang?
First, Xo Dang is one ethnic group in the list of 54 ethnic groups, while Xo Teng, To Dra, Mnam, Ca Dong, Ha Lang, Ta Tri and Chau are local subgroups of this ethnic group, not separate ethnic groups. Second, many customs such as weddings, funerals and house arrangement are not entirely uniform between subgroups and areas; the source cema.gov.vn repeatedly states this difference. Stating differences is to describe reality accurately, not to rank the customs of one subgroup or area above another. Third, population figures depend on the survey date, so when using them the source and year should be cited clearly.
Another point to distinguish is the name. In different documents and materials, this ethnic group may appear under the name Xo Dang or Xe Dang, along with other names such as Kmrâng, Hđang, Con lan, Brila. The spelling may differ between documents, but all refer to the same ethnic group in the official list.
