Indigenous groups

There are several indigenous groups in Vietnam and they are Lahu, H'mong, Akha, Mnong, Koho, Ede and Mien. I will be focusing on Ede, Koho and Mnong.

The Ede (Degar)

The Ede is the indigenous people of the Central Highlands of Vietnam. They are among the most economically prosperous of Vietnam's ethnic minority peoples. Of all the "montagnards" (mountain people in French) from the Central Highlands area of the former South Vietnam, the Ede was the most numerous in terms of co-combatants alongside US forces. Today, around 200,000 Ede live in the Central Highlands and mainly in the province of Dac Lac. Ede’s language family is Austronesian and their language branch is Malayo-Polynesian.

Like all the other ethnic minority groups in Vietnam, the Ede has to use their houses not only as shelter but also to play the role of church. This is because the Ede (mainly Protestant), like all ethno linguistic minorities, are forbidden by the Vietnamese government from constructing any building in their villages whose sole purpose is for religious worship. Today, there are many first-generation American Ede and most of them live in the State of North Carolina. Few of them speak Ede but are natively fluent in American English.

The Mnong

The Mnong comprise around 67,000 people in Vietnam's Central Highlands and around 20,000 in Cambodia's Mondolkiri province. Although these two populations belong in the same ethno linguistic classification, each of their dialects is not understood by the other. Their language family is Austroasiatic and their language branch is Mon-Khmer.

The Mnong was once a part of the mighty Kingdom of Champa, which ruled this part of the World between the second and fifteenth centuries. Today, they are the ruled instead of the ruler. The ownership and ruling of land plays a strong role in Mnong cultural heritage. Their rulers, in various forms, have included French colonialists, the US army and, most recently, the Khmer and the Viet. Many Mnong villages have been displaced over the years by this turn in fortune, resulting in loss of land, livestock and other wealth.

The Mnong are notable for many reasons. Whereas most peoples in this part of the World abandoned domestication of elephant after very few attempts, the Mnong have been successful at it. They also hunt elephant, another rare practice in Southeast Asia. Snake is also commonly hunted but sold more often than eaten by the Mnong. They are also the originators of one of the World's oldest musical instruments - the lithophone which is made of stone this instrument resembles a xylophone and is played only during certain ceremonies.

The Koho

The Koho are among the poorest of Vietnam's indigenous minority peoples. Traditionally slash-and burn farmers, they settled in the southern part of the fertile Central Highlands area of Vietnam centuries ago, mainly in the area around what is now the modern city of Dalat - a former French colonial outpost. Indeed, Chicken Village, just outside Dalat, is probably the best-known, most easily accessed and with most tourist in all of Vietnam.

Today there are around one hundred thousand Koho in Vietnam's Central Highlands - around 10% of the indigenous population in the area. At home, they still mainly speak their own, indigenous language, despite their children now being schooled exclusively in Vietnamese. However, other forms of Koho past tradition, such as their clothing and stilted, bamboo-walled longhouses, are much harder to find these days.

The Koho are a matrilineal society; children carry the family name of the mother. It is the traditional rite of a young girl in Koho society to choose her husband. Once she has made her choice, she communicates that choice to her parents. After the marriage the man remains in his wife's village. All other aspects of Koho socio-economic and socio-political life are determined by the males of the community.