Lesson 1: White Dragon, Blue Dragon and the Lau Mong people

Editor's note: The story of establishing a village, establishing a village, getting married cannot be without an umbrella, and throwing stones on the road is not allowed... these are interesting things about the Mong people. We would like to introduce the topic "Discovering the Mong community in Nghe An", aiming to introduce some useful and interesting things to readers...

(Baonghean) - The story goes that in the past, the Mong people of the Lau family did not know how to use fibers to weave cloth to cover their bodies. Two brothers discussed asking their parents, the Green Dragon and the White Dragon, who told them that they had to go to heaven to ask for flax seeds to plant, take the shell, and strip the fibers to weave into cloth.

Mong ancestors

The Mong people live in the districts of Que Phong, Tuong Duong and the most populous is Ky Son district. In this area, the Mong people mainly live in the communes of Na Ngoi, Muong Ai, Muong Tip, Ta Ca, Na Loi...; including purely Mong communes such as Muong Long, Huoi Tu, Tay Son, Dooc May, Nam Can... The Mong people live in the mountainous area about 1000m high, the climate is quite special so the culture and lifestyle of this community also have unique features that are difficult to overlap with other minority communities such as the Thai and Kho Mu people in the area.

Mr. Lau Xai Phia (right) tells a story about the Lau family.

Like other ethnic minority communities, the history of the Mong people is closely linked to legends, with their migration from the North to Vietnam from 300 years to about 100 years ago. These were struggles to preserve their habitat as well as on the way to find new habitats. These struggles have been mythologized through stories and the legend of the Lau Mong people in Nam Khien village (Nam Can - Ky Son) is a typical example that we heard during a recent field trip.

It was a sunny April afternoon when we met village elder Lau Xai Phia. Knowing that we would be riding motorbikes into the village, elder Xai Phia humorously reminded us about the steep slopes leading to the village: It is difficult to sit close together when going uphill, but it is even more difficult to sit far apart when going downhill. This is a way of thinking that only the Mong people can understand, and we have to travel on the road from the center of Nam Can commune to Nam Khien village. The old man spent nearly thirty years as the Party Secretary of this border commune. In the traditional Mong house in Nam Khien village, elder Xai Phia told us the legend of his ethnic community like a passionate speaker...

Legend has it: In the past, the Mong people lived in what is now China. At that time, people were still living in caves, and Heaven created a pair of Green Dragons and White Dragons. The Green Dragon was a female, the younger one, and the White Dragon was a male, the older one. At that time, the land was still very bumpy and chaotic. Heaven sent the White Dragon and Green Dragon down to level the land for people to settle down. The Green Dragon was a weak female, so she was assigned to level the flat land with less rocks and mountains, while the White Dragon leveled the high hills and rocky areas. The Green Dragon was hard-working and careful by nature, so she leveled the land very flat, while the White Dragon was playful and did it carelessly to get the job done, so it was bumpy and uneven. That is why there are plains and mountains now.

When the feat was completed, the two met on a mountain with high rapids bordering the two countries of Vietnam and China today. At this time, the White Dragon married the Blue Dragon and returned to the North to live in a cave. After 7 years of living together, the dragons gave birth to a fetus. After 7 months, the couple discussed abandoning the fetus outside to let it rot. But strangely, after 7 months, the fetus was still as fresh as when it was born. One night, the Blue Dragon saw a dream in which the sky told her that the fetus was the origin of the Mong people and ordered the fetus to be cut into 15 parts and put into different caves because it would later become 15 Mong clans.

3 months later, the Dragon couple saw smoke and fire rising from all 15 caves. The White Dragon told his wife: Go see why there is smoke and fire everywhere, is God burning something? The Green Dragon immediately built a rainbow bridge to the sky and looked down to see that each cave had a boy and a girl. They were the first people of 15 Mong clans, children of the Green Dragon and the White Dragon. The 15 clans included: Lau, Xong, Vang, Gia, Mua, Ha, Ly, Vu, Cu, Tho, Denh, Cha, Si, Lo, Khua.

Lau family, children of tiger

Legend also tells that the Hmong Lau family lived in the seventh cave. There were two people there, Lau Tu Vang (older brother) and Lau Gua Pa (younger sister). The two of them were still living in caves. They lived alone for 17 years. At this time, Lau Tu Vang had grown up so he asked his parents what to wear to cover their bodies. The Dragon couple immediately told them to go to heaven to ask for flax seeds to plant, then strip the fibers to weave cloth to make clothes. When they knew how to strip the fibers and weave cloth, the Lau brothers also knew how to grind stones to make knives and hoes, and then knew how to forge bronze and iron. When they had flax, Lau Tu Vang knew how to use flax fibers to trap wild animals for food and to domesticate them as pets. The older brother also used flax fibers to make crossbow strings for hunting. The two brothers went to ask for millet seeds to plant for food.

Nam Khien village of the Lau family.

One day, while setting traps in the forest, Lau Tu Vang was attacked and eaten by a tiger. The tiger took his clothes, disguised himself as his brother, and returned home to live normally with the girl. The younger sister became suspicious and asked. At this time, the tiger had actually eaten his brother and wanted to ask Gua Pa to be his wife. If she refused, she would have to share the same fate as her brother. The girl was scared and had to accept to be the tiger's wife. After 3 years, the couple had 2 sons. The older brother was Lau Pha, the younger brother was Lau Do. The mother and son specialized in clearing land for farming. When they went to the fields, because they were not human, the tiger was very afraid and did not dare to go with the mother and son, but only followed them on both sides of the road to protect them. One day, on the way back from the fields, the eldest son was mischievous and picked up rocks to throw at the bushes on both sides of the road. While protecting his family, the tiger was unfortunately hit in the head and fell down dead. The mother and sons did not see the tiger return, so they went to look for it and found it dead. They buried the tiger properly.

Since then, the Lau Mong people have always told their descendants not to throw stones on the road because they had killed their ancestors. Since then, whenever they slaughtered a cow for an offering, they had to save one leg for the tiger. They gathered three half-burnt sticks together and placed them on a chair to make a stand for the cow's leg. The Lau people remember that their ancestors were children of tigers, so whenever they slaughtered a cow for an offering, they had to give a portion to the tiger. They also abstained from eating tiger meat like the Thai people of Lu, Loc, Luong, and Quang.

On holidays and Tet, the Lau family put offerings of cow and pig intestines in 7 bowls, and hung 7 sets of clothes on the wall, including 3 sets of women's clothes and 4 sets of men's clothes. This symbolizes the location of the seventh cave, where the Blue Dragon and the White Dragon gave birth to the Lau Mong people!

(To be continued)

Huu Vi - Dao Tho