The story of the buffalo horn in the wine drinking custom of the ethnic people in the highlands of Nghe An

Start the fun with a buffalo horn

In Nghe An, there are two communities that consider Ruou Can (a type of wine) an indispensable item in the home: the Thai and the Khmu communities. Each family keeps a few jars of wine in the house in case of important guests coming to visit, or for some spiritual rituals.

Accompanying the wine jar are straws called “hammers” or “xe”, and especially indispensable is a buffalo horn. The small, neat buffalo horn is always held carefully by a leader of the wine party, usually a young man. The Thai call the wine horn “phoong”, while the Khmu call it “huoi”. The horn is often drilled with a small hole at the pointed end to drain water, just like a funnel.

A fun time around the jar of rice wine of the Thai people in Nghe An. Photo: Huu Vi

According to a book by Dr. Vi Van An - working at the Vietnam Museum of Ethnology, in the past, the Thai people in Nghe An had the custom of drinking wine from a jar. In addition to the buffalo horn, the Thai people also used ladles and bamboo tubes to pour wine. However, in reality, the buffalo horn is the real tool for pouring wine from a jar of highland people. When starting a drinking competition, the leader pours water to fill a wine horn, covers the hole under the horn with his hand, and then shouts "cham muoi". After the shout, the leader releases his hand to let the water flow out, at the same time the competing group starts drinking wine. When all the water flows down and after the shout "thoi", the competing group also stops, giving the turn to the opposing group.

After one group has finished drinking, the leader pours water into the buffalo horn and then pours it into the wine jar until it is full. The next group competes in the same way. The winning group is the one who drinks more wine in the time it takes for the water to flow down one buffalo horn.

Writer Thai Tam once gave a subtle description of the custom of drinking Ruou Can in a book published in 2014. He wrote that, in the traditional custom of drinking Ruou Can, Thai people often use two types of buffalo horns to hold the wine.

“The small type is used for small jars of wine, called “hay bach” in Thai, and is only used in families; the large horn type, sometimes up to 2 spans long, is used for large jars. There are jars of wine that the person sitting on one side cannot see the person sitting on the other side,” said Mr. Thai Tam.

Pick the right horn, hold the left horn

According to the elders in Quy Chau district, the buffalo horn is used to pour rice wine for a simple reason, because the buffalo is a familiar animal to the mountain farmers and is also an easy-to-find item. When slaughtering a buffalo to prepare a feast or serve a certain ritual, people often pay attention to choosing the horn as the “phoong” of wine.

The Thai people in Chau Hoan (Quy Chau) often take the right horn of the buffalo and also create and draw crane, dragon, phoenix... motifs on the horn. When pouring wine, people often hold the buffalo horn with their left hand and turn the most beautiful part outward.

Photo: Huu Vi

For the Khmu community in Ky Son district, the use of buffalo horns in the custom of drinking wine also has certain principles. Mr. Moong Van Nghe - a famous person in the Khmu community in Nghe An shared: "In the custom of worshiping ancestors, or when having distinguished guests come to the house, as well as many other rituals, the Khmu people often open the wine bottle. When opening the wine bottle, the Khmu people must have a "phoong". If it is missing, the Khmu people's custom of drinking wine will lose a beautiful feature".

The Khmu have a traditional ritual called “phan th-rac” (buffalo slaughter) to worship their ancestors. During the buffalo slaughter ceremony, people often pay attention to cutting off the buffalo’s horns to make “phoong” wine. It is best to choose a buffalo that is about 3 years old, because at this age, the horns are shiny and more beautiful than older buffaloes.

In general, both the Thai and the Khmu people value the buffalo horn in the ritual of drinking Ruou Can. However, nowadays, many places use plastic cups and ladles instead of buffalo horn when drinking Ruou Can. This replacement is also reasonable because buffalo horn is not as easy to find as it used to be. Because of this, the Ruou Can parties no longer retain its traditional flavor.