Life of 1 of 5 ethnic minorities in Vietnam

(Baonghean) - The O Du ethnic group is also known as the Tay Hat. According to the interpretation of the people, O Du in Thai means "very pitiful", "very pitiful"; and Tay Hat means "hungry and ragged people".

No one remembers when this ethnic group was named, but we only know that, if hundreds of years ago, a life of hardship and poverty was the identifying feature of the O Du people, then until now nothing has changed. The O Du people are still very poor and are facing the risk of losing their cultural identity.

Ethnic O Du students on their way to school. Photo: Phuoc Anh

Life in the new hometown

The O Du ethnic group is one of the five ethnic groups with the smallest population in Vietnam and currently lives mostly in Tuong Duong district. 11 years ago, to reach the O Du ethnic group, one had to take a swallow-tailed boat, cross the Nam Non river, and pass dozens of fierce waterfalls. In 2006, responding to the call for migration under the resettlement program to serve the Ban Ve Hydropower project, 308 O Du people living in 8 villages, 4 communes: Kim Da, Kim Tien, Huu Khuong, Huu Duong came to build a new life in Vang Mon village, Nga My commune. Now, the population of the O Du people in Vang Mon is 418 people, 100 households. The road to the new homeland of the O Du people is very convenient, over 60km of asphalt road connecting from the district center to the foot of the village.

Ms. Mac Thi Tim - Head of Vang Mon village, led us to visit the village and told stories. About their new home, the O Du people were very excited. The village is located close to the road, traffic and trade are convenient and easy. Thanks to that, the children of O Du go to school more diligently than before, the whole village now has 26 preschool children, 41 primary school children, about 25 children in middle school - high school and 12 children in university. "More than ten years ago, the road was long, the family was poor, the children were always on the verge of dropping out of school, who would have dared to dream of this result" - Ms. Tim said with a smile.

However, the new place also brought many difficulties. Dozens of resettlement houses built with cement, steel, red tiles, painted bright yellow were locked, most of the people built a thatched house next to it to live in. "Living in a house built with concrete is not familiar, it is very hot, and people have the habit of cooking inside the house, so it is very stuffy, hard to breathe" - Ms. Tim said. The female village chief led us to the house of Mr. Lo Dai Tinh - one of the households that had just escaped poverty in the village. Although they did not build a thatched house, no one in the family went upstairs to live, but instead they gathered straw and bamboo to make a 4-walled house at the foot of the house and gathered there.

Mr. Tinh's family has 6 mouths to feed, including 4 children and grandchildren of school age. Mr. Tinh is over 60 years old, his wife has been blind for many years and needs the care of others. Every year, the whole family depends on a few fields of corn and cassava, and the income in 2016 was only slightly higher than the poverty line. "Escaped from poverty but still just like a poor household, still very miserable. The family has 4 children of school age, there are many things to buy and worry about. This year, I'm afraid of falling back into poverty" - Mr. Lo Dai Tinh said.

Hunger is a common concern of many households in O Du. A few years ago, the rice support from Ban Ve Hydropower Plant for people after resettlement ended, while rice cultivation in this land did not yield significant harvests. "For example, sowing 1 ton of seeds sometimes yields less than 1 quintal of rice. This land cannot grow rice, only corn and cassava, but in this resettlement village, the land is limited, so if you want to grow more, you have to" - Village Chief Mac Thi Tim explained. Mr. Vi Van Dau - Chairman of Nga My commune gave a more specific figure: The current poverty rate in Vang Mon is 80%, the average income is about 2 - 3 million VND/person/year, 1 year of hunger up to 6 months!

Only 2 people in the whole village can speak the Edu language.

It is not easy to find an elderly person who understands the history and culture of the O Du ethnic group right in the place where this ethnic group lives. Life is too difficult, the life expectancy of the O Du people is lower than that of other ethnic groups in the area. The language of the O Du people gradually disappears with the elderly, now the whole village has only 2 people who know the O Du language. "But I only know about 30 - 40%, to speak in the O Du language, I still have to add Thai and Vietnamese" - said Mr. Lo Thanh Binh (born in 1948) - 1 of the 2 people who know the O Du language.

In addition, the customs and practices of the O Du people are not preserved much today. The O Du people have a thunder celebration ceremony "cham phtrong" around January and February every year; the typical dishes that must be included in the Tet offering tray are pa bao and lemongrass-smuggling wine. The people of Vang Mon village said that they do not have their own musical instruments; do not have folk songs or dances; and as for their costumes, they only vaguely remember the style because no one has made them for a long time. Now, the communication and daily living habits of the O Du people are similar to those of the Thai and Vietnamese people.

“No one in the village now knows how to speak the O Du language. When they grow up, they go to school and work far away. The O Du people only have one family name, “Lo”, and people in the same family are not allowed to marry each other, so the village’s daughters-in-law and sons-in-law are all Thai or Khmu. Therefore, customs and practices cannot be preserved,” said village chief Mac Thi Tim. Even village chief Tim is also Thai, and married the O Du more than 20 years ago. No one in her family knows how to speak the O Du language, she only found a set of clothes left by her grandparents and kept it as a family heirloom to remind her children and grandchildren.

Secretary of the Vang Mon village Party cell in traditional O Du costume. Photo: Canh Nam

Restoring and practicing the O Du language is the desire of many elderly people in the village. It is known that many years ago, the Provincial Ethnic Committee coordinated with the People's Committee of Tuong Duong district to organize 2 language classes for the O Du people, but due to financial difficulties and difficulties in selecting teachers, they have not been implemented regularly and continuously. Most recently, on August 22, 2017, the Provincial People's Committee approved the Project to support the socio-economic development of the O Du ethnic group in Nghe An province for the period 2016 - 2025, with an initial estimate of 120 billion VND.

Mr. Tran Nhat Phuong - Head of the Ethnic Policy Department, Provincial Ethnic Committee said that the project is currently waiting for funding. The most difficult thing now is to preserve the language of the O Du people, and it is planned to invite the O Du people from Laos to teach. Not yet specifically implemented, but initially this information is also lighting up hope for hundreds of O Du people about solutions to improve their socio-economic life and preserve their cultural identity in the near future./.

Phuoc Anh - Canh Nam