Tho people in Nghe An
The Tho ethnic group is one of the ethnic groups living together with the Kinh and Thai ethnic groups in the ethnic community in the northwestern mountainous region of Nghe An, with a population of about 80,000 people, living mainly in the districts of Nghia Dan, Quy Hop, Tan Ky and Thai Hoa town, settling from about the 15th to the 18th century.
(baonghean.vn) -The Tho ethnic group is one of the ethnic groups living together with the Kinh and Thai ethnic groups in the ethnic community in the northwestern mountainous region of Nghe An, with a population of about 80,000 people, living mainly in the districts of Nghia Dan, Quy Hop, Tan Ky and Thai Hoa town, settling from about the 15th to the 18th century.
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The Tho people have many clans, of which the Truong clan is a large clan that occupies the majority in the community, followed by the Le, Nguyen, Pham clans...
The life of the Tho ethnic group is mainly agricultural production, growing rice and raising livestock. The typical production tool is the "plow nai" (narrow rod) similar to the lime plow of the Kinh people. In addition, there is a stick to poke holes for planting seeds, "can cone", "tamp roi" - These are typical tools of the slash-and-burn farming method. In addition to raising livestock and agricultural production, the Tho people are also very good at hunting and fishing. Since ancient times, they have hunted collectively with simple traps such as traps, nooses, nets... which can catch even large animals such as elephants, tigers, wild buffaloes... The end of the hunting session is the division of the hunted wild animals to all families in the village regardless of rich or poor. The Tho people are also very good at fishing in ponds, lakes, rivers and streams. Fishing with a variety of typical fishing tools such as nets, nets, scoops... is considered a traditional profession. In particular, all the tools used in fishing are handmade by them.
In the past, the Tho people lived in stilt houses and thatched earthen houses like the Kinh people. The Tho people's stilt houses are similar to the Muong people's stilt houses in the Northwest and Viet Bac regions. Nowadays, most of them live in lowland-style earthen houses, but the arrangement of the houses still follows their ethnic traditions. The Tho people do not have the custom of growing cotton and weaving... their clothes are often traded with the Thai and Kinh people, so the Tho people's costumes are not uniform and do not have their own identity. Men often dress like the Kinh people, women have differences depending on the region, some places wear Thai skirts, long skirts with stripes on the skirt (Quy Hop, Tan Ky areas and some localities in Nghia Dan and Thai Hoa town such as Dong village, Dong village...). Some places have women's skirts like those of the Kinh people (Lam La - Nghia Dan area). The Tho women's shirts are usually 5-panel brown or white shirts similar to those of the Kinh people.
Unlike the Kinh and Muong people, marriage in the Tho ethnic community is usually intra-family marriage. This marriage system can be seen as the highest expression of the consciousness of strengthening the community in the conditions of living intermingled with other ethnic groups. In the past, there were many bad customs such as living with the son-in-law, taking a concubine... now abolished. Currently, some Tho ethnic groups in Nghia Dan, Quy Hop and Tan Ky still have the custom of "sleeping on the roof" - a form of making friends, going to find a lover. Usually when a boy or girl reaches the age of marriage, with the permission of the girl's family, the boy goes to "sleep on the roof" at the girl's house - the person he chooses to get to know. During the "sleeping on the roof" night, boys and girls have the right to freely confide in each other in a healthy way. The custom condemns and severely punishes vulgar and ambiguous behaviors during the "sleeping on the roof" night. After the night of "sleeping under the roof", if the boy and girl agree to marry, they discuss the steps to perform the required rituals such as asking for a matchmaker (Mr. Pin), then regular visits, then the proposal and marriage request...
Bearing the mark of multi-ethnic coexistence, the Tho people worship gods. Almost every Tho village has temples to worship the gods and village guardian spirits all year round. Some villages worship up to 15 gods. Each profession worships a god with its own rituals. Religious practitioners - monks - have a fairly high position in the community. The people believe that all things have souls. When someone is sick, people worship the "mother's soul" and tie a "soul bracelet" around the patient. Usually, during the worship sessions, the shaman uses the word "Cửu" to pray. The Tho people attach great importance to the New Year's ceremony of going to the fields (bending the foundation), the New Rice ceremony, the New House celebration... with solemn rituals. Every year, on the occasion of the ceremony of going to the fields, the village chooses a healthy man who is doing well in business and has a light soul to be the first person to make the first stab and also the person to poke the first hole to plant the seeds (called the seed master).
Like many other ethnic groups in the large family of Vietnamese ethnic groups, the Tho people have many legends and fairy tales bearing their national imprints that have been passed down through generations in the style of "telling bitter" (storytelling) such as the Legend of Chan Danh Slope, The Sticky Rice Stone, Cat and Kites... Almost every village has a few people who can "tell bitter" very expressively. In their culture, the Tho people still preserve and popularize many unique folk songs and dances bearing their own distinctive characteristics such as Du du dien dien, En en-Ac ac, Thuom singing, teasing singing, last singing, dam singing... bamboo pole dancing, conical hat dancing...
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Along with traditional musical instruments such as flutes and panpipes, the Tho people also have their own ethnic musical instruments such as the Tho lute (similar to the Kinh people's Dan Day). In particular, the Tinh Tang lute is made from a bamboo tube with two strings made from the same bamboo strip and stretched right on the surface with a pitch adjustment scale, used by tapping on it with a small bamboo stick covered with cloth at one end, giving a very nice sound. From this simple musical instrument, currently, some Tho ethnic artisans in Quy Hop have improved it into a set of 8 long and short tubes according to the scale, with the same usage as the Tam Thap Luc lute... Almost every family and clan of the Tho people in Nghe An has a set of gongs preserved by generations with a very unique way of using the artisans, expressed through rhythmic sounds and lively dances depicting activities in daily life.
Article and photos: Le Ba Lieu
