The Tho people in Nghe An
The Tho ethnic group is one of the ethnic groups living interspersed with the Kinh and Thai ethnic groups in the mountainous northwestern region of Nghe An province. With a population of approximately 80,000 people, they mainly live in Nghia Dan, Quy Hop, Tan Ky districts and Thai Hoa town, having settled there from around the 15th to the 18th centuries.
(baonghean.vn)The Tho ethnic group is one of the ethnic groups living interspersed with the Kinh and Thai ethnic groups in the mountainous northwestern region of Nghe An province. With a population of approximately 80,000 people, they mainly live in Nghia Dan, Quy Hop, Tan Ky districts and Thai Hoa town, having settled there from around the 15th to the 18th centuries.
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The Tho people have many clans, among which the Truong clan is a large one, accounting for the majority in the community, followed by the Le, Nguyen, and Pham clans, etc.
The life of the Tho ethnic group is primarily based on slash-and-burn agriculture, rice cultivation, and livestock farming. Typical farming tools include the "nài plow" (nọn plow), similar to the lime-tipped plow of the Kinh people. They also use a stick to poke holes for planting seeds (nón plow) and a "tắm rói" (a type of stick used for planting seeds) – typical tools of slash-and-burn farming. Besides livestock and agriculture, the Tho people are also skilled hunters and fishermen. Since ancient times, they have hunted collectively using simple traps such as snares, snares, and nets, capable of catching large animals like elephants, tigers, and wild buffalo. After each hunt, the meat of the hunted animals is shared among all families in the village, regardless of wealth. The Tho people are also very adept at fishing in ponds, lakes, rivers, and streams. Their traditional fishing methods, using various characteristic tools such as seine nets, traps, and scoops, are considered a long-standing practice. Notably, all the tools used in their fishing work are handmade by them.
In the past, the Tho people lived in stilt houses and thatched-roof houses on the ground, similar to the Kinh people. The stilt houses of the Tho people are similar to those of the Muong people in the Northwest and Northeast regions of Vietnam. Nowadays, most live in houses on the ground in the style of the lowlands, but the interior layout still follows their traditional customs. The Tho people do not have the custom of growing cotton or weaving cloth… their clothes are usually bought and sold with the Thai and Kinh people, therefore, the clothing of the Tho people is not uniform and lacks a distinct identity. Men usually dress like the Kinh people, while women's clothing varies depending on the region. In some places, they wear Thai skirts, long skirts with striped hems (in Quy Hop, Tan Ky, and some localities in Nghia Dan and Thai Hoa town, such as Dong village, Dong village...). In other places, women's skirts are similar to those of the Kinh people (Lam La - Nghia Dan). The blouses of Tho women are usually five-panel blouses in brown or white, similar to those of the Kinh people.
Unlike the Kinh and Muong people, marriages within the Tho ethnic community are typically intra-clan marriages. This marriage system can be seen as the highest expression of community cohesion in a living environment interspersed with other ethnic groups. In the past, many outdated customs such as the son-in-law living with the wife's family or taking a second wife have been abolished. Currently, some Tho ethnic groups in Nghia Dan, Quy Hop, and Tan Ky still practice the custom of "sleeping under the roof"—a form of courtship and courtship. Usually, when a boy or girl reaches marriageable age, with the girl's family's permission, the boy goes to "sleep under the roof" at the girl's house—the one he has chosen to get to know. During this "sleeping under the roof" night, the boy and girl have the freedom to confide in each other in a healthy way. The custom condemns and severely punishes any vulgar or suggestive behavior during this "sleeping under the roof" night. After the "night of sleeping together," if the boy and girl agree to marry, they discuss the steps to perform the mandatory rituals, such as hiring a matchmaker (Mr. Pin), followed by regular visits, then the formal proposal and asking for the marriage...
Bearing the mark of a multi-ethnic community, the Tho people worship deities. Almost every Tho village has temples and shrines dedicated to the worship of various gods and village guardian spirits year-round. Some villages worship up to 15 deities. Each profession has its own deity, with specific rituals. Those engaged in religious professions – the monks and priests – hold a relatively high position in the community. The people believe that all things have souls. When someone is ill, they perform a ritual to appease the "spirit of the midwife" and tie a "spirit amulet" around the patient. During these rituals, the shaman usually uses the Cuoi language to chant prayers. The Tho people highly value the New Year's rice planting ceremony (cau mom), the new rice offering ceremony, and the housewarming ceremony, with solemn ceremonies. Every year during the rice planting ceremony, the village selects a strong, prosperous, and light-spirited man to make the first cut with a knife and also to plant the first seeds (called the seed master).
Like many other ethnic groups in the Vietnamese ethnic family, the Tho people have many legends and folk tales that bear the distinct mark of their ethnic identity, passed down through generations in the style of "storytelling," such as the Legend of Chanh Danh Rock, the Sticky Rice Stone, the Cat and the Kite, etc. Almost every village has a few people who can tell stories very expressively. In their culture, the Tho people still preserve and popularize many unique folk songs and dances with distinctive characteristics such as Du Du Dien Dien, En En- Ac Ac, Thuom singing, teasing singing, final singing, and dam singing, as well as bamboo pole dancing and conical hat dancing.
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Along with traditional instruments like flutes and mouth organs, the Tho people also have their own unique instruments such as the Tho lute (similar to the Kinh people's dan day). Particularly noteworthy is the Tinh tang lute – a type of lute made from a bamboo tube with two strings made from stripped bamboo strips and stretched directly over a pitch-adjusting surface. It is played by striking it with a small bamboo stick wrapped in cloth at one end, producing a beautiful sound. From this simple instrument, some Tho artisans in Quy Hop have improved it into a set of eight tubes of varying lengths, similar to the Tam Thap Luc lute… Almost every family and clan of the Tho people in Nghe An has sets of gongs and drums preserved by generations, with the artisans using them in a very unique way, expressing the rhythms and lively dances depicting daily life activities.
Text and photos: Le Ba Lieu
