Cultural features of the Khmu community - Lesson 2: Guests entering the house are not allowed in the kitchen

(Baonghean) - In a Khmu house, there are two kitchens, one of which is a taboo kitchen that strangers, even married daughters, are not allowed to enter. Anyone who violates this prohibition will have to slaughter a pig to bring good luck to the homeowner.

"House ghost" in the kitchen

The story of this taboo kitchen must begin with the story of building a house, which is also very important for a mature Khmu man. In a long story with us, Mr. Moong Pho Hoan, Secretary of the Party Committee of Bao Thang Commune (Ky Son) said so. Mr. Hoan's residence is in Cha Ca 1 village, the center of Bao Thang Commune.

The sacred kitchen in Mr. Xeo Pho Manh's house in Bao Thang commune (Ky Son)

As the highlanders say, Mr. Moong Pho Hoan just turned 49 this year but has been a father for more than 20 years. As a Khmu man, Mr. Hoan understands that after getting married, the most important thing for a man is to build a house. However, for a key official in the commune like him, it took nearly 20 years to complete this important task. However, it is still a great joy because it is a spacious stilt house that not everyone in the community can easily have. The reward of 20 years of hard work can be considered worthy, even though Mr. Hoan only recently received his new house. Like many other Khmu men, he is proud of his house. Highlanders will understand this pride because to have a stilt house is the feat of the whole village community, not just the owner himself or his family.

Buffalo head in the kitchen of Mr. Moong Pho Hoan in Bao Thang commune.

In the new house that still smelled of wood, Mr. Hoan talked enthusiastically about the house of a Khmu man. It was not only a place where people lived, but also a “ghost” had its own space in the house. Of course, it was the “house ghost”. The Khmu “house ghost” lived in a kitchen built specifically for the sacred. It was a special forbidden place in the house. Outsiders, even married daughters, were absolutely not allowed to go there. Only on the one day the family held a buffalo-eating ceremony for the ancestors were outsiders allowed to go there.

Being a knowledgeable person, Moong Pho Hoan did not take taboos too seriously. He opened the door of the modern wooden room and invited us to visit. In the room there was a taboo kitchen. According to him, as long as a family member accompanied us, strangers could visit this sacred kitchen. We had been to many Khmu houses in remote villages and still had to admit that the owners had a very progressive concept, because in other houses, they would only allow us to stand outside and put our hands through the kitchen door to take pictures.

In the kitchen, in addition to cooking utensils such as tripods, sticky rice tools, cutting boards, etc., jars of rice wine are indispensable. Next to the clay stove is a “homeowner” pillar made of wood or bamboo. The pillar is where the soul of the homeowner resides. In the kitchen, there is also a dried buffalo head with its horns still intact. Only houses that have performed the “buffalo eating ceremony” (which will be discussed in the next article of this topic) have a buffalo head in the kitchen.

For those who are strictly taboo, even family members are only allowed to enter this kitchen on the death anniversary of their parents. According to our research in some areas such as Keng Du commune (Ky Son), this taboo kitchen is also used on the occasion of the New Year's Day or to welcome the new year, which the Khmu people call "gơ rô". As for Mr. Hoan and his wife, they always go in and out of this "forbidden area". They even put a bed next to the kitchen. According to Mr. Hoan, as the owner of the house, he can go in and out of this room at any time.

Why is there a ban?

During our field trips to learn about Khmu culture, we always asked this question but did not get a thorough answer. People only knew that it was forbidden by their ancestors and they had to obey. Until one day, when we arrived at Cha Ca 1, the center of Bao Thang commune (Ky Son), we met Mr. Xeo Pho Manh, a prestigious elder and also the shaman of the village who often presided over the village temple worship ceremony. In this topic, we will also return to this character and the village worship ceremony, an important ritual of the Khmu people in Bao Thang commune, Bao Nam, Ky Son district.

Mr. Xeo Pho Manh said: In the past, the Khmu and Thai people lived together along the river. They always had to fight with this community and other ethnic groups to protect their villages and survive. However, they still maintained peace with other ethnic groups to live together in harmony. That is why today the Khmu people still live together with the Thai and Mong people.

In those days, the Khmu and Thai people lived along rivers and streams. The Thai people traveled by boats made of buffalo hide, while the Khmu people used wooden boats. Then one day, they thought that the Thai people's boats were edible, but their wooden boats were not, so the Khmu people discussed with the Thai people to exchange the wooden boats for buffalo hide boats. Having an "edible" boat, on the way, they occasionally cut off a piece of skin, grilled it over hot coals, and put it in a pot to cook "nhooc". When they returned to the shore, the boat was gone. With no more boats, the Khmu people no longer lived near the river. They moved to live in the high mountains.

While leaving the river area to the Thai people, the Khmu people always noticed that they often slaughtered buffaloes and ate lavishly whenever there was a festival or ancestor worship day. On such days, the Khmu people usually only slaughtered chickens, at most, pigs. Asking for the reason, we learned that the Thai people had many different surnames, including the Moong, Cut, Pit, Xeo, Chich, Oc, Hoa... of the Khmu people today. They thought that if they wanted to have the opportunity to slaughter buffaloes and eat, they had to have these surnames as their own. At first, people thought they had to exchange something for a certain surname, but then they realized that this method was not good. The Thai people still used silver bars to buy noble surnames, but the Khmu people did not want that. In the end, people came to the agreement that they had to steal.

During a festival, when the Thai people had eaten and drunk enough, they began their “plan”. The Khmu people discussed going into the Thai people’s altar to steal the Moong, Chich, Xoe, Cut, Pit, Oc, Hoa… After stealing, they slaughtered a buffalo to celebrate and hid it in the kitchen. Those who had their things stolen hurriedly searched for them but could not find them. To prevent others from finding what had been stolen, the Khmu people set a rule that forbade outsiders from entering their taboo kitchen. If anyone violated, they would have to slaughter a pig to offer to the homeowner.

It is also believed that this is the reason why nowadays, there are few Thai people with the family names Moong, Cut, Chich, Xeo, Pit, Oc, Hoa... anymore. Since then, during the major holidays of the Khmu people, they have the custom of slaughtering buffalo to worship their ancestors.

Of course, this is just an explanation of the Khmu people about their customs. The above story is simply a legend with fairy tale colors, but it also helps us to imagine a distant past about the social life of ethnic minority communities in the highlands.

Article and photos:LIFE IS LONGEVITY