Cultural features of the Khmu community: Last article: When people return to the sacred forest

(Baonghean) - The Khmu people are born with rituals from naming, weddings, field worship, village worship... all have unique features that are hard to find in other communities. Even when a person passes away, their funeral also has very special rituals.

The Haunted Forests

Like the Thai, the Khmu live in villages along the hills, on the top or halfway up the mountain. The Khmu houses have lower floors than the Thai houses. Both communities have ghost forests (pa dong - Thai language), where the dead are buried. The souls of the dead also reside there. That is why people only enter the ghost forests to bury the dead. Normally, no one dares to go near them, even to collect firewood or when looking for lost cattle, people are very afraid to enter the cemetery forest.

In Khmu funerals, the sacrificial pig can weigh hundreds of kilograms.

Because of this, the cemetery forests are very well preserved and the scenic Sang Le forest in Tam Dinh (Tuong Duong) used to be such a cemetery. Because of that concept, the cemetery forest unintentionally became a sacred forest. The ghost forests surrounding the villages make the highland residential areas also become unusually mysterious.

During my visits to the Ban Ve Hydropower Reservoir (Tuong Duong District), I rarely missed the house of Mr. Lo Van Tan in Xop Chao Village, Luong Minh Commune. Mr. Tan is the "mo" of the Khmu community in the middle of this vast lake and is a storyteller with an attractive story line from beginning to end. Mr. Tan said that when people lie down, it is not because they have died, but because they have completed their mission in the human world, the Then gods call them back to the Heaven world. The body and a part of the human soul live in the ghost forest. That is the world reserved for the deceased that no one is allowed to violate.

Funerals are complicated and expensive.

For the Khmu people, when a person dies, it begins a ceremony filled with unique and somewhat strange rituals like many other festivals that we have had the opportunity to learn about. When someone has just passed away, people spread a mat in the outer room of the house. If the deceased is the pillar of the family, the person who directly worships the ancestors, then the feet are pointed inward toward the sacred kitchen. Later, this person will be the person worshiped by the family. If the deceased is the wife or descendant of the homeowner, then the head is pointed inward and the feet are pointed outward. This person will be sent to heaven with the ancestors. Later, when the family has a ceremony, they will be called back to attend the meal. This person is also the ghost of the house but is not invited to eat rice in the daily meals according to the customs of the Khmu community.

Mr. Cut Van Dao, a calm storyteller who lives in a stilt house on the bank of a stream in Ca Da village (Bao Thang - Ky Son), told me that: When a person passes away, there are many rituals. Depending on the family's conditions, the funeral may only involve slaughtering a few pigs or 2 or 3 cows, some families slaughter buffaloes. But first, the deceased is "fed" the first meal, which includes a boiled egg and sticky rice. The family prays: Now the person is about to go to heaven, eat to avoid hunger. Before putting the body in the coffin, food is dipped into the deceased's lips. Nowadays, people know how to use coffins, but in the past, people only wrapped the body in a few layers of mats, and kept it in the house for several days before carrying it out for burial.

In the past, when there was no custom of putting the dead in a coffin, every time a cow or pig was slaughtered, people would tie a thread to the left front leg of the sacrificial animal, and tie one end to the hand of the deceased with the intention of letting the spirit take it to heaven. Then the leg was cut off and placed next to the body. Before cutting off the leg of the sacrificial animal to take to heaven, people would pretend to hit the animal a few times with a stick. A wax candle was also lit to “guide” the deceased to take the offerings to prepare to go to heaven. Nowadays, beeswax has become scarce, people use incense instead of wax candles.

During the time the body is kept at home, people have to slaughter pigs, buffaloes, or cows three times a day to feed the deceased for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. This continues until all relatives and friends have come to visit the deceased before they can be taken to the cemetery forest for burial. Because of this custom, the funeral usually lasts up to three days. Many times the body of the deceased has an unpleasant smell. Nowadays, in remote Khmu communities such as Ca Da village, the funeral custom has been improved a lot. The longest people can leave it is only one day and one night. If a good time is chosen, the deceased can be buried on the same day.

Each person has 3 parts of soul

When burying the dead in the forest, people also bring the head of one of the animals that were sacrificed to the deceased to take to heaven. The head is burned, leaving only the bones. The burial ceremony usually takes place quickly, because a team has dug the grave beforehand. After the burial, everyone quickly returns home, not daring to look back for fear of ghosts following them. On the way back, no one forgets to pick a handful of forest leaves to call the spirits of the living family members so that they do not get lost. The number of leaves depends on the number of people in the family who participate in burying the deceased.

Returning home for the funeral, the participants in the burial were given a ceremony to call the spirits and pray for peace. The shaman cut the beak of a chicken to get its blood and called each person to stand in the ceremony area, smearing the chicken blood on their knees from top to bottom, then prayed: From now on, all bad luck will flow with this blood. Then the shaman cut the beak of a second chicken, smeared its blood on each person's knees from bottom to top, and prayed again for joy and health to flow with this blood.

Three days after the funeral, another ceremony was held. A dog was butchered. The dog's blood was used to pray for the safety of the family members. The deceased's wife, husband, and children were smeared with blood by the shaman on their knees, symbolizing happiness and prosperity. The dog's head was placed on a wooden stake and placed at the entrance to the cemetery. The dog's teeth were bared to threaten evil spirits not to return and disturb people's lives.

Mr. Dao said that the Khmu people believe that when a person dies, they have three souls. One part goes to heaven to live in the Then villages. One part stays in the forest where the deceased's grave is. The other part returns home to protect the lives of the living.

People also believe that those who commit bad deeds such as stealing while in the human world cannot return to heaven. They are left to wander in space like lonely ghosts. Those who commit good deeds while alive will have the gate opened by the Thens to enter heaven.

Article and photos:LIFE IS LONGEVITY