Giáy

Denomination: Giáy.
Other names: Nhắng, Giẳng, Sa Nhân. Pu- Nắm, Chủng Chá, Pầu Thin.
Small local group: Pu Nà (Cùi Chu or Quý Châu)
Population: 50,000.
Language: Tày-Thái
Area of habitation:
Mainly in Bát Xát, Bảo Thắng and Mường Khương districts (Lào Cai province), Yên Ninh and Đồng Văn districts (Hà Giang province), and Phong Thổ and Mường Tè districts (Lai Châu province).
About 200 years ago, a number of Giáy families left China, their native place, to settle in the northern regions of Vietnam. Others followed them several decades later. The Giáy are also present in China in the community of Bố Y. The Giáy have many similarities with the Tày, Nùng, Thái and Bố Y in many aspects (mode of life, dressing.language, customs). Some Giáy villages are extremely similar to those of the said ethnic groups.

Material life
In general the Giáy live in houses-on-stilts. However those in Hoàng Liên Sơn and Lai Châu provinces have moved to houses built level with the ground, but with a raised drying space. Each family has, moreover, a secondary house constructed on the milpa, which serves as a dwelling for elderly persons who assume the task of looking after crops, and rearing poultry and other domestic animals. The traditional attire of Giủy women is the knee-length skirt, very different from their modern-day wear which is simpler and has less embroidery. Modern Giáy women wear trousers dyed in dark indigo with a red cloth band at the waist, and a five-panelled vest open on the side and buttoned under the right armpit. Around the collar and at the wrists, bands of brightly-coloured cloth are sewn and contrast with the indigo-coloured background. Giáy men wear large trousers with a belt to keep them in place and a vest buttoned at the front. Women have their hair wound round the head with rose-coloured threads, and left falling freely in a long plait. When going out, they like to take with them linen sacks decorated with embroidered stars.
Each year, the Giáy organize the Roóng poọc ceremony which marks the start of work in rice fields, similar to the Tày ceremony of “going to the field”. Ordinary rice is their staple food. The Giáy are well-versed in the techniques of cultivating rice in irrigated terraced fields. There is also a very efficient traditional system of mutual assistance. Besides rice-growing, slash-and-burn cultivation supplies corn, potatoes, cassava, gourd and vegetables. The Giáy rear buffaloes as draught animals, horses as pack- animals and for transport, and pigs and poultry which supply meat and ritual sacrifices. Buffaloes are allowed to wander half-freely in forest within an enclosure, when there is no agricultural work.
Handicrafts are under-developed among the Giáy, except for basketry. The Giáy make bamboo objects for family use. They weave cotton and patterned cloth with varied geometrical motifs, exclusively for family needs. A few artisans make ploughshares and silver jewellery.

Social and family relationships
In the Giáy community, class differentiation was fairly marked in the past. The head of the administrative unit equivalent to the commune was the Lý trưởng assisted by the Phó lý. Being in charge of the administration of several hamlets, they had many privileges. The income from cultivation of the communal land by different groups of population belonged to them. Services at the Lý trưởng’s house were provided by regional soldiers; other people were assigned with the growing of cardamom, the proceeds from which were vital for covering the expenditure on marriages and funerals. Some Lý trưởng maintained groups of dancers (xòe) to entertain guests at banquets and festivities held in honour of their superiors. Some hamlets comprised only five or six households governed by a Thôn trưởng (hamlet chief).
Peasants and other strata of the working population were subject to corvée and had to pay taxes (which were generally very heavy) and other tribute to the higher classes.
In Giáy regions, most of the fields constitute communal property. Private land is not important. This feature contributes greatly to giving the Giáy village the tightly-knit organization of a rural commune.
Each village has a “forbidden” forest called đoong xía (holy forest), where the biggest tree is also considered as sacred. The rituals of worshipping the village tutelary genie are conducted twice a year at the foot of this tree. The chief officiant is called pan can. The costs are covered with the income from part of the communal lands. During this ceremony, access to the village is forbidden to strangers. A bamboo is planted at the village entrance with a wattle where parts of the sacrificed animals are hung (ears of pigs or buffaloes, feet of chicken, or tufts of animal hair).
The Giáy live in the patrilineal and nuclear family. The husband decides all family affairs. The wife must obey the rule of “three obediences” (unmarried, she must obeys her father; married, her husband, and widowed, her sons). Marriage is based on the principle of purchase; it requires complex and costly rites to be performed at the families of both bridegroom and bride. Therefore, formerly marriage by “kidnapping” was common.
Giay women give birth in a squatting position, in a room where there is an altar set up specifically for the delivery. The placenta is buried under the woman’s bed. When the baby is a month of age, a ceremony is held to “inform” the ancestors about the birth, and to give it a name. The chief officiant writes on a piece of red cloth the horoscope of the new-born with the hour, day, month and year of its birth, according to the lunar calendar. (Horoscopes are consulted to ensure “age concordance” in choosing spouses and determining the moment of putting the dead into the coffin, and of burial). If the child is fragile, it is customary that a female sponsor or godmother be chosen. The latter should be good-hearted and have a happy life. The Giay believe that the souls of children who die young will be reincarnated. To prevent the reincarnation that no one wants, a mark should be made behind the child’s ear.
Custom requires that the dead should be kept in the house for three to five days before burial. The participants in the funeral procession walk rapidly, and sometimes even run for fear that the body of the deceased might be forcibly taken away, (although this can never occur!). Those who die a violent death are buried immediately. The Giay refrain from cutting their hair and shaving within 90 days in mourning for the father and 120 days for the mother. The ceremony to end the mourning period is always held before the Lunar New Year festival, irrespective of the date of death.
According to the Giay cosmogonic conceptions, the universe is composed of three layers; human beings live in the middle one. The upper layer - heaven - is also a paradise where beauty and glory prevail. The underground layer is considered the world of evils and sins.

Spiritual life
On the ancestral altar located in the central bay of the Giay house, there are usually many incense sticks vases, each intended for the worship of a deity (such as that of heaven, of earth, or the spirits of ancestors, the genie of hearth, of soil, and others).
The abundant cultural heritage of the Giáy reflects various aspects of traditional life. Numerous proverbs and maxims constitute a kind of moral code followed by everyone at will and appealed to whenever there is a dispute to be settled or anger to be appeased.
There are many legends, humorous tales, stories in verse and riddles, all rich in content. Folk-songs are popular with such genres as the vươn ná láu, vươn chăng hằm (alternate songs) and vươn sroỏììg răn (farewell songs).