Kháng
Denomination: Kháng.
Other names: Xá Khao, Xá Đón, Xá Tú Lăng...
Small local groups: Kháng Dâng, Kháng Hốc, Kháng Đón, Kháng Xúa, Kháng Ái, Kháng Bung, Kháng Quảng Lâm
Population: about 10,000
Language: Môn-Khmer
Area of habitation: in Thuận Châu, Quỳnh Nhai, Mường La districts (Sơn La province), Phong Thổ and Mường Tè districts (Lai Châu province), Mường Lay and Tuần Giáo districts (Điện Bien province).
Material life
The Kháng have long settled in the north-west of Vietnam. They live mostly in houses-on-stilts; those who lead a sedentary life-style construct solid houses with three compartments and two- sided roofs, the ends of which are shaped like tortoise carapaces.The Kháng grow cotton but are not familiar with weaving. They exchange raw cotton for cloth or garments made by the Thái. Married women wear their hair in a knot atop their head. Men let their hair fall freely to the shoulders or wear it in a knot at the back of the neck.
Sticky rice is their staple food; supplemented by plain rice, corn, sweet potatoes, cassava root, peanuts, gourds plans, sesame and millet. The sedentary groups cultivate rice in submerged fields but they do not give up slash- and-burn farming entirely. Non-sedentary groups practise only swidden cultivation. Like other ethnic groups, they use sticks to dig holes for seeds. Mutual assistance in work is a tradition which is manifested in different forms and to different degrees. In small hamlets at harvest time, the crop is brought in for one family after another. Each family sends some of its mem-‘ bers to help another and is repaid in the same way. In larger hamlets mutual aid teams are often formed.
The Kháng rear chickens, ducks, pigs and goats for meat, and buffaloes as draught-animals. Until recently, horses were raised as a means of transport. Food gathering has become less important thanks to developed cultivation.
Fishing with rods and nets is widespread. Along the Đà River the Kháng practise both fish-rearing and catching. They are skilled at making traps, snares, tree-trunk canoes; they also use cross bows and flintlocks for hunting.
Social and family relationships
Formerly, the Kháng lived under the phìa-tạo regime of the Thái and they were peasants subject to the Thái feudalists. Except for hamlet chiefs and sorcerers who lived a relatively decent life, the great majority were poor and lived in misery. The hamlet chief was designated by Thái notables in exchange for a certain amount of silver. He had two assistants, the Quan tang who was in charge of levying corvée and preparing tributes, and the Quan téng or liaison agent.
The Kháng family is small and patrilineal but it has some matrilineal vestiges. While a man is alive, his children take the family name of their mother, or his sons adopt that of the father, and the daughters, that of the mother. The maternal uncles of both father and mother play an important role in marriage. After maưiage, the husband comes to live with his wife's family for eight to twelve years. Generally, after two or three years, the husband's family organizes the tu bày hạp ceremony. When the matrilocal period ends, it has to hold the plót Ún nlìá ("return to the house") to welcome the bride. When a person dies, all the hamlet participate in the funeral. The body is wrapped in a piece of cloth or in a mat and taken to the cemetery where it is placed in a coffin and buried. The funeral house constructed afterwards has six frail columns supporting a two-flapped roof. The construction materials are taken from the house of the deceased. It is where common utensils, food and water are placed for his/her use. The ancestral altar is set up in the dwelling house near the bed of the head of the family. The ceremony of worshipping is performed once every three years.
Spiritual life
The Kháng believe that each person has five souls. The principal soul is located in the head and the others in the limbs. After death, the principal soul remains in the house to look after its descendants; the soul of the right arm becomes the spirit of milpas; that of the left arm, the spirit of the tree used to make the coffin; that of the right foot the spirit of the funeral house, and that of the left foot, the spirit of Heaven. Likewise, each object also has its spirit (forests, streamings, hamlets and so on). In case of illness, sacrifices to deities are made. Every year, all the hamlet celebrate together the cult of the spirits of earth and heaven in order to pray for good health and a bumper crop. Believing in the existence of the soul of rice, they observe several taboos and perform rites on some occasions: when land is selected; at sowing time, when the rice begins to ripen, and before the harvest.
Popular literature is fairly rich. Folk-songs reflect love for life, noble sentiments and, at the same time, the sufferings of the oppressed people living under the phìa-tạo regime. Noteworthy are the novels in verse such as Khun Phai Nàng Mương and Khun Lú Nàng ủa praising faithful love, and the legend of Khun Cọ, a typical popular hero struggling for freedom and happiness.Great lovers of music, the Kháng produce simple but imaginative musical instruments, the most popular of which is đàn him, a kind of zither. The tunes for dances with gongs and swords have a martial character for stimulating courage. Kháng folksongs are melodious and gentle.
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Ethnic Minorities in Vietnam
- Thai People in Vietnam
- Chut People in Vietnam
- Hmong People in Vietnam
- Lao People in Vietnam
- Co-Tu People in Vietnam
- Khmer People in Vietnam
- Tay People in Vietnam
- Mnong People in Vietnam
- Bru-Van Kieu in Vietnam
- Tho People in Vietnam
- Ta-Oi People in Vietnam
- Kho-Mu People in Vietnam
- Dao People in Vietnam
- Gia-rai People in Vietnam
- Giay People in Vietnam
- Muong People in Vietnam
- Co Lao People in Vietnam
- Xo-Dang People in Vietnam
- Ba-Na People in Vietnam
- Xtieng People in Vietnam
- Hre People in Vietnam
- O-Du People in Vietnam
- Gie-Trieng People in Vietnam
- Mang People in Vietnam
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