Tày

Denomination: Tày.
Other name: Thổ
Small local group: Phén, Thu Lao, Pa Dí, Ngạn
Population: Over 1,500,000
Language: Tày-Thái
Area of habitation: Along the belt from Quảng Ninh to Lào Cai and Yên Bái via Cao Bàng, Bắc Cạn, Thái Nguyên, Tuyên Quang, Hà Giang and also scattered at Điện Biên Phủ (Lai Châu), and in Lâm Đồng and Đắc Lắc. The Tày are indigenous to their present area of habitation.

Material life
A Tày village (ban) has on average 40-50 houses (100 as maximum) built at the foot of a mountain or hill or near a river or stream. The ban in the upper region of Cao Bang and Lạng Sơn are generally surrounded by bamboo hedges shaped in the same way as that of the Việt. The houses of borderland bản are often protected against intruders by a stone wall along with a ditch.
The houses are on stilts with a two-flap or four-flap roof of palm leaves, tiles or thatch. The inside is divided into two by a partition. The rear section serves as a bedroom and kitchen, the front one as guest reception area and study room for children. The altar to ancestors is also set up there. The columns are made of tree trunks and supported by blocks of stone. The wooden floor extends outwards from the four sides of the house, forming a kind of balcony enclosed with a railing. Houses of clay with tiled roofs are becoming common.

Men's clothes are dyed with indigo and are similar to those of the neighbouring ethnic groups. Women generally wear scarves knotted in a way to form "crow's bills" on the forehead, four-panelled dresses split at the sides up to the armpits, and silk belts knotted at the back with ends hanging down. Women of the Phén group wear indigo skirts and short vests like the Nùng, but in white. The vests of young Pa DÍ women are decorated at the front by beehive-shaped silver buttons. Women like wearing silver earrings, necklaces and bracelets around their wrists and ankles.
The Tày grow mainly wet rice which is their staple food. The techniques are fairly advanced and catching up with those of the Việt, including an effective irrigation system. Market-gardening is a recent innovation, but from time immemorial the Tày have engaged in producing specialized crops: anise (in Lạng Sơn), soya bean (in Cao Bang and Lạng Sơn), cinnamon (Yên Bái), valuable timber species and tea (Bắc Cạn, Thái Nguyên and Hà Giang), and tobacco (Cao Bàng and Lạng Sơn). Also grown are cotton, indigo plant, fruit trees (pear, apricot, peach, tangerine), chestnut, and other crops. The Tày have long experience in growing bamboo used in construction and basketry.
Aminal rearing is quite developed. Farmyards are crowded with poultry and pigs; oxen and buffaloes are left to wander in valleys, and are brought back only at ploughing time. The Nước Hai horse (Cao Bàng), Thất Khê duck (Lạng Sơn) and Trùng Khánh duck (Cao Bằng), Bảo Lạc ox (Cao Bằng) and pigs from Lạng Sơn are known throughout the country. Fish-rearing in ponds and lakes is also a special job of the Tày as well as of the Tlìái.
Handicrafts are fairly refined and can fully meet local requirements. Surplus goods are used for exchange. Brocade (Cao Bàng) is an article popular on domestic markets and is becoming an important export item. Barter is practised mainly on border markets.

Social and family relationships
Before the August 1945 Revolution, Tày society had already developed, but not uniformly. In the basins of the Gầm, Lô, Chảy and Hồng (Red) rivers, the Thổ ty system existed until 1954; these functionaries were appointed by the Vietnamese feudal court to assume the administration of the mườiig or large villages in highland regions. These Thổ ty (or Quàng) were hereditary; they expropriated all the land and turned the peasants into serfs. The people were divided into two categories: free peasants who cultivated communal lands but had to fulfil obligations towards the village, to pay dues to the lords and perform corvée; and the semi-free peasants who had to perform corvée and offer tribute to the lords in return for the right of residence and the benefits from a piece of land. In the past, exploitation was ruthless. The "droit de cuissage" (the right of a feudal lord to abuse a bride before her husband) was maintained as well as the custom of burying alive the notables who had served the lord upon the latter's death. In other regions, class differentiation evolved in the same way as on the plain; its influence was much remarkable: there were land owners (minority), a stratum of rich peasants, a larger stratum of middle peasants, and poor peasants (majority), but practically no landless peasants. The area of land in private ownership is larger than that of communal land.
The patriarchal, monogamous family constitutes the basic unit of Tày traditional society, but kindship is respected in the cult of ancestors, in customs and practices, and in the settlement of disputes among the members of the same line. The father decides all family matters. The eldest son is his designated successor. Women play a secondary role and are taken into account only in the domain of romantic sentiments. However, vestiges of matriliny such as respect for the members of the wife's family and for maternal uncles, the practice of a married couple living with the wife's family are still seen in Hà Giang, Tuyên Quang, Bác Cạn and Thái Nguyên provinces. Exogamy is the rule, but marriage is often a matter of trading and must be in accordance with convention. The greater part of the family inheritance is given to the eldest son. The latter's children, irrespective of age, are always accorded greater consideration than those of his younger brothers.
The rituals of marriage, funerals and naming new-borns follow Confucian prescriptions. Except for a few details, they are similar to those of the Việt. The Tày family live in harmony, parents not being very strict with their children. Divorce is rare.
The Tày live separately in their communes and villages, among their own ethnic group. Nowadays, they mix more with other populations of the village or hamlet and earn their living in remote regions. Some are maưied to the members of other ethnic groups.
Funeral rituals are similar to those of the Việt in many respects.

Spiritual life
Like the Việt, the Tày are influenced by Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism. Genies of earth and hearth are venerated. The earth genie is worshipped in a sanctuary or at the foot of a banyan tree. Local deities are worshipped in a secludcd forest area or on the top of a mountain considered sacred and called "the forest or the mount of gods". In their temples, the Tày worship all the deities of the three religions, the spirits of the rivers, the mountains and others. The ancestral altars of many families also include the cult of Confucius, the Buddha, and Kwan Yin (Goddess of Compassion). Ceremonies and rites are inspired by the Thọ mai gia lễ, a guide book to the rituals of marriage, funeral and childbirth, which were followed by the ancient Việt. The agrarian rites of the Tày are performed mainly at the beginning of spring, when the agricultural cycle starts. In some regions, ceremonies and feasts are held on different occasions: "going to the fields", celebrating the moon, working on the mountain, or hens laying eggs, etc. They are intended to express the people's gratitude, and pray to the genies for fertility, prosperity, happiness, health and luck. They are also the opportunity for young people to show their feelings before a new cycle of production starts.

The culture of the Tày has been deeply influenced by that of the Việt due to their long-standing co-existence. Art and literature early flowered with the birth of the Nôm-tay script (based on Chinese characters) and the rise of such authors as Quản Nhạc and Quỳnh Văn (16th and 17th centuries). The poems by Đô Hậu criticized the society of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Many works in Nôm-tay are masterpieces: long poems (Nam Kim-Thị Đan, Lương Quân-Bioóc Rom and others); stories adapted from those of the Việt or the Chinese (Tống Trân-Cúc Hoa, Phạm Tải-Ngọc Hoa, Kim Vân Kiêu, Lương Sơn Bá-Chúc Anh Đài); legends (Nùng Chí Cao and Nùng Văn Vân) - Tày heroes who led uprisings against Chinese feudalists and aggressors) and myths (Pú Luông-Già Cải — the first two ancestors of humankind, and The Dispute Over the Royal Throne by Nine Princes). Particular mention should be made of humorous tales and fables which have an educational value.
The Tày lượn — alternate songs between lovers — may be comparable to the hát đúm of the Việt or the sli and khắp of the Nùng and Thai. This folk art-form comprises several tunes: lượn then, nang hai, lượn slương of Cao Bàng and Lạng Sơn, lượn cọi of Hà Tuyên and Bác Cạn, and lượn khắp of Lào Cai and Yên Bái. It has rules and codes of singing like the quan họ Bắc Ninh of the Việt or the hạn khuông of the Thai.
There are also a kind of stories in verse the contents of which are similar to the lượn, they are recited in the same manner as Việt poems.
The then (nuptial song) is a very rich and popular genre.