Sapa is among the well- known beauty spots in Vietnam. It is famous not only for its landscapes but also convergence of many ethnicities living together. Coming there, visitors will enjoy vibrant dresses of ethnics as H’mong Black, Red Dao, Tay, Giay, etc. Each ethnic is different in dress, lifestyle, customs, and farming methods.
In fact, visitors can meet 24 ethnic groups, each with its own language, culture and traditions. This cultural wealth is explained by the diversity of landscapes and of land available for farming.
History also offers clues as to why the highlands in the Lào Cai province served as a refuge for certain ethnic groups during political unrest like the Taiping rebellion in 19th-century China.
The seven most numerous ethnic groups in the Lào Cai province account for over 90% of the whole population.
The following groups are found: the Kinh (the true Vietnamese) 35%, the Hmong 22%, the Tay 14%, the Dao (Mien) 13%, the Thai 9%, the Nung 4.5% and the Giay 4.3%.
The other ethnic groups: the Phula, Hani, Latis, Tu Di, Pin Tao, Tu Lao, Pa Di, Sapho, Lolo and the Xa Mang are sometimes represented only by a few villages and a few hundred individuals.
The Hmong
The Hmong, known for centuries in China by the name of Miao, used to be called the Méo in Southeast Asia. Numbering about three million, they are scattered over a vast territory stretching from south-west China (2 million) to north Vietnam (600,000), Laos (about 250,000), Thailand (150,000) and Myanmar (formerly Burma) (about 30,000).
The main subgroups present in Vietnam are the White Hmong, the Hmong Leng, Hmong Pua, Hmong Shi or Sheu and the black Hmong. In Sa Pa, the Hmong Leng are the most numerous, some Hmong Sheu and Hmong Pe women – with their colourful skirts and double-breasted tops – come from the Muong Khuong district.
- The H’mong is the largest ethnic group in Sa Pa, accounting for about 53% of the population there.
Originally, the Chinese hmong populations used to live in the wide plains south of the Yangtse river. As of the 16th century, they started to migrate to the south-east under the demographic, territorial and political pressure of the Chinese.
During the first half of the 19th century, the Hmong left the Chinese territory and settled in neighbouring countries. At the time, the great Taiping rebellion (1850-1872) was disturbing all southern China (Guizhou, Yunnan and Sichuan provinces) causing long periods of famine that pushed numerous ethnic groups to go south.
The Hmong entered the Indo-Chinese peninsula through North Vietnam, their presence near Lai Chau was reported in 1848. These successive waves of migration were probably facilitated by the hmong tradition of shifting cultivation and their close contacts with the Chinese caravaneers who had been travelling for centuries through the mountains of southern Asia.
Today, the traditional agrarian economy is still based on family farms raising pigs, chickens, buffaloes and horses, on food crops (rice, corn, manioc) and cash crops (cardamom and vegetables).
The traditional social organisation of the Hmong is based on the clan. Each clan is made of lineages, all the members of which acknowledge a common founding male ancestor. In the Hmong household, up to fourdifferent generations may be gathered under the same roof.
The Dzao people – Sapa
The Dao, known as the Man or Yao in south-west China for centuries, also number a few tens of thousands in Laos, Thailand andMyanmar (formerly Burma). The Dao-Mien settled in Vietnam two to three centuries ago, depending on the area.
One of the Dao’s specific cultural features is their traditional writing system using Chinese characters. Preserved texts make it possible to trace their origins back to the provinces of south China. Their taoist religion is also based on texts.
