The Pà Thẻn (or Pá Hưng; ) are Pa-Hng-speaking people classified as an ethnic group of

Vietnam Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), is a country at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of about and a population of over 100 million, making it the world's List of countries and depende ...

. Most Pà Thẻn live in Hà Giang and

Tuyên Quang Tuyên Quang () is a city in Vietnam, and is the capital of Tuyên Quang Province. History The French post at Tuyên Quang was defended for four months against 12,000 troops of the Yunnan Army and the Black Flag Army by two companies of the ...

provinces, located in Vietnam's

Northeast The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A '' compass rose'' is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—eac ...

region. Their

Pa-Hng language Pa-Hng (also spelled Pa-Hung; ) is a divergent Hmongic (Miao) language spoken in Guizhou, Guangxi, and Hunan in southern China as well as northern Vietnam. Classification Pa-Hng has long been recognized as divergent. Benedict (1986) argued tha ...

belongs to the Hmong–Mien language family. In 2019, there are 8,248 Pà Thẻn living in Vietnam.

Subsistence

Before 1970, the Pà Thẻn practiced

slash-and-burn Slash-and-burn agriculture is a form of shifting cultivation that involves the cutting and burning of plants in a forest or woodland to create a Field (agriculture), field called a swidden. The method begins by cutting down the trees and woody p ...

(swidden) cultivation (Vu 2013:70-71). The Pà Thẻn began to switch to wet-rice cultivation starting in 1970, and from 1993 onwards, most Pà Thẻn had given up slash-and-burn cultivation. Currently the Pà Thẻn grow various kinds of rice, including large-grained

glutinous rice Domestication syndrome refers to two sets of phenotypic traits that are common to either domesticated plants or domesticated animals. Domesticated animals tend to be smaller and less aggressive than their wild counterparts; they may also hav ...

, long-grained glutinous rice, red glutinous rice, and non-glutinous rice varieties. Traditionally, the Pà Thẻn grew

rice Rice is a cereal grain and in its Domestication, domesticated form is the staple food of over half of the world's population, particularly in Asia and Africa. Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice)—or, much l ...

maize Maize (; ''Zea mays''), also known as corn in North American English, is a tall stout grass that produces cereal grain. It was domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 9,000 years ago from wild teosinte. Native American ...

cassava ''Manihot esculenta'', common name, commonly called cassava, manioc, or yuca (among numerous regional names), is a woody shrub of the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae, native to South America, from Brazil, Paraguay and parts of the Andes. Although ...

sesame Sesame (; ''Sesamum indicum'') is a plant in the genus '' Sesamum'', also called benne. Numerous wild relatives occur in Africa and a smaller number in India. It is widely naturalized in tropical regions around the world and is cultivated for ...

taro Taro (; ''Colocasia esculenta'') is a root vegetable. It is the most widely cultivated species of several plants in the family Araceae that are used as vegetables for their corms, leaves, stems and Petiole (botany), petioles. Taro corms are a ...

lettuce Lettuce (''Lactuca sativa'') is an annual plant of the family Asteraceae mostly grown as a leaf vegetable. The leaves are most often used raw in Green salad, green salads, although lettuce is also seen in other kinds of food, such as sandwiche ...

calabash Calabash (; ''Lagenaria siceraria''), also known as bottle gourd, white-flowered gourd, long melon, birdhouse gourd, New Guinea bean, New Guinea butter bean, Tasmania bean, and opo squash, is a vine grown for its fruit. It can be either harvest ...

luffa ''Luffa'' is a genus of tropical and subtropical vines in the pumpkin, squash and gourd family (Cucurbitaceae). In everyday non-technical usage, the luffa, also spelled loofah or less frequently loofa, usually refers to the fruits of the speci ...

colocynth ''Citrullus colocynthis'', with many common names including Abu Jahl's melon, (native name in Turkey) colocynth, bitter apple, bitter cucumber, egusi, vine of Sodom, or wild gourd, is a poisonous desert viny plant native to the Mediterranea ...

, sweet gourd,

bean A bean is the seed of some plants in the legume family (Fabaceae) used as a vegetable for human consumption or animal feed. The seeds are often preserved through drying (a ''pulse''), but fresh beans are also sold. Dried beans are traditi ...

s, and Chinese peas as

food crop A crop is a plant that can be grown and harvested extensively for profit or subsistence. In other words, a crop is a plant or plant product that is grown for a specific purpose such as food, fibre, or fuel. When plants of the same species ar ...

s. The Pà Thẻn also planted various spices such as

basil Basil (, ; , ; ''Ocimum basilicum'' (, )), also called great basil, is a culinary herb of the family Lamiaceae (mints). It is a hardiness (plants), tender plant, and is used in cuisines worldwide. In Western cuisine, the generic term "basil" r ...

shallot The shallot is a cultivar group of the onion. Until 2010, the (French red) shallot was classified as a separate species, ''Allium ascalonicum''. The taxon was synonymized with '' Allium cepa'' (the common onion) in 2010, as the difference was t ...

spring onion Scallions (also known as green onions and spring onions) are edible vegetables of various species in the genus ''Allium''. Scallions generally have a milder taste than most onions. Their close relatives include garlic, shallots, leeks, chive ...

garlic Garlic (''Allium sativum'') is a species of bulbous flowering plants in the genus '' Allium''. Its close relatives include the onion, shallot, leek, chives, Welsh onion, and Chinese onion. Garlic is native to central and south Asia, str ...

ginger Ginger (''Zingiber officinale'') is a flowering plant whose rhizome, ginger root or ginger, is widely used as a spice and a folk medicine. It is an herbaceous perennial that grows annual pseudostems (false stems made of the rolled bases of l ...

crocus ''Crocus'' (; plural: crocuses or croci) is a genus of seasonal flowering plants in the family Iridaceae (iris family) comprising about 100 species of perennial plant, perennials growing from corms. They are low growing plants, whose flower stem ...

, red pepper, lesser galangal, citronella,

eryngium ''Eryngium'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Apiaceae. There are about 250 species. The genus has a cosmopolitan distribution, with centres of diversity in the western Mediterranean, South America and Mexico.Calviño, C.I., Martíne ...

perilla ''Perilla'' is a genus consisting of one major Asiatic crop species '' Perilla frutescens'' and a few wild species in nature belonging to the mint family, Lamiaceae. The genus encompasses several distinct varieties of Asian herb, seed, and vege ...

, and

marjoram Marjoram (, ''Origanum majorana'') is a cold-sensitive perennial plant, perennial herb or undershrub with sweet pine and citrus flavours. In some Middle Eastern countries, marjoram is synonymous with oregano, and there the names sweet marjoram ...

Sugarcane Sugarcane or sugar cane is a species of tall, Perennial plant, perennial grass (in the genus ''Saccharum'', tribe Andropogoneae) that is used for sugar Sugar industry, production. The plants are 2–6 m (6–20 ft) tall with stout, jointed, fib ...

was also planted as well as fruit trees such as

tangerine The tangerine is a type of citrus fruit that is orange in colour, that is considered either a variety of the mandarin orange (''Citrus reticulata''), or a closely related species, under the name ''Citrus tangerina'', or yet as a hybrid (''Citr ...

guava Guava ( ), also known as the 'guava-pear', is a common tropical fruit cultivated in many tropical and subtropical regions. The common guava '' Psidium guajava'' (lemon guava, apple guava) is a small tree in the myrtle family (Myrtaceae), nativ ...

banana A banana is an elongated, edible fruit – botanically a berry – produced by several kinds of large treelike herbaceous flowering plants in the genus '' Musa''. In some countries, cooking bananas are called plantains, distinguishing the ...

grapefruit The grapefruit (''Citrus'' × ''paradisi'') is a subtropical citrus tree known for its relatively large, sour to semi-sweet, somewhat bitter fruit. The flesh of the fruit is segmented and varies in color from pale yellow to dark red. Grapefru ...

lychee Lychee ( , ; ''Litchi chinensis''; ) is a monotypic taxon and the sole member in the genus ''Litchi'' in the soapberry family, Sapindaceae. There are three distinct subspecies of lychee. The most common is the Indochinese lychee found in So ...

longan ''Dimocarpus longan'', commonly known as the longan () and dragon's eye, is a tropical tree species that produces edible fruit. It is one of the better-known tropical members of the soapberry family Sapindaceae, to which the lychee and rambu ...

jackfruit The jackfruit or ''nangka'' (''Artocarpus heterophyllus'') is a species of tree in the Common fig, fig, mulberry, and breadfruit family (Moraceae). The jackfruit is the largest tree fruit, reaching as much as in weight, in length, and in d ...

orange Orange most often refers to: *Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis'' ** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower ** Orange juice *Orange (colour), the color of an orange fruit, occurs between red and yellow in the vi ...

, and

papaya The papaya (, ), papaw, () or pawpaw () is the plant species ''Carica papaya'', one of the 21 accepted species in the genus '' Carica'' of the family Caricaceae, and also the name of its fruit. It was first domesticated in Mesoamerica, within ...

. In traditional Pà Thẻn

cultivation, crops that are to be harvested earlier are planted on the outside of the field, while later crops are planted in the middle. Seeds are sowed in the second

lunar month In lunar calendars, a lunar month is the time between two successive syzygies of the same type: new moons or full moons. The precise definition varies, especially for the beginning of the month. Variations In Shona, Middle Eastern, and Euro ...

, and harvests take place in the seventh lunar month or the late tenth lunar month. When rice ripens, pincers are used to cut each ear of rice. The Pà Thẻn raise various animals such as

water buffalo The water buffalo (''Bubalus bubalis''), also called domestic water buffalo, Asian water buffalo and Asiatic water buffalo, is a large bovid originating in the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia. Today, it is also kept in Italy, the Balkans ...

es,

pig The pig (''Sus domesticus''), also called swine (: swine) or hog, is an omnivorous, domesticated, even-toed, hoofed mammal. It is named the domestic pig when distinguishing it from other members of the genus '' Sus''. Some authorities cons ...

cattle Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, bovid ungulates widely kept as livestock. They are prominent modern members of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus '' Bos''. Mature female cattle are calle ...

chicken The chicken (''Gallus gallus domesticus'') is a domesticated subspecies of the red junglefowl (''Gallus gallus''), originally native to Southeast Asia. It was first domesticated around 8,000 years ago and is now one of the most common and w ...

duck Duck is the common name for numerous species of waterfowl in the family (biology), family Anatidae. Ducks are generally smaller and shorter-necked than swans and goose, geese, which are members of the same family. Divided among several subfam ...

goat The goat or domestic goat (''Capra hircus'') is a species of Caprinae, goat-antelope that is mostly kept as livestock. It was domesticated from the wild goat (''C. aegagrus'') of Southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a member of the ...

s, and

dog The dog (''Canis familiaris'' or ''Canis lupus familiaris'') is a domesticated descendant of the gray wolf. Also called the domestic dog, it was selectively bred from a population of wolves during the Late Pleistocene by hunter-gatherers. ...

s (Vu 2013:86).

Religion

Cosmology

The Pà Thẻn believe that the universe was created by the god ''Quơ Vo'' and the goddess ''Me Quơ O'' (Vu 2013:122-127). Pà Thẻn cosmology divides the universe into four parts. #''The sky'', where the sun, moon, stars, ancestors, God of Thunder, God of Lightning, Great Buddha, and others gods and spirits reside. The sky is ruled by the god Quơ Vo. #''The earth'', where human beings, plants, animals, ancestors, and various ghosts and spirits (soil, forest, stone, plants, etc.) reside. The earth is ruled by the goddess Me Quơ O. #''The water'', where there are various

naiad In Greek mythology, the naiads (; ), sometimes also hydriads, are a type of female spirit, or nymph, presiding over fountains, wells, springs, streams, brooks and other bodies of fresh water. They are distinct from river gods, who embodied ...

s, dragons, and gods of rivers and springs. The water is ruled by the goddess Me Quơ O. #''The underworld'', where Me Quơ Lê and various spirits live. The underworld is ruled by the devil goddess Me Quơ Lê. Benevolent spirits include the ancestral ghosts, the stove god, the room god, the door god, the soil god, Quơ Vo, and Me Quơ O. However, these spirits can also cause disease and crop failures when upset. Malevolent spirits include ghosts of people who die sudden deaths, the Forest spirit, the Cliff spirit, and plant spirits. Each god is worshiped using different rituals (Vu 2013:122-127). *The ''stove god'': Worshiping the Stove god takes an entire day, starting from 9 AM until 11 AM of the next day. Pigs, chicken, sticky rice, and cakes are offered. *The ''room god'': After a child is born for 3-4 days, or if the Pà Thẻn believe that the Room god needs to be fed, chicken, liquor,

joss stick Incense is an aromatic biotic material that releases fragrant smoke when burnt. The term is used for either the material or the aroma. Incense is used for aesthetic reasons, religious worship, aromatherapy, meditation, and ceremonial reasons. It ...

s, and

joss paper Joss paper, also known as incense papers, are papercrafts or sheets of paper made into burnt offerings common in Chinese ancestral worship (such as the veneration of the deceased family members and relatives on holidays and special occasions). ...

are arranged in a tray and put in the bed of the mother. The priest then burns joss paper and attempts to placate the Room god. *The ''kitchen god'': A pig head, liquor, rice, joss paper, and joss sticks are offered at the main door. *The ''village god'': Many Pà Thẻn villages build shrines in the forest for their gods. Families bring meat, liquor, cakes, joss sticks, and joss paper to the priests who carry out the rituals, and the food is then eaten at the shrine. Strangers and women are allowed to join in the ceremony.

Ancestral worship

Most Pà Thẻn families have two altars dedicated to

ancestral worship The veneration of the dead, including one's ancestors, is based on love and respect for the deceased. In some cultures, it is related to beliefs that the dead have a continued existence, and may possess the ability to influence the fortune of t ...

, namely a primary altar and a minor (subordinate) altar. Ancestral worship is carried out on the following occasions (Vu 2013:122-127). *The 15th day of the 1st

*The 3rd day of the 3rd lunar month *The 14th day of the 5th lunar month *The 27th day of the 9th lunar month *Name-giving ceremonies *Entering a new house *Funerals

Fire Dancing Festival

The Pà Thẻn for celebrate the Fire Dancing (or Fire Jumping) Festival from the late 10th lunar month to the mid-1st lunar month (Vu 2013:130-131). A priest (sorcerer) plays the ''tầy nhậy'', a wooden plank about wide and long that is played using a small bamboo stick and balanced by an iron ring (Vu 2013:169). Five to seven dancers usually participate. The priest calls out the following gods to induce the dancers into trances. *Hông Lơ Cho *Vù Lơ Chí *Psi Lơ Chí *Me Lơ Chí *Pa Lơ Chí *Ơ Lơ Chí *Pu Lơ Chí *Pọ Lơ Chí *Xí Ca Dình *Co Tả Chồng Di (Fire God)

References

*Vũ Quốc Khánh. 2013. ''Người Pà Thẻn ở Việt Nam he Pa Then in Vietnam'. Hà Nội: Nhà xuất bản thông tấn.

External links

Ethnologue entry for Pa-Hng language
{{Ethnic groups in Vietnam Ethnic groups in Vietnam