Vietic peoples refers to a group of
ethnic groups
An ethnic group or an ethnicity is a grouping of people who identify with each other on the basis of shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups. Those attributes can include common sets of traditions, ancestry, language, history, ...
of
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical south-eastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of mainlan ...
.
Geographic distribution
The Vietic peoples are aboriginal to northern Vietnam, Laos and surrounding areas, mostly in northern
Annamite mountains
The Annamite Range or the Annamese Mountains (french: Chaîne annamitique; lo, ພູ ຫລວງ ''Phou Luang''; vi, Dãy (núi) Trường Sơn) is a major mountain range of eastern Indochina, extending approximately through Laos, Vietnam ...
, although they can also be found in
Thailand
Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...
,
Cambodia
Cambodia (; also Kampuchea ; km, កម្ពុជា, UNGEGN: ), officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochinese Peninsula in Southeast Asia, spanning an area of , bordered by Thailan ...
and
China.
Origin
The proto-Vietic peoples are believed to have migrated by land from China to Laos and Vietnam through the
Mekong
The Mekong or Mekong River is a trans-boundary river in East Asia and Southeast Asia. It is the world's twelfth longest river and the third longest in Asia. Its estimated length is , and it drains an area of , discharging of water annual ...
, where they had settled for at least 4,500 years. Although there is no good estimate, paleolithic human sites around the modern Vietic villages in Laos and Nghe An are dated 2,500 to 2,000 BC, indicates that perhaps they were. They were parts of the larger
proto-Austroasiatic
Proto-Austroasiatic is the reconstructed ancestor of the Austroasiatic languages. Proto-Mon–Khmer (i.e., all Austroasiatic branches except for Munda) has been reconstructed in Harry L. Shorto's ''Mon–Khmer Comparative Dictionary'', while a ...
peoples, who inhabited widely on neolithic mainland Southeast Asia. A human fossil site of these hunter-gatherers excavated in a cave at Pha Phen, 12 kilometres south of
Lak Sao,
Bolikhamsai Province is dated to 6190 BP (4190 BC). The
Katuic people separated from Vieto-Katuic to be an independent group around 1,000 BC.
Nghệ An is regarded in Vietnam as the "Vietic homeland" after the Austroasiatic exodus from Yunnan (also believed to be a tribute to North Vietnamese leader
Ho Chi Minh
(: ; born ; 19 May 1890 – 2 September 1969), commonly known as (' Uncle Hồ'), also known as ('President Hồ'), (' Old father of the people') and by other aliases, was a Vietnamese revolutionary and statesman. He served as P ...
's birthplace). Anthropologists however considered the large area along the Northern Annamites Mountains from
Nghệ An to
Quảng Bình Province in Vietnam,
Bolikhamsai to
Khammouane Province in Laos as the traditional Vietic homeland, due to high amount of diversity of archaic Vietic groups and languages live in the region. not in the Red River Delta, which had been originally inhabited by
Tai
Tai or TAI may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
*Tai (comics) a fictional Marvel Comics supervillain
*Tai Fraiser, a fictional character in the 1995 film ''Clueless''
*Tai Kamiya, a fictional character in ''Digimon''
Businesses and organisations ...
speakers
Speaker may refer to:
Society and politics
* Speaker (politics), the presiding officer in a legislative assembly
* Public speaker, one who gives a speech or lecture
* A person producing speech: the producer of a given utterance, especially:
** I ...
However, archaeogenetics demonstrated that before the
Đông Sơn period, the Red River Delta's inhabitants were predominantly Austroasiatic: genetic data from
Phùng Nguyên culture
The Phùng Nguyên culture of Vietnam (c. 2,000 – 1,500 BC) is a name given to a culture of the Bronze Age in Vietnam which takes its name from an archeological site in Phùng Nguyên, east of Việt Trì discovered in 1958. It was during this p ...
's
Mán Bạc
Mán Bạc is a Neolithic archaeological site located in Yên Mô District, Ninh Bình Province, Vietnam, dated from around 1,850–1,650 BC. Mán Bạc is associated with the Phùng Nguyên culture. With 95 burials found at the site, Mán Bạ ...
burial site (dated to 1,800 BCE, thus predating Proto-Vietic, which is dated to 1,000 BCE) have close proximity to modern Austroasiatic speakers; meanwhile, "mixed genetics" from
Đông Sơn culture
The Dong Son culture or the Lạc Việt culture (named for modern village Đông Sơn, a village in Thanh Hóa, Vietnam) was a Bronze Age culture in ancient Vietnam centred at the Red River Valley of northern Vietnam from 1000 BC until the ...
's Núi Nấp site showed affinity to "
Dai from China,
Tai-Kadai speakers from Thailand, and Austroasiatic speakers from Vietnam, including the
Việt
The Vietnamese people ( vi, người Việt, lit=Viet people) or Kinh people ( vi, người Kinh) are a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to modern-day Northern Vietnam and Southern China (Jing Islands, Dongxing, Guangxi). The native lan ...
"; Therefore, "
e likely spread of Vietic was southward from the
ed River Delta not northward. Accounting for southern diversity will require alternative explanations."
History
The Northern groups of the Vietics, resided in the norde-extremê Annamites (part of ancient
Jiaozhi
Jiaozhi (standard Chinese, pinyin: ''Jiāozhǐ''), or Giao Chỉ (Vietnamese), was a historical region ruled by various Chinese dynasties, corresponding to present-day northern Vietnam. The kingdom of Nanyue (204–111 BC) set up the Jiaozhi Co ...
and
Jiuzhen
Jiuzhen (Vietnamese: Cửu Chân, Chinese: 九真) was a Chinese commandery within Jiaozhou. It is located in present-day Thanh Hóa Province, Vietnam.
Michel Ferlus (2012) and Frédéric Pain (2020) propose that 九真 Old Chinese
Old Ch ...
), known as the Viet-Muong, had intensively contacts and interactions with the Tai people and Sinitic colonists from the north during the
thousand years of Chinese rule. Based on linguistic evidence and historical records, anthropologists believe that the Viet-Muong eventually separated into two independent groups of Vietnamese and Muong must be no earlier or later than seventh to tenth century (
Tang dynasty
The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, t= ), or Tang Empire, was an imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907 AD, with an interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdom ...
).
The remaining, isolating tribes of the Vietics of the Laotian side of the Annamites mountains are still intact and uncharmed of any civilizations, and stayed out of the region politics, despite numerous contests between the Khmer, the Vietnamese, and the Chinese over the region from 722 to mid-12th century. The Siamese launched several catastrophic raids onto Laotian Vietic areas from 1826 to 1860 as part of their punitory expeditions on the
Vientiane Kingdom and greatly depopulated many Vietic villages. During late 19th century, their homeland area of Khammouane (now Khamkeut District,
Bolikhamsai Province and
Nakai-Nam Theun National Park) seen the massive arrival of Tai-speaking and Hmong-speaking groups from
Houaphanh
Houaphanh province ( Laotian: ຫົວພັນ ; Romanization of Lao: ''Houaphan'') is a province in eastern Laos. Its capital is Xam Neua.
Houaphanh province covers an area of . The province is bordered by Vietnam to the north, east, and ...
and
Nghệ An, which included many former Zhuang warriors fleeing the
Taiping rebellion
The Taiping Rebellion, also known as the Taiping Civil War or the Taiping Revolution, was a massive rebellion and civil war that was waged in China between the Manchu-led Qing dynasty and the Han, Hakka-led Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. It laste ...
in China, social upheavals and unrest in Vietnam, and Khmu Ho-Chueng war in Northern Laos. The new settlers immediately dominated the indigenous Vietic villagers, sometimes hired them as labors. Some of Vietic groups were labeled as ''Puak'' to indicate their vassalage, or simply called as Kha by the Tais. Originally Laotian Vietic groups that now speak Tai and Lao languages, for example, the Bo, were perhaps results of the Taization process, the willingness of adaptation of language, and culture of the dominant outnumbering group by minority groups, explained by a
Tai Khang leader in Bolikhamsai: "We are Lao Loum; before we were ''Kha'', but we decided to adopt Lao language and became Lao Loum, and now we have forgotten our ''Kha'' language." Anthropologists noted that similar patterns also happened to many other Mon-Khmer speaking peoples in surrounding places.
The history of the Southeast Vietics (Chutic) is lesser known, especially the
Ruc. They were encountered in 1959 by Vietnamese soldiers in
Sơn Đoòng Cave,
Quảng Bình Province as hundred naked tribesmen dwelling in the cave. Since then, Chutic groups included the Ruc, have been resettled by the North Vietnamese government in Cu Nhái, Quảng Bình. However, new reports say that one third of the Ruc population have returned to the forest, dwelling in valleys that stand 2,000 meters above the sea lever, and many suffered from jungle malaria. The Ruc remains as today world's most isolating and mysterious tribe.
Classification and language
There are currently existing 25 Vietic ethnic groups, marvelously ranging from nation-state to nomadic foragers, hill-paddy cultivators, mostly inhabiting on a hilly, mountainous landmass stretching from the
Bolikhamsai Province to
Khammouane Province in
Laos;
Nghệ An to
Quảng Bình Province in Vietnam, heavily concentrating in Khamkhuet and Nakai Valley.
Their languages are classified to belong to the
Vietic
The Vietic languages are a branch of the Austroasiatic language family, spoken by the Vietic peoples in Laos and Vietnam. The branch was once referred to by the terms ''Việt–Mường'', ''Annamese–Muong'', and ''Vietnamuong''; the term '' ...
language family, which is a branch of the
Austro-Asiatic
The Austroasiatic languages , , are a large language family in Mainland Southeast Asia and South Asia. These languages are scattered throughout parts of Thailand, Laos, India, Myanmar, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Nepal, and southern China and are t ...
language family.
* Northern Vietic (Viet-Muong):
Vietnamese
Vietnamese may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Vietnam, a country in Southeast Asia
** A citizen of Vietnam. See Demographics of Vietnam.
* Vietnamese people, or Kinh people, a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to Vietnam
** Overse ...
,
Muong,
Nguồn people.
* Northwest Vietic:
Thổ (Tuom, Liha, Phong).
* West Vietic:
Thavueng (
Aloe,
Ahao,
Ahlao).
* Southeast Vietic (Chutic):
Chứt (
Rục,
Mày,
Arem,
Mã Liềng,
Sách,
Salang).
* Southwest Vietic:
Bo,
Arao,
Atel,
Atop,
Kaleung,
Maleng,
Pakatan,
Themarou,
Kri,
Phoong,
Mlengbrou. The Bo and the Kaleung are perhaps Vietic groups that recently switched to Tai languages.
Concerns on NT2 Project impact
Concerns on environmental and anthropological impacts that potential cause consequences to the Laotian Vietic peoples in the Nakai-Nam Theum 2 Watershed National Protected Area (NPA) and Peripheral Impact Zone (PIZ) began to grow when the permission of constructing the reservoir
Nam Theun 2 Dam
The Nam Theun 2 Hydropower Project, or simply NT2, is a hydroelectric dam on the Nam Theun River in Laos. Commercial operation of the plant began in April 2010. The scheme diverts water from the Nam Theun, a tributary of the Mekong River, to the ...
(NT2 Project) on the
Nam Theun
Nam Theun (also known as ''Khading''), is a river in Laos, in Khammouane and Bolikhamsai Provinces. Together with its tributaries Nam One, Nam Noy, and Nam Theun it has total length of and drains an area of . "Nam Theun" is also three options ...
, Nam Noy and Nam Nyang Rivers, basically inside the
Nakai-Nam Theun National Park and Nakai valley, areas where indigenous West and Southwest Vietic ethnic groups had been inhabiting for thousand years, was opened in 1997. The NT2 Project was a
BOT dam which was mainly fundraised by the
World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Inte ...
and the
Asian Development Bank
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is a regional development bank established on 19 December 1966, which is headquartered in the Ortigas Center located in the city of Mandaluyong, Metro Manila, Philippines. The bank also maintains 31 field offic ...
(ADB), they would be handed to the Laotian government. The project's mismanagement of indigenous resettling left a traumatic impact on the vulnerable Vietic villagers and they had to be relocated far away from their homeland. Most concerns raised on Vietic type I ethnic groups who themselves heavily rely on nomadic lifestyle in the forests, due to the hydroelectric project's deforestation, and many tribes do not wish to engage and practice permanent sedentary agriculture in new allocated settlements. Plans to restore the livelihoods of villagers on the Nakai Plateau and along the
Xe Bang Fai River have yet to be ratified. According to a
POE (International Panel of Environmental and Social Experts) report in 2015, the percentage of Vietic villagers among new settlements dropped from 67.4% to 35% within 8 years, while Tai-speaking groups practically and economically dominating them. Other concerns such as government's integrated different Vietic groups with Tai and Hmong villages, and grouping smaller minorities, where Vietic labors were not only exploited by other groups in the villages but also discriminated in term of livelihood opportunities and healthcare.
A safeguard recommendation to the WB in 2004 said: OD 4.20
he WB safeguard on Indigenous Peoplesemphasizes participatory processes, requiring development of minority plans “based on consideration of the options preferred by the indigenous peoples affected by the project.” It also emphasizes the importance of “ensuring genuine representation” (ibid) among people whose “social and economic status restricts their capacity to assert their interests and rights” (Para. 2). To achieve policy objectives regarding the Vietic Type I people, special measures should be devised for their protection, and to ensure that they are afforded opportunities to participate in the process of devising culturally appropriate benefits... Specific arrangements for monitoring project-related impacts on Vietic Type I groups should be provided. Quote – Unquote (Gibson/WB BTOR 2004). The recommendation was unfortunately ignored.
The population of many Vietic ethnic groups in the region has been drastically decreased in recent years. The POE report found that four extreme vulnerable Vietic groups in the NPA and PIZ that are at risk of being extinct by the early 21st century: the
Atel (16+), the
Themarou (30+), the
Mlengbrou (9), and the Ahoe. Among them, the Atel, the Themarou, and the Mlengbrou were previously nomadic hunter-gatherers, are not willing to adopt and practice the new sedentary lifestyle and intensive agriculture following government resettling program for ethnic minorities in the 1970s and the 1980s, and are still reliant much on the forest for accommodating much of their standard of living. Those tribes' populations have been plummeting from hundred people to just few individuals during recent decades, and could not survive as unique ethnic identities without intermarrying with other Vietic groups. It is highly likely that intermarriage between various Vietic tribes have been occurred throughout the last centuries. Special measures of the EMDP would be planning to address the Vietic groups which are most at risk.
As the future fate of the affected Vietic groups in Nakai Valley would be an inevitable extinction if no major action undertaken to protect and conserve, James R. Chamberlain, researcher and editor of ''Handbook of the Changing World Language Map'', blames the government's incomprehensible action on indigenous Vietic peoples around the NT2 impacted areas that led to the trouble. Khamsone, the shaman of the Ahoe, called the NT2 project's promise a lie. The Ahoe believe that after death they will be reborn as squirrels, haunting the forests that surround the NT2 dam site, Ahoe spiritual territory.
Society
The isolating Vietics in Laos (exclude the
Vietnamese
Vietnamese may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Vietnam, a country in Southeast Asia
** A citizen of Vietnam. See Demographics of Vietnam.
* Vietnamese people, or Kinh people, a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to Vietnam
** Overse ...
and the
Muong) are generally divided by anthropologists into four categories per lifestyle:
* Vietic type I: Nomadic
Hunter-gatherers
A traditional hunter-gatherer or forager is a human living an ancestrally derived lifestyle in which most or all food is obtained by foraging, that is, by gathering food from local sources, especially edible wild plants but also insects, fungi, ...
(Atop,
Atel,
Makang,
Thémarou,
Mlengbrou,
Chuet).
* Vietic type II: Recently
Slash-and-burn
Slash-and-burn agriculture is a farming method that involves the cutting and burning of plants in a forest or woodland to create a field called a swidden. The method begins by cutting down the trees and woody plants in an area. The downed veget ...
(Arao,
Malang,
Maleng,
T'oe,
Phoong–lower Noy-Pheo river).
* Vietic type III:
Slash-and-burn
Slash-and-burn agriculture is a farming method that involves the cutting and burning of plants in a forest or woodland to create a field called a swidden. The method begins by cutting down the trees and woody plants in an area. The downed veget ...
, villages (
Kri–upper Noy-Pheo river).
* Vietic type IV: Rice farmers, slash-and-burn (
Ahoe,
Ahao,
Ahlao, Liha,
Toum
Salsat toum or toumya (Arabic pronunciation of 'garlic') is a garlic sauce common to the Levant. Similar to the Provençal aioli, there are many variations, a common one containing garlic, salt, olive oil or vegetable oil, and lemon juice, tra ...
,
Phong,
Pakatan).
References
Works cited
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External links
* https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007%2F978-3-030-02438-3_17 Endangered Vietic nomads in Laos
* http://sealang.net/mk/vietic.htm Vietic languages in SEALANG Mon-Khmer Languages Project
{{Ethnic groups in Vietnam
Ethnic groups in Laos
Ethnic groups in China
Ethnic groups in Vietnam
Ethnic groups in Thailand