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The Tày people, also known as the Thổ, T'o, Tai Tho, Ngan, Phen, Thu Lao, or Pa Di, is a
Central Tai The Central Tai languages include southern dialects of Zhuang, and various Nung and Tày dialects of northern Vietnam. Central Tai languages differ from Northern Tai languages in that Central Tai distinguishes unaspirated and aspirated onse ...
-speaking ethnic group who live in northern Vietnam. According to a 2019 census, there are 1.8 million Tày people living in Vietnam. This makes them the second largest ethnic group in Vietnam after the majority Kinh (Vietnamese) ethnic group. Most live in northern Vietnam in the Cao Bằng, Lạng Sơn, Bắc Kạn, Thái Nguyên, and Quảng Ninh provinces, along the valleys and the lower slopes of the mountains. They also live in some regions of the
Bắc Ninh Bắc Ninh () is a city in the Northern Vietnam, northern part of Vietnam and is the capital of Bắc Ninh province. The city is the cultural, administrative and commercial center of the province. The city area is 82.60 square km, with a populat ...
and Bắc Giang provinces. They inhabit fertile plains and are generally agriculturalists, mainly cultivating
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 ...
. They also cultivate
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 ...
, and
sweet potato The sweet potato or sweetpotato (''Ipomoea batatas'') is a dicotyledonous plant in the morning glory family, Convolvulaceae. Its sizeable, starchy, sweet-tasting tuberous roots are used as a root vegetable, which is a staple food in parts of ...
among other things.


History

The Tày were once known as the Thổ people. is derived from Chinese (), which means 'land' and 'local'. Although not inherently a pejorative it was often used as such in practice (cf. "bumpkin") in both Vietnam and China. Under the
Socialist Republic 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 ...
, Thổ was deemed a pejorative and substituted with Tày. The Tày are closely related to the
Nùng people The Nùng (''pronounced as noong'' Help:IPA, uːŋ are a Central Tai languages, Central Tai-speaking ethnic group living primarily in northeastern Vietnam and southwestern Guangxi. The Nùng sometimes call themselves Thổ, which literally m ...
and
Zhuang people The Zhuang (; ; , , Sawndip: 佈獞) are a Tai-speaking ethnic group who mostly live in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in Southern China. Some also live in the Yunnan, Guangdong, Guizhou, and Hunan provinces. They form one of the 56 ...
, who they are culturally and linguistically almost indistinguishable from. Although they are considered an indigenous group, portions of their population likely originated in China during the 11th and 12th centuries. However unlike the Nùng, they were more heavily Vietnamized due to their closer proximity to the Kinh and shared similar cultural practices with the Vietnamese such as lacquering their teeth black. By 1900 around 30% of their language was made of Vietnamese loan words. Tày customs were altered greatly due to Vietnamese and Confucian patriarchal structures, however some customs persisted. Polygamy with multiple equal wives and legitimacy of issue was practiced. Marriage was preferred to occur within the clan. Young wives lived with their parents until giving birth to their first child. Tày women, like those of the Nùng and Zhuang, were said to have used poison to seek revenge when wronged. The Tày and Nùng often intermarried, although the Tày seem to have held higher status in these relationships. Tày men married Nùng women more often than the other way around. Some Nùng groups were probably absorbed by the Tày.


Religion

The majority of the Tày practices ''Then'', an
indigenous religion Indigenous religion or native religion is a category used in the study of religion to demarcate the religious belief systems of communities described as being " indigenous". This category is often juxtaposed against others such as the " world r ...
involving the worship of tutelary gods, gods of the natural environment, and
ancestor An ancestor, also known as a forefather, fore-elder, or a forebear, is a parent or ( recursively) the parent of an antecedent (i.e., a grandparent, great-grandparent, great-great-grandparent and so forth). ''Ancestor'' is "any person from ...
s and
progenitor In genealogy, a progenitor (rarer: primogenitor; or ''Ahnherr'') is the founder (sometimes one that is legendary) of a family, line of descent, gens, clan, tribe, noble house, or ethnic group.. Ebenda''Ahnherr:''"Stammvater eines Geschlec ...
s of human groups. The patterns of this religion are inherited from
Taoism Taoism or Daoism (, ) is a diverse philosophical and religious tradition indigenous to China, emphasizing harmony with the Tao ( zh, p=dào, w=tao4). With a range of meaning in Chinese philosophy, translations of Tao include 'way', 'road', ' ...
and the
Chinese folk religion Chinese folk religion comprises a range of traditional religious practices of Han Chinese, including the Chinese diaspora. This includes the veneration of ''Shen (Chinese folk religion), shen'' ('spirits') and Chinese ancestor worship, ances ...
: the god of the universe is the
Jade Emperor In the Chinese mythology, myths and Chinese folk religion, folk religion of Chinese culture, the Jade Emperor or Yudi is one of the representations of the Primordial Divinity (Tai Di), primordial god. In Taoist theology, he is the assistant of ...
, in some local traditions (for example in the Quảng Hoà district of Cao Bằng) also identified as the
Yellow Emperor The Yellow Emperor, also known as the Yellow Thearch, or Huangdi ( zh, t=黃帝, s=黄帝, first=t) in Chinese, is a mythical Chinese sovereign and culture hero included among the legendary Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors. He is revered as ...
(). For their religious ceremonies they used to be able to recite Chinese characters but now along with the characters they use glosses because many of them can't recite anymore due to the fact that Vietnamese schools don't teach Chinese characters. An altar for the ancestors is usually placed in a central location in the house. The altar room is considered sacred; guests and women who have given birth are not allowed to sit on the bed in front of the altar. Some Tày have adopted
Mahayana Buddhism Mahāyāna ( ; , , ; ) is a term for a broad group of Buddhist traditions, texts, philosophies, and practices developed in ancient India ( onwards). It is considered one of the three main existing branches of Buddhism, the others being Thera ...
under the influence of Vietnamese and Chinese culture.


Language

The Tày people speak the Tày language, among other Tai dialects of the
Kra–Dai languages The Kra–Dai languages ( , also known as Tai–Kadai and Daic ), are a language family in mainland Southeast Asia, southern China, and northeastern India. All languages in the family are tonal language, tonal, including Thai language, Thai a ...
. Literacy in their own language is quite low among Tày people, probably around 5% or less. Dialects include Central Tày, Eastern Tày, Southern Tày, Northern Tày, Tày Trung Khanh, Thu Lao, and Tày Bao Lac, Tày Binh Lieu. There is a continuum of dialects to southern Zhuang in China.


Festival

*Lồng tồng (literally: "Going down the rice paddy") celebrated after the New Lunar Year Festival to pray for a good harvest. *Tăm khảu mảu (literally: "Braying the young rice") celebrated as the rice is ripening.


Cuisine

*Dishes in "Slip Sli" festival (the monday of the 7th lunar month): pẻng cuội banana cake), pẻng nhứa cáy, pẻng ngá (peanut cake), pẻng mịt, pẻng tải (literally: carrying cake) *Pẻng rày (ant's egg cake): made from glutinous rice (Tày language: ''khảu''), ant's black egg (Tày language: ''rày'') and wrapped by leaves of a kind of fig (Tày language: ''bâu ngỏa''). *Pẻng đắng (literally: ash water cake): for Double Fifth Festival. *Khảu thuy: is the cake for offering God and the Earth in Lồng tồng festival. Glutinous rice which is soaked in water of common water hyacinth and red flower- sandbox tree ash is mixed with taro and a kind of wine. Then, it is boiled and brayed. The next step is that it is cut into square-shaped or canarium fruit-shaped pieces and dried in the sun later. When the festival is going to come, it is fried until it is swelled. At last, it is soaked in molasses and then in fried-rice powder. *Nà Giàng khảu sli: the glutinous cake with peanuts made in Nà Giàng, Phù Ngọc commune, Hà Quảng district,
Cao Bằng Province Cao Bằng is a province of the Northeast region of Vietnam. The province has borders with Hà Giang, Tuyên Quang, Bắc Kạn, and Lạng Sơn provinces within Vietnam. It also has a common international border with Guangxi province in Chi ...
. *Pẻng hó: glutinous rice cake with pork and mung bean. *Coóng phù *Pẻng khạ (God's cake) for New Year festival. *Khảu nua nàng tô: glutinous rice with grub for New Rice Festival on the moonday of 8th lunar month. *Pẻng phạ: for Lồng Tồng Festival. *Áp chao *Pẻng chì *Khảu slec *Pẻng khua (smiling cake) *Coóc mò *Ửng sệch phàn *Đăm đeng *Khảu lang *Pẻng toóc: for New Year Festival *Pẻng cao *Mác lịch: Trùng Khánh chestnut *Ché khôm: Cao Bằng bitter tea: '' Ilex kaushue'' (synonym: ''Ilex kudingcha'') *Khau rả: '' Ampelopsis cantoniensis''


Herbs

*Mác mật: '' Clausena excavata''


Music

* Đàn tính: is a
string instrument In musical instrument classification, string instruments, or chordophones, are musical instruments that produce sound from vibrating strings when a performer strums, plucks, strikes or sounds the strings in varying manners. Musicians play some ...
with two or three strings. In 2019, Practices of Then by Tày, Nùng and Thái ethnic groups in Viet Nam was recognized by
UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...
as a
Intangible cultural heritage An intangible cultural heritage (ICH) is a practice, representation, expression, knowledge, or skill considered by UNESCO to be part of a place's cultural heritage. Buildings, historic places, monuments, and artifacts are cultural property. In ...
.


Tày-ized Vietnamese among the Tày

A part of the modern-day Tày population encompasses Tày-ized Vietnamese who live mainly in what is now Lang Son. These Tày-ized Vietnamese have their origins traced back to the Vietnamese living further south in the deltas of the Ca, Ma, and Red Rivers, e.g. Nghe An, Nam Dinh, etc. dispatched to the Sino-Annamese border by Annamese imperial governments to serve as governmental officials and local leaders (''phiên thần thổ ty'').Nguyễn Quang Huynh (2011), ''Thổ ty Lạng Sơn trong lịch sử'', Văn hóa dân tộc publisher, p. 10. These people were then forbidden to return to their home areas. Eventually they got assimilated into the indigenous Tày surrounding population. Their common surnames include ''Vi'', ''Nguyễn Đình'', ''Nguyễn Khắc'', ''Nguyễn Công'', ''Hoàng Đức'', ''Hoàng Đình'', etc. This practice started in the 15th century and ended in the early 20th century. Vi Văn Định is an example of these Tày-ized Vietnamese in the 20th century.Văn nghệ Công nhân
''KHÁNH THÀNH NHÀ THỜ TỔ HỌ VI'' (2017)
.


Notable Tày people

* Hoàng Văn Thụ,
General Secretary Secretary is a title often used in organizations to indicate a person having a certain amount of authority, Power (social and political), power, or importance in the organization. Secretaries announce important events and communicate to the org ...
of the
Indochina Communist Party The Indochinese Communist Party (ICP) was a political party which was transformed from the old Vietnamese Communist Party () in October 1930. This party dissolved itself on 11 November 1945. It is considered the first stage in the history of th ...
. * Nông Đức Mạnh,
General Secretary Secretary is a title often used in organizations to indicate a person having a certain amount of authority, Power (social and political), power, or importance in the organization. Secretaries announce important events and communicate to the org ...
of the
Communist Party of Vietnam The Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) is the founding and sole legal party of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Founded in 1930 by Hồ Chí Minh, the CPV became the ruling party of North Vietnam in 1954 and then all of Vietnam after the col ...
from April 22, 2001 to January 19, 2011. * Hoàng Đức Triều, pen name An Định, a
communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...
and poet, who worked with
Ho Chi Minh (born ; 19 May 1890 – 2 September 1969), colloquially known as Uncle Ho () among other aliases and sobriquets, was a Vietnamese revolutionary and politician who served as the founder and first President of Vietnam, president of the ...
. * Hoàng Thị Tuân, representative in the Twelfth Việtnamese National Assembly. * Lê Thế Khanh is likely the first Vietnamese poet writing in the Chinese language with his poem "Cố Hương Từ". * Bế Văn Phụng, Tư Thiên Quản Nhạc Madarin of the Mạc reign who modified Theng music into a kind of imperial music; author of lượn "Tam Nguyên". * Nông Quỳnh Vân, author of lượn "Hồng Nhan Tứ Qúy". * Hoàng Đức Hậu, a famous poet composing the first of two parallel line of verse that nobody can't make the second one. * Nông Quốc Chấn, a famous poet. * Nông Văn Phách alias Vũ Lập, was part of the war against Cambodia. He was one of the most successor to guard the north border of Vietnam to prevent a Chinese invasion. However, with his skill in battles and diplomacy, he didn't need to use force but he kept the Viet-China border clear. He died later due to illness. La Văn Cầu, a military hero in the war of resistance against French colonial rule. * Bế Văn Đàn, a military hero in the war of resistance against French colonial rule. * Phùng Thanh Độ, a famous streamer.


References


Bibliography

*


External links


A research on Tay people written by Le Minh Giang- filetype:pdfLồng tồng Festival
{{Authority control Ethnic groups in Vietnam Tai peoples