Could Hmong old ways have headed off slaying?

Frangchi Fangchia Vue, who acts as a marriage mediator and facilitator to American Hmong couples, says many younger Hmong disdain traditional resolutions.

After correctional officer Steve Lo was shot to death in his garage last October, his affair with another man's wife became the business of the justice system investigating the killing.

But in the months since, elders in the Hmong community have asked this question: Could the death have been avoided with the intervention of traditional Hmong justice?

Lo's mistress had been married to sheriff's Deputy Chu Vue for 16 years. A month before the shooting, she filed for divorce.

Now Vue, who maintains his innocence, awaits trial on murder charges along with two of his brothers, with the affair cited by law enforcement as a potential motive.

For centuries Hmong clan leaders and village chiefs have brought troubled couples together in mediation, levying fines and extracting apologies along with promises to end affairs and return to spouses.

That tradition continues in California, where some Hmong couples in crisis still go to clan leaders to mediate disputes. Sometimes it works; sometimes the affair persists and the couples get divorces.

But traditional Hmong justice never was sought in the case of Deputy Chu Vue and Steve Lo, according to clan leaders, others familiar with the two Hmong families and Lo's widow, Sia Vang.

"All of this was never brought to the table," she said. "If it was, he wouldn't be dead today."

Hmong mediation on wane

There are 18 Hmong clans identified by their family names, including Vang, Vue, Lo and Ly. Not all Vues are related – in Sacramento, there are three distinct Vue sub-clans from different parts of Laos.

Any mediation would have had to start with Chu Vue and his clan leaders, said Hmong elders, who would have contacted clan leaders for Steve Lo and Chia Vue.

The clan leaders for the wronged spouse "go to his wife's clan and the boyfriend's clan for a three-way talk … and decide who started it," Pa Xiong Vue, a Hmong shaman and the leader of Chu Vue's clan, said through an interpreter.

"We would find exactly the starting point before a match turned into a grass fire."

Pa Xiong Vue has mediated at least 100 troubled marriages in Laos, Thailand and Sacramento. He noted that the more educated Hmong don't often rely on clan leaders anymore.

Chu Vue is the son of a shaman and speaks Hmong, said Pa Xiong Vue, 61. But his family came to the United States from the Laotian city of Luang Prabang much earlier than Pa Xiong Vue and are better educated than those who came later.

Professionals like Chu Vue and Steve Lo believe "I have a lawyer, I have money, I don't depend on elders any more," Pa Xiong Vue continued. "I was willing to help if they asked, but in this country there's nothing we can do if they don't."

Chu Vue, he said, never asked.

Dowry helped solidify vows

For thousands of years, the foundation of Hmong marriage has been the dowry, or bride price – a sort of insurance policy the groom pays his wife's family to guarantee the couple's success. It's also the foundation of marital mediation.

The dowry, negotiated by elders from each clan, is to ensure "you have to stay together and not cheat on each other," Pa Xiong Vue said.

"If the dowry is $6,000 and the wife cheats on the husband, she will have to pay $3,000 back and the other man will have to pay at least the other half to the wronged husband," Vue said.

Unlike Western marriage counseling, which is based on the philosophy that blaming goes nowhere, who starts the affair is key to Hmong justice.

If "the young lady starts the affair, she will be fined double," Vue said. If a married man initiates an affair with a married woman, "there would be a much heavier penalty – he would have to pay back the whole bride price because he violated it three ways: his wife, the other husband and the other wife."

Along with fines, the lovers also have to publicly apologize. "It makes them better people," Vue said.

If the other man doesn't agree to the clan leaders' ruling, the wronged husband has a right to seek justice himself, Vue said, including asking the lover to pay back the dowry.

The husband can tell the lover, he said, "take my wife, pay what I paid before, or I might have to take you down."

T.T. Vang, another Sacramento Hmong leader, said that violence rarely ensues: "Ninety-nine percent will agree to pay the penalty."


Western influence blamed

Among local Hmong leaders, the question of why affairs and divorce are more common here is a matter of much debate, with many pointing fingers at the influence of the West.

Marital problems increased in the 1960s, when the Hmong were recruited by the CIA to fight against communists in Laos during the Vietnam War, according to Pa Xiong Vue. Then, he said, "the husband was at the front and the wife is cheating at home."

Even then, the majority of those who violated marriage law by starting affairs were men, Vue said, But, he added, in this country the wife often starts it.

Frangchi Fangchia Vue, a shaman and math teacher from Luang Prabang, attributed the low divorce rate back in Laos to a more insular life.

In Laos, "a couple goes to work on a farm and they don't have the chance to meet different people the way they do here in America," he said.

Other clan leaders said American women entering the work force was a turning point.

"Here in America, women have to go to work and many spend more time at work than at home," said Koby Vang, director of Sacramento Lao Family. Vang noted that Sacramento clan leaders mediate more than 10 marital conflicts a year.

Chu Vue's wife, Chia Ly Vue, worked with Lo at the Correctional Medical Facility in Vacaville. She has told investigators she was having an affair with Lo, but she declined to talk to The Bee last week.

Lo's widow, Sia Vang, said she didn't know how the affair got started or who initiated it.

"I know my husband has a good head on his shoulders and if he knew she was already married and had kids, I want to give him the benefit of the doubt and say he didn't make the first approach," she said.

She and her husband "didn't argue, we didn't fight, but we worked different shifts – he would work the morning shift and I would work the swing shift. Other than that we didn't have any problems."

Younger Hmong use courts

Whether the prescriptions of traditional mediation stick in America is a matter of some debate among local Hmong leaders.

Tong Pao Lo, a Sacramento expert on Hmong culture, said mediation generally works for Hmong over age 30.

However, Koby Vang, 56, said clan intervention doesn't always work. He himself is divorced after a traditional mediation failed, he said. Even after the clan leaders get involved, he estimated more than half of their cases end in divorce a year or two later.

He blamed Hmong men, who he said tell the women they are having affairs with: "Here in America there is freedom, you can do what you want to do."

As a shaman, Frangchi Fangchia Vue has helped negotiate dowries for dozens of weddings in this country and knows of many American Hmong couples with marital problems.

He's mediated some of those martial disputes, too.

"I act like a judge: Let's do it, solve it and make it end," he said. "But younger people usually go to court and don't care about traditional Hmong resolution."

Though he's not related to Chu Vue, Frangchi Fangchia Vue's daughter, Khou Vue, is one of eight Vues arrested in connection with the alleged plot to kill Lo. She is out on bail, accused of aiding and concealing Chu Vue's brothers, who hid out on a piece of property linked to her.

Even though he's seen success with mediation, Frangchi Fangchia Vue is skeptical that Hmong justice would have helped in Chu Vue's case.

"Things got out of hand here," he said. "I don't think the Hmong culture would have been able to resolve this."

Clan edicts not enforceable

One of the problems Hmong elders have encountered in this country is there is no way to enforce their remedies, either culturally or legally.

Clan leaders "can't make you do something you don't want to do," said attorney Jerry Chong, who represented a Mien man who found his wife cheating with a Hmong man "and asked for an intervention from the Hmong elders.

"He wanted the Hmong guy to apologize publicly. … He said, 'This is a small community, everybody knows and I have no respect and I've got to do something about it.' "

The clan leaders organized a meeting "and everybody was waiting but the Hmong guy didn't show up," Chong said. "He refused to apologize and continued to humiliate him so the Mien guy hired a hit man who turned out to be an undercover police officer," Chong said.

Koua Lor Franz, executive director of the Hmong Women's Heritage Association, says Western justice could help bolster Hmong justice.

She suggests that Hmong agencies and Sacramento courts certify the Hmong clan mediators so their rulings "have some teeth so we can work together to enforce them instead of waiting until someone commits a crime."

Case splits families

The stakes in the Chu Vue case extend beyond the two couples directly involved, and Steve Lo's widow fears it could turn future romances between their clans into Romeo-and-Juliet scenarios.

More than 100 Hmong came to court for Vue's arraignment March 30. Most were members of the Lo and Vue clans and each clan kept largely to itself.

"Right now, the Lo and Vue families are not happy with each other," said Sacramento Hmong leader Zong Chou Vang.

Clan mediation would have extended into the legal system in Laos, Vang said, giving a measure of justice to both sides.

There, Vang said, Chu Vue would have had to divorce his wife "if she didn't listen to the clan leaders." But, he said, they also would have "deducted five to 10 years from his prison sentence" if he were convicted in Lo's death, because Lo was guilty of adultery, too.

The hard feelings are "going to be an ongoing issue," according to Sia Vang, Lo's widow.

"If a Lo kid falls for a Vue kid, people will try to break them up and if the marriage is allowed to go forward, they will raise the dowry," she said.

"It's going to be a forever issue and it's really sad and pathetic."

Source

Read more...

The Hmong game of love

By Liz Price

Throw the ball and catch a husband. If you see a boy you like, toss the ball to him and hope he returns it. But if you don’t like your prospective partner, then drop the ball he throws you.

Novel, isn’t it?

This is pov pob, the ball-tossing game of the Hmong, a minority ethnic group in Laos. The ball-tossing game is a common activity for adolescents. Boys and girls form two separate lines in pairs that are directly facing one another. The players throw a soft black ball back and forth to each other.

Catching the ball gives him hope. Dropping it could mean she’s got her sights on someone else. — LIZ PRICE

The ball is thrown so that the other player can catch it with one hand. If the throw is good and the other player drops or misses the ball, an ornament or a piece of silver or a belt from his or her costume is given to the opposite player in the pair. Ornaments are recovered by singing traditional courting songs to the opposite player.

Girls can toss the ball with other girls or boys, but boys cannot toss the ball with boys. It is also taboo to toss the ball to someone of the same clan, as Hmongs may not marry within the same clan group. Through playing this game, the youngsters get to know each other, forming relationships that may eventually lead to marriage.

If the boy throws the ball and the girl makes no attempt to catch it, then he has been rejected. Traditionally the ball was made of cotton, but today the couples use tennis balls.

Every unmarried girl tries to make a new dress especially for the ball game. During their spare moments from working at home or in the fields, the girls embroider special designs on their costumes. The boys, too, wear their best new clothes.

Each player wears at least one silver collar. However, today, many have compromised on the dress code and wear unbecoming trainers or clumpy modern platform shoes. Some of the boys don’t even bother to dress up. It seems such a pity that the girls make a big effort to dress up for the occasion whereas a few of the boys come in their everyday clothes.

I had to laugh at the number of handphones I saw. Many of the boys and girls were catching the ball with one hand, while the other one clutched a handphone. In years to come they will probably give up throwing the ball and just send text messages instead!

Traditional Hmong society is very ordered and a marriage partner must be found from another clan. The ball throwing game takes place during the Hmong New Year celebration, because they usually work all year round and have no time for courtship. All the Hmong communities in the country celebrate the New Year.

It is held at the end of the 12th lunar calendar month and the beginning of the first lunar calendar month, which is the time of the full moon in November (of the Laotian calendar). This is at the end of the rice harvest, and the festival lasts anything from three to 45 days.

However, not all communities celebrate the New Year at the same time since it may not coincide with the end of the rice harvest for them. It is preferable that the New Year celebration coincides with those in other nearby villages so that the unmarried men can meet prospective wives in other communities as well.

Young people usually get married after the New Year, between the first and the 15th of the month. They believe that it’s a good time for marriage, because everything starts as new, especially with a new moon – something the Hmongs live their lives by.

There is an interesting story of the origin of this ball-throwing game.

A long time ago, before the Hmong migrated to Laos, they lived in China. There were specific times set aside for courting. It was the man’s duty to court a girl and the actual activity of pov pob occurred when some love-stricken fellow devised a plan in which he would be able to send symbols of love to his girlfriend.

He would hide some charm or personal item wrapped up in a bun and throw it to his chosen girl. Then she proceeded to do the same. Back and forth they threw these items. If they were separated by a high wall, he would sing to indicate he was there and she would have to answer with similar lyrics.

Over the years, the buns turned into balls made from strips of fabric and were tossed at New Year to show affection or interest. The beautiful lyrics continue to be a feature in this courting game.

Source

Read more...

Hmong traditioinal funerals (shaman)

Hmong people have a culture built on animistic beliefs and a strong faith that after death the soul reincarnates in a possibility of many forms such as humans, plants, rocks and ghosts (Goetz par. 1, 12). Death is often considered the most important time for practicing rituals in the Hmong community because without practicing the necessary rituals the soul will roam for eternity. Hmong culture has been around for thousands of years and some of the rituals have slightly changed due to immigration and urbanization. Throughout time rituals have always varied from tribe to tribe therefore there is no one-way of performing the pre-funeral rituals, the burial rituals and the post burial rituals. However, the differences are minor and are aimed at achieving the same goal of reincarnation.

The Pre Funeral

The funeral is the most elaborate of all Hmong rituals. The overall goal of the performed rituals is to guide the soul back to the placental jacket that it will wear on the journey to the after life (Conquergood, par. 6). After death the body is bathed by the sons of the deceased while extended family members are notified and begin to travel to the home of the dead relative (Tapp 81). After the body is washed it dressed in only new ceremonial burial clothes. If the deceased is male he will be dressed in women’s clothes and if the deceased is female she will be dressed in men’s clothing (hilltribe.org). Another important aspect of burial clothing is the hand-made hemp shoes that help the soul across the caterpillar river and over the green worm mountain on the quest for their ancestors (“Death”).

Music is also used as a tool for helping the soul on the journey to the afterlife. The first song played is called, “Showing The Way” and illustrates the origins of man and the world, which must be revisited for the soul to pass to its next life. Once the body is prepared for its journey it is positioned on a table with items that will be necessary for the voyage into the afterlife. “A bottle of alcohol and a cooked chicken in the two halves of a gourd, together with a boiled egg, a crossbow, a knife and a paper umbrella, will be placed by the head of the corpse” (Tapp 83). Incense serves a dual purpose in the presentation of the body. It is not only an offering but also masks the smell of the decaying body and is set at the feet of the deceased (Tapp 83).

Funerals in the Hmong culture can last anywhere from three to twelve days depending on a number of variables. The main factor in determining the length of the funeral is the person’s status within the community. For instance, the head of the village would have a twelve-day funeral (Tapp 83). Another variable that alters the length of the funerals is present day laws. Western laws regarding treatment of cadavers and animal sacrificing have resulted in a change from the traditional ceremony (Falk, par. 12). The final variable concerning funeral duration is the way in which the deceased has passed. For infants and victims of violent deaths the body is disposed of with haste and little fuss because there are strong beliefs among the Hmong people that these deaths create negative spirits (Tapp 81). An essential part of the mourning process is the three daily meals prepared by the men in the family. At each meal the ceremonial dish, laig dab that is composed of pork and rice, is offered to the deceased body by the eldest son, while the reed pipe instrument, called the qeej, plays a ceremonial song (Tapp 84). Another offering made to the spirit of the deceased is a daily animal sacrifice. Traditionally, the sacrifice has been a pig, however due to local laws it is often replaced with a chicken (Falk, par. 12). Once the offerings have been finished a lamp is lit on the dead body and male relatives retreat outside to fire three shots into the air to scare any evil spirits that may attack the house during this time of turmoil (“Death”).

Reincarnation is a pillar of the Hmong faith. During the ceremonies it is culturally taboo to show distress, as the ceremony is not about the death of the person but the rebirth of the soul and a new life (Goetz, par. 12). The main reason the funeral rituals are performed is so that the dead will be reborn into the same family. If the rituals are not performed properly the Hmong fear that the soul will be punished by returning as a lesser form or in a different family (Tapp 84). One ritual that must be completed is the payment of the deceased debts. Any debts unpaid are thought to negatively impact the living family along with the deceased party (“Death”). The final ritual before the burial is the second sacred song. This song is called, “The Song of Expiring Life” and informs the deceased they have passed on and need to begin the journey to the placental jacket and into the spirit world (Cha 73).

The Burial

In the Hmong culture a death is an extremely important event. The burial process must be performed correctly in order to protect those living and the deceased from evil spirits that are present when there is a death. The first step in burial is sacrificing a number of oxen that are prepared by the descendents of the deceased for a feast that the entire village partakes in to pay homage to the dead (“Death”). The second step is removing the body from the house on a stretcher while “Song of Mounting The Way” is being played on the qeej (Tapp 84, 86, 87). A female from the village will then guide the funeral procession with a torch to “light the way” for the corpse (Tapp 85). Along the way the procession takes steps to confuse the evil spirits. This includes stopping, changing course frequently and disposing of the torch before the burial site is reached (“Death”). The traditional burial site is on the side of a mountain where the body is placed facing west. This is because Hmong people believe that west is the direction of death and if the head is facing the east it will be blinded by the sun (Tapp 86). The placement of the grave is determine by older members of the community and depends on age, sex and status (Tapp 85 & “Death”). Once the body has been laid in the ground and covered the stretcher used to transport the deceased to the burial site is destroyed while on lookers burn incense, symbolic paper and place stones on the grave (Tapp 85 & Falk 11). The final step of the burial is to construct a fence around the grave that protects the site from any harm (“Death”). The celebration will continue on the way back to the village and throughout the next three days through performing a variety of rituals that vary from tribe to tribe all with intent to honor the deceased (Tapp 85).

Post Burial

There is a thirteen-day mourning period in which the family of the deceased observes certain sacrifices in respect of the passed loved one. On this day a ritual is performed with intent to welcome the soul into it’s former home one last time before it begins the journey into the after life (Tapp 87).

Source

Read more...

Thailand Hilltribes traditional dress

To look beautiful in the Akha world is to dress in the most carefully crafted costume possible;
Two Akha tribeswomen display their intricately crafted headresses and costumes.


This also Akha tribewoman

Beauty takes on exotic new definitions in Northern Thailand, for hill tribe women have a very different concept of what makes a girl pretty, even from tribe to tribe. Some traits are common to all, such as the lack of makeup, the use of silver ornaments and the general preference for bold, bright color. But no style quite resembles any other other, while within eash style subtle variations express individuality.

In addition, hill tribe women in general draw on a staggering array of decorative devices from both the natural world and the modern. These combinations may startle uninitiated visitors, but they soon find that their aesthetic sense, in the tribal environment, quickly accepts the local norms. And they leave with the feeling that traditional dress makes even tribal "plain Janes" look fetching.

When city women go shopping for clothes and jewelry they purchase ready-made items. Hill women make their own outfits and only buy the components. Some tribal women - the Akha, Hmong, Palaung, and Karen - weave their own cloth as well. Karen weavers lay in decorative patterns while the cloth is still on the loom. Lisu and Lahu sometimes weave belts and shoulder-bag cloth, but buy the the main costume parts in bolts of different colors. Yao do not weave, but like the Akha and Hmong are meticulous embroiderers.

The Karen are famous as meticulous weavers of uniquely patterned cloth

The Akha, Karen and Palaung grow their own cotton and spin their own thread, whilst the Hmong raise hemp for their cloth. Karen weavers dye the threads first, but Akha and Hmong weave it white and dye it with indigo afterward, when the Hmong also apply designs by batik. Akha and Karen cloth is used for all parts of the costume, while Hmong cloth is only for the skirts. Once the cloth is dyed the next step is to assemble the costume parts. The applique and patterned stitchwork comes at this point, which can take months of tireless, dedicated work to produce a fully embroidered pair of Yao trousers or an Akha girl's jacket, leggings, skirt-guard and shoulder bag.

Lisu women buy raw material at a local market to make their vivid costumes

Recycling the past; old colonial British rupees are often melted down to create local jewelry including these Padaung neck rings.

Girls of all tribes become adept with spindles, needles and thread at an early age, not from any formal training, but just by copying what their big sisters and mothers are doing. In the most remote villages, where tribes have to make their own clothes because they can't afford to buy any, females of all ages spin thread whenever their hands are free and there's enough light from the sun, the moon or an oil lamp. And they learn to weave as soon as their legs are long enough to reach the threadles.

Town girls are familiar with a much broader range of beauty models. They've been bombarded all through their formative years with the images of the world's styles and instructed on the ingredients of attractiveness. They are offered the ability to adopt one look for today, another for tomorrow, one for the office, a different one for the big night out, one for the sober presentation, another for the festive occasion.

The tribal exposure to various interpretation or beauty is much circumscribed. No real media influence exists in the tribal girl's world, which is instead heavily saturated with the images of her immediate environment. A tribal girl doesn't want so many "looks." She wants to look like all the other women around her because that has been all she has seen, except for maybe a few hurried glances at the town girl and other tribalspeople in the plains markets. The only beautiful women she's ever had a good look at have been fellow tribalswomen. I's no wonder they all wear such similar costumes. To look beautiful in the Akha world is to dress in the most carefully crafted Akha costume possible. To be a beautiful Karen girl is to wear the most expertly woven Karen dress that she is capable of creating.

Likewise, on the plains, tribal girls dress up to impress other women more than to attract a male. The big holidays and weddings are times to show off one's skill and compare one's work with that of other. Akha, Hmong and Yao girls will examine ech other's embroidery and if if they see something new will at once try to figure out how it was done. They'll observe what decorations were used and how they were deployed, inspiring ideas for their next holiday fasion. Lisu girls will count the shoulder stripes on the blouses of their rivals to see whether they have more or less than their own, which is the Lisu girl's measure of applique skill. Karens may do the same with the brass bangles on the arms of fellow villagers.

The city girl has a plethora of jewelry selections. Tribal ornaments are of two kinds: silver items and natural products of their environment. Tribal silversmiths generally fashion the rings, discs, neckrings, chunky bracelets and bangles, from melted down British silver rupees, 92.5 percent pure. These coins are also used as ornaments, especially by the Akha, who attach them to headdresses and stitch them onto jackets and bags. The Hmong and Yao do the same with French Imdochinese piasters. Even the Lisu are particularly fond of silver ornaments. During festivals girls wear blouses covered front and back with silver studs and pendants, while the occasional girl wears little silver fish in her headdress or suspends a larger one from a thick; silver chain hanging down her back.

Besides silver jewelry, some of which are family heirlooms, tribals fetch ornament materials from their jungles. Both the Akha and the Karen use Job's tear seeds and the shiny wings of green beetles as decoration. The Karen make beads to be used in necklaces from coconut shell, while the range of Akha embellishments includes animal parts such as gibbon fur and red horsehair tassels. Also, the Akha are perhaps the only people in the world to make a decorative device from chicken feathers. Women twine the tail feathers around a two-string bow loom, knock them in place with a bobby pin and tie off the tassel at the desired length. They next dye them red and attach them to headdresses, shoulder bags and jackes.

As for hairstyles, most women in the hills keep it in turbans or headdreasses and even those who don't ordinarity, like the younger Lisu and Karen, wrap it up for festivals. The simplest, and even strangest headgear is that worn by the Palaung and the Lahu Sheleh. It is nothing more than a brightly colored hand towel, like the sort you see hanging in your suburban friends' bathrooms. Most other headgear is a version, in one from or another, of the turban.

The most elaborate headpiece, though, is that of the Akha, which varies according to subgroup. The Ulo Akha headdress consists of a bamboo cone, covered in beads, silver studs and seeds, edged in coins (silver rupees for the rich, bath for the poor) topped by several dangling chicken feather tassels and maybe a woolen pom-pom. The Pamee Akha wear a trapezoidal colt cap covered in silver studs with coins on the beaded side flaps and long chains of linked silver rings hanging down each side. The Lomi Akha wear a round cap covered in silver studs and framed by silver balls, coins and pendants and the married women attach a trapezoidal inscribed plate at the back. By the way, Akha women sleep with their headdress on, though the Ulo women remove the top half first.

The stype of visiting tribals to other traditional villages contrast with that of the welcoming host, and the burden of adapting to the unfamiliar is on the visitors more thn on their hosts, who are, after all, on home ground. But just as the guests usually find it easy to behave respectfully once they discover their hosts behaving likewise, they also have no real trouble in the tribal world. Some adjust so well they even fall in love.

Source

Read more...

The Chinese Hmong

Got this from a traveler's blog. Check out the pics here on her blog but I copied and paste her experience here.

Up until now, our interactions with people have been solely with those of the Han nationality. THis isn't surprising, given that the Han makes up the overwhelming majority of people in China - 93% of the nation's 1.3 billion. As soon as our plane landed in Guizhou Provence, however, we noticed a difference in culture. The women on the streets of the city of Guoyang were not all dressed in the western clothes that even the people in the rural villages near Luoyang wore, but instead sported silk-embroidered velvet tops, and piled their long black hair on top of their heads, adorned with a flower, comb, and decorative chopsticks. These women carried a wooden yolk balanced on one shoulder. Fastened to either end of this straight, flat stick is a basket, filled with grapes, peppers, silk, or other products that they are selling in the city. On their backs they are often seen carrying a child in an embroidered velvet backpack.

Trying my hand at plowing a rice field

Behind the outward appearance of the small, sturdy-looking women, is a long history of migration and persecution that parallels that of the Jewish people in the west. These women are part of a culture that call themselves Hmong, and who the Chinese call Miao. I have heard different stories from different Hmong people about whether they embrace or are offended by the term Miao, so I will use Hmong here. They are, however, the same culture, carrying the same rich history.

My host parents saddling their pack pony

The first impression that I had of the Hmong, women with fancy hairdo's and elaborate clothes, soon opened up to me as a colorful and culturally rich group that works hard, laughs often and fully, and holds strong to their traditions. The Hmong have been pushed around China and other parts of Asia since before recorded history. Five thousand years ago they were pushed west from the coast to the Yellow River Valley, and 2,000 years ago during the Han dynasty they were pushed southwest into the mountains, developing a gift for turning even the most difficult terrain into productive farmland. The Chinese exploited this talent, and again "relocated" these farming communities 600 years ago to the hills in Guizhou where they remain today.

The Village of Xijiang

I had the privaledge of staying in one of the larger of the Hmong villages, Xijiang, about a two-and-a-half hour bus ride southeast of the city of Kaili. From the bus, I became familiar with the intimate relationship the Hmong had with the limestone mountains of Guizhou. Thankfully for my stomach, which was becoming overwhelmed with foreign bacteria and spicy food, the roads were mostly paved, albeit narrow, full of potholes, and abutting a steep drop-off with no shoulder whatsoever. The mountains are landscaped with terraced gardens of sweet potatoes, corn, squash, a decorative grass used for basket-making, tomatoes, cucumbers, forests of pear trees, and rice paddies! Yes, rice! Growing on flat terraces high in the mountains! My previous experience with rice is that it is a wetland crop, refusing to grow unless submerged in shallow, slow- or non-moving water. I was shocked when I realized that this plant was happily growing hundreds of feet about the stream-beds, and enquired about this to the guides. I was expecting to hear about genetic engineering and drought-tolerant varieties, but what Iearned was even more amazing: the Hmong farmers have manipulated the landscape and built intricate aquifer systems that channeled all the rainfall on the mountain and trapped it in the rice terraces. I was still skeptical, and spent a lot of time examining this during the three days we spent in our village homestays. The terraced rice paddies do indeed trap water in flat-bottomed man-made ponds that ducks played in and children catch on lines small fish with a dorsal fin that encircled their bodies. And rice grows there, too!

Women working on the tourist buildings

There are very few places on the mountain that do not support a harvestable plant. Along with those for food grows Tung Oil Trees, whose fruits are squeezed for their oil that is used to coat wood to keep bridges and houses brightly colored and rot-free. My host mother is up before dawn each morning working in the rice fields or tending to other vegetables before collecting sweet potato greens and other weeds (in her double baskets, swung over her shoulder on a yolk) which she grinds up and cooked with grain and water over an open fire to feed to her pigs. After slopping the pigs and gathering eggs from the chickens, we cooked and ate breakfast. My host father was already gone, having saddled up his pack-pony, he made his way down the mountain to help move earth and bricks to build the new shops and hotels in the valley. The Hmong in Guizhou found a new, easier way to make a living: catering to the ever-increasing tourist population. They are currently exploiting to the fullest the fact that people want to come see indigenous communities, buy their traditional products, and stay in 5-star hotels with air conditioning, and eat western food with only a sampling of the traditional rice noodles with fried eggs and scallions that we had for breakfast that morning.

A Hmong woman hard at work in a rice paddy

My host family's life is an interesting mix of their traditional way of life and modern amenities. They cook over a wood fire, pry corn kernels off the cob by hand, peal potatoes with a sickle, get water from an outdoor faucet, and relieve themselves in an open latrine, and yet have reliable electricity, and we watched the lead up to the Olympics in Chinese on TV during dinner. Technology has not missed this rural mountain village!

The Culture of the Hmong has not been lost, despite the infiltration of television. I was fascinated by watching the women. They have their own language, different from the Hmong language spoken throughout the village, and the Mandarin that is making its way in, of which most people in the village speak at least a little. This language of the women is a sing-songy, melodious speech that, although I don't understand a word of it, appears to be full of ritual and respect. As I walked with my host mother by the house of her sister-in-law, my host mother chanted and sang until her sister-in-law came to the window. They exchanged songs, and between each one we would walk away, only to be called back by the singing woman at the window, who apparently beckoned a reply. This ritual was repeated at least eight times before tradition permitted us to be on our way.

A group of dancing girls

Courting and marriage are other customs that are rich in culture and tradition. Young women wear their hair piled in the signature oblong bun on their head. Married women wear their hair in a mushroom-like or umbrella swooping over their ears and the side of their faces, and also have it piled on top of their heads. Tradition states that women have to marry men outside their village and move to their husbands village. I have heard lots of different courting rituals, including girls handing boys bells if they're interesting in courting, and girls parents cutting a small hole in her bedroom wall that boys come up to at night and sing through. If the girl is interested, she sings back. If they sing back and forth until sunrise, it's a sign that they should get married.

Looking down at the terraced rice paddies

My interest in fabric arts made the embroidery one of the most interesting Hmong traditions to me. Girls each embroider a beautifully decorated skirt for ceremonial dances. We were welcomed into the village by two chanting women wearing these skirts and their matching embroidered jackets with silver necklaces and crowns, carrying bowls of baiju for us. We were also serenaded at a feast for us by women singing and dancing, and men playing the lu sheng, a multi-piped wind instrument that reminded me a lot of bagpipes. I had a chance to use the brightly colored silk thread to embroider a dragon on a piece of cloth. I'm not sure what it was for, but the pattern was beautiful.

I fear that this rich culture will fade over the next couple of generations. Tourism is becoming a bigger and bigger industry, and with tourism comes money and modern amenities. On one side, it will make the lives of these hard-working people easier. On the other, with an easier lifestyle comes a loss of culture and tradition because it will no longer be necessary, and introducing people of different traditions will water down their own traditions. I am curious to see how much this village will change in the coming years.

Read more...

Hmong Family and Clan

Hmong are group oriented. Hmong society is built on thousands of years of war, resistance to oppression, and dislocation. In these circumstances, the survival of the individual depends on the survival of the group. As a result, the interests of the group come before the interests of the individual. A Hmong person belongs to a family, the family belongs to a clan, and the clan belongs to the Hmong people. Hmong often use the term we to refer to their family, their clan, and their identity as a people. It is very common for a Hmong person to say peb tsev neeg (‘our family’), peb lub xeem (‘our clan’), and peb Hmoob (‘our Hmong people’).

The family is the basic social unit in traditional Hmong society. It serves as the unit of production, consumption, socialization, social control, and mutual assistance. While a Hmong household may vary in size from a married couple to more than 20 people, a typical household consists of an extended family made up of many generations.

There are about 19 Hmong clans in Laos: Cha or Chang, Cheng, Chu, Fang, Hang, Her, Khang, Kong, Kue, Lor or Lo, Lee or Ly, Moua, Phang, Tang, Thao, Vang, Vue, Xiong, and Yang. Within the clans, there might be several subclans, whose members can trace their ancestors to a common person or share a common tradition of ancestral worship and other ritual practices. Clan membership is obtained by birth, marriage for women, and adoption. Although a married Hmong woman continues to identify herself by her birth family’s clan name, for all practical purposes she is a member of her husband’s family and clan.

Members of a clan consider each other clan brothers or clan sisters. Socially and culturally, they are obligated to help each other. When two Hmong meet each other, they greet each other by saying Koj tuaj los! (‘You come!’). When someone passes through a Hmong village, a villager usually greets the passerby and insists that the passerby stop by his or her home for a meal or at least a cup of water. After greeting, they exchange names, ages, clans, and generations to establish their relationship in order to properly address each other. If they belong to the same clan, they will establish the precise relationship within the clan. If not, they will establish their relationship through the marriage of their kin, beginning with their wives and aunts. They will address one another using kinship terms, such as brother, uncle, aunt, and so on. In the highlands of Laos, every Hmong is related, either through close or distant relatives.

Source

Read more...

Hmong Marriage

In Hmong culture, it isn’t acceptable to marry a person with the same clan name. A Hmong marriage implies an agreement between two clans and it is an important goal for most Hmong men and women. Traditionally, an unmarried woman was considered a disgrace because the family would miss out on establishing social relationships with other clans. Unlike in Laos, North American Hmong males often wait till they graduate from high school or college to marry; however, Hmong girls continue to marry in their middle teens. A Hmong marriage celebrates community and is practiced as closely as possible to the ways of the ancestors in China while also adjusting to the new options available here in North America.


There are two types of wedding rituals in Hmong culture. One is the regular wedding (the “tshoob tog qws”), and the other is the wedding by request or influence of family and relatives (“the tshoob zawj”).


There is a total of thirteen participants in the Hmong marriage. There are two wedding negotiators from each side (mej koob) who act as the messengers of the wedding. Obviously, the bride and groom are part of the wedding! But they are not the center of attention. The groom‘s role is more demanding than the bride’s simply because Hmong tradition demands that he take his oath of love in front of the bride’s parents and relatives.


The bridesmaid and the best man are present. The bridesmaid’s task is to stay with the bride for two reasons. First, to make sure that the bride doesn’t try reconnecting with any ex-boyfriends; second, to make sure that the bride’s mother doesn’t try to change her daughter’s feelings. The best man is often the assistant in the wedding ritual.


Two parents, one from each side, are in attendance. And usually, the distant brother or uncle of the bride’s father and the older brother or distant relative of the groom’s father are chosen to represent and act for the parents. Next in line are two brothers by relation. Their roles are to welcome the groom and if they do not fulfill their roles, there will be penalties. Lastly, one elder is present whose responsibility is to oversee the Hmong marriage ceremony.


The Hmong marriage ceremony:Upon arrival of the marriage negotiators at the bride’s house, conversation is initiated with the parents. The four “mej koob” get acquainted with each other and begin to establish a mutual friendship prior to the wedding. The last step before the actual wedding is to negotiate the dowry price.


The parents of the bride have the option to prepare the wedding feast themselves or to give the task to the groom’s side of the family. Here, the groom’s mej koob will ask the bride’s mej koob if they would like a green pig (money) or a white pig (an actual pig). Traditionally, in Laos, the pig must be male and of a certain size. It is sacrificed in honour of the wedding celebration. During the feast, many toasts are made and this process can take up to five hours.


After the wedding, the groom’s parents put together a feast for the people who were involved in the wedding. In the Hmong culture, the parents thank each individual by giving them a small amount of money as a token of appreciation.


Source

Read more...

Being Hmong

The Start

The ancestors of the Hmong dated back about 5000 years ago. The Hmongs lived along the lower reaches of the Yellow River in China. There was a time where the Hmongs controlled a region of China. War and persecution broken out against the Hmong people and they were focused out to another country or to be enslave by the Chinese. The Hmongs traveled to the mountains of Laos. From there, they lived in peace for many years until the Vietnam War.

Many families were separated or killed during the process of the war. American came to aid so that Laos does not become a Communist country. After years of fighting with the Americans, the Americans left Laos and Laos became a Communist country. Since the Hmonsg helped the Americans, they had to leave Laos or there will be punishments. Approximately 30,000 or more Hmongs were killed in the Vietnam War. It was a depressing period because many wives became widows, many children became orphans, and many that were killed became lost souls in Laos. The only way to escape was to cross the Mekong River to Thailand.

From Thailand, many lost families were reunited, if they were lucky. The Hmongs were put into concentration camps and had to await for a sponsor from the United States to adopt them. The Hmongs knew that American was where they can live free. This was how the first group of Hmongs came to America.

The word Hmong means free people. The Hmongs wanted to be free and able to do whatever they may without getting punished or in trouble. For this reason, the Hmongs migrated from China to Laos for freedom. Then came the war and the war took their freedom away. Afterward, the Hmongs came to America for a better life. There are many Hmongs living in the States now. There is a greater population in California, Minnesota, North Carolina, and Wisconsin. In California, there are more Hmongs in Merced, Fresno, and Sacramento. The University of California Davis has more Hmong students than any university in California. Hmong boys and girls had different roles. Being a Hmong girl means waking up early and help prepare breakfast, lunch and dinner. It also means cleaning up and taking care of the parents or elders. A Hmong boy does nothing but take responsibility for the family's actions and help set up ceremonies and parties. The Hmong people are very traditional. We have very strong family morals and values.

The Hmong culture is very elaborated. There are different ceremonies for different events. In the culture, there is the Hmong wedding, funerals, and rituals. These are kept scared to the Hmongs.

Wedding ceremony

A Hmong wedding is long process. If a Hmong boy wants to marry a Hmong girl, the boy must pay a dowry to her parents. He must ask permission to marry her. He must come to her house and ask for her hand in marriage. Sometimes, this does not happened at all. The reasons are because the couple ran away together or the daughter was kidnapped. The boy can kidnapped the daughter and she will be focus to marry him. Then the boy will call his uncles and relatives to prepare a negotiation meeting. The meeting will be about how much the parents are willing to sell their daughter to the boy. If the young girl is educated, the dowry may be ten thousand. If she is not educated, she may be worth five grand. If she is pregnant, her dowry may be lower because she got pregnant before she got married to the boy. After the negotiation meeting, the families will start the preparation for the wedding. The party will start at the girl's house. The girl's relatives will make the new brother in law drink alot of alcohol. While this is occurring, the girl's mom dresses her up in traditional Hmong clothing. After that, the daughter will join her husband and they will drink together. The party is over when it is time to say goodbye to the daughter and new brother in law. This time is so sad because the mom is letting go of her baby and the daughter is letting go of her youth. The young lady and man are dressed up in the traditional Hmong clothes. The party may stop at the daughter's house but there is more partying at the son's house. His relatives are waiting for him to bring home his new bride. It is really exciting because the families are celebrating a new beginning. This is what goes on in a Hmong wedding ceremony.

Funerals

During Hmong funerals, it is longer than wedding ceremonies. When a elder dies, the funeral lasts for three days. If a young baby or adult passed away, the funeral is one to to days long. The reason is because the babies or young adults did not get to live their lives to the fullness. So, their spirits can travel fast to be reincarnate into another human being, again. A elder's funeral deals with the family sacrificing cows, pigs, and chickens. The amount of cows, pigs, and chickens killed will indicate how wealthy he or she will become in their next life. Also, it tells the dead person how much his or her family loved him or her. The dead person is dressed in traditional dead clothing. On the first day there will be mourning for the dead. The family will gather around the body and cried out because they miss the friend. The second day will continued like the first day but at night the spirit will be released to start their journey of the dead. They will travel and meet many old friends and their parents. Afterward, they travel to the end to be reborn.

Rituals

Traditional Hmong rituals are very important to the family. Hmongs have these rituals to stay healthier and happy. For example, if a adult is sick and there is no reason why this person is sick. The parents or relatives will call a shaman to seek answers from the ancestors. The shaman will travel to the dead world and ask why the person on Earth is sick. The shaman will dress in his traditional shaman clothes and start to be in a trance. He will start to shake and say scared words to the dead. The dead will hear it and send his spirit to go speak with them. The dead will tell him why this person is sick and the shaman will deliver the answer to the family. A shaman can be a man or woman, but the person must be chosen or selected by the ancestors. There are other rituals than the calling of the spirits. When a woman gives birth to a new baby, the family will call the spirits to let them know that their baby is here. Another ceremony is when the couple has given birth to their first baby, the spirits will give them elder names and they will no longer use their young names. One of the last ceremonies are when the family is celebrating for the new year. The family will kill a chicken and feed it to the ancestors. The family will wish for better health and wealth. These are the rituals that occurs in the Hmong culture.

Source

Read more...

Hmong culture in Sheboygan, WI, USA

Hmong costumes from the Southern China hills

Dress used in Thailand where many of the Hmong spent years before coming to America

Thai costumes

child

dance with baskets

Green Hmong costume

Mother and daughter

Hmong in all parts of the world share a common tonal language. Each spoken syllable has a pitch, similar to a musical note, which indicates the meaning of the word. The Hmong language contains seven tones. In written form, the last letter of a word is not pronounced, but indicates the tone. For example, the syllable mi can be pronounced in different tones to produce a variety of words, such as mib (sweet), mij (noodle), mis (woman’s breast), and miv (cat). European and American missionaries developed a written form of the Hmong language in the mid-1900s. Many variations of the Hmong language have developed in widely separated local communities.

White Hmong Costumes

SUBGROUPS AND CLANS

Within Hmong society, subgroups speak slightly different versions of the Hmong language. The largest subgroups are White Hmong, Red Hmong, Blue or Green Hmong, and Striped Hmong. A traditional Hmong story tells how these subgroups originated from a strategy devised by a Chinese emperor to divide the Hmong people. The emperor ordered Hmong villages to adopt different styles of dress, hoping that over time they would begin to think of themselves as different peoples. Although the Hmong never lost their shared cultural identity, subgroups did develop small differences in language and in customs, such as weddings and funeral ceremonies.

Today the women of each subgroup wear distinctive traditional clothing. White Hmong women wear plain, white skirts. The skirts of Blue or Green Hmong women are highly decorated with needlework. Striped Hmong women wear shirts with blue and black stripes encircling their long sleeves. Differences in men’s clothing are less notable. The traditional Hmong men’s costume consists of a black tunic and black wide-legged trousers. However, many Hmong men have now adopted Western clothing styles. Prior to the 20th century, Asian Hmong women made most of the clothing for their families from hemp. They made their own dyes from vegetables and other plants and learned numerous needlework techniques to create paj ntaub (flower cloth).

Clans, which consist of extended family members, also play an important role in Hmong society. Hmong custom forbids members of the same clan from marrying each other. A Hmong bride joins the clan of her husband. Marriage is seen as the union of two families, and clan leaders usually negotiate marriage contracts between the families.

Striped Hmong Costume
(striped sleeves with back flap on headwear)

SPIRITUALITY

Hmong spiritual beliefs combine ancestor worship and animism, the belief that all things have spirits. Hmong women decorate clothes with embroidered symbols and patterns to attract friendly spirits and ward off unfriendly ones. Shamans serve as spiritual advisors and healers. They erect altars in homes and place shrines in fields and along trails. Shamans also perform ceremonies and prescribe remedies for some illnesses, which are thought to be caused by evil spirits.

In the early 1900s, Christian missionaries began visiting Hmong villages throughout China and Southeast Asia. Although they studied Hmong culture and developed the written form of the Hmong language, these missionaries made few converts. However, since the Vietnam War, a substantial number of Hmong living in refugee camps and the United States have converted to Christianity.

Green Hmong Costume
(Very colorful skirts)

FAMILY FARMS

In China and Southeast Asia, Hmong practice swidden agriculture, a farming method that involves cutting and burning a forested area to clear fields for crops. Hmong farmers plant rice, corn, cucumbers, melons, yams, eggplant, onions, beans, sugarcane, and various herbs and spices. Men and boys hunt to bring in extra food. Village blacksmiths make all the necessary tools.

Green Hmong Costumes
(males have pantaloon trousers with distinctive head wear)

HISTORY

Most scholars believe the Hmong migrated to southeastern China from central Asia approximately 5000 years ago. In the early 1800s, thousands of Hmong left China and settled high in the mountains of Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar (Burma), and Thailand. In 1893 many of these Hmong settlements were incorporated into French Indochina, a French colony encompassing Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. With French encouragement, many Hmong turned to opium cultivation during World War II (1939-1945). When Japan invaded French Indochina in 1940, Hmong militias, under the leadership of Toby Ly Foung, aided the French. After the Japanese surrender in 1945, the Viet Minh, a Vietnamese nationalist group, resisted the restoration of French rule in Vietnam. Some Hmong sided with the French and others joined the nationalist forces. On May 8, 1954, the Viet Minh overwhelmed the French army in the Battle of Dien Bien Phu.

Following the French defeat, negotiations held in Geneva, Switzerland, resulted in the division of Vietnam into northern and southern zones. The United States gradually entered the conflict as allies of the new South Vietnamese government. In North Vietnam, the Viet Minh set up a Communist regime and attempted to reunify the country. As the Vietnam War erupted and spread into neighboring Laos, agents of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) recruited Hmong to fight against the Communists. Under the leadership of Vang Pao, a Hmong officer in the Lao military, the Hmong waged guerrilla warfare against the Communists in Laos and Vietnam from 1961 to 1975. Hmong soldiers monitored and attacked enemy supply lines, rescued downed American pilots, and ambushed Communist soldiers. They also guarded radar installations in northern Laos used to guide American bombers over Laos and North Vietnam. At the war’s peak, Vang Pao commanded a force of nearly 30,000 men. The whole operation remained secret because it violated an agreement guaranteeing the neutrality of Laos that was signed by the United States and 13 other countries in 1961.

In 1975 the United States withdrew its forces from all of Southeast Asia. Hundreds of thousands of Hmong, fearing revenge from the victorious Communist governments of Vietnam and Laos, fled to Thailand. There, Hmong families crowded into crude refugee camps, often without adequate supplies of food and water. Although the United Nations (UN) and international relief agencies brought supplies and services to the camps, many refugees died from disease in the first few years.

Vietnamese Hmong Costumes

HMONG IN THE UNITED STATES

Between 1975 and 1994, more than 110,000 Hmong refugees resettled in the United States. Churches, nonprofit agencies, and families in at least 32 states sponsored refugees. Sponsors oriented the Hmong to their new communities, helped them to find homes, and provided financial assistance. The U.S. Department of State tried to spread the refugees out across the country to minimize the impact on any one region. However, once within the United States, Hmong families relocated to reunite their families and clans. The largest Hmong-American populations now reside in California, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. Because Hmong tend to have large families, these communities have grown rapidly.

Hmong families have faced considerable challenges in adapting to American life. Lack of English language fluency, education, and job skills have forced many to rely on public assistance. Some have successfully started small businesses, such as grocery stores and restaurants. Hmong women have earned money selling their colorful needlework. Many young Hmong-Americans, raised in the United States, have enjoyed greater success in the job market than their immigrant parents.

Like other immigrant groups, the Hmong have formed self-help associations in their communities. Lao Family Community, Inc. and Hmong Mutual Assistance Associations help new arrivals make the transition to American life. They offer translation and interpretation services, language and cultural orientation classes, food pantries, and housing and employment programs. These organizations also serve as community centers, offering opportunities for the surrounding non-Hmong population to learn about the Hmong. They offer frequent workshops and sponsor annual New Year festivals that are open to the general public.

Text Contributed By: Timothy M. Pfaff for Microsoft ENCARTA

Thailand Hmong Costumes

http://www.galenfrysinger.com/hmong.htm

Read more...