When poverty trumps culture

By Cam Giang
Publisher:Viet Nam News - Publication Date: 02-01-2008

For the Si La people, sustenance requires a constant battle. The longer they stave off poverty, the more the unique culture of this ethnic minority grows fainter.
The Si La ethnic minority group is one of the smallest and poorest in Viet Nam.
Concentrated in two mountainous villages in Muong Te District, north-western Lai Chau Province, the Si La are cut off from urban society by high mountains and the wide Da River.
But being far removed from the outside world hasn’t helped preserve their traditional way of life as poverty is threatening to permanently wipe out the Si La culture from living memory.
Isolation
On hearing the provincial Community of Ethnic Minorities announce plans to save the Si La culture, we decided to visit the villages and see for ourselves just how imminent the risk of cultural extinction really was.
Even before we set foot in the village, the arduous journey to get there really put the plight of the Si La in perspective.
Our trip began at the edge of the Da River. Looking out at the swirling water, we were rather perturbed to learn our method of transport would be a flimsy-looking canoe. The words of a local officer we met at the People’s Committee of Muong Te Districton the day before stoked up our intrepidation even more.
"This section of river has many whirlpools which claim dozens of human lives every year. Just yesterday, a canoe overturned and a person died."
His warning words in our ears as we squatted in the tiny vessel, both hands gripping the sides. But, seemingly quite used to this violent cradle, our guide leant over the side and pointed a finger to a tree on the far slope.
"This current’s nothing. See that tree? In the rainy season the water reaches its top branches. You won’t want to visit the Si La people then."
After what felt like a lifetime, our canoe finally reached the farther shore and we hopped eagerly out. After a short climb we were among the village’s thatched-roofed houses, collecting stares from the curious faces of passers-by.
Fading traditions
According to the latest research compiled by the Lai Chau Province’s Culture and Information Department, the Si La people originally came from China. They moved to Laos and then to Viet Nam 100 years ago.
It’s special history but as we walked along the main street, we were surprised to see very few villagers sporting clothes that stood out as particularly ‘Si La’. Unlike Mong people, Si La men don’t wear traditional dress. Women have a long, black skirt, similar to a sarong but tighter, but on their top half just an ordinary T-shirt.
We were to discover that this lack of Si La identity in everyday life reflected a deeper ignorance of their cultural roots. Not even the older generation could give us definitive answers, until we met the head of the village Giang Chang Ngoi.
"In the past, the dresses of Si La women took some sophisticated work," Ngoi says. "On the front part were dozens of silver coins strung with red thread. Bright rainbow colours were woven into the material from the neck to the sleeves."
It sounds magical but in the village today, not one dress matches Ngoi’s description. Ngoi’s wife does have something similar but it’s more akin to dresses from the Thai ethnic group, with its black colour and simple details. The coins attached at the front look like foreign coins and are not silver.
It’s not just their traditional dress that’s gathering dust, local artist 70-year-old Hu Cha Khao says. One custom lurking in the collective memory is folk songs, performed at weddings or funerals.
"Si La people don’t cry when a person dies. We sing a prayer for a good afterlife."
But today, no one knows how to conduct a traditional funeral, let alone the songs. The village head admits that even he never learnt the lyrics.
Other features that usually define and unite a group of people are celebrations but although the Si La do cling onto some, it’s sadly significant that most cheer the Kinh’s Tet and not their own, which traditionally falls in November of the Lunar New Year.
There is a Si La angle to it though as locals always celebrate some days earlier and catch squirrels in the forest to sacrifice to their ancestors. The rodent serves as a pervading theme in Si La celebrations, Ngoi says.
"In all our festivals, a du ne (worship of the river spirit), om me khe (new rice festival), and tru du tua (celebration of long life), we kill one or two squirrels. It’s one of our surviving tradition."
Dying memories
But the people who cradle these customs are not the young, an official from the Lai Chau Province’s Culture and Information Department says.
"Those locals who know about their culture are old and getting older. If we don’t try to select information from them now, everything about the Si La will be lost."
One of the big problems is that new generation are forging their own paths and abandoning old ways, Ngoi says.
"The children don’t know much about their culture and quickly absorb the cultures of other ethnic groups, particularly the Thai people."
Another problem is a dwindling population. As there is no bridge over the Da River, and no path to get down from the mountain, Si La people rarely cross the water, so most people marry someone from the village.
Although Ngoi insists that his villagers are not allowed to marry a close relative, officer of Lai Chau Province’s Ethnic Minorities Committee Tran Hai Dang says inbreeding is affecting the population.
"The number of Si La people is increasing but very, very slowly because of things like birth defects. In 1994, it was 380. Two years later, there were only 6 more people. Today there are about 500 people."
But despite these grim figures, there is light on the horizon, as provincial authorities gear up for a cultural festival to promote the Si La. Last November the village’s also saw a new path built down the mountain to the river. A new bridge, currently under construction, is also expected to be opened early this year and children have received financial support to go to school.
They seem like small steps, but with more momentum there’s hope they could be enough to pull the Si La people back from cultural extinction.

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I sometimes think that technology is an inherently evil thing. Even such simple things as the automobile or the telephone has corrupted even the most simplest societies and made them want for more material matters and they lose part of their culture and heritage.