The Snake Platoon was never based in Kontum, but some of us were fortunate enough to go there on occasion in support of MAC V or Special Forces teams. I remember it as a sleepy little place, slow-paced, with little to do except enjoy the mountain air and the scenery. I recognize that those who were stationed there full-time may recall otherwise.
Unlike larger and more accessible Vietnamese cities, Kontum (also Kon Tum (Bahnar) or Cong Tum (Vietnamese)), does not appear to have undergone significant change since the war. It remains a relaxed town with relatively few attractions for the typical tourist. It is off the beaten path, so not only do tourists not target Kontum, they seldom go there even in passing. While the city itself is not overflowing with sightseeing opportunities or entertainment venues, it is an excellent base from which one can explore the surrounding area, offering more-than-adequate lodging and eateries. A review of a map of the area around Kontum reveals many villages inhabited by members of six different ethnic minority groups. Rather than lump these distinct peoples into one group and call them ‘Montagnards’ as did the French and the American soldiers after them, they will be addressed individually later in this document.
The area and the original village of Kon Tum, meaning Lake Village, was established by the Bahnar people. Soon, other tribes learned of the favorable soil conditions and established their own villages in the area. Also favorable to their agrarian lifestyles is the climate. The temperature ranges from an average low of about 58 degrees F in January to an average high of about 96 in April. Practically all of the annual 70 inches of rain falls between May and October.
In the early days, there were battles between the different tribes and villages, during which property would be seized and villagers captured to became slaves to the victors. An active slave trade with Siam made these inter-village wars worse for a while. With the influence of the Catholic church and French Colonial rule, the hostilities eventually waned. The village of Kon Tum soon became a center for trading of animal hides, horses and sesame. It was not until the French Colonial period that ethnic Vietnamese (Kinh) also settled in Kontum. The area continues to be largely populated by the original ethnic groups.
In 1851, before colonialization, French missionaries came to Kontum for the purpose of converting the tribal people to Catholicism. They are reported to have been quite successful in this endeavor. In the 1920s, Protestant missionaries followed, and they too were successful in obtaining converts among the hill tribes. Today, the tribal minorities are more likely to be Christian than are the Vietnamese majority. As with many indigenous peoples, while accepting Christianity, the tribes hold on to customs and symbols of their old religions, which are primarily animistic.
The Kontum Wooden Church was built between 1913 and 1918 and renovated in the 1990s. It is constructed of rosewood and ca chit, a highly valuable wood which used to be common to the Central Highlands but is very scarce today. The church architecture combines Greek and Roman styles with traditional styles of the highlands. Services are conducted here on Sunday afternoons in an ethnic minority language. Many outlying villages have their own churches.
The Catholic Church’s presence in Kontum extends to the Archbishop’s residence, a striking building in its own right, and a seminary. There is also the Tan Huong church, whose congregation is primarily ethnic Vietnamese. There is at least one Buddhist pagoda in Kon Tum.
Immediately behind the Wooden Church is a Bahnar orphanage, one of seven in the area, all operated by the Vietnamese Catholic Sisters of the Miraculous Medal. Only two of these orphanages are recognized by the government. They all rely heavily on donations and volunteer workers and teachers. Many of the volunteers were raised in these orphanages and are ‘giving back’ as the need is great. In the past, in some of the villages, infants whose mothers had died were either left to starve or buried alive with the mother. The villagers knew of no way to care for them. Fortunately, this practice has been discontinued since the villagers know of the orphanages.
The people living in the Bahnar village of Konklor had difficulty crossing the river to get into town. So, the Konklor suspension bridge was constructed to make their lives easier and to boost commerce in the city itself. Occasionally, a traffic jam will occur on the bridge when a Bahnar is driving his ox cart to town.
Close to the Kontum end of the Konklor bridge is the Eva Garden Café. The Eva Café is pleasant and quirky, with gardens and water features. The 20-year-old café and its gardens were designed by the owner, who is an artist in his own right. Scattered throughout the property are Bahnar wood carvings and metal sculptures made from war detritus. Diners can sit inside the candle lit lounge, at a table made of tree trunks, or on a metal swing set. In Kontum, there is also a selection of small restaurants and street-side stalls. Hotels, such as the Dakbla and the Indochine, of course, have in-house restaurants. The Indochine is unique in its architecture of bamboo in hourglass shapes.
Vietnam has 53 recognized ethnic minority groups, most with their own language and culture. The majority of the population of Kontum Province consists of six of these minority groups, or tribes – the Xo Dang, Bahnar, Gie Trieng, Brau, Ro Mam and Jarai. Of these six groups, the first five are of Austroasiatic descent, and their languages are of the Mon-Khmer language group. The Jarai, on the other hand, are of Malayo-Polynesian descent. Their language is a member of the Malayo-Polynesian branch of the Austronesian language family and is related to those of the Chams in central Vietnam and Cambodia as well as those of Indonesia, Malaysia, Madagascar, the Philippines, Hawaii and New Zealand.
While not many outsiders visit the ethnic villages, they are generally welcomed. Some of these villages are quite remote, and travel to them is difficult. Common to all six of these groups are an agrarian society, brightly decorated clothing (except for the Ro Mam), and the production and consumption of wine. The wine is usually made from rice or millet in earthenware urns and is consumed directly from the communal urn through a long straw.
(Information available about the individual Highland groups addressed here is often confused and contradictory. In searching the internet for photos, for example, one can find copies of the same photo identified as representing different tribes. Also, although it is often and clearly stated that both Catholic and Protestant missionaries experienced great success in converting the tribal peoples of the area, confirming information addressing the individual groups is quite limited. We have attempted to sort through this confusion and provide correct and non-conflicting information about each of the groups below, but there may be errors in the information provided.)
The Xo Dang (also Xe Dang or Sedang) people constitute the largest minority population in the Kontum area, with a local population of 135,000. Most of Vietnam’s Xo Dang live in Kontum Province, although they are represented in smaller numbers in Quang Nam, Quang Ngai, and Dak Lak Provinces. Some Xo Dang also live in Cambodia and Laos. According to their oral tradition, they moved into the Kontum area from the north. The Xo Dang, who prior to the 20th century were hunters and gatherers, are farmers who cultivate many different crops and raise cattle and poultry. Hunting, for them, is now a popular sport which provides some variety to their diet.
The Xo Dang live in long wooden or bamboo houses on stilts with thatched roofs. The stairs up to the houses are typically a log with steps cut into it. These houses are built around the larger communal house, the ‘rong,’ where important meetings and ceremonies are held and where important decisions are made. The village also includes grain and water storage facilities, cemetery, hunting areas, and part of a stream or river. The village is generally surrounded by forest or a ‘no-man’s’ land, a buffer zone to which no ownership is claimed. The residential part of the village is surrounded by a hedge with only a single opening. The hedge contains spears, stakes and booby traps to prevent infiltration, and young unmarried men sleep with their weapons, ready to respond to any intrusion.
Men of the Xo Dang typically wear a loincloth and a turban, with its tails hanging on the neck. Women typically wear a pagne, a long rectangular piece of cloth wrapped about them, sometimes but not always worn high enough to cover their chests.
Tribal decisions are made through discussion by men and women alike until a consensus is reached. The rich, poor, and very poor all have an equal say in such matters.
An extended family will occupy the house, including multiple generations and some who are merely treated as family. This family unit also works together for their own common good. A nuclear family may leave the extended family and occupy its own dwelling. Based on the principle that everyone has a right to the fruits of his or her labor, all members of the village have a right to ownership and use of a portion of slash and burn forest, garden and rice paddy. When someone leaves the village, however, this ownership and right to use is forfeited back to the village in general. Handicrafts among the Xo Dang are typically rudimentary and limited to woven cloth and bamboo tools, all intended for family use. Trade is virtually nonexistent. One group of Xo Dang, however, the Ta-dra, has located in an area where iron ore is available and has developed blacksmithing skills. They produce farming implements for local and interregional markets.
The Bahnar (also Ba Na) people number about 69,000 in Kontum Province, about 13% of the province population and 24% of the Bahnar people. Most of the Bahnar live in neighboring Gia Lai Province, and a very few are in the coastal provinces of Binh Dinh and Phu Yen. The Bahnar language, which is Mon-Khmer in origin, is unique to these people.
The Bahnar villages consist of individual houses on stilts and a larger communal building (rong) recognizable by its high, steep roof. The houses face south for luck and prosperity in accordance with their tradition. The stairs up to the house are of meticulously carved wood. The rong serves as a meeting house, court house, and school house. The education of the youth is provided by the village elders and concentrates on job training, martial arts, combat techniques and community values.
As do many of the Highland groups, the Bahnar play many different traditional musical instruments, such as gongs tuned to different pitches and bamboo string instruments. On special occasions, they play these instruments in concert, often accompanied by group dancing and the ceremonial drinking of rice wine. The Bahnar also sing many folk songs and recite long poems and folktales, passing down their lore and history to the next generation.
The Bahnar lifestyle is slash and burn agrarian, with the hoe being the main tool of agriculture. In the early 1900s, they also began wet rice cultivation using harrows. Over the years, they have developed their horticultural practices and now produce a diversity of crops. Animal husbandry, however, is less developed. Carving of wooden statues is a common task.
For many years, the Bahnar have grown cotton, spinning the fibers into thread which is dyed and woven into their traditional costumes. A Bahnar girl’s costume is designed to display her beauty. It contains colorful patterns at the shoulders, breast and fringe of the shirt. The skirt is shorter than those of other ethnic groups, and sleeves are included as decoration only, lying over rather than enclosing the arms. The Bahnar women also wear necklaces of colored glass beads, rings of bronze and silver, and cloth ribbons tied around their heads.
The Bahnar man’s traditional costume is designed to make him appear masculine and to accentuate his muscles. Accompanied by a loin cloth, the sleeveless black or brown shirt is decorated with spears, birds and farming implements. Other parts of his traditional costume include a colorful scarf or sash tied diagonally across the chest, a knife and a peacock feather worn in the man’s hair. In full dress, the man also wears a necklace, typically with glass beads and a single pendant of bronze or silver. Today, the Bahnar people wear their traditional costumes only for special occasions, such as weddings, grave-leaving ceremonies or the buffalo stabbing festival.
Kon Ko Tu, an ancient Bahnar village, is the oldest in Kontum City. It is a small community of traditional houses, a rong, and a Catholic church. Some 90 households live in the 20 or so long stilt houses, with three or four generations occupying a single dwelling. Being within the city and easily accessible, Kon Ko Tu has become a tourism village. The villagers are quite hospitable, ready to acquaint visitors with their songs and music. They sometimes invite strangers to eat with them while they talk of their lives and culture.
The Gie Trieng (also Jeh-Tariang, Brila, Ca-tang, Giang Ray, Doan, or Moi) in Kontum Province number approximately 30,000, which is 62% of all Gie Trieng in Vietnam. The rest are located in neighboring Quang Nam Province. Gie Trieng villages are located along the border with Laos. They speak one of two different languages, Jeh and Tariang, both of which are part of the Mon-Khmer language group. The ancestors of the Gie Trieng lived in Laos and then Quang Nam Province. Most migrated back to Laos and then settled in the northwestern area of Kontum Province.
The Gie Trieng villages are typical of the hill tribes of Vietnam in that the communal house, or rong, is surrounded by stilt houses and the entire residential area is enclosed by a hedge to discourage interlopers. A corridor runs the length of the village, and unmarried men live on one side of the corridor while unmarried women live on the other.
Men of the Gie Trieng wear loin cloths, to which they add a blanket in cold weather. Women wear skirts which are long enough to cover their chests. Young girls’ hair is cropped to their shoulders. When married, it is braided into a knot on top of their head in the Lao tradition. Gie Trieng wear necklaces and other jewelry of copper, silver and glass beads. The wealthier women wear earrings of ivory.
Until recently, the Gie Trieng had a nomadic lifestyle. They are now more established in permanent villages but still practice a slash and burn type of agriculture. They grow rice, corn, sweet potatoes, cassava and various vegetables. They also cultivate fruit trees and grow rubber trees and coffee. Their food production, though, is insufficient to their needs, so they supplement it with gathering, hunting and fishing. They raise some animals, but they are used primarily in religious sacrifices.
All Gie Trieng know how to make objects from bamboo and rattan, but weaving of cloth and metal work are less common. Some villages produce pottery using a rudimentary technique. Their handicrafts, animal products, and forestry products are often exchanged with outsiders for iron items and necessities such as salt and matches.
Early Gie Trieng society had four strata – the wealthy; those with sufficient means; the poor; and the slaves and orphans. Until 1945, the Gie Trieng would capture strangers and sacrifice them to their genies. Their society has advanced somewhat since those days.
The Gie Trieng family has a well-established lineage with a surname taken from a plant, animal, object or some natural phenomenon. The family lineage often includes a mythical character. They live in an extended family headed by the oldest male. His wife maintains mystical relations with the soul of rice. This couple makes all decisions regarding expenditures and work responsibilities for the extended family and represents it to others. While the extended family live and work together, meals may be taken as a nuclear family.
It is their custom that birth must occur in a hut at the edge of the forest, constructed by the father. The baby is brought home after ten days to a feast. At some point, the earlobes are pierced and boys, at 15 to 16, and girls, at 13-14, will have their teeth filed so they can become full citizens of the village.
The Gie Trieng are polytheists and believe that everyone has a soul, which resides inside the ears. On death, the soul transforms into a spirit which is embodied in a bird, either a tec or a king kang. The bird then flies to the forefathers. This may explain their tradition of interring their dead by hanging the coffin in a tree. This custom, though, is no longer in general practice.
The taboos, prohibitions and superstitions among these people are many, as is the practice of sorcery. Their religious activities are driven by the agricultural cycle, from choosing the land to harvest. Songs are an important part of their lives, accompanied by gongs, drums and bamboo guitars. They also have a rich oral history with numerous ancient tales shared from generation to generation. Slowly, the Gie Trieng are getting away from their old traditions in favor of a better life. Some of them have motorized transport, refrigerators and gas cookers. They tend to hold on, however, to their wood cookstoves and continue to produce bamboo containers for daily use.
The Brau (also Brao) in Vietnam are few. 95% of the total Vietnamese Brau population of about 500 live in Kontum Province, almost all of them in the village of Dac Me. Brau also live across the borders in Laos and Cambodia. Their language, Brao, is of the Mon-Khmer family.
Among the Brau, there are only two surnames, Thao for male, and Nang for female. Their customs include filing their teeth, stretching their earlobes and tattooing their foreheads. The Brau live close to nature, depending on hunting and fishing to supplement their diet. They also capture, tame and train elephants.
Dac Me village is arranged with the rong in the center. All of the houses are on stilts and face the rong. The houses have steeply pitched roofs, and the ridges are decorated with sculptures representing a bird’s head or the sun. The houses have outbuildings which are used as granaries, storage rooms and rooms for the elderly.
The Brau dress like the Ca-dong, a small group of Xo Dang living nearby. Women wear bamboo or ivory earrings which are shaped like a mortar, and the bigger the better.
Slash and burn cultivation provides them with rice, pumpkins, cassava, sesame, sugarcane, bananas and mustard. They choose a spot in a bamboo grove where the soil is rich, clear away the brush and plant seeds. The man pokes holes in the soil with a stick, and the woman drops seeds into the holes. In addition to agriculture, animal husbandry, hunting and fishing, the Braus also engage in basket making, metal work and gathering of forest products. They travel to other regions to exchange their surplus goods for other necessities with other ethnic groups.
Not all Brau are considered equals. Their society includes a wealthy minority with larger land holdings and more cattle, gongs copper pots, jewelry and clothing. The majority, however are peasants, with the poorest among them working as servants for the rich.
When someone in the village dies, all of the villagers show up to help build a mortuary chapel beside the deceased’s house. They surround the coffin, a hollowed tree trunk, drink rice wine, sing and beat gongs. Two or three days after death, the coffin is placed in a shallow grave, and a funeral house is constructed over the tomb. They then stock the funeral house with items the deceased will need in the next world.
The Brau believe that everything, from the universe to the tools they use, is the work of the Creator Pa Xay. They also believe in genies who are always present in the forests, rivers and trees. Rites and ceremonies performed in honor of these genies are conducted by the head of the family or the village shaman, timed with the agricultural cycle. The Brau sing folksongs, and the elders pass on ancient tales of courage, beauty and diligence. They also play various musical instruments made of bamboo or metal. One type of gong, known only among the Brau, has a cost of 30 to 50 buffalo for a pair.
The Ro Mam population in Kontum Province is fewer than 600 but it represents 90% of the Ro Mam in Vietnam. Their language is from the Central Bahnaric branch of the Mon-Khmer family, suggesting that they are more closely related to the Bahnar than are the other minority groups in Kontum. Their primary sources of wealth are hunting and gathering, agriculture and weaving. Much like the Brau, the Ro Mam are concentrated in a single village, Le.
Several nuclear families of the Ro Mam occupy a single dwelling which is square or rectangular, sits atop stilts, and opens toward the center of the village where the rong is located. The families each occupy a compartment set off by bamboo partitions and opening to a central corridor or hallway. The central part of the house is set aside for receiving of guests.
Ro Mam men wear loin cloths and the women wear pagnes which cover the knees. Neither loin cloth nor pagne contain any decoration. Both men and women also wear short vests, also devoid of decoration. Four to six of their upper teeth are filed when they are young, and women like large, heavy earrings. Some of the women enlarge the holes in their earlobes with a 5-6 cm ivory ring.
Like so many other of the Highland groups, the Ro Mam’s slash and burn agriculture produces rice, corn and cassava, and their diet is heavily supplemented by hunting, fishing and gathering. They fish with nets and poisonous leaves, as well as by hand. Their clothes have traditionally been made from cloth weaved in the village. The availability of commercially produced cloth, however, has led to a decline of this tradition. The Ro Mam exchange tobacco and products gathered from the forest with the Bahnar and Xo Dang for salt, iron tools, ivory earrings and other items.
Although the extended family lives together in the same house, each nuclear family is responsible for its own livelihood, cultivating its own crops and raising its own animals. Each nuclear family also takes their meals separately. Monogamy is the general rule among the Ro Mam, but some of the men take a second wife. Divorce is permissible if the couple has no children.
The Ro Mam believe that the soul becomes a spirit after death. Rites, ceremonies and celebrations which relate to the agricultural cycle are most important to them. This cycle contains many rites which must be observed for each crop. When someone is ill, they make simple and inexpensive offerings to genies and different deities.
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The Jarai (also Jarais, Gia Rai, Gio Rai, Cho Rai, or Moi) in Kontum Province number about 26,000. There are about 460,000 in neighboring Gia Lai Province and 20,000 in Dak Lak Province. Additional Jarai live in northeastern Cambodia. Unlike the other minorities in Kontum, the Jarai language is of the Malayo-Polynesian family. The Vietnamese and Cambodian Jarai share a culture, but their language has been affected by separate contact with Vietnamese and Cambodians. The result is that, on either side of the border, the Jarai have added so much of their neighbors’ language to their own that communication between the two Jarai groups is difficult. The Vietnamese Jarai dialect has been made a written language using Latin characters. The Cambodian dialect is oral only.
The Jarai have inhabited the region where they currently live at least since the seventh century. Whereas most of the Vietnamese hill tribes are believed to have first settled along the coast before being pushed inland by the arrival of the Kinh (ethnic Vietnamese), studies suggest that the Jarai were a part of an ancient migration from the west and central areas of Asia. DNA testing provides evidence of ancestral relationship to a group that originated in the Mediterranean Basin some 25,000 years ago. The elders say that the Jarai were born in the Annamite Range (presumably in Laos) and then migrated south to their current locations.
The French colonial rulers did not interfere much with the highland groups. They did, though, consider them a good source of military personnel for their outposts and recruited many young Jarai men to this purpose. Following the expulsion of the French, the Vietnamese established programs to teach their language to the indigenous groups and assimilate them into their own culture. These efforts were met with resistance. In fact, in the 1950s and 60s, the Degar (Rhade word for ‘sons of the mountain’) movement gained in popularity among the Jarai and other tribes. The goal of the Degar movement was to establish an independent state in the Vietnamese highlands solely for indigenous groups. The outcome of the movement, though, was to make the Vietnamese government increasingly suspicious of the Jarai. Human rights abuses have become frequent, and the Jarai have suffered as a result.
During the war, many Jarai, as well as members of other tribes, worked closely with the US Special Forces in combating the communist troops and interrupting transport on the nearby Ho Chi Minh Trail. After the war, many Jarai were resettled in the United States, notably in North Carolina.
The Jarai village is composed of matrilineal families, each of which is a separate socio-economic unit. The village is typically laid out in a square with either single occupancy houses or communal longhouses, some as long as 50 meters, arranged around the village center which contains the rong, a well, and a volleyball net. The houses are traditionally of bamboo, one meter off the ground on stilts, situated to please the local spirits, and facing north. Recently, wooden houses with steel roofs have become popular. The houses are traditionally furnished with benches and appurtenances crafted from wood or bamboo. Some villages have electricity, and others use small generators to operate their televisions.
Only persons with different family names may marry. The married couple live with the wife’s family, and the children take the name of the mother. Additionally, the daughter inherits from the parents and will be responsible for their care and the worship of ancestors.
Jarai women wear indigo colored pagne and a short vest. Men wear a loin cloth and a long vest. The clothing, woven by the women, is decorated with embroidered patterns. The Jarai have their ears pierced at age one or two. At 15 or 16, their teeth are filed for the sake of beauty and to mark their coming of age.
The Jarai’s cultivated land is of three types. One is for multiple crops, usually located near a stream, where they grow cereals, fruit trees and beans. The second is for rice. This is cleared by burning, used twice and left fallow for ten years. The third is submerged rice fields. The Jarai also have gardens. Various types of hoe are used for agriculture, each specific to a certain type of land and type of work. The Jarai also raise buffalo, goats, poultry and pigs, primarily for sacrifice to the genies. They use oxen, elephants and horses as draught animals. The men also saddle and ride horses for hunting wild boars. They also hunt tigers, elephants, rhinoceros and wild bulls. Fishing and gathering also supplement their crops.
The Jarai culture is rich with music and dance. Nights in their villages are punctuated by their ancestral music performed using gongs, xylophones and zithers, along with other instruments, many made of wood and bamboo. With the music, ancient stories are told, teaching the children the Jarai values and history.
Upon death, a Jarai is placed in a small hut with their possessions and some offerings. Carved wooden pillars are placed around this tomb. The burial ceremony is expensive, involving the sacrifice of buffaloes or cows. (Some of the Cambodian Jarai have replaced the animal sacrifice with the sacrifice of large objects, including motorcycles.) Some of the deceased must await burial for years until the family can afford the cost. After a few years, the tomb is abandoned with another ceremony. At this point, death is final, the spirit is released, and the widow may remarry.