ThanhLeEWVietnamOriginMyths

MYTHS AND THE PERCEPTIONS OF ORIGINS OF ETHNIC MINORITIES IN VIET NAM MYTHS AND THE PERCEPTIONS OF ORIGINS OF ETHNIC MINORITIES IN VIET NAM Lư Thị Thanh Lê (PhD Candidate, Lecturer) Vietnam National U[.]

MYTHS

AND THE PERCEPTIONS OF ORIGINS

OF ETHNIC MINORITIES

IN VIET NAM

Lư Thị Thanh Lê (PhD Candidate, Lecturer)

Vietnam National University, Ha Noi USSH – Department of Literature

7 th Engaging with Vietnam Conference

 Acknowledgment

 Classification of origin myths of ethnic minorities in Viet Nam

 Narrating context of origin myths in

ethnic minorities’ communities

 Mapping Vietnam according to different origins imagined by its people

 Conclusion and proposals

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 Different approaches to origin of ethnic groups in Vietnam

 Perception of ethnic origin through origin myths

 Origin myths of ethnic minorities in

Vietnam

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Different Approaches to Origin

of Ethnic Groups in Vietnam

 Benedict Anderson (1987): Southeast Asian groups “almost all existed first and

foremost in the mind of Europeans”,

 Frank Proschan (2001): there’s preexisting local conceptions of ethnic groups, as

reflected in oral literature (eg The myth of People from the Gourd)

 Dang Nghiem Van (1990, 2005): insists the essential unity of Vietnamese ethnicity (all ethnic groups are from the same origin)

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Perceptions of ethnic origins

through origin myths

 Origin myths help to understand the history

before the time of written history.

 Origin myths are stories about the past, but they help to understand the issues of ethnicity &

nationalism in the present

- To educate people of their origin

- To identify someone to some specific ethnic

group

- To strengthen community spirit and to

consolidate the sense of belonging (to the group,

to the country)

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Classifying origin myths of

ethnic minorities in Viet Nam

 Creation myths: most ancient myths, about the formation of people on earth.

 Re-creation myth, origin myths in later

time : when there’s society, state already, often shows the relation between different ethnic groups living close together, the

migration of the ethnic groups to Vietnam,

the perception of we and others

 Re-invented myths: ancient myths

reconstructed with some specific intentions.

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 Creation myths: Đẻ đất, đẻ nước (Mường),

Myths of Mother Goddess Po Inur Nugar

(Chăm), etc.

 Re-creation myths, myths in later time: Quả

bầu thần (the gourd- Khmu) which tells the

difference and kinship relation between Khmu and other ethnic group (Kinh), myths of Thủy – local Tay section migrating from China to

Vietnam

 Re-invented myths: “đồng bào” (people from the same egg sac)

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Narrating contexts and functions

of origin myths in ethnic

minorities’ communities

 Narrating contexts:

Funerals: Mo Mường (Mo lên trời), Then Tày (then đám tang), Thái epics (bài hát tiễn hồn người chết)

Marriages: the groom has to tell the origin of the

group to the girl’s family in order to be accepted

(e”g: Ede group)

Community’s activities and rituals: “chụ cư” – telling the stories of origin (người Hà Nhì), Cha Bun festival (Chăm)

National festivals: are organized by the state, tell the legitimized myth of origin

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Example: Narrating Cham’s

origin myths

 Cha Bun festival: myth of Mother Goddess – the mother of Cham people, the goddess of Champa Kinngdom, and myth of kinship

between Cham and Raglai (in the Champa Kingdom) are chanted in the ritual ceremony.

 National festival (Festival of Culture, Sports and Tourism in Cham Compatriots Area 2012

in Ninh Thuan): ancient myth of Cham

people is mobilized as a theatre

performance; reinvented myths of the

unified Vietnam nation are insisted

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 Myth of Mother Goddess:

“Sinh ra đất đai sinh ra con người

Sinh ra gỗ trầm hương là thần Pô Inư Nưgar

Sinh vạn vật trên đời,

Dựng lên làng xóm ruộng vườn là thần Pô Inư Nưgar”

(quoted from Ngô Văn Doanh 2005)

“The one who gave birth to the human,

The one who gave birth to valuable wood was Mother

Goddess The one who gave birth to everything in the world

The one who built up the villages and the fields was Mother Goddess”

 Cham’s proverb: “Cham and Raglai are siblings” (quoted from Sakaya: 2003)

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Myths of origin of Cham in

national festival

 “Đồng bào” (people from the same egg sac) or the transformation of perception

of ethnic origin of Cham people

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Myth of “People from the same

egg sac”

Source : http://my.opera.com/thhiep/blog/show.dml/19585072

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The inclusion of Cham people into

Vietnamese Ethnicity (dân tộc Việt Nam)

Ảnh: Tiết mục sân khấu “Những sắc màu văn hoá”

(Nguồn: Bộ Văn hóa – Thể thao – Du lịch chi nhánh Sài Gòn)

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Theatricalizing rituals

worshipping Mother Goddess

Source: Báo Ninh Thuận

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Mapping Vietnam according to

different origins imagined by its people

 Native ethnic groups (Kinh, Muong,

Cham, Raglai, Khmu): originated from different nations/kingdoms in the past

 Ethnic groups immigrated from China, Lao, Cambodia, Thailand at some

specific historical periods (H’mong, Tay, Nung,…)

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Conclusion and Proposal

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 Origin myths are not consistent from

ancient past to modern society As ethnic identification process, origin myths are also relational and situational and have its function in negotiating ethnic

identity, strengthening the sense of belonging of ethnic minorities

Conclusion and Proposal

 Not the same myths but different myths are narrated in different circumstances (ancient myth or modern reinvented myths)

 Many ethnic groups have parallel systems of origin myths for events inside and outside

community There should be a way to respect the ancient origin of ethnic groups (from

China, from Champa Kingdom, etc…), but not only unifying the history of the ethnic groups

to the history of majority group.

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 Anderson, Benedict 1983 Imagined communities New York: Verso.

 Đặng, Nghiêm Vạn 2002 Tổng tập văn học các dân tộc thiểu số Việt Nam (tập 2), Nxb Đà Nẵng

 Ngô, Văn Doanh 2005 “Tháp bà Pô Nagar: Từ nữ thần Devi của Ấn

Độ đến nữ thần Pô Inư Nưgar của người Chăm” Tạp chí Nghiên cứu

Đông Nam Á 6.

 Smith, Anthony D Myths and memories of the nation Oxford

University Press 1999

 Smith, Anthony D 1986 The ethnic origins of nations Oxford, UK;

New York, NY, USA: B Blackwell.

 Pelley, Patricia 2001 “Barbarians and younger brothers: the

remaking of role in postcolonial Vietnam” Peace Research

Abstracts 38 (2).

 Proschan, Frank 2001 “Peoples of the Gourd: Imagined Ethnicities

in Highland Southeast Asia” The Journal of Asian Studies 60 (4).

 Sakaya 2003 Festivals of the Cham [Lễ hội của người Chăm] Ha

Noi: Van hoa Dan toc.

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