The Cong people in Vietnam also called Xa and Mang are residing in Northwest Vietnam, mainly in Lai Chau and Dien Bien provinces.
1. Origin
The Cong people in China are classified as Ha Nhi ethnic group, called Bach Kong. According to researchers, it is possible that the Bach Kong people from the Mang La region, in Yunnan Province, China migrated to Phong Tho, Lai Chau Province, in the Northwest region of Vietnam. Therefore, the Cong people in Vietnam are also called the Mang people.
Ethnic name: the Cong people are also named Xa, Cong Bo Kham, Xam, Khong and Mang La.
2. Population
According to the survey results on the socio-economic situation of 54 ethnic minorities in 2019, by the Committee for Ethnic Minority Affairs and the General Statistics Office, the population of the Cong as of April 1, 2019, was 2,729 people, including 1,341 being male and 1,388 being female.
3. Language
Belonging to the Tibetan - Burmese language group (the Sino-Tibetan language family) which is closer to the Burmese language and in the same group as the La Hu, Phu La, and Si La languages. The Cong people are used to using Thai in daily communication.
Photo: Thanh Dat
Photo: Thanh Dat
4. Geographical distribution
Currently, more than 98% of the Cong people live in the Northwest region, mainly in Lai Chau and Dien Bien.
A Cong woman (Photo: TRAN THANH DAT)
A Cong woman (Photo: TRAN THANH DAT)
5. Main features
- Housing: The house on stilts has three or four compartments, with only one door and one window in the middle compartment. Running along the main side of the house is a small floor which is a typical feature of the Cong’s house.
- Family structure: Patriarchal mode
- Costumes: Cong women’s costumes are quite simple, including tops, skirts, belts, bibs, headscarves and some jewellery. The short shirt is made of white or indigo fabric with sleeves being extended, the collar attached to the chest brace, and the shirt not split. The collar is a strip of black fabric that extends from the right lap and runs around the neck to the left lap. Along the length of the brace, a pair of cotton ropes are attached to the shape of a rope to make a lanyard.
Men’s costumes include scarves, shirts, and pants made of cloth and dyed indigo without decoration.
Photo: Thanh Dat
Photo: Thanh Dat
- Diet: The Cong people eat rice, sticky rice, porridge, and processed meat such as boiled, grilled, hung, and cooked in soup, in addition to fried and steamed meat. They also eat seafood such as shrimp, crab, snail, and fish, alongside grown and wild vegetables. They have the Cha kha cha vang dish, which is cooked from pig’s blood with vegetables, to cure stomach disease or eating when having a stomachache. The Cong have many ways of processing food to reserve for the busy farming season, holidays and festivals, such as making salted fish, dried fish, and dried sour bamboo shoots.
● The Cong people often drink water boiled from the leaves and roots of trees. Some herbs help sedation, ease sleep, and stimulate digestion.
● The Cong people used to smoke cigarettes and grow tobacco plants in their gardens to make their cigarettes.
- Festivals: Every year in the third lunar month, villages hold worshipping ceremonies before sowing seeds, while taboo signs are put at the entrances to the village so that no one can enter the village for one day.
Families all make offerings on the fields before finishing the work of planting seeds. That night the owner of the house made an offering ceremony in the outhouse on the hill, with offerings of only fish and crabs, praying that animals and birds will not cause harm to crops while planting a few scallions, to spray for good and green rice, like this plant.
- Religion and belief: The Cong people make offerings to their ancestors of two and three generations according to their patriarchy and worship their parents-in-law on the New Year holiday.
Photo: TRAN THANH DAT
Photo: TRAN THANH DAT
- Economic conditions: Cultivation on upland fields and cultivation of water fields, raising cows and pigs, raising fish, and exploiting natural products such as vegetables and fruits, and medicinal herbs.
The Cong also have several occupations such as making wine, and knitting.
According to the “Basic characteristics of 54 ethnic minorities in 2019”, of the Committee for Ethnic Minority Affairs and the General Statistics Office, the poverty rate is 54.0%, the rate of near-poor households is 11.7%, the unemployment rate is 0.07%, the rate of trained workers with degrees and certificates is 8.3%, the proportion of labourers working in the non-agricultural sector is 6.8%, the proportion of employees working in the field of management or technical qualification is 4.1%.
- Education conditions: According to the “Basic characteristics of 54 ethnic minorities in 2019”, the percentage of people aged 15 and over who can read and write is 59.3%, the net attendance rate for children of primary school age is 104.2%, and of junior secondary school age is 92.5%, and of senior secondary school age is 69.9%, and the proportion of out-of-school children is 6.5%.
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