The BA NA Community of 54 Ethnic groups in Vietnam

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   The BA NA have a population of more than 90,259 inhabitants with different local subgroups called To-lo, Gio-lang (Y-lang), Ro-ngao, Krem, Roh, Kon Kde, Alacong, Kpangcong and Bo-nam. They settle in Kon Tum¹ Province and western parts of Binh Dinh² and Phu Yen³ Provinces. The BA NA language belongs to the Mon-Khmer linguistic family.

  The BA-NA live mainly on the slash-and-bum cultivation of rice, subsidiary food-crops, vegetables, fruits, sugarcane and cotton for cloth weaving. Nowadays, some BA NA communities also plant coffee and other industrial crops. Apart from farming, the BA NA rear cattle, poultry, pigs and goats. Almost all villages have forges. In some localities, the BA NA can make simple potteries. Women weave cloth to make their family dressing while men do basketry and net-weaving. In the past, they practiced barter in which they paid for goods in cocks, axes, baskets of paddy, pigs, bronze pots, jars, gongs and buffaloes.

  The BA-NA live in houses-on-stilts. In the past, the long houses were popular and suitable for extended families. Now the BA NA families tend to live in small houses. In each village, there is a communal house called Rang which stands out for its height and beauty, it is the village’s headquarters where the elders’meetings and villagers’gathering are organized, rituals performed, and guests welcomed. This is also the place for unmarried young men to sleep at night.

   According to matrimonial custom, BA-NA young men and women enjoy a freedom in selecting their life partners. Marriage is conducted under traditional practices. The young couple live alternately in both their panents’families with an interval arranged by the two families. After the birth of the first child, they are allowed to set up their nuclear family. The children are always treated with kindness and consideration. The fellow-villagers are never given the same names. In case the persons who bear the same names meet one another, they will hold a ceremony for fraternization and define hierarchy according to age.

   The BA NA children have the equal rights of inheritance. All members of a family live in equality and harmony with one another.

   The BA-NA venerate the spirits relating to human beings. Each spirit has proper name going after pronouns called boc (Mr.) or da (Mrs.). In their concepts, the deceased turns into the soul, firstly the soul remains in the village cemetery, then it comes to the ancestral land after the “grave abandoning” ritual. This ritual is the last farewell to the deceased.

  The BA NA have a rich treasure of folk literature and arts including folksongs and dances performed at festivals and religious rituals.

  Musical instruments are diversified, such as sets of gongs of various combination, t’rung xylophone, bro, klong put, ko-nl, khinh khung goong stringed zithers and to-not, avong and to-tiep trumpets. The original aesthetic sense of the BA NA is expressed in their vivid decorative wood-carvings on their communal houses and at tomb-houses.

SEE MORE:
◊  The COMMUNITY of 54 ETHNIC GROUPS in Vietnam – Section 1.
◊  Vietnamese version (vi-VersiGoo): CONG DONG 54 Dan toc Viet Nam – Phan 1.
◊  Vietnamese version (vi-VersiGoo):  Nguoi BA NA  trong Cong dong 54 Dan toc anh em o Viet Nam.
◊  etc.

BAN TU THU
06 /2020

NOTES:
^* : The population information in this article is updated according to the July 1, 2003 statistics of the Vietnam Committee for Ethnic Minorities.
¹ : … updating…

NOTE:
◊  Source & Images:  54 Ethnic Groups in Vietnam, Thong Tan Publishers, 2008.
◊  All citations and italic textes has been set by Ban Tu Thu – thanhdiavietnamhoc.com