Portraits Of The Hmong Ethnic People

Hello everyone, how are you today?
Today I would like to introduce to you about the H'Mong ethnic people, whom I met during my trip to explore the nothernmost region of Vietnam. People are always a topic I want to learn about in my travels, especially those ethnic minority groups. And during my trip to Ha Giang, I learned a lot of interesting things about the H'Mong ethnic people.

First let me introduce them a little bit. The H'Mong are an ethnic group whose main residence is China and neighboring countries in Southeast Asia such as Laos, Vietnam, Thailand, Myanmar and some countries in the world. In China, they are called the Miao and this is also their English name. In Laos they are called the Meo people and in Thailand they are called แม้ว Maew or ม้ง H'Mong. In Vietnam, they are known as the H'Mong or simply the Mong. They are one of the ethnic minorities with a significant population out of 54 ethnic groups in Vietnam. The H'Mong speak H'Mong, a major language in the H'Mong-Mien language family. According to wikipedia statistics, the population of the H'Mong is distributed in the world as follows:
China: 9,426,007 (2010)
Vietnam: 1,393,547 (2019)
Laos: 595,028 (2015)
United States: 327,000 (2019)
Thailand: 250,070 (2015)
Myanmar: 40,000 won
Australia: 3,438 (2011)
France (French Guiana): 2,000 yen
Canada: 805 (1979)
Argentina: ~100 (2018)
You can refer to more here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hmong_people

In Vietnam, the Mong people are concentrated in the mountainous areas of Ha Giang, Tuyen Quang, Son La, Yen Bai, Lai Chau, Son La, Cao Bang, and Nghe An provinces. They earn their living mainly by shifting cultivation, growing maize, and growing rice in some places with terraced fields. Their main food is corn and rice. In addition, they also grow flax for fiber and medicinal plants. They also raise buffaloes, cows, horses, dogs, and chickens. In the past, the Mong people believed that raising livestock was a woman's job, and finding meat in the forest was a man's job.

The main food of the Mong people is men men (corn flour) and rice. Besides, they eat a lot of meat in their meals, perhaps because they live in areas with scarce water resources, in addition, eating a lot of meat also helps them learn to keep warm. Hmong people like to drink corn wine, rice wine, smoke with a bamboo hubble - bubble pipe. Offering guests a bamboo hubble - bubble pipe loaded with tobacco is an expression of respect for the H'mong people. In the past, opium smoking was relatively common with them.

The clothes of the Mong people are mainly elaborately sewn with self-woven linen. A traditional woman's costume consists of many different details and is colorfully embroidered. When I go to the market, I can see a lot of costumes of different colors. The tools used by the Mong people are also quite rudimentary. Some indispensable tools in every Hmong family can be mentioned: knives, machetes, stone mortars, backpacks, looms, etc.

The H'mong people gather in each village a few dozen roofs. The traditional house of the Mong people is a ground floor house with three compartments and two to three doors. In the middle, there is an altar. The rich man's house has walls made of soil and wooden poles, wooden poles resting on the rock in the shape of poppy buds, tiled roofs, and plank floors. The most common are houses with bamboo walls and thatched roofs. Living in small groups and in remote areas, they always have a spirit of solidarity and help each other in daily life. In the past, they didn't even use money, but only exchanged products at fairs.

H'mong people are honest and simple people. They are often distributed in remote mountainous areas, so they lead a life almost separate from the dizzying development of life outside. Their lives are associated with shifting cultivation, forests, rocky mountains, rice fields, livestock and poultry. That is what makes them gentle and peaceful. They are also quite friendly people, I felt very warm when I received their beautiful smiles. I had a wonderful time living with them, and their simplicity taught me a lot about life. I will definitely come back here to visit them in the future.

Thank you for taking the time to read my post. Have a nice day!