The treasure trove of folklore of the San Diu people in Quang Ninh

The San Diu people are one of the 53 ethnic minority groups in Vietnam. In Quang Ninh province , the San Diu live interspersed with the Dao, San Chay, Kinh, and Tay ethnic groups, accounting for approximately 1.6% of the province's total population. They are concentrated mainly in the districts of Ba Che, Tien Yen, Dam Ha, Hai Ha, Van Don, and Ha Long City.

The San Diu people of Binh Dan commune sing soong co songs in the fields after the harvest.

The San Diu people traditionally build their houses on hillsides or at the foot of hills. In the past, houses were usually small, with simple beam and column structures, bound together with rattan or forest vines. The roofs were thatched with straw, reeds, etc. The walls were made of earth, with bamboo slats and then plastered with a mixture of straw and mud. The houses and auxiliary structures were U-shaped. The main room contained an ancestral altar and seating for guests. The rooms on the left, right, and auxiliary rooms usually housed the beds of family members, household items, and seed containers.

San Diu men typically wear dark-colored shorts or long pants with an elastic waistband and two pockets; and a dark-colored shirt that reaches the thighs and has one pocket. Women always wear two shirts: an inner shirt and an outer shirt in indigo or dark color, extending below the knees. They wear a black headscarf made of diagonally woven fabric, shaped like a crow's beak. Older women usually wear their shirts with the left flap draped over the right, while younger women wear the opposite. Their belts are purple, red, floral, or decorated with colorful patterns. On holidays, festivals, village celebrations, or weddings, women wear brocade or velvet headscarves, red aprons; and silver jewelry such as earrings, bracelets, necklaces, brocades, and rings. In particular, their betel nut pouches are embroidered with multicolored threads and beautiful patterns. The shaman's attire includes a celestial hat and a saffron robe decorated with motifs of people, horses, dragons, and phoenixes.

Regarding folk cuisine , the San Diu people have dishes such as plain rice, braised pork belly (khau nhuc), roasted pork, pickled pork, mugwort leaf cakes, colored sticky rice, humpback rice cakes, "tai long ep" cakes, local chicken soup cooked with rice wine and mugwort leaves, salted meat, sweet potato porridge, and cassava porridge. Daily drinks include green tea, vối leaf tea, and thin porridge. Rice wine is widely consumed during festivals, holidays, and celebrations. Notably, the San Diu people in Tien Yen have revived the traditional craft of brewing rice wine with leaf yeast. All dishes are made from readily available ingredients, and many have become specialties, indispensable when welcoming honored guests or during festivals and holidays.

A palanquin procession during the grand festival of the San Diu people in Cong Hoa commune, Cam Pha city.

In terms of production, the San Diu people have traditional occupations such as upland rice cultivation, forest work, silkworm breeding and weaving, indigo dyeing, and basket weaving. In Tien Yen, the San Diu also engage in fishing. Regarding their spiritual culture, the San Diu people believe in animism, the unity of the three religions (Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism), and ancestor worship. In addition, they also worship the guardian spirits of the house, the earth god, the kitchen god, and the goddess of childbirth. The shamans also worship the Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, the Three Pure Ones, and the founding master, placing their worship above that of the ancestral altar.

The Hanh Quang dance of the San Diu people in Hai Lang commune, Tien Yen district.

The San Diu people of Quang Ninh have a rich tradition of folk arts, expressed in all aspects of performance, folk dance, painting, and folk literature. Among these, Soong Co singing is a form of call-and-response singing, where each song is a poem with a romantic nature.

Regarding folk dances, the San Diu people have various dances: Hành Quang dance, stick dance, saffron robe offering dance, lamp offering dance, offering of gifts dance, and the Five-Star dance… In terms of folk visual arts, perhaps the most prominent feature, both in quantity and achieving certain aesthetic values, is the art of carving on seals, ceremonial plaques, and dragons. Particularly noteworthy is the art of paper carving, used for home decoration during Tet (Lunar New Year), weddings, initiation ceremonies, and funerals.

In general, the culture of the San Diu people is quite rich, reflected in their customs, traditions, and rituals. The main occupation of the San Diu people is farming, so they have many agricultural rituals. Throughout the year, the San Diu people celebrate many festivals such as: the Dai Phan Festival, the peace prayer ceremony, the harvest prayer ceremony, the Tuat Muoi Tu Tet (July 14th in the lunar calendar), the plow-washing ceremony, or the shamanic ritual...

The biggest festival of the San Diu people is the Dai Phan festival, meaning the Great Rice Festival (a festival of satiety), which is essentially a harvest prayer ceremony usually held on a day of agricultural leisure, after planting or harvesting, or in the spring. The Dai Phan festival consists of four main ceremonies: the procession of the image of Son Thai Nhan, the animal slaughtering ceremony, the sword climbing ceremony, and the coal wading ceremony. Dai Phan integrates many characteristic cultural elements such as customs, rituals, music, dance, and art. In addition, the San Diu people of Quang Ninh also have a coming-of-age ceremony, similar to the Dao people, to mark the maturity of men in the village community.

However, the folk culture of the San Diu people in Quang Ninh is facing the risk of disappearing, largely due to its oral transmission and the effects of development, urbanization, and integration with modern life. On June 21, 2023, the Provincial People's Committee issued Plan No. 161/KH-UBND on piloting the construction, preservation, and promotion of the cultural identity of four ethnic minority villages associated with community tourism development in the mountainous areas of Quang Ninh province, giai đoạn 2023-2025. Among them is the San Diu village in Vong Tre hamlet, Binh Dan commune, Van Don district.

In the process of preserving and promoting the culture of the San Diu people in Quang Ninh, there have been individual efforts. Dr. Tran Quoc Hung, Director of the Center for Research, Preservation and Development of San Diu Culture in Vietnam, a native of Quang Ninh, has undertaken numerous programs to collect and preserve San Diu culture, the culture of Quang Hanh village communal house (Cam Pha City), and, together with his colleagues, has researched a Latin alphabet for San Diu pronunciation in order to teach and preserve the San Diu language for the younger generation.

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