Phu Yen currently has nearly 20,000 Cham people living mainly in Dong Xuan, Son Hoa, and Song Hinh districts. They maintain many customs and traditions of their ethnic group in their daily lives.
Unique identity
Along the banks of the Ba River in Son Hoa and Song Hinh districts, the Cham ethnic group is most concentrated, accounting for nearly two-thirds of the total Cham population in the province. They choose to live along rivers, streams, and valleys surrounded by mountains and forests, in areas with water for daily life, rice paddies, and hills shaped like inverted bowls for growing crops. The Cham usually live in clans, so each village typically has only about 5-7 stilt houses, with larger clans having around 30 houses.
While the Cham people in Dong Xuan district have a cultural blend with the Ba Na people, the Cham people in Son Hoa and Song Hinh districts have a strong cultural intermingling and exchange with the Ede people. The most noticeable signs are their clothing, houses, and gong performances.
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| Traditional Cham women's clothing. Photo: LE KHA |
The traditional clothing of the Cham people is all woven by themselves. Men wear loincloths, and women wear robes. Both the loincloths and robes are decorated with patterns, some of which are worth as much as a cow. Ms. Kpắ Hờ Khiêm, President of the Women's Union of Cà Lúi commune (Sơn Hòa district), said: “The Cham people grow their own cotton, spin the yarn, and weave the fabric for their own use. The looms are very rudimentary; they spin yarn for 15-30 days to make one string (about 500 grams of yarn). Weaving loincloths and robes takes 1-3 months because they mainly weave during their free time between farming seasons.”
The Cham people prioritize growing rice and corn to satisfy their hunger, while warm and beautiful clothing is secondary. Each stilt house has two to three fireplaces for the whole family to warm themselves during the winter.
Each village has its own self-governing system. The village representative is elected by the people. These are respected village elders who have accumulated much experience in farming and animal husbandry, and who understand and correctly apply the customary laws of the Cham people.
Preserving many customs and rituals.
Mr. Oi Thu from Xuan Lanh commune (Dong Xuan district) recounted: "In the village, there are shamans and priests who perform rituals for the village and families whenever they organize festivals such as buffalo sacrifice ceremonies, mountain opening ceremonies, field ceremonies, housewarming ceremonies, ceremonies celebrating the coming-of-age of children and grandchildren, and ceremonies asking the deities to bless the village with peace and prosperity."
The custom of offering sacrifices to animals like the "ri" cow, "ri" buffalo, and "ri" chicken (called "chrai" in the Cham language), which are believed to bring misfortune, illness, and family discord, involves the shaman using his gloved hand, squeezing a chicken egg, and pointing a string at whichever animal is targeted for slaughter. The Cham also have a ritual (pơghơh-borcang) to condemn those who speak maliciously and frequently curse their relatives and fellow villagers; this ritual is meant to silence the wicked.
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| A Cham house. Photo: LE KHA |
The Cham people believe that humans, like all things, have souls and are governed by spirits. However, they limit their prayers and offerings, only giving thanks to deities who maintain peace for their families and communities, such as the god of rain, the god of wind, the god of land, the god of rivers and streams, and the god of forests and mountains.
Mr. Ma Mang from Phuoc Tan commune (Son Hoa district) said: “The Cham people have a custom of sacrificing a buffalo and rotating it around a post to repay a debt to the spirits, because the family has prayed and begged the spirits for protection from illness, misfortune, prosperity, and mutual love and support within the family… The offerings to the spirits include a male buffalo, a pig, a chicken, and rice wine.” When a family or village organizes the buffalo sacrifice ceremony, local residents and neighboring villagers come to share the family's wishes. They play gongs and drums until the wild rooster crows at dawn. They drink rice wine until the sun rises above the mountain peaks.
Due to cultural intermingling, the wedding customs of the Cham people are fundamentally similar to those of the Ede people. Weddings are held on both sides, with many pigs, chickens, and cows slaughtered, and rice wine served to celebrate the groom and bride getting married. Besides the material contributions provided by the families, relatives and acquaintances from other villages bring cows along with a set of five gongs to join the celebration. Later, the person who receives the cow must return for the wedding, and the cow must be of equal or greater size than the one they received.
The Cham people also have a ceremony called "leaving the grave." After the burial, if the family can afford it, they hold the ceremony within 30 days; if they haven't prepared all the necessary offerings, they wait 1-3 years before holding this ceremony. For the Cham people, the custom of leaving the grave is a very important spiritual ritual for both the deceased and the living.
According to Cham beliefs, the Creator Goddess (called Mo Pinh) is the supreme deity who molded humankind and all things on earth. Whether a person lives a long or short life is determined by Mo Pinh. She also determines a person's wealth, poverty, happiness, and suffering. The Cham believe that Mo Pinh also created the sky and the earth. Therefore, in their rituals and offerings, they avoid calling Mo Pinh by her name, instead referring to her as Yang Troi (the god of the sky).
In their religious beliefs, the Cham people fear the Yàng Anh Em (brotherly spirits) the most. These spirits often tease the god of thunder and lightning, causing people to become ill, sick, and suffer misfortunes. The Yàng Anh Em is characterized by its moods of sometimes laughing, sometimes crying, sometimes sober, sometimes drunk, and it often wanders alone on desolate hills, in deep forests, or during storms, rain, thunder, and lightning.
“The Cham people’s customary law forbids villagers and outsiders from defecating, releasing dead animals, or other unsanitary things into rivers and streams. Anyone who does this without permission will be swept away by the river spirits. Ancient trees and primeval forests at the headwaters or near settlements are untouchable, as these are gifts from heaven; anyone who touches them will bring misfortune to their entire family and lineage,” said village elder Oi Muk in Kit hamlet, Song Hinh commune (Song Hinh district).
As social life develops and there is interaction between regions, the Cham people in Phu Yen have embraced new cultural practices, thus abandoning outdated customs. They preserve and promote the rich cultural values of their ethnic group. (Mr. So Minh Chien, Secretary of the Party Committee and Chairman of the People's Committee of Phuoc Tan commune, Son Hoa district) |
TRAN LE KHA
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