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Ethnic group in northern Vietnam From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Tày people, also known as the Thổ, T'o, Tai Tho, Ngan, Phen, Thu Lao, or Pa Di, are a Central Tai-speaking ethnic group who live in northern Vietnam. According to a 2019 census, there are 1.8 million Tày people living in Vietnam.[6] This makes them the second largest ethnic group in Vietnam after the majority Kinh (Vietnamese) ethnic group. Most live in northern Vietnam in the Cao Bằng, Lạng Sơn, Bắc Kạn, Thái Nguyên, and Quảng Ninh provinces, along the valleys and the lower slopes of the mountains. They also live in some regions of the Bắc Ninh and Bắc Giang provinces. They inhabit fertile plains and are generally agriculturalists, mainly cultivating rice. They also cultivate maize, and sweet potato among other things.
.svg) Flag of Thô Autonomous Territory, used from 1947 to 1954. | |
 Tày women | |
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 1,845,492 (2019)[1] | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Northern Vietnam: Cao Bằng, Lạng Sơn, Bắc Kạn, Thái Nguyên, Quảng Ninh, Bắc Ninh, Bắc Giang Provinces | |
| Languages | |
| Vietnamese • Tày | |
| Religion | |
| Tai folk religion[2],Then,[3] Buddhism[4] |
The Tày were once known as the Thổ people. Thổ is derived from Chinese tǔ (土), which means 'land' and 'local'. Although not inherently a pejorative it was often used as such in practice (cf. "bumpkin") in both Vietnam and China. Under the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, Thổ was deemed a pejorative and substituted with Tày.[7]
The Tày are closely related to the Nùng people and Zhuang people, who they are culturally and linguistically almost indistinguishable from. Although they are considered an indigenous group, portions of their population likely originated in China during the 11th and 12th centuries. However unlike the Nùng, they were more heavily Vietnamized due to their closer proximity to the Kinh and shared similar cultural practices with the Vietnamese such as lacquering their teeth black. By 1900 around 30% of their language was made of Vietnamese loan words.[7][8]
Tày customs were altered greatly due to Vietnamese and Confucian patriarchal structures, however some customs persisted. Polygamy with multiple equal wives and legitimacy of issue was practiced. Marriage was preferred to occur within the clan. Young wives lived with their parents until giving birth to their first child. Tày women, like those of the Nùng and Zhuang, were said to have used poison to seek revenge when wronged.[7]
The Tày and Nùng often intermarried, although the Tày seem to have held higher status in these relationships. Tày men married Nùng women more often than the other way around. Some Nùng groups were probably absorbed by the Tày.[7]
| Tày people | |
 Diorama of a then inside the Vietnam Museum of Ethnology, Hanoi | |
| Vietnamese alphabet | người Tày |
|---|---|
| Hán-Nôm | 𠊚齊 |
The majority of the Tày practices Then, an indigenous religion involving the worship of tutelary gods, gods of the natural environment, and ancestors and progenitors of human groups.[3] The patterns of this religion are inherited from Taoism and the Chinese folk religion: the god of the universe is the Jade Emperor,[3] in some local traditions (for example in the Quảng Hoà district of Cao Bằng) also identified as the Yellow Emperor (Hoàng Đế).[3] For their religious ceremonies they used to be able to recite Chinese characters but now along with the characters they use glosses because many of them can't recite anymore due to the fact that Vietnamese schools don't teach Chinese characters.[9]
An altar for the ancestors is usually placed in a central location in the house. The altar room is considered sacred; guests and women who have given birth are not allowed to sit on the bed in front of the altar.
Some Tày have adopted Mahayana Buddhism under the influence of Vietnamese and Chinese culture.[4]
The Tày people speak the Tày language, among other Tai dialects of the Kra–Dai languages. Literacy in their own language is quite low among Tày people, probably around 5% or less. Dialects include Central Tày, Eastern Tày, Southern Tày, Northern Tày, Tày Trung Khanh, Thu Lao, and Tày Bao Lac, Tày Binh Lieu. There is a continuum of dialects to southern Zhuang in China.
Both the Nùng and Tay people used Sawndip script, also known as the Old Zhuang Script, to represent their language, which is closely related to the Zhuang language. Sawndip is a writing system based on Chinese characters to represent their language.[11]
A part of the modern-day Tày population encompasses Tày-ized Vietnamese who live mainly in what is now Lang Son. These Tày-ized Vietnamese have their origins traced back to the Vietnamese living further south in the deltas of the Ca, Ma, and Red Rivers, e.g. Nghe An, Nam Dinh, etc. dispatched to the Sino-Annamese border by Annamese imperial governments to serve as governmental officials and local leaders (phiên thần thổ ty).[13] These people were then forbidden to return to their home areas.[13] Eventually they got assimilated into the indigenous Tày surrounding population. Their common surnames include Vi, Nguyễn Đình, Nguyễn Khắc, Nguyễn Công, Hoàng Đức, Hoàng Đình, etc. This practice started in the 15th century and ended in the early 20th century. Vi Văn Định is an example of these Tày-ized Vietnamese in the 20th century.[14]
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