Hmong

The Hmong have a tumultuous history of fleeing and fighting persecution. One of the largest migratory movements occurred just a few decades ago, when the CIA recruited Hmong to fight the Communist 'Pathet Laos' in Laos. When the Pathet Laos took power, Hmong fled en masse to refugee camps in Thailand, and later many were relocated to the United States.

The Hmong have a very rich culture that includes many folktales, festivals and beliefs concerning the spirit world that guides their daily life. Hmong language and cultural traditions have been passed down orally for generations, although one Hmong story tells of a written language that existed long ago. The Hmong also have an extremely complicated and distinctive dress that is now usually worn only for New Years celebrations and other festivals.

Through centuries of living in other nations, from China to Laos, Thailand and the United States, the Hmong people have preserved these cultural traditions and fiercely resisted pressure to assimilate to the dominant culture. However, years of living in China have had at least some material effects; many words in the Hmong language are the same in Mandarin, and the simple Hmong food shares similarities with Chinese cuisine.

History

The Hmong have stories of a distant, long ago homeland with snow and mountains, which some scholars believe might be the Caucasus Mountains.  The vast majority of Hmong people now live in China, but under pressure from the expanding Chinese empire the group has been migrating into neighboring countries for at least the last thousand years. 

During the "Secret War in Laos" in the early 1970s, the American CIA funded a Hmong army to fight the communist groups that eventually won the war in 1975.  When the communists took power, many of the Hmong people, fearing for their lives, fled to refugee camps in Thailand.

Today there are about 8.5 million Hmong live in China, about 600,000 in Vietnam, over a quarter of a million in Laos, and about 120,000 in Thailand.  Additionally, roughly 100,000 Hmong refugees from Laos are living in Western countries, especially in California, Wisconsin and Minnesota in the United States.

Culture

Hmong people tend to live at quite high altitudes, the smallest of villages clustered at the tops of mountain peaks. Village practices are often dictated by Hmong religious beliefs (which do not include gods) in spirits occupying all sorts of natural items such as rivers and trees, and in ancestor worship.

Sometimes a house or a village can be marked 'off-limits' for a period of time, meaning that the house or village cannot accept visitors. For example, immediately after a woman gives birth, her house becomes off-limits to married women. If a married woman comes to visit, she might secretly be pregnant, and the new mother fears the visitor will 'steal' the her nursing milk. As is the duty of the woman of the house, the new mother will repeatedly invite guests, even married women, to come and visit. But under no circumstances should a married woman take her up on the invitation! If she does, she'll have to return later with an offering to apologize for 'stealing' the new mother's milk.

In case of sickness, a spirit-practitioner called a twix neeb may conduct a ceremony to call the wandering souls of those who are ill. This makes a household or a whole village 'off-limits' to visitors for the duration of the malady, and is indicated by a waist-high pole topped with a bamboo disk and green leaves set up next to the door or village gate.

According to the Hmong beliefs, a child is named three days after birth in a 'soul-calling' ceremony, where a twix neeb or other prominent figure does not simply give a child a name, but calls a soul to come and inhabit the body. Throughout a Hmong person's life many illnesses and other problems are attributed to the loss of this soul, which must be found and called back to the body before the owner can get well.

One of the biggest problems currently facing Hmong youth is the early age of marriage. Many girls marry when they are only 12 - 14 years old. The couples have not learned a skill and do not have a way to provide for themselves, much less care for their children when they have them. Girls often marry early because they are afraid they will be rejected by their boyfriends if they do not. However, girls who are able to get an education typically wait till they are about 25 - 28 years old before marrying.

Dress

The traditional Hmong outfit is incredibly complicated.  If you asked a Hmong person where they bought their dress, they would laugh and say that no one sells them; it takes too much time to make. The only way to get one is to make it yourself, or to have your wife or mother make it for you!

The women wear a skirt with hundreds of pleats, an intricate design and colorful embroidery. Over the skirt is a narrow apron, tied around the waist, and an embroidered shirt.  Men wear dark pants with embroidered down the sides and short jackets.

Both the male and female outfits include shoulder bags on both shoulders worn diagonally across the body. The outfits are covered with intricate embroidery, silver coins and silver necklaces, making them very heavy!

The colors are dependent on the sub-group of Hmong, named White and Green accordingly.

 
Language

There are two dialects of Hmong spoken by the White and Green Hmong tribes. The written forms were developed in conjunction with missionaries in the 1950s, and of those literate in Hmong today, many are Christians.

Hmong speak a tonal language with six tones that sounds nothing like Thai, Lao or Burmese. The sliding, slurred vowels and consonant combinations actually slightly resemble Mandarin, and about 30% of Hmong words are the same as Mandarin. This is probably as a result of the long period of time in which the tribe lived in China.

The tones are represented by the last letter in the syllable, which is not actually pronounced.  A doubled vowel gives a word an "ng" sound. Thus, the greeting word written Nyob zoo is pronounced something like "Nyaw zawng."  It means, literally, "live well!"

Some simple phrases:

A typical greeting is:  "Kaj puas noj qaab nyob zoo?"  (Do you eat and live well?)

Which is answered:  "Kuv noj qaab nyob zoo"  (I eat and live well.)

This is used in much the same way "How are you/I'm fine" is used in English.

If visiting a house you will hear:  "Lug tsev mas!"  which means, "Come into the house!" You don't have to take off your shoes, as you do with Thai people, but you should remove your hat!

To ask if a house is off limits prior to entering, you can say:  "Mej puas caiv os?"

You might hear the answer, "Peb tsis caiv os" or "No, we are not off-limits," signaling you can indeed enter a house.

In Hmong, people are happy or sad "in the liver."  Literally, the phrases below relate to the health of the liver but are used to describe a more general state:

To be happy:  zoo sab

To be not good/sad:  tsis zoo sab                    

To be angry/sad:  chim sab

Food and Recipes

Hmong food is known for being quite bland, unlike other local tribal cuisines which are particularly spicy. Meals usually include many fresh vegetables, mostly prepared by steaming or boiling.

Meals are often served with a plain bowl of water.  Be sure not to use it for washing your hands -- it acts like a simple soup, from which anyone make take spoonfuls to clear the palate!

 
Festivals

New Year is a great time to visit the Hmong!  Depending on the harvest, the time of the festival can range from November to January.

New Year, for Hmong people, is when love is in the air. Young men and women are able to meet each other and chat through a courting game involving tossing a ball back and forth. This is also the time when many young couples become engaged or get married.

New Year is a time to lighten the work load, finish up making the fine clothes which may have taken all year to sew, and prepare a special New Year's pig to eat.  Youth also play games such as spinning tops and badminton. Music on the qeej, a Hmong pipe instrument, can be heard everywhere.