Nùng people

Nùng

Geographic distribution of the Nùng as a part of Central Tai speaking peoples
Regions with significant populations
Vietnam, China
Vietnam	1,083,298 (2019)[1]
China	unknown
Languages
Nùng, Vietnamese, Chinese
Religion
Nùng folk religion,[2] Moism
Related ethnic groups
Zhuang people and Tày people

The Nùng (pronounced as noong [nuːŋ]) are a Central Tai ethnic group living primarily in northeastern Vietnam and southwestern Guangxi. The Nùng sometimes call themselves as Tho, which literally means autochthonous (indigenous or native to the land). Their ethnonym is often mingled with that of the Tày as Tày-Nùng.

According to the Vietnam census, the population of the Nùng numbered about 856,412 by 1999, 968,800 by 2009, and 1,083,298 by 2019. They are the third largest Tai-speaking group, preceded by the Tày and the Thái (Black Tai, White Tai and Red Tai groups), and sixth overall among national minority groups.

They are closely related to the Tày and the Zhuang. In China, the Nùng, together with the Tày, are classified as Zhuang people.

In 1954, several thousand Nùng Phàn Slình came to South Vietnam as refugees and settled in Lâm Đồng province.^[3] Following the Sino-Vietnamese War, there were further waves of migration to the Central Highlands.

Subdivisions[]

Geographic distribution of Nùng, Zhuang, Tay, Bouyei languages in northern Vietnam and southern China.

There are several subgroups among the Nùng: Nùng Xuồng, Nùng Giang, Nùng An, Nùng Phàn Slình, Nùng Lòi, Nùng Cháo, Nùng Quý Rỉn, Nùng Dín, Nùng Inh, Nùng Tùng Slìn etc.

Many of the Nùng's sub-group names correspond to the geographic regions of the Nùng homeland. Hoàng Nam (2008:11) lists the following Nùng subgroups.^[4]

• Nùng Inh: migrated from Long Ying
• Nùng Phàn Slình: migrated from Wan Cheng
  • Nùng Phàn Slình thua lài
  • Nùng Phàn Slình cúm cọt
• Nùng An: migrated from An Jie
• Nùng Dín
• Nùng Lòi: migrated from Xia Lei
• Nùng Tùng Slìn: migrated from Cong Shan
• Nùng Quý Rỉn: migrated from Gui Shun
• Nùng Cháo: migrated from Long Zhou

History[]

In 1038, Nùng Tồn Phúc (Nong Quanfu, Chinese: 儂全福), a Nùng chieftain, proclaimed the founding of the Kingdom of Longevity (Chang Qi Guo 長生國). The king of Annamese kingdom, Lý Thái Tông, led an army into the region in the third month of 1039, captured Nùng Tồn Phúc and most of his family, and returned them to capital Thăng Long for execution. His 14-year-old son, Nùng Trí Cao (Nong Zhigao, Chinese: 儂智高), evaded capture.^[5] Nùng Trí Cao then rose up three times in 1041, 1048, 1052. But finally he was defeated by the Song. After the defeat of Nùng Trí Cao, Many of the Nùng rebels fled to Vietnam, concentrating around Cao Bằng and Lạng Sơn provinces and became known as the Nùng. Barlow (2005) suggests that many of the original 11th-century rebels who fled to Vietnam were absorbed by the related Tày peoples of the region.^[5]

The Nùng, although lacking a leader of the stature of Nùng Trí Cao, rose up in 1352, 1430, 1434^[5] and many other unrecorded rebellions.

In the 16th century the Zhuang, principally from Guangxi and perhaps from southeast Yunnan, began migrating into Vietnam. This movement was quickened by the acceleration of the cycle of disasters, and by the political events of the seventeenth century which brought larger numbers of Chinese immigrants into the region, such as the fall of the Ming, the rebellion of Wu Sangui, the Qing occupation, and the Muslim revolts in Yunnan.^[5] This migration was a peaceful one which occurred family by family.^[5] French administrators later identified a number of Nùng clans in the course of their ethnographic surveys.^[5] These had incorporated Chinese place names in their clan names and hence indicate the place of their origin in China, such as the "Nùng Inh" clan, from Long Ying in the southwest of Guangxi.^[5] Such other names as can be correlated with locations indicate that the migrants were primarily from the immediate frontier region of the southwest of Guangxi.^[5] The Nùng became increasingly numerous in the region, and were spread out through a long stretch of the Vietnamese northern border from Lạng Sơn to Cao Bằng, and about That Khe.^[5] The Mạc dynasty, a Vietnamese dynasty ruled over the Vietnamese northeast highlands, profited from the migration in that they were able to draw upon Nùng manpower for their own forces.^[5]

In 1833, Nông Văn Vân, a Nùng chieftain, led a rebellion against Vietnamese rule. He quickly took control of Cao Bằng, Tuyên Quang, Thái Nguyên and Lạng Sơn provinces, aiming to create a separate Tày-Nùng state in the northern region of Vietnam. His rising was eventually suppressed by the Nguyễn dynasty in 1835.

In the 1860s, the Nùng sided with Sioung (Xiong), a self-proclaimed Hmong king. Sioung's armies raided gold from Buddhist temples and seized large tracts of land from other people.^[6]

The period from the Taiping Rebellion (1850–64) to the early twentieth century was marked by continual waves of immigration by Zhuang/Nùng peoples from China into Vietnam.^[5] These waves were a result of the continuous drought of Guangxi which made the thinly occupied lands of northern Vietnam an attractive alternative habitation. The immigration process was generally a peaceful one as the Nùng purchased land from the "Tho" owners.^[5] The Nùng were superior to the Tho in cultivating wet rice and transformed poor lands, facilitating later migrations into adjoining areas.^[5] The repeated violent incursions of the Taiping era and the Black Flag occupation accelerated the outflow of Tho as the bands from China were largely Zhuang who favored the Nùng at the expense of the Tho.^[5] The Tho who remained became alienated from the Vietnamese government which could not offer protection and became clients of the Chinese and the Nùng.^[5]

The Nùng dominance became so pronounced that when Sun Yat-sen wished to raise fighters in the region, he could recruit them from Nùng villages such as Na Cen and Na Mo, both on the Vietnamese side of the border.^[5] The French colonists saw this Nùng predominance as a threat, and found it convenient at that time to re-assert the primacy of the Vietnamese administrative system in the region.^[5]

The French, however, perhaps having less choice, tended to support the Tho and other minorities, often undifferentiated as "Man" in their reports—usually a reference to Yao—as a counterweight against the Nùng.^[5] In 1908, for example, following an incident in which Sun Yat-sen's mercenary Nùng warriors had killed several French officers, the French offered a bounty of eight dollars for each head brought in by the "Man".^[5] The bounty was paid 150 times.^[5]

The French colonial government took advantage of ancient tensions between the highland ethnic groups and the Kinh majority in Vietnam. In the northwest mountains, they set up a semi-autonomous minority federation called Sip Song Chau Tai (French: Pays Taï), complete with armed militias and border guards.^[7] When war broke out in 1946, groups of Thai, H’mong and Muong in the northwest sided with the French and against the Vietnamese and even provided battalions to fight with the French troops.^[7] But The Nùng and Tày supported the Viet Minh and provided the Vietnamese leader, Ho Chi Minh, with a safe base for his guerrilla armies.^[8] After defeating the French at Dien Bien Phu in 1954, the Viet Minh tried to win the allegiance of all of the northern ethnic minorities by creating two autonomous zones, and respectively, allowing limited self-government within a “unified multi-national state”.^[7] During the Vietnam War, many Nùng fought alongside the North Vietnamese Army (NVA).^[7]

After the Unification of Vietnam in 1975, Viet Bac Autonomous Zone in which the Nùng and Tày were most numerous was revoked by Lê Duẩn. the new government pursued a policy of forced assimilation of the minorities into the Vietnamese culture.^[7] All education was conducted in the Vietnamese language, traditional customs were discouraged or outlawed, and minority people were moved from their villages into government settlements.^[7] At the same time the government created “New Economic Zones” along the Chinese border and in the Central Highlands. Frequently this involved taking the best land in order to resettle thousands of people from the overcrowded lowlands.^[7] During the 1980s, an estimated 250,000 ethnic Vietnamese were settled in the mountainous regions along the Chinese border, leading to a shortage of food in the region and much suffering.^[8]

As tension arose between Vietnam and China in 1975, Hanoi feared the loyalty of the Nùng and the Chinese-Vietnamese,^[9] concerning that they would side with China. This comes from the fact that many of the Nùng just migrated into the Vietnamese border side and many of their relatives still lived in the other side of the border.

In the 1990s, the Doi Moi program brought a shift in policy, including the creation of a government department responsible for minority affairs. Many of the changes and the liberalization that preserving the heritage of the Nùng and other ethnic groups has a great appeal to tourists a source of significant income for Vietnam. Nonetheless, in many areas the minorities’ traditional lifestyles are fast being eroded.^[8]

With the territorial disputes between Vietnam and China in recent years, the minority groups living along the Sino-Vietnamese border, including the Nùng, have been under the watchful eye of the Vietnamese government.

Description[]

A hand basket of Nùng people in Vietnam

The Nùng support themselves through agriculture, such as farming on terraced hillsides, tending rice paddies, and growing orchard products. They produce rice, maize, tangerines, persimmons and anise. They are also known for their handicrafts, making items from bamboo and rattan, as well as weaving. They engage in carpentry and iron forging also.

Language[]

The Nùng language is part of the Tai language family; its written script was developed around the 17th century. It is close to the Zhuang language.

Religion[]

Many Nùng practice an indigenous religion with animistic, totemic and shamanic features similarly to other Tai ethnic groups.^[2] Others have adopted Buddhism.

Customs[]

When drinking alcohol, partakers cross hands and drink from the opposite glass to demonstrate trust. Fairy tales, folk music, and adherence to tradition and ethnic identity are strong characteristics of Nùng people.

The Nùng's traditional indigo clothing, symbolising faithfulness, was made famous by Hồ Chí Minh, worn when he returned to Vietnam in 1941.

Notable people[]

• Chu Văn Tấn, a general of North Vietnam
• Kim Đồng, fighter of the August Revolution in 1945.
• Nong Quanfu, a Nùng chieftain
• Nong Zhigao, a Nùng chieftain

See also[]

• Zhuang people
• Tay people
• Yue (state)
• Wu (state)
• Chu (state)
• Tai-Kadai languages
• Tai languages
• Xi'ou
• Luoyue
• Baiyue

References[]

Sources[]

Further reading[]

• Đoàn, Thiện Thuật. Tay-Nùng Language in the North Vietnam. [Tokyo?]: Instttute [sic] for the Study of Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, 1996.

External links[]

• Nùng People in Vietnam
• The Nùng
• Nùng - Vietnam Ethnic Group