http://www.vietnametravel.com/pupeo-ethnic-group-pubiao-i229.html

Proper name: Pubeo.
Other names: La Qua, Penti Lo Lo.

Population: 382 people. (1999 census).  

Language: Pupeo language belongs to the Kadai group (of the Tai-Kadai language family). The Pupeo also speak Hmong language fluently, as well as Cantonese Chinese.

History: The Pupeo have lived in northern Vietnam for centuries. The neighboring ethnic groups consider the Pupeo as among the early inhabitants who broke fresh ground to cultivate land in the far north.
Production activities: The Pupeo plant corn and beans on swidden fields, achieving good harvests through the use of fertilizers and the planting of subsidiary crops. Some Pupeo people plant rice in terraced fields. They use: cows and buffaloes as drought animals. Some people make tiles for gutters or work as carpenters.

Diet: The two staple foods in the daily diet of the Pupeo include steamed corn flour and soup. The Pupeo use spoons when eating their soup.

Clothing: Pupeo women wear distinctive shirts and dresses, ornamented with different colored cloth pieces that are sewn together. The outer coat women wear is open in the front and is without buttons; the lower edge of the coat is decorated with different colored pieces of applique cloth. Pupeo women wear a short inner shirt, with buttons designed under the right side of the arm, and decorated with the same color of the cloth that makes up the inner shirt. Pupeo women tend to. wear their hair wound at the front, tightened with a wooden comb and covered with a square headdress.

Housing: The Pupeo live in Dong Van District of Ha Giang Province. In the past, they lived in stilt houses, but nowadays they also live in houses that are built directly on the ground.

Transportation: The basket with shoulder straps is a popular way to transport goods.

Social organization: The Pupeo have two kinds of family lineages which co-exist. One is called by the Han language, read as the local pronunciation like Cung, Trang, Phu… and being used as the official language in documents. The other kind is more ancient, showing the relationships of different blood lines among members of the same family lineage, with such lineage relationships indicated in coupled terms, such as kacung – kacam, karam – kacham, karu – karua, kabu – kabong.

Marriage: A Pupeo wedding is a complicated event. When the groom takes the bride to his home, the brides maid has to carry the bride on her back out of the bride’s house, and then follow the groom’s family. In the meal of ancestor worshipping, the food is put on a large winnowing basket, and the whole family, together with bride and groom, must eat using their fingers. The newlywed’s return visits to the bride’s family are carried out many times – three days, seven days, thirteen days, thirty days after the wedding day.

Birth: The common belief is that the mid-wife has considerable influence on the child, from the time the child is a foetus until the child is thirteen years old. A Pupeo woman gives birth in her private room. The placenta is put in a bamboo tube and buried under the bed or wrapped in an old mat and placed on a tree branch in the forest.

The son will be named after five days, the daughter after three days. During the time when the child has not been given a name, the father must stay at home and put on a conical hat when he goes out. The name given to the child will be used until the child is thirteen years old of age, when he or she will have a written name. The written name is given in Cantonese with the middle name of the lineage family. Each gene- ration has the same middle name, such as the Cung lineage has 18 middle names, the Trang lineage has seven middle names.

Funerals: Among the Pupeo, there is a ghost ritual and chay rituals, also known as the dried ghost ritual. When a parent dies, the Pupeo inform the ancestors of the death by reversing the cult jar that is placed on the ancestral altar. At least thirteen days after burial, they must carry out a ritual to reset this cult jar, reversing it to its upright position. During the time that the corpse remains in the house, it is forbidden to cook meals in the kitchen, but meals can be prepared on the cooking stones placed in the central part of the house. Each Pupeo ritual invocation, which has its’ own contents linked to° a legend concerning the origin of the Pupeo, will be read in order to say farewell to the deceased who departs for the old mother’s land. The Pupeo place Ta Leo in front of the house to prevent the ghost from entering, and after the funeral, once the coffin is brought out of the house, they must rekindle a fire in the yard outside and boil some water to wash their hands and legs before entering the house. The next morning after burying the deceased, they see the footprints in the ash that they spread in front of the house which is said to signal the re-birth of the deceased.

After several years the family will hold a chay ritual to encourage the soul of the deceased to return to the old mother’s land, the afterworld. In this ritual the Pupeo maintain their traditional customs of drinking pipe wine and playing bronze drums.

Festivals: For Tet Festival the Pupeo generally make black square rice cakes in the night of 29th day of Lunar December to bid farewell the old year: On the night of 30th, they will make white square rice cakes to welcome the new year and for worshipping their ancestors. On the 1st day of the New Year, the youngsters gather and play games. During three days of Tet Festival, the Pupeo do not wash the bowls after meals, but only use paper to clean the bowls with the hope that there will not be heavy rains that erode the fertile soil.

Beliefs: The Pupeo believe that each person has eight souls and nine vital spirits. The New Year Eve (the last day of the year) each family participates in the ritual of recalling the soul of each departed member of the family. They worship three generations. Small jars serve as symbols of the deceased and are used on the altar, and there are at least three jars for three generations. When one person in the family is ill, the ritual specialist will tell the person to hold a ritual and place a new jar on the altar for worshipping.

Calendar: The Pupeo use the calendar consisting of twelve animals according to the lunar calendar.

Artistic activities: A unique aspect of Pupeo folk culture are the wedding songs – lasting 3 to 4 hours – sung at the wedding by the families of the bride and groom in order to ask for the bride’s hand in marriage. The wedding is also an opportunity for youngsters to enjoying singing and entertaining themselves.