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Proper name: Cu De Su
Other names: Kha Pe
Population: 594 people. (1999 census).
Language: Sila language be¬longs to the Tibeto-Burmese language group and is closer to Burmese.
History: The Sila migrated from Lao.
Production activities: In the past, the Sila used to practice nomadic farming, but they have shifted to the cultivation of rice and corn on swidden fields. Hunting, fishing and gathering are still significant to the economic livelihood of the Sila.

Diet: The Sila enjoy both glutinous and ordinary rice and soup cooked from forest vegetables. Their main protein source comes from fishing and hunting.

Clothing: Women wear black or indigo-dyed dresses that reveal the midriff. The blouse is buttoned under the right arm. The upper part of the dress is decorated with plenty of silver and tin coins; the collar and the two sleeves are decorated with different cloth bands of various colors. Headgear varies according to age. Women often carry handbags woven from hemp fiber. Teeth painting is still popular nowadays. Men paint their teeth red and women paint their teeth black.

Housing: The Sila are concentrated in several villages in Muong Te district of Lai Chau province. They live in houses built directly on the ground. A house usually has two compartments and two lean-tos, eaves and an entrance. The ancestral altar is placed in the innermost corner on the left, on which are put a small rice wine cup and a gourd. The kitchen hearth is placed at the heart of the house, where the important stone tripod is located. The most important stone, where the ancestors live, will take care of the fire and have its back turned towards the ancestral altar.

Transportation: The Sila usually use gui (carrying baskets). In addition, they also know how to use the wooden boats for travel and transport on rivers.

Social organization: Sila villages used to be ruled by Thai village officials. Division of social classes has not occurred. There is high sense of communality.

Lineage relationships are very close. While there are many different names and family branches, Hu and Po are two dominant family groups. Due to the concept that the same name and family branch name mean the same ancestors, it is easy for a person who lives away from relatives to move to other family branches and honor the same ancestors. Each branch of a lineage is headed ” by a male elder, no matter if he is the first or the second son. Twice a year, on the occasion of the Lunar New Year and during the new rice festival, a ceremony is held by the branch head to pay tribute to their common ancestors, where typical offerings include squirrel meat, crab, pigeon, pipe wine, some paddy plants, taro and a bunch of pearl- barley leaves. People do not burn incense; rather, they burn beeswax candles on the ancestral altar. The lineage’s sacred ritual objects, such as drums, horse bells, gourds and wine cups, are placed on the ancestral altar. When the head of the lineage passes away, the newly elected head must wait three years before he can transfer these ritual objects to his own house. The lineage head plays an important role among members within the lineage in events such as marriages, funerals, allowing a member to leave or accepting a new member. Persons of the same lineage cannot marry each other.

Marriage: It is not forbidden for young couples to spend the night together prior to marriage. Two-stage weddings are popular. At the first stage, the bride is welcome to the husband’s home. At the second rite, which is a year later, the family of the groom must hand wedding money to the bride’s family.

Birth: Women deliver in the house, and usually in the seated position. The placenta is kept in a bamboo cylinder, covered with ashes and put in a corner of the kitchen until the day the child is named. An old woman in the village is invited to give a name to the child, with the hope that the child will live long. After naming the child, the old woman will cover the bamboo cylinder with banana leaves and tie it with nine bamboo laces if the baby is a boy, and seven if a girl, and bury it. A praying-for-soul ceremony is held three days after the child is named.

Funerals: The cemetery is located at the end of the village, and the graves of members of the same lineage are grouped together. The Sila avoid burying a person among members of other lneages. When a burial location is selected, the soil will be hoed and a piece of charcoal is put into that, which means the place is occupied. The next morning a grave house will be built and the grave is dug. The coffin is made from a split hollowed tree trunk. Prayers are offered so that the soul will return to its homeland in Mo U. After the burial, the host family will pour some water to extinguish the fires in the house, bring the old charcoal out of the house, and set a new fire. They never clean or re-inter the dead remains. The sons of the deceased maintain the mourning of their parent by tying up their hair and the girls remove their chains and necklaces.

Beliefs: Children retain the custom of mourning their deceased parents through the practice of ancestor veneration. Each ancestral altar must have a cup taken from the funeral rites. The number of sons of the family equals number of cups placed on the altar. When the house is divided, the cups can be carried away to be used as new altars are set up. The worshipping of grandparents onwards is the responsibility of the head of the lineage. The village praying ceremony is the most important event, during which prayers are offered for the disappearance of all sicknesses and protection against misfortunes, such as pigs and chickens being caught by forest animals. The rice spirit is worshiped in a ritual held every seven years, using a special basket and some rice grains in order to lead the soul of rice from the swidden fields at the edge of the hamlet to the home of each family and, finally, to conserve it in the rice basket.

Education: Formerly, the Sila did not have their own hand writing, but relied on the spoken word as their means of communication.

Artistic activities: Sila boys and girls sing alternating lyrics and historical epics.
Festivals: The Sila celebrate the new year in early December of the lunar calendar. They also celebrate the new rice Tet.

Entertainment: Sila children play with self-made toys made of bamboo or clay. They also play a wide variety of enjoyable, communal games.

Si La Ethnic Group