Brau

The Brau Ethnic Group

http://www.vietnam-culture.com/brau-brao-ethnic-group.aspx

 

 

Other name: Brao
Population: 231 people

Language: Brau language belongs to the Mon-Khmer language group (of the Austroasiatic language family).

History: The first Brau came to Vietnam about a century ago. They live mainly in southern Laos and northeastern Cambodia. At present, most Brau communities are still living in the basins of Xe Xan (Xa ma cang) and Nam Khoong (Mekong) rivers. The Brau are proud of their traditions, which they recall in such legends as Un cha dac lep (rising blaze, rising water), about how great floods were weathered by the Brau people.

Production activities: The Brau live mainly on swidden fields, cultivating sticky rice o\and ordinary paddy, corn and manioc. Slash-and-burn agriculture is widely practiced, with people using digging sticks to make holes into the ground for sowing deeds. Harvesting is done manually. Hunting and gathering still play an important role today, which ensures a sufficient daily food supply for the family. In addition, every Brau village has a blacksmithing workshop where agricultural tools are made. Brau men are skilled in weaving and plaiting. Local people often barter agricultural and forestry products for clothes and textiles supplies by other minority groups.

Diet: The Brau cook ordinary rice in earthen pot, but use a fresh length of neohouzeaua (a type of bamboo) to prepare the sticky rice dish called com lam. They grow corn and manioc as feeds for livestock and poultry. Popular foods include salt with chili, vegetable, fresh bamboo shoots, fish, and the meat of certain animals. Can (pipe) wine is enjoyed by both men and women. Moreover, people of all ages like smoking local tobacco with akhan pipe.

 

Clothing: In the past, men wore loin cloths and women wore one-piece-long dresses. In summer, people often left their upper torso naked or wore a short pullover. In winter, they often covered their bodies with a heavy blanket. A mark of beauty for Brau women is the stretches earlobe, meant to carry yellow bamboo ornaments or ivory earrings. Women’s jewelry includes wrist-chains and necklaces, often made of bronze, silver or aluminum. According to Brau customs, boys and girls who reach the age of puberty (between 15 and 16 years old) must have the four front teeth of their upper jaw evenly filed, a deed which fully integrated them into village life as adults.

 

Lifestyle: The Brau live in the Dac Me village of Bo Y commune, Ngoc Hoi district, Kon Tum province. They live in houses in stilt with steep roofs. The floor of the house is arranged at different elevations which clearly define the various activities of the family members. A plank connects the main house with the adjacent rooms. Brau homes are oriented with their main doors, built with their main doors, built below the gable, opening towards the centre of the village where the communal house stands. This arrangement results in circle of houses radiating out from the spokes of a cart-wheel.

Transportation: The bamboo-woven back-carrier is the most popular means of transporting goods and produce.

Social organization: The Brau’s society is now an early stage of differentiation between the rich and the poor. More patriarchal nuclear families are appearing, with increased equality between men and women. Traces of matriarchy still exist and remain influential in some places.

Marriage: The Brau wedding is organized at the bride’s home, but the cost are borne by the bridegroom’s family. After the wedding, the husband stays at his wife’s family for about four to five years, followed by a change of residence to the husband’s family.

Funerals: When a family member passes away, the funeral host beats the drums and gongs to inform other villagers of the death. The body of the deceased is placed in a coffin made from a hollowed-out tree trunk, and put in a makeshift funeral house erected near the family’s home. The coffin is often half-buried in the ground. A funerary shelter is built over the grave to hold the property inherited by the inherited by the deceased. Some of these items will be destroyed through breaking, piercing or chipping.

Building a new house: When a new house is finished, the veneration of the village’s gods takes place followed by a big house-warming party that is attended by the whole village.

Festivals: A ceremony for celebrating “new rice” after each harvest time is the principal festival of the year. It does not have a precise date because it depends upon the planting schedule, and the timing may vary from family to family.

Calendar: As in the past, an agricultural calendar, based on phases of the moon each month is used for fixing the schedule for planting and harvesting.

Education: The communal house in the heart of the village serves as a traditional school for the village children and youth. It is often run by the village elders. The students are vocationally oriented and taught about the cultural as well as fighting skills to ensure public security and to protect their own village and customs.

 

Brau Ethnic Group In Vietnam’s Central Highlands

To Tuan  Monday, June 03, 2013  VOV5 Radio the Voice of Vietnam

http://vovworld.vn/en-us/Colorful-VietnamVietnams-54-ethnic-groups/Brau-ethnic-group-in-Vietnams-Central-Highlands/158217.vov

(VOVworld) – The Brau or Brao is one of the 5 smallest ethnic groups of the Vietnamese nation. With a population of more than 400, the Brau community primarily lives in the valleys of Se San and Nam Khoong Rivers of the central highlands.

The Brau used to live in the common border area between Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. In the process of relocation, the Brau people were the latest settlers in Vietnam, about 100 years ago. They don’t have their own alphabet but do have their own mother tongue, which belongs to the Mon Khmer language of the South Asia system. The Brau currently live in Dak Me of Bo Y commune, Ngoc Hoi district, Kon Tum province. This ethnic group believes that the universe is created by Pa Say God who also creates life and death. Like other ethnic groups in the Central Highlands, the Brau people consider living beings tangible and the world of multiple gods: the god of mountains, river, sea, and trees. There is a matriarchal family system. Researcher of ethnic groups in the Central Highlands Luu Anh Hung says: “The traditional culture of the Brau is similar with those in the central highlands, particularly north central highlands. They have Rong communal houses, wooden houses, and festivals associated with rice growing cycle. According to their spiritual beliefs, the Brau champion the role of the gods of paddy, water, soil, forests and mascots. Their musical instruments are the pan-pipe and gongs. Traditionally, the Brau are hospitable and community-spirited, respect the elderly and adore children”.

 

Rong communal house in the Central Highlands

The village structure of the Brau bears communal characteristics. The Rong communal house is the tallest and most beautiful structure and is built in the middle of the village. The locals’ houses are wooden houses facing the Rong house. During Vietnam’s war time, the Brau people lived a nomadic life along the Vietnam-Laos border. After peace was restored, their lives stabilized thanks to the support from the State and border guards. Thao Loi, an official from Dak Me hamlet, Ngoc Hoi district, Kon Tum province, says:   “In 2005, the Vietnamese State took concrete measures to help the Brau whose population was shrinking. The government approved a 25 billion VND project to support Brau ethnic group in Bo Y commune. The State invests in local infrastructure, production, building Rong communal house and toilets, connectivity to the national electricity grids, culture and education. A review report in 2010 acknowledged the development of the Brau ethnic group”.

The State also helps locals in seeds and seedling development, wet rice cultivation techniques and the development of coffee and rubber. By the end of 2012, the Brau population increased to 417 from 368 in 2005. Dak Me village and Bo Y commune have decent roads, schools, and kindergartens.

In the following editions, we will continue to tell you about the Brau’s customs, traditions, arts, architecture and music. Stay tuned!

 

 

The Brau People

http://www.vwam.com/vets/tribes/brau.html

The 1989 Vietnam census found there to be just 231 people belonging to the Brau tribe in Vietnam. Their main community is at Dak Me Village, situated on a plateau in the Ngoc Hoi District of Kon Tum Province. In addition, 14,000 Brau live in Cambodia and 13,000 in Laos. Small communities of Brau refugees also live in the United States and France.

In Vietnam the Brau area is situated at the juncture where Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia meet. Brau villages are constructed in a circular formation around a communal house at the center. The Brau’s home are built on stilts with sharply-angled two-sided roofs going all the way down to near the ground. The front ridge of the rood is decorated with sculptures in the form of a bird’s head or the sun, which are common totems among many Mon-Khmer-speaking people groups. 

Until recently the Brau were semi-nomadic people, roaming the forests and clearing land so they could live there for a while before moving on. Today they are more settled. In addition to hunting and fishing, the Brau grow cassava, pumpkins, sugarcane, mustard and bananas. In the 3rd month of every year they use axes and knives to clear the land.

The Brau plant seeds by inserting them into the soil in the 5th month. The men walk along making holes in the soil with a stick, while their wives follow, inserting the seeds in the holes. When the planting is completed the Brau hold a ritual to ask tje spirits of the soil to bless the seeds and to ensure a successful crop. This dependence on the help of the spirit-world is essential for the Brau, as a poor harvest could mean famine for the entire community.

According to the centuries of tradition, the Brau file their teeth and have tattoos on their bodies and faces. The Brau are a somewhat primitive people. Both men and women usually go around naked from the waist up, except when they enter other towns to trade with the Lao, Vietnamese, Bana and Sedang. Brau women like to adorn themselves with large bamboo earrings, and several large chains around their arms, necks and ankles.

Despite the small size of their community in Vietnam, two separate classes exist among the Brau. The rich families possess most of the land and own the majority of cattle, copper pots and jewelry, which are considered the most valuable assets that a Brau can own. At least 90% of the Brau population belong to the peasant class. They are menial laborers for the rich class; they live very basically, trying to survive from one rice harvest to the next.

After marriage the husband is required to live with his wife’s family for an extended—often as long as four or five years. After that time he is allowed to take his family to his own home.

A distinctive part of Brau culture is their deep love for music. A set of gongs, called chieng tha are considered extremely valuable and may sell for the equivalent of 30-50 water buffaloes. Brau girls like to play the klong put, an instrument built with several bamboo tubes. Air is forced into the tubes by clapping their hands in various ways over the different openings of bamboo. If a young Brau man wants to be considered an attractive partner to the girls, he must show his competence in playing these instruments.

Most Brau in Vietnam are animists. They consider Pay Xay the greatest and strongest spirit in the universe. They believe he created the heavens, earth, rivers, rain, wind, humans and animals. They also believe Pay Xay holds the power of death over all creation. In some ways the Brau live in awe of this deity, in other ways they are afraid of him. It is likely the belief in a Creator, Pay Xay, may provide a cultural bridge for the Brau to better understand the Gospel.

The Brau also believe in and worship the forces of nature, including the “spirit of the sky” and the “spirit of the water”. They believe each individual also has a guardian spirit whose job is to protect them from all harm.