54 GROUPS: PA THEN PEOPLE OF VIETNAM

This page provides some details about Pa Then people. They are one of the 54 groups of people in Vietnam.

Name Of Ethnic Group

Pa Then (also known as Pa Hung and Tong)

Pa Then People Population

8,248 people (2019 Census)

Locality

Concentrated in communes of Ha Giang and Tuyen Quang provinces.

Customs & Habits

Pa Then houses are built either on stilts, level with the ground, or half on stilts and a half on the earth. Marriage is strictly forbidden within the same lineage. According to customs, after marriage, the husband lives with his wife’s family for a certain amount of time. If the wife has no brothers, the husband will live with his wife’s family forever, and he has to worship the spirits of his wife’s family. Half of the children take the family name of their father, and the rest takes the family name of their mother. Pa Then worships their ancestors at home. They worship the spirits of the soil and the new rice crop, pray for the rain, and worship the souls of the dead.

Culture

Pa Then language belongs to the Mong-Dao Group. Pa Then has managed to preserve a rich heritage of folk culture through legends, folk songs, lullabies, and dances. They also have a lot of musical instruments such as panpipes, string instruments called the “tay nhay”, and bamboo flutes.

Costumes

Pa Then costumes look very colourful. Men wear shirts, long indigo trousers, and cover themselves with a long scarf. Women wear long skirts, a bra, and a shirt. They like to wear their hair wound up in a turban which is trimmed with colourful motifs.

Economy

Pa Then lives mainly on slash-and-burn cultivation. Rice and corn are their food staple.

For more information about 53 more ethnic groups of people in Vietnam, please follow this link