With a dwindling population that is slowly being assimilated into neighbouring cultures, the O Du hill tribe is on the brink of oblivion. Is there anything that can be done to save it?

Squatting on the ground, Lo Bun Nhong writes with a trembling hand. It is not easy for the 77-year-old to write anymore. His memory is poor and his joints stiff but he perseveres and with the help of a fellow tribesman eventually he completes a passage of text written in O Du script.

Nhong, one of the oldest people in the Vang Mon village in Nghe An central province’s Tuong Duong district, is one of the few villagers who can actually speak and write O Du fluently.

According to the 1999 census, the total number of O Du in Vietnam was 301, making it the smallest of Vietnam’s 54 ethnic groups. Six years later, the number had increased by a mere 16 and by 2006 there was an estimated 570 O Du, though this was not the sign of an unlikely resurgence.

In the past, they lived on the two riverbanks of Nam Mo and Nam Rom, near Vang Mon village. But according to Lo Van Tan, also from Vang Mon village, when construction of Ban Ve hydroelectricity plant in Tuong Duong district got the green light three years ago in 2006, many of his fellow tribesmen were resettled closer to neighbouring villages populated by Thai or Khmu hill tribes.

In hindsight this might have been the beginning of the end for O Du culture. At the time, many O Du expressed a wish to gather the tribe together in one village to help better preserve their way of life or indeed to simply survive. Now in Vang Mon village there are only 76 O Du households with 359 people and even here O Du culture is on the brink of oblivion.

Threat to the culture

As the O Du hill tribe is so small, some families inevitably intermarry with other ethnic groups such as Thai or Khmu. O Du culture is a minor and undeveloped one compared to the larger ethnic groups. In fact in the 1989 census, many O Du people declared themselves as Thai or Khmu. O Du clothes appeared to be like Thai clothes.

Over the horizon there are even greater cultural influences slowly overwhelming the tiny hill tribe. O Du people now have Laotian, Vietnamese or Thai sounding names (everyone has the dame surname Lo).

The O Du language belongs to the Mon-Khmer group but virtually no one can speak it anymore. Young people speak Thai, Khmu or Vietnamese.

“In my village there are about six to seven old men who can speak our mother tongue fluently,” says Tan. “Most of our tribe cannot speak O Du language and many of our cultural traditions have disappeared. I only know a little bit of O Du language myself.”

Tan admits that children in the village find it hard to learn O Du. Most kids speak Vietnamese at school and Thai at home. Although every year, according to a provincial plan to preserve ethnic groups’ traditions, most especially languages, they learn one month of O Du.

Lo Van Man, a 76-year-old villager, says he can only speak O Du with people of his generation. At home, he speaks Thai or Vietnamese with his children and grandchildren.

“I don’t know how to teach our family the O Du language,” says Man. “I also fear that my group’s language will disappear one day but I can do nothing about it. I can’t remember everything myself. I’ve probably forgotten 75 per cent of it.”

There are no traditional songs he can sing. There is no traditional O Du dress commonly wore, though some of the more elderly women do remember how to make traditional O Du brocades. It may already be too late to save what was unique about the O Du hill tribe.

Preservation society

At first Le Thi Hoe, an ethnic Thai, almost seems embarrassed when she admits that her husband is from the O Du hill tribe. They got married more than 20 years ago and she admits she knows zero about her husband’s people.

“When we got married my husband’s father was already long dead. No one in the family taught us about my husband’s language,” says Hoe. “Even he knows just a few words. But I would like to learn more about his culture and help preserve it.”

“We do fear the day that O Du culture disappears,” says 71-year-old Lo Van Nghi from Vang Mon village.

“If the authorities have no policy to help us then sooner or later, it will vanish. The remaining O Du people will consider themselves as Thai. We have no tools in terms of money or resources to do it. When the six to seven oldest men in the village pass away, there will be no one to teach the language to others.”

Most young O Du people react positively when asked if they want to learn their own language. While the elderly still speak the language they are not teachers and have no idea how to train the younger generations. In cooperation with the Ministry of Information and Communication, the Nghe An’s People’s Committee issued an decision on February 3, 2006 to support and preserve minor ethnic groups within the province.

While many traditions have been boosted by this, the provincial budget is limited and when ethnic people have no clue how to preserve their culture, the preservation of O Du culture seems like it will be too steep a mountain to climb.

A census in 20 years time may still state that there is a small population of O Du people left in Vietnam, but if the current situation remains unchanged it will merely be a statistic denying a harsh reality that without a language or a distinct culture, those remaining O Du people will be token survivors of a dead culture.

VietNamNet/Timeout