They speak the Ta’Oi language, a Mon–Khmer language. They are concentrated in A Lưới district of Thừa Thiên–Huế Province and Hướng Hóa District of Quảng Trị Province in Vietnam, and in muang Ta Oy of Saravane Province in southern Laos.
Culture of the Ta Oi in A Lưới District, Thừa Thiên-Huế province
Ta Oi boys with fish traps, Salavan Province, Laos
Ta Oi boys reading, Salavan Province, Laos
Ta Oi women spreading leaves also known as pak gat, Salavan Province, Laos
The Ta-oi ethnic group speaks a language in the Mon–Khmer language family, and is regarded as one of Vietnam’s indigenous groups. The Ta Oi call themselves Taoih, or sometimes as Taoih or Ta Uot, and is called by the Paco sub-group as Can Tua or Can Tang, which means “highlanders”.
According to the April 1, 1999 census on population and housing, the Ta-oi have a population of 34,960, accounting for 0.07% of the national population. At present, the Ta-oi live in both Vietnam and Laos, in the latter nation where they the Ta oi mainstream population and also call themselves as Ta-oih. Another sub-group of the Ta-Oi is called as Paco (Pa coh), which means “persons who live behind the mountains.” Judging by the family clan origin, marriage and family relationship and language, the Ba hi people who mainly lives in Hướng Hóa District, Quảng Trị Province, can be regarded as a local sub-group of the Ta-oi.
The Ta-oi in Nham commune explain that they called themselves as Ta uot, but the members of the Kinh ethnic group coming from the lowlands of Thừa Thiên–Huế called them as Ta-oi. The Ta uot group lives mainly in middle-level of mountains and are sparsely distributed in the mountain tops. In addition to swidden cultivation, they are adept in growing cotton, weaving cloth and brocades, in sewing or fastening glass beads on costumes, and in making some musical instruments (drums, pan flutes).
The Paco live at the foot of mountains and hills, are conversant in slope field cultivation, in bamboo and rattan weaving, but are not adept in cloth weaving. But they are good traders who earn profits through exchanging cloth and clothes, blacksmith goods, beautiful shoulder baskets, honey against other more valuable goods. The Ba hi live in valleys close to the lowland areas and are adept in trading and in wet paddy cultivation. Thus, the Ta-oi do take into account various elements of topography, environment and economic activities in order to assess and analyze their own ethnic group and sub-groups, and their different characteristics.
Religious beliefs
Only a small number of cultural anthropologists possess any understanding about this ethnic group’s belief systems. Fundamental to the Ta Oi’s spiritual life is animism, the belief that natural objects are animated by spirits. This belief can take diverse forms. Things in nature may all have within them diff
Souls and spirits
The Ta-oi follow animism and believe that all things have souls. Mention must first be made about souls. The soul lies from the breast to the head when a human being is still alive. When the human being dies, there is only one soul (avai ving) which wanders in the cemetery. If the deceased is not happy with his/her family, his/her soul used to disturb and disrupt the lives of human beings in the family concerned. The souls of the dead used to come back during rituals, as also through various dreams (am bo) of the living.
The Ta-oi believe that the soul can integrate itself into the voice, can create a force that can exert an impact on other things. For example, the soul can come back and knock at your door. The Ta-oi also believe that if no asset is distributed to the deceased, after three days its soul may come back and demand assets. As a precaution against this, the Ta-oi used to spread firewood ashes in front of their doors in order to identify the footprints of the soul.erent spirits—each rock, tree, and cloud may have its own unique spirit.
Water spirit (giang dak)
The Ta-oi inhabitants imagine the water spirit as a short old man with white hair and white beard. They also respectfully refer to him as “Uncle” (Avo). It is believed that the water spirit can give people a lot of fish as food, and a Ta-oi legend has it that the water spirit creates fish by putting grains of rice in a banana leaf and dropping them into the brook, thus turning them into fish. It is reported that when they were still in Laos Mr Quynh Say, Mr Quynh Chay have seen the water spirit at the water sources.
The house spirit (giang an teng)
In the past, the Ta-oi lived in long houses where each family had its own room, where it worships its house spirit. In his dream, the family head may see the house spirit integrating itself into a loin cloth, a “reng” piece of cloth or any other thing. Thereafter, he would put that loin cloth or reng cloth..into a kang (a shoulder basket made for this specific purpose) which is put at a corner of the house, and would slaughter a chicken and perform a ritual on the arrival of the house spirit (giang an teng) into his house.
The spirit of the Long house (giang danh)
The long house where lived many families has its own spirit (giang danh) which stayed in the room reserved to visitors/guests, where a small house hung under the roof is the shelter of giang danh. In case of illness or any bad happening in the family, the family used to hold a ritual dedicated to giang an teng (house spirit) and thereafter another ritual dedicated to giang danh.
Tiger spirit (giang avo)
Of all forest wild beasts, the Ta-oi regard tigers as the most powerful animal and as a protecting spirit of the village. They regard the capture of a tiger as a gift of the forest spirit. The capture of a tiger is preceded by a number of incidental dreams: because of such a dream, a villager sets up a big trap (ti ho), the trap owner sees in his dream a tiger (a vo bok) who expresses the desire to stay in the village. When a tiger falls into the trap, the hunter and inhabitants must hold a ritual dedicated to the forest spirit, involving such offerings as sol, leo, agate beads and a “reng” cloth.
Love magic
This ethnological term refers to the practice of some minority ethnic groups who are adept in using some products for inducing a girl and turning her into one’s wife. The Ta-oi call that product as “love medicine” (nang). According to the Ta-oi, this is a resin collected from the feet of the “Ko-tach” bird, a bird of black and red plumage, similar to a parrot. If you put that resin in the shoulder basket of a girl or in her hair, that girl would follow you. But the “Ko tach” bird only lives in Laos and so the resin is only available in Laos, not in Vietnam.
source: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ta_Oi_people
