The Brau people and the festival of worshiping the gods

The Brau ethnic group used to live a nomadic life along the Vietnam-Laos-Cambodia border and is also the smallest ethnic group (about a few hundred people), but that does not mean they disregard spiritual values; their festivals are imbued with traditional culture associated with folk beliefs...

The Brau people and the festival of worshiping the gods

Ms. Y Pan - Head of the Front Working Committee of Dak Me village (Bo Y commune, Ngoc Hoi district); Member of the Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front from the 5th to the 7th term, is 85 years old this year; she is the oldest person in Dak Me village, said: The Brau people have many festivals, but there are only 3 main and biggest festivals in a year; those are the festivals of "Pruning rice", "Eating green rice" and "Celebrating rice entering the warehouse". Ms. Y Pan pensively recounted.... 3 main festivals in a year

... Going back in time, since ancient times, the Brau people have only been accustomed to a nomadic life; cultivation only relied on pruning and burning forests to make fields, so the yield was often not high. In years with favorable rain and wind, the rice grains on the fields were full of milk, and a lot of rice was brought back to the warehouse; In the years when the sky is “angry” and does not rain on time, the crops fail, the Brau people lack food, have to go into the forest to dig for cassava, hunt birds, catch mice to avoid starvation, waiting for the next year’s rice crop. Therefore, in every year of good or bad harvest, the villagers must prepare a neat offering tray, worship the gods. In good harvests, they sacrifice products of the mountains and forests, pray for the gods to continue to bless the next crop, birds, mice and wild animals do not come here to disturb; in bad harvests, they also worship so that the gods will have mercy and give the next year’s crop a good harvest…

The “rice pruning” festival is the first festival of the year for the Brau people, starting in April (if it rains early), but in years of late rain, they have to wait until May, about 1-2 months after the burning season. This is the ceremony that starts a year of crops, so the organization of the ceremony and worship must demonstrate its sacredness. To prepare for the festival, a few days before, the village elder called on the villagers to prepare a jar of wine in each house (because every house had some available), the young men in the village went into the forest to cut bitter bamboo shoots to cook with taro; another group went to trap birds and mice, while the women went to catch fish and dig for cassava in the fields; another group stayed home to decorate the place of worship and erect the pole. If it was a prosperous year, they would prepare pigs, chickens, and even organize buffalo stabbings to worship the gods; but the dishes of cassava, birds, mice, and bitter bamboo were indispensable. During the worship ceremony, the villagers prepared offerings such as rice, cassava, and taro and put them together in a basket of rice in the worshiping place. The shaman used chicken blood to smear the above products, with the purpose of making the rice, cassava, and taro plants grow strongly together; the meat of birds and bulls was also displayed around, if there were goats, buffaloes, or cows, they were tied to the base of the pole to be slaughtered for sacrifice. Once the sacrificial offerings are prepared, the shaman - usually the village elder, a prestigious person in the village or the host of the ceremony - begins to put incense into the bamboo tube and put charcoal in it to burn the incense (similar to the incense burning of the plains people, but this is a very fragrant incense taken from the forest but very few people know which medicinal plant it is taken from), the incense tube is placed near the wine jar, the purpose is to use the fragrance to guide and invite the gods to come to eat and drink.

After the ceremony is the festival. When the sacrifice is completed, the villagers begin to eat and drink, beat gongs, and dance around the fire or communal house until almost dawn.

In particular, during festivals, the Brau people are required to wear traditional costumes for the holidays. For men, they wear loincloths, and for women, they wear Ktu. Skirts, shirts, and loincloths are woven with many motifs in black and red, blue, purple, and yellow borders mixed with typical Brau patterns. Their costumes in the past were often made of tree bark or woven from cotton. The bark of the forest was selected and brought back to be crushed into fibers to weave shirts, skirts, and loincloths; then it was dyed and decorated with colors taken from many different roots in the forest, pounded into different colors for dyeing and decoration. Nowadays, the Brau no longer have to go deep into the forest to find bark; their costumes are woven with threads and dyes bought from the market.

The “eating green rice” festival takes place around September 30 every year, when the rice plants in the fields have begun to give milk. Preparations for the ceremony are similar to the previous festival; Men and young people also go into the forest to cut bamboo, reeds, bitter rattan and trap birds, rats... Women go to chop firewood, scoop fish, go to the fields to pick some young rice (milky rice) to bring back. The division of labor is also clear: The elderly do the lighter work, sitting by the fire to roast young rice; the girls pound the roasted young rice to offer and eat during the ceremony. The young people decorate patterns, set up poles, kill pigs, chickens... After the products are prepared, the shaman begins to "welcome" the gods back with the prayer: "I eat new young rice, pray that the gods come to eat new young rice to bless the villagers with a good harvest this year, the young rice will not be lost..." And then the villagers bring out the Tha gong to beat, dance together, and drink wine until morning. The next day they rest (abstain) at home, and the next day they can go to do other work. 

The “Celebrating Rice in the Warehouse” festival takes place around November and December. This part of the ceremony is similar to the “Eating Green Rice” festival, and villagers also beat the Tha gong and dance around the communal house until morning…

Risk of extinction

In the past, the Brau people still lived a nomadic life in the forest, so festivals were only held in the fields. Since the Party and the State paid attention to helping the Brau people escape from their nomadic life and settle in Dak Me village (in 1975), the Brau people have organized festivals more properly and more bustlingly in the village's Rong house. However, along with the development of the market economy, the application of science and technology in agricultural production and the conversion of crop varieties, the Brau people have learned to specialize in industrial crops such as rubber, coffee, and licorice. The Brau people have gradually abandoned the practice of growing rice in the fields (because doing so requires burning forests, which is illegal), and every household has a few hectares of rubber, coffee, and licorice, with a much higher income than from slash-and-burn farming. Therefore, the organization of seasonal festivals has gradually been neglected and is no longer as grand as before. Mrs. Y Pan, with a sad voice, said: “I am afraid that in the future, the main festivals of the Brau people will be lost and completely lost. Because now in the village there are only a few households growing rice, most of them have switched to growing rubber and coffee. Even my eldest son and his wife have 2 hectares of rubber, 2 hectares of coffee, 1 hectare of boi loi, they don’t bother to grow rice anymore. Last year, in the village, there were only two households, Mr. Thao Trang and Thao Lay A, who still held ceremonies on their fields, invited villagers to attend and eat, but lost the festival and were less happy. This year, when asked if they will continue to hold the ceremonies, they answered “I don’t know, maybe they won’t…”

I don’t know if in the future the Brau people will still hold ceremonies to worship the gods with the wish for a bountiful harvest and prosperity for the villagers. But the rituals of the Brau people and the sound of the Tha gong will never be absent from the spirituality of the Brau people who are yearning to echo in the great forest…