HMONG CULTURE REPORT

HISTORY

Hmong people have no written history. For generations Hmong ancestors would pass down oral history of a Hmong kingdom in present day China, an area in Southwest China, near the Vietnamese border. The Hmong people had a great king by the name of King Chi You. warrior. He was a great

The Hmong people were able to support themselves by

farming, raising animals, and making their own tools and clothes. The wish to live in peace and had no desire to expand their territories. For about two hundred years there were conflicts with the Chinese because they wanted to conquer the Hmong kingdom. The Hmong and the Chinese fought many battles. Even though the Hmong people were heavily numbered, they fought bravely battle after battle. It took about two hundred years for the Chinese to

overpower the Hmong. Hmong people

Eventually, some of the Hmong people decided to leave China and fled into neighboring countries such as Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, and Burma. The Hmong people were peaceful and didnt wish to

have any conflict with the government so they chose to live in the mountain influences. tops where they could be freed from government

In 1960, during the Vietnam War, the United States recruited the Hmong people to help cut off the North Vietnamese supply line to South Vietnam. The supply line known as the Ho Chi Ming Train was going through Laos. The Hmong people were also responsible for the rescue of American pilots that were shot down in Laos. The Hmong people were trained by the United States Central

Intelligence Agency, CIA.

In 1975, when the United States lost the war in South Vietnam, the Hmong people that fought under the leadership of General Vang Pao were left to defend themselves. General Vang Pao and his top military officers were air lifted to Thailand.

For fear of retaliation for fighting along side the United States, those that were left behind had to find ways to get to Thailand.

The road to Thailand was not easy. The Hmong people had to walk for days and were only able to take what they could carry on their backs. drowned. During this journey, many died from starvation and For those that were

Many were captured and tortured.

captured, the women were raped. To stop the children from crying the parents would give opium to the children until they stop crying. Many children died from over dosed.

For those who made it to Thailand, they were put in the refugee camps. Life in the refugee camps was very difficult for the Hmong people. They were not allowed to leave without the proper approval. Those that were caught trying to sneak out or returning to the camp were imprisoned and severely beaten by the Thai security forces.

Those that were in the refugee camps were offered the opportunity to be resettled in third countries. As a result, the Hmong people have accepted resettlements all over the world. Today, there are Hmong people in the west such as the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Argentina, and French Guiana. The majority of the people are still in China. World wide, there are about 11 million people with about 9 million in China.

HMONG CULTURE AND LANGUAGE

The Hmong people in Laos, Thailand, Vietnam, and Burma have two spoken dialects, Green and White. The people that speak each different dialect wear unique clothes. For the women speaking the Green dialect they wear colorful skirts. For the woman speaking the White dialect they wear plain white skirts or pants. There are 18 clans or last names. A person born into a clan People sharing the

automatically becomes a member upon birth.

same clan or last name are said to share the same ancestors and are related by blood. For this reason, people dont change their last names.

Hmong people believe that we have a written. The Hmong language was found in the 19th century but, some elders dont know how to read in Hmong but can only speak it. In China, Hmong had a written language and burn all the language and history those who speak will be kill. The Chinese burn all the Hmong language and book. They dont want them to speak Hmong. Hmong means free. Which mean that free Hmong dont want to be slaves. We were called Miao, but prefer to be called Hmong. Miao Yao mean savage.

HMONG MARRIAGE

People in the same clan or sharing the same last name are not allowed date or marry each others. outside the clan. One must date and marry

In order to prevent confusion, a married woman However, the children will carry the

keeps her clan or last name. fathers last name.

Besides not allowing marriage within the same clan or last name, it was not uncommon for the parents to encourage the children to marry their first cousins or from a clan member with

previous marriages between each others.

Hmong people believe

that such marriage have more favorable results. However they said that you cant marry your brother or sister. They only allow you to marry a member from your mother clan. Sometime people marry their first cousin depending on the families. Before a marriage the parents usually conducts a pre-marriage background check to make sure that the potential daughter or son-in-law comes from a family with good reputation. They see marriage as a life time commitment and divorce is strongly discouraged.

In a Hmong marriage the bridesmaid and best man are present. At some point during the wedding, an elder would come ask the bride if she has any old gift from past boyfriend. If she does, she must give them those gifts and they will return the gifts to her past boyfriend. There is a saying that if a bride does not give her past boyfriends' gifts back, if he still really loves her and dies early, he'll come haunt her babies, which will make her babies cry a lot. The bride's maid's job is to make sure the bride does not run off with a man as, historically, many girls were forced to marry and would elope with their boyfriends. There are 3 different ways a couple can initiate a wedding.

The first one is a formal proposal.

This is when a man and

representatives from his family do a formal house call. They bring gifts and money and ask the girls parents for her hand in marriage.

The second one is the most common way couples get married. When a man is interested in marrying someone, he gives her a gift. If she accepts it, it means she agrees to marry him. The gift isnt necessarily an engagement ring; it could come in the form of jewelry, clothes, or simple trinkets. American Hmong nowadays

rarely practice this tradition of gift-giving before marriage.

The groom will then take his bride, or she will run away with him, on a later date. This symbolic elopement is to prove to the guy that she loves him enough to leave her family. After the

couple gets to the grooms house, his family will send an envoy to the brides family to announce that their daughter is with them.

The third is bride-napping zij poj niam.

This is a very

abusive tradition. This happens when a man has no respect for the females feelings and decides that even if she doesnt want to marry him, he will force her to. Sometimes, the man will give her a gift

(refer to above) and not let his intentions be known. Here, in the US, he may tell the girl he wants to take her out and instead take her to his house. In Asia, he may come to her house when her

parents are not home and literally carry or drag her home with the help of male friends or relatives.

Now, if the bride had accepted a gift from the groom, theres basically nothing she or her family can do to stop the wedding from taking place. If the groom did not give her a gift, or if she didnt accept anything, she can go back to her family.

FAMILY STRUCTURE

The

Hmong

family

structure

has

hierarchy

with

the

grandparents at the top. Those known as the elders are people with certain knowledge, wisdom, and expertise. They are well respected among the family and members of the clan. Boys and girls are taught responsibilities at an early age and are expected to mature quickly.

When a young person reaches the age of 15, he or she is expected to have mastered certain skills to prepare him or her to become a young adult. Hmong people usually get married between the ages of 14 and 19 and are expected to be ready to become parents and provide for their own families. Having children is important in the Hmong culture because they can carry their family name and bloodline. Hmong parents raise their children to be independent. They dont want their children to be control by another person.

Hmong families are really close with their cousins because they believe in extended family. Our cousins are like our best friends and are always there to support us. Most Hmong families live in the same houses.

In the gender role the mans job is to provide food for his family also he makes the decisions. The womans role is to clean and cook for her family. In Laos the men and women work together as a team. When they move to the U.S, woman can do what ever they want and know how to get stuff for themselves. Woman have more role then the men. Men dont have a lot of role. Women make sure that the families have food and make sure there is food on the table. In the Hmong culture women are more important then the men. Daughters take after their mother and sons take after their father. Hmongs men believe that they are more important than the women, but Hmong women have more power than Hmong men.

Hmong children are given a Hmong nickname or America name. Each Hmong name is given a gift by a spirit. Hmong families dont like to be touched by the head by stranger. They also dont like when a stranger has touched their children head. They believe that the stranger is taking away their soul away or children. Hmong families dont like stranger to call their child cute.

In the Hmong culture divorce the couples go to their parents to ask for divorce and the father will get all of his the sons together and the mother get all of her the daughters together, but if a mother had an affair the father will get custody all the children. When a father dies the man family will take care of the children even though the mother is still alive.

5)

HMONG NEW YEAR

New Year celebration is one of the most important events for the Hmong people. It is an event that people really look forward to all year long. After a year long of hard labor through farming it is a time for celebration. Everyone looks forward to the New Year.

In Laos, The New Year celebration last for two weeks.

Since

this is an important event people will travel from village to village to visit family members, friends, and relatives. Every family

prepares a New Year feast and people will go from house to house to eat and drink. The Hmong people believe that the New Year

brings certain good lucks to family and they welcome strangers to their homes. They believe that it is an honor to provide

hospitalities to friends and relatives. In return, when they travel to different villages the same favors will be returned.

Additionally, Hmong parents prepare for the whole year to make sure that all their children have new clothes for the New Year celebration. For the young and unmarried looking for potential

husbands and wives, it is an important time for them to meet people from all over. It is an important time for people to get married and the majority of the marriages take place during and shortly after the New Year celebration. People usually dont need to spend a lot of times together or get to know each other very long to decide if the person is a good candidate for marriage. They usually get to know each other for

one or two days before making that big decision. Through word of mouth they usually feel that they have enough information about a person.

Historically, the Hmong New Year celebration was created to give thanks to ancestors and spirits as well as to welcome in a new beginning. During this celebration, every wandering soul of the family member come back to unite with family again and the young will honor the old. The in law is a ritual of asking for the blessing from elders of the house and clan as well as the in laws from other clans.

Hmong Funeral

The Hmong funeral lasts for 3-4 days. The main reason why it last for so long is because of the spirit is still here. Even though the body is died the spirit is still here.

There one 12 soul during the funeral and three major are call reincarnation soul, residing soul, and wandering soul.

First soul is call the reincarnation. This soul leave; the body at the time of death and is reborn in another persons body. The second is the residing soul. This soul stays with the body as it breaks down and become the ancestral spirit. Third wandering soul leaves the body during the dream or to play with other soul or spirit. The wandering are sometimes the last in the spirit world and afraid of evil spirit. When a parent, relatives or grandparent dies

their children are the ones who are in charge of their funeral.

HMONG RELIGION

Before the mid 1950s, the Hmong people had only one religion. The Hmong people believe that human coexists with Gods or the Heavenly Fathers creations. They believe that all living

beings have spirits and are to be respected. They also believe that the ancestral spirits are important and could help them in certain situations.

For centuries, the Hmong Shamans played a very important role to help people get the well both emotionally and physically. They would travel to the different dimensions to find out the causes of someones illness. Not only that, they have the spiritual power to conduct diagnoses and provide spiritual healings, they have the ability to perform certain exorcisms. Some have the abilities to prescribed herbal medicines or are knowledgeable in some healing mantras.

While not all shamans are knowledgeable on religious rituals, the majority are well respected for their religious knowledge and people would often consult with them. important in modern society. Shamans continue to be

Not everyone can be shaman only those chosen by the spirits can become a shaman. Some Hmong Christian are chosen to become a shaman. Women, men, and children can be shaman. You cant refuses to be the next shaman if you do terrible thing will happen to you. You can fell into a deep depression or illness. In the mid 1950s, French missionaries went to Laos and converted a small number of Hmong people into Christians. number continues to grow. The

Today, in the United States many

Hmong have accepted Christianity as their primary religion. There are many reasons why Christianity will continue to grow in the Hmong community.

The younger generation finds it difficult to continue practicing the traditional religion because no as many are as knowledgeable. Unlike Christianity the traditional religion does not have a place for worship outside of the home.

Hmong Christians believes that shamans worshiping devil or Satan. The Hmong bible is different form the English version because the Hmong version talks about the Spirit world and how evil is it.

Conclusion
I learned that some Hmong families had a difficult time losing their loves one. There is a lot of history that hasnt been written and some people dont know who the Hmong are. There is a lot of amazing fact in our culture. We learned that all our ancestors were all from China then move to Laos. I know how the Hmong feel for leaving or losing their loves one. So many of the Hmong died trying to stop the communist so, they can fight for freedom.

There have so many interesting facts that we had never known like what the term Hmong mean. We have a lot of rules we need to obey the major one and that is the Marriage. Marriage is very different here in America. Hmong New Year is a holiday Hmong

Families hang out and meet new people around the world. The major belief is the spirit side.