Mien People

The Origin of Mien People

Mien People can be found in Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand. Originally, they are Chinese descendants. To avoid being bothered by Chinese people and tough livings, they evacuate from the middle part of Chiana and got settled in Yunnan, Guangdong, Guangxi and Guizhou.

By saying ‘Mien people’, it means ‘Sung Dynasty’. These ethnic people are called ‘Yao’, which means ‘independent’, by Chinese people. However, another legend says that ‘Yao’ means ‘savage’ and the name ‘Mien’ was given by the government service. Sometimes, they’re called ‘Eiw-Mien’.

Mien in Thailand

Approximately, Mien in Thailand can be found in 9 provinces, 44 districts, 195 communities and 9,501 families. There are about 50,000 of these people, all of which were from Laos and Myanmar. For over a hundred years, they’ve been living in Thailand.

Their Language

Hmong-Mien, a type of Sino-Tibetan, is their language. The language doesn’t contain any alphabet, as it’s for speaking only. In order to write some texts, they need to use alphabets from Hanzu language.

Costume

Men and women usually wear black costumes. Women wear black trousers decorated with colourful patterns on the fronts, waist clothes, head clothes, and black long-sleeved shirts with red knitting wool. Men wear short-waisted shirt with round-shaped shirt collars and silver buttons, black or dark blue trousers with pockets and gorgeous patterns on the fronts.

How They Live

Mostly, Mien make their livings out of farming and raising animals. The way they do farming is interesting, as it’s crop rotation. Crop rotation means that they won’t grow same plants over and over again. They believe that growing same plants in same areas will damage soils. They will do crop rotation for a few years before moving to some places else.

For animal raising, they regularly raise dogs, horses, pigs and chickens. Pigs and chickens are frequently used for several rituals.

Mien live in houses with the ground as the floors. They avoid living in the middle of valleys and mountaintops. They often eat using chopsticks like Chinese people do. Most of their dishes are salty.

Mien people love to have fun like many other people. They can play music instrument such as flutes, brass flutes, drums, gongs and cymbals. Most of these are also used for some ceremonies.

Beside music, they have some types of cute toys. Take ‘Tang-Gong’ as an example. Tang-Gong is a slingshot made of a wooden stick with split ends. The stick will be decorated and elastic bands will be tied between both ends. To shoot this, a player will need a small stone.

However, the most popular toy is ‘bamboo gun’. Of course, this thing is made of a bamboo stick and a small wooden stick. One must insert a small fruit into the gun to shoot.

Wedding and Family

To raise a family, a man need to be responsible for all expenses of his wedding. A newly-married woman should move into her husband’s houses to live with him and his family. Also, she will start using her husband’s last name instead of her previous last name. In case a man can’t afford his wedding, he’s allowed to live with his woman for 15-20 years. After that, his woman may move into his house instead.

Beside taking care of their parents, wives must work to make money for her husbands. Doing so is how they show their husbands their respect.

Mien people have big families. They pay respect to elderly people most and often let them be the leader of their families.

Superstition

Most ethnic people believe in ghosts and spirits, same as Mien. Mien respect spirits, which here mean spirits from nature and spirits of their ancestors. Inside their houses, there are worshipping shelves for spirits of their ancestors to come and dwell.

It’s no wonder that they have supernatural rituals. Take ‘Apology Ritual’ as an example. This ancient ritual is meant to apologise to disrespected spirits. By keeping these spirits angry, Mien believe that bad lucks serious diseases will come to themselves. That’s what the ritual’s for.

Another interesting ritual is ‘Rhiak Kwan’. Rhiak Kwan is about chasing bad lucks and requiring ancestors’ spirits to protect them. The ritual is held when a person is ill, has to travel to somewhere faraway or fears bad things. To do the ritual, several items, such as chickens and eggs, are required. Mien always do the ritual during New Year Festival, as there would be all members of their families.