Pupeo ethnic group

Proper name: Kabeo.

Other names: La Qua, Penti Lo Lo.

Population: 382 people.

Language: Pupeo language belongs to the Kadai group (of the Tai-Kadai language family). The Pupeo also speak Hmong language fluently, as well as Cantonese Chinese.

History: The Pupeo have lived in northern Vietnam for centuries. The neighboring ethnic groups consider the Pupeo as among the early inhabitants who broke fresh ground to cultivate land in the far north.

Production activities: The Pupeo plant corn and beans on swidden fields, achieving good harvests through the use of fertilizers and the planting of subsidiary crops. Some Pupeo people plant rice in terraced fields. They use: cows and buffaloes as drought animals. Some people make tiles for gutters or work as carpenters.

Diet: The two staple foods in the daily diet of the Pupeo include steamed corn flour and soup. The Pupeo use spoons when eating their soup.

Clothing: Pupeo women wear distinctive shirts and dresses, ornamented with different colored cloth pieces that are sewn together. The outer coat women wear is open in the front and is without buttons; the lower edge of the coat is decorated with different colored pieces of applique cloth. Pupeo women wear a short inner shirt, with buttons designed under the right side of the arm, and decorated with the same color of the cloth that makes up the inner shirt. Pupeo women tend to. wear their hair wound at the front, tightened with a wooden comb and covered with a square headdress.

Housing: The Pupeo live in Dong Van District of Ha Giang Province. In the past, they lived in stilt houses, but nowadays they also live in houses that are built directly on the ground.

Transportation: The basket with shoulder straps is a popular way to transport goods.

Social organization: The Pupeo have two kinds of family lineages which co-exist. One is called by the Han language, read as the local pronunciation like Cung, Trang, Phu... and being used as the official language in documents. The other kind is more ancient, showing the relationships of different blood lines among members of the same family lineage, with such lineage relationships indicated in coupled terms, such as kacung - kacam, karam - kacham, karu - karua, kabu - kabong.