The Xo Dang ethnic minority people are classified into five indigenous groups known as Xo Deng, Ca Dong, To Dra, Mo Nam, and Ha Lang, who all subsist on terraced fields. The Mo Nam group practices wet rice cultivation. They live on cattle and poultry breeding, animal hunting, fruit harvesting, fishing, weaving, knitting and forging. Meanwhile, the To Dra group is famous for their black smithing.

Xo Dang people live in clusters of houses built close together, sharing water gutters. A village elder handles daily communal matters and is the most respected person in the community. In certain places, extended families live together in a long house but there’s a growing tendency towards nuclear families. Xo Dang people don’t observe family names but do take A as the prefix for a man’s name like Anhong, and Y for a woman’s name like Yhen. Young people choose their spouses at will and after a simple wedding ceremony the couple rotate living with their in-laws.

Among traditional rituals of the Xo Dang people, buffalo slaughtering is the most sacred one attracting large numbers of people. Xo Dang people enjoy singing, dancing, playing gongs and cymbals, flutes and other musical instruments, and telling stories. Xo Dang men are good at martial arts, architecture and painting. They scribe unique designs in the communal house or the pole of "neu", an essential decorative object of highly religious significance during the buffalo slaughtering ritual.

The communal house of Xo Dang people has the roof shaped like a giant sail or an axe facing the sky. The communal house is made from wood and locally available plants which are fixed and noosed together without nails. Cultural and other common activities are held here.

Like all other ethnic groups, Xo Dang people have received strong support and assistance from the government. Many projects for healthcare, electricity, safe drinking water, and cultural development, have contributed to improving their material and spiritual life. Local adults and children are happy to go to school and continue studying. Many currently hold key positions in provincial agencies.