The significance of Buffalo Horn amongst Black Hmong Tribe
VOV.VN - Whilst visiting Sa Pa I came to learn that there are several tribes with their own ancient traditions. The Black Hmong Tribe has various traditions, typically a buffalo horn.
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Local girl with a buffalo burn mark on her forehead |
My tour guide Ma Thi Súa is from the Black Hmong Tribe, which is the largest tribe in Sa Pa. She is thirty-two years old and lives in the Lao Chai village with her four children and her husband. She has never attended school, which causes her illiteracy, and that is not uncommon for her generation, but due to the modernization her own children have been given the chance to attend school.
Although Ma Thi Súa has never been schooled she was still able to communicate in English, which she says “is because of the many tourists that are visiting every week”.
When trekking through the outstanding rice fields with my friends Ma Thi Súa passionately told us about the various traditions of the Black Hmong Tribe. The traditions that stood out the most were the ones including a buffalo horn. According to Ma Thi Súa the buffalo symbolizes, among other things, wealth and is therefore a highly respected animal.
Like several other tradition-bounded tribes the Black Hmong people are not to choose their own life-partner. Instead it is the parents’ responsibility to find a spouse for their children.
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Ma Thi Súa looking across the rice fields |
Ma Thi Súa herself got married at the age of eighteen to a man she had never met due to the fact that he was from a village far away from her own. Although it was not love at first sight she is now grateful that her parents chose to accept the buffalo horn from his family.
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A buffalo horn |
As far as Ma Thi Súa knows these rituals have been practiced and passed on by her tribe for more than five hundred years with a few slight changes.