Minority Ethnic group

The Phong Nha - Ke Bang area is famous for the minority groups living in the area. Besides the Kinh (majority Vietnamese) ethnic group, there are two main ethnic groups: the Van Kieu and Chut.
Bru - Vankieu minority ethnic group: Bru-Vankieu is the largest population of the minority ethnic groups m in the Truong Son North range. As Nguyen Dinh Khoa (Minority Ethnics in the North of Viet Nam), the Bru -Vankieu belongs to Mon – Kho - Me language group, is local group in the Indochinese Peninsula. As author, The Bru -Vankieu includes the group of the people: Van kieu, Khua, Mang Coong, Tri, So. Among the groups, the Vankieu people is the largest one that distributes most of all provinces along the Truong Son mountain range. The Tri people (or called Tia Ri, Cha Ly, Trui...) and Ma Coong (hay Mang-coong, Muong-kong) with a little distributio in Thuong Trach Commune, Tan Trach commune (Bo Trach district ) and apart in Laos. The Khua people is resident in Dan Hoa Commune of Minh Hoa district.
Chut - minority ethnic group: The Chut group includes Sach, May, Ruc, Arem, Ma Lieng with population of 3.500 heads who are resident mainly in 9 communes of 2 districts Tuyen Hoa and Minh Hoa. In Phong Nha - Ke Bang area, Chut people are living at 6 villages of 2 districts Minh Hoa and Bo Trach except Ma Lieng people with a population of 2.438 inhabitants. In the years 60 of Century 20, the Chut was considered as the secluded group . Until the end of 1973, the peoples of Sach, May, Ruc, Arem, Ma Lieng are in the minority ethnic group as called “ the Chut ethnic”. The Arem people belongs to the Chut minority ethnic group who lives at Arem village of Tan Trach commue, Bo Trach district . This community include 41 households with about 200 heads, is one of races of the Chut ethnic minority (Statistic 2005).
As mention of Ha Van Tan and Pham Duc Duong, the ethnic people of the Chut ethnic group (named as Chut Poong) and their languages had been separated from Vietnamese-Muong language with the first language separated in around century V-VI, “Chut” means ‘Rem Da in Vietnamese”, means “The stone curtain in English”.
Ethnologists have researched and showed the anthropology data of Chut as below: Stature quite short (157metres), Female is shorter than Male (about 8-10 cm), dark (standard number 12-18 Lusohan). Straight and black hair, short forehead, short and flat face, cheekbone has average protruding. Chink of eyes slanting quite big, bridge of nose straight majority, lips are quite thicker than other groups.
The common economic structure of the Chut in Phong Nha - Ke Bang includes forms: shifting cultivation, cultivation in the mountainous area, in the delta area, farming, doing sideline and exploitation(hunting, fishing, picking).Economic features in each group has different features. Sach people cultivates in the delta area, beside they also cultivates in the mountainous area ( and hunting, fishing, picking, farming). The rest of the ethnic people lives in the isolated area because they are in backward condition, so that they plant mainly in the mountainous area with very backward cultivation. So cultivation way is poking hole and fitting seek on rock mountain, so leading to low productivity, high risks, so income from foods (rice, manioc) only enough to support them for several months. The rest time in year they must find their livelihood as picking, hunting.
Traditional festivals: There are also special cultural features of ethnic minorities as Drum Beating festival of the Macoong people in Thuong Trach commune, Fairy’s Water Begging festival of residents in Son river’s valley, Tuong singing of the Khuong Ha villagers, Hung Trach commune, the full moon festival in Third Lunar month of the Lunar Year in Minh Hoa district and etc.