The Red Dao Ritual
Nearly a hundred strong young men in colourful costumes are dancing in the brilliant sunshine, stamping their feet to the sound of gongs, cymbals and bamboo pipes. On the mountainside behind them, hundreds of spectators in flowered clothes, some leading horses and carrying babies, cheer them on.
Framed by mountains dotted with houses all around, lit by shafts of sunlight piercing the clouds, the Red Dao’s Tet Nhay celebrations in Ta Phin village near Sapa, Lao Cai province, present at astonishing spectacle.
The dance festival kicks off at 7 am and lasts for five hours on the first and second days of the Lunar New Year. The festival are led by representatives of the three main families, Ta Phin, the ly, Ban, and Trieu, Dressed in their most splendid clothes, the village dance troupe goes through he steps of 14 different dances in quick succession.
One of the most important dances urges the village ancestors and deities to return home in time for their own Tet ceremonies. A big group of dancers form a ring, singing along with the music and rhythmically stamping their feet.
The dance to honor death and the ancestors has a distinctive form, the participants balanced on one leg and pointing a finger up to the sky. The po be dance, intended to invite the tribal fairies down to earth, is more graceful, the dancers waving their arms as though they were the wings of birds. The dance to invite the deities to return home is illustrated by the deliberate steps of a tiger.
After the dancing the statues of the tribe’s ancestors are paraded with all the villagers dancing attendance. Wearing their finest clothes, they all – boys and girls, old men and women, husbands and wives, even little children – put their best foot forward in this truly tribal dance.
During the rest of the year, the ancestor statues – all about 25 cm high, made from precious wood inscribed with the Red Dao’s ancient by sophisticated calligraphy – sit covered by a soft white cloth on the family altar. At new year they are taken down, carefully washed and the cloth covering is changed. The water in which they are bathed is prepared with a fragrant lotion extracted from the bark of the local sum mu tree.
After this pious cleansing ceremony the villages launch themselves into another dance and offer chicken, steamed rice and other delicacies to the ancestors. The strongest young men of the village dance with a live rooster above their heads, occasionally carrying it on their shoulders. Finally, they gently kill the bird while the rests of the trip keeps on dancing around the sacrifice.
Traditionally, the Red Dao organized their Tet nhay as a wy of protecting the health of the community against the bitter winter cold advantage of the occasion to practise their martial arts as a defense against wild animals. Some of the young men of the village were selected to exercise complicated moves with wooden weapons.
It’s easy to spot Red Dao people around the former French hill station of Sapa Vietnam. Both men and women wear hand embroidered trousers and jackets, but the most visible part of the ensemble is the high scarlet turban, decorated with dangling tassels, bells and coins, that the women wear.
Like most of the ethnic minority people of the northern mountains, the Dao are very friendly and welcoming, offering strangers rice wine and inviting them to their village festivals.
Source: TheGuide
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