Some Features in Marriage Customs and Family Traditions of the Khmer in Vietnam from 9th – 12th Century

Tong Hung Tam

(I myself declare that the paper is unpublished and is not being considered for publication elsewhere)

ABSTRACT

Despite the vast research by Vietnamese and other authors in the world on The Khmer in Vietnam, little is known about the perspective of marriage customs and family traditions of The Khmer from 9th to 12th century, officially called The Khmer when they started residing in Vietnam, The overall image that emerges from the literature is special: unity, variety, attraction, value, etc. with their spirits. This study recovers some of The Khmer’s traditions and customs in Vietnam through qualities interviewed with Khmer families and people now living in Cuulong delta in the South of Vietnam. In Vietnam, local marriage customs & family traditions from the 9th to 12th centuries had many different features in many different places all over the country. I just want to mention about the marriage customs and family traditions of the Khmer in the South of Vietnam from 9th to 12th century.

Vietnamese culture is a multi – culture with many ethnic minorities in a united society in dynasties, especially the Khmer minority. Therefore, to study Vietnamese culture in common and the Khmer minority in private have deep meaning. The Khmer is one of fifty four ethnic minorities in Vietnam. Khmer people had special features in culture, especially their marriage customs and family traditions from 9th to 12th century. In Vietnam, Khmer lived in some provinces in the south of Vietnam but they lived mainly in Cuu Long Delta. Before 1975, some specialists had many works to introduce about culture, origin about the Khmer, others studied about their family – generation, traditional family and marriage. However, until now it hasn’t had any systemic and whole study to know more about marriage customs and family traditions from 9th to 12th century.

Although from 9th century to 12 century, Vietnam was led by Le and Ly Dynasties, the main ways to live on was agriculture and the highest position was the King and Royal Families, the Khmer were immigrates so they were not from the same places, after discovering new lands and working there, they united into a small society with special cultures. Their marriage customs and family traditions were also affected by immigrating, but they didn’t depend on the King, each village had the highest leader called Già làng. Some villages could combine to organize a festival for all villagers or a wedding for many couples at the same times. They lived peacefully and in a solidarity society, any Khmer people who didn’t get married at that time were not in normal. Every village was called Phum and one name such as Phum Tà Ố (Phum was named after the first Già làng of the Khmer), parents arranged their children’s marriages without asking them. In the Khmer family, children had to obey their parents in any cases and they got the same part of property when they were adults no matter they were daughters or sons. Before being recognized adults to get married, boys had to live in a pagoda in some years to study about how to behave, how to live, how to work or all knowledge related to the best qualities to become a good adult while girls had to live far away from society from three to six months. They only stayed in a protected room without contacting with any boys or men but their mother or sisters. They were not allowed to see the sun, eat cereals or fruits. They had to study to sew clothes for their future families. The Khmer didn’t have real family names; children often got their family names after their father’s names and then their names. Father’s or mother’s relatives were the same but they prohibited to have incestuous taboo so it was not easy to choose wife or husband. After getting married, the bridegroom would come to live in the bride’s family in their whole life in matrilocal society. When someone died, they always cremated and kept ash in a special place in the house. They lived in a strict family; nobody had right to divorce or get married twice in their life even their spouse died. Their marriage and family were very important although their wedding was very complicated with many different activities lasted in some months.

The Khmer had many different characters from others in the same time. However, I just mention a brief introduction about their marriage customs and family traditions from 9th to 12th century. Hopefully what I introduce will make people understand more deeply about local marriage customs & family traditions of Khmer from 9th century to 12 century so we can be proud of historical thickness of peoples as well as nations in the Southeast Asia Countries. From 9th to 12th century, the technology was not developed so all of the pictures I use in the report are recovered by help of the Khmer now or from different sources to illustrate the information and data only.

KEY WORD

The Khmer: A group of an ethnic minority lives mainly in the Cuulong Delta in the South of Vietnam and other countries such as Cambodia, Thailand.

Matriarchy: Matriarchy is a society in which females, especially mothers, have the central roles of political or family leadership, moral authority, and control of property.

Achar: A person who has studied well in a temple or pagoda and reached a high level. This person is considered to have ability to contact with The Deity.

Phum / Soc: is a big village or some small villages living in a community in an area. Every village was called Phum and one named such as Phum Tà Ố. Phum was named after the first Già làng of the Khmer.

Rite: A rite is an established, ceremonious, usually religious act. Rites in this sense fall into three major categories:

  • Rites of passage, generally changing an individual's social status, such as marriage, baptism, or graduation.
  • Rites of worship, where a community comes together to worship, such as Jewishsynagogue or Mass
  • Rites of personal devotion, where an individual worships, including prayer and pilgrimages such as the Buddhism to the Hang River in India.

A – Introduction

In Phan An’s study (1981; p32) A long time ago, The Khmer immigrated to different areas and then gathered in Cuu Long Delta which was one of the most various and prosperous places with abundantly ecological environment in Vietnam at that time. The historical process had special and original features in the Khmer’s life. Although each ethnic minority had economical, cultural, social, religious characteristics privately, they lived together in one country for a long time. The Khmer adjusted to adapt with developing process but kept their private features. The Khmer and other ethnic minorities were affected by the specific river – watering place so gardening culture was the specific culture of the Khmer which has some features until now.

1. Natural – Geographical characters: Following the documents written by old geographers, Cuulong Delta was gradually presented by the withdrawal of the sea water 2.500 years ago. At that time, tides had strong effect and divided Cuulong Delta into thousands of small canals weaved each other. Cuulong Delta is the largest delta in Vietnam with thick rivers and canals. Until now, Cuulong Delta is the biggest delta in Vietnam with 3.950.900 ha occupying 12% Vietnam’s total area. In the beginning time, The Khmer produced a lot of agricultural products to serve different places in Vietnam. They knew to exploit garden as well as river products but they had some rules to protect the environment such as using household waste to make compost or release small fish for the next catching. They didn’t allow hunting wild animals in case of danger or just caught some small wild animals only. Even crocodiles were able to eat raw meat, they tried to be away or only killed them when they were attacked suddenly or they were in danger. The main ways of transport of the Khmer at that time was small boats or big handmade baskets because of thick rivers and canals. Due to affection of tropical climate and tides without controlling (at that time, the Khmer based on natural weather), water amount was unequal. In the rainy season, the north – west wind season affected the Khmer’s lives and property. Nevertheless, their lands got lots of alluvium after flooding and they got rich crops.

The Khmer lived in a united zone about ecological environment. Geographers divided their zone into small areas:

- Alluvium area above water level: Most of the Khmer first resided in this area as they were afraid of increasing water whenever it rained and they didn’t get used to catching river products or growing water rice. From the 10th century, they started moving to lower areas when they knew how to exploit river products.

- Alluvium area under water level: After knowing how to grow water rice, they started exploiting rich lands to develop but they continued to reside in higher areas.

- Mountainous area: That was in the West of the Cuulong Delta which shared border with the Champa. The Khmer there lived on growing kaingin rice (rice was grown on the hill and it didn’t need much water) and fruit trees.

Nguyen Hung Khu investigated (2012, p13) the population of the Khmer in the South of Vietnam, nowadays, Cultural masters of Cuulong Delta are 17 million people including four main ethnic minorities: Kinh, Khmer, Chinese and Chăm. The Khmer in the Cuu Long Dental have more than 1,3 million people but they are not distributed equally, most of them are in Soctrang, about 350.000 people, approximately 28,50% population in the province. Travinh has 320.000 people, approximately 28.05%. However, from the 9th to 12th century, most of them lived scattering in Soctrang, Travinh, Kiengiang, Angiang, Baclieu, Camau. They lived mainly on agriculture; waste land exploiting process changed their methods of growing crops and catching fish and their marriage customs mainly depended on labored relations among families or villages.


Some old traditional working tools and musical instruments (pictures was taken at Vietnamese Ethnology Museum)

2. Historical characters: Le Van Lan (1998, p 178) Since the first century, Vietnam was invaded by Han Dynasty (Chinese Dynasty) for a long time; the invaders were very cruel and greedy. They plundered and behaved ruthlessly and our nation lived miserably so two sisters were Trưng Trắc and Trưng Nhị cooperated with others to struggle and rose up in arms and they won in only a month. After being colonized nearly two centuries (from 179 BC to 40 AD), the two sisters brought freedom for our nation and became the first women Kings in more than three years. Many historians said that was the started time for mother – generation / matriachy in Vietnam. After that our nation was dominated by cruel invaders and feudalism.

Ngô, Đinh, & Prior Lê dynasties (939 – 1009): Le Van Lan (1988,; p246) defined, in 938, Ngo Quyen led our nation to win battlesand became the King in 6 years then he died, the country's first major civil war,The upheavals of Twelve warlords. The war lasted from 945AD to 967AD when the clan led byĐinh Bộ Lĩnhdefeated the other warlords, unifying the country. Dinh founded theĐinh Dynastyand proclaimed himself First Emperor of Đại Cồ Việt(literally "Great Viet Land"), with its capital inHoa Lư(modern day Ninh Bình). Emperor Đinh introduced strict penal codes to prevent chaos from happening again. He tried to form alliances by granting the title of Queen to five women from the five most influential families in five areas in the nation and mother – generation / matriarchy had more chances to develop. In 979, Emperor Đinh Bộ Lĩnh and his crown prince Đinh Liễn were assassinated, facing such a grave threat to national independence, the court's Commander of the Ten Armies,Lê Hoàntook the throne, founding theFormer Lê Dynasty. He was referred to in his realm as Đại Hành Emperor. Emperor Lê Hoàn was also the first Vietnamese monarch who began the southward expansion process against the kingdom ofChampa and he died in 1005 then his son, Le Long Dinh died in 1009. The Khmer started expanding and having their private areas in the south.

Lý dynasty (1009 – 1407): Le Van Lan (1988,; p522) showed that when the King Lê Long Đĩnh died in 1009AD, a Palace Guard Commander namedLý Công Uẩnwas nominated by the court to take over the throne, and founded theLý dynasty. This event is regarded as the beginning of a golden era in Vietnamese history, with great following dynasties. Lý Công Uẩn, posthumously referred asLý Thái Tổ, changed the country's name toĐại Việt(literally "Great Viet"). The Lý Dynasty left Hoa Lư to move their court to the new capital in present-dayHanoiand called itThăng Long(Ascending Dragon). Successive Lý kings continued to accomplish far-reaching feats: building a dike system to protect the rice producing area; foundingQuốc Tử Giám, the first noble university. Women held important roles in Lý society as the court ladies were in charge of tax collection. They gave prominence to women’s role in society. They also accepted mother – generation / matriarchy in many places in the south. The Lý Dynasty also promotedBuddhism, yet maintained a pluralistic attitude toward the three main philosophical systems of the time: Buddhism,Confucianism, andTaoism but they were not popular. Champa and the powerful Khmer Empire (in Cambodia and Laos now) took advantage of the Lý Dynasty's distraction with the Chinese to pillage the south of the country. Together they invaded Vietnam in 1128 and 1132. Further invasions followed in the subsequent decades. The Khmer in Dai Co Viet had more chances to expand their areas.

Dai Co Viet was led by Dinh, Le and Ly dynasties until in 1054, Ly Thach Tong King changed our nation’s name to be Dai Viet. Dai Viet was led by Ly dynasty from 1009 to 1225 and the capital was Thang Long (both Hoa Lu and Thang Long were in the north so The Khmer in the south seemed to be less affected by other policies from the monarch). From 10th century, Dai Viet dynasties were built based on Buddhism background and Buddhism was the main religion all over the nation for a long time and at the end of 14th century Confucianism from Chinese stated being imported. From 9th to 12th century, Dai Viet built laws, arts, literatures, administration, marriage customs and family traditions based mainly on Buddhism Bible’ theories. The unit of currency made by metal (gold, silver and copper) appeared before was developed more popular, 100 grams of silver was the same as one Quan or 1000 Dong. Pen and penny were used popular instead of changing goods only.

Dai Viet dynasties from 10th century opened their impact and land to Hong River Delta (in the north) and Cuulong Delta (in the south) as well as mountainous areas all over the country. Many ethnic minorities from delta to mountainous areas together fought invaders to protect and build our nation strongly. They based mainly on agriculture and grew water rice to supply food themselves. The Khmer also built dykes to protect their land from floods, dug canals to get water and make transportation more conveniently. They also exploited new land in the deltas to have more land for agricultures.

3. Cultural exchanges between the Khmer and other ethnic minorities: Sorya (1994; p48) wrote that Cuulong Delta exploiting process was a hard process of the Kinh, the Champa, Chinese, The Mnong, the Ma, the Stieng and the Khmer. They were immigrates so they first lacked of close relations. Each ethnic minority tried to protect and fasten their relations inside their community. Because of vast land as well as not many people, therefore they lived peacefully without struggling for land. They were free to exploit new land depending each person’s ability in peaceful, friendly and solidarity spirit. That was the reason why the Khmer didn’t have any big struggles for land with other ethnic minorities. The Khmer maintained their customs and tradition in tight rules. Although Cuulong Delta was discovered later, ethnic minorities living there didn’t have thick culture as other areas. The Khmer culture was budded and created a private and special feature which continued so deeply that if we saw through inclined cut and folk culture, we find it difficult to distinguish inside - born features or outside – born features. Those similarities didn’t only show in labor, production, clothes, customs in wedding or funeral, building, worship ancestors but also in folk tales and folk arts. Most of Khmer people were able to join traditional songs or dances in festivals, weddings or funerals.

- Language: Phan An (1992; p1026) mentioned most of the Khmer people could speak bilingual language (Khmer and Kinh) some Già làng even spoke three languages (Khmer, Kinh and Chinese) because they lived in the same areas and trading exchanges. However, the Khmer rarely got married to Kinh or Chinese people at that time.