Presentation – origin
The Co Tu people have lived for centuries in the mountainous west of the central highlands. They are among the most ancient peoples of Quang Nam province and Thua Thien Hue province.
Food crops
Slash and burn rice cultivation is still practiced with a fallow system. The Co Tu raise livestock – buffaloes, pigs, poultry, and dogs, and engage in daily hunting, fishing and gathering.
The house – the village
The Co Tu live in houses on stilts, with a thatched roof curved like a turtle shell.
All the houses of the village are built in a circle around a square where there is also the communal house called Guol, it is the highest and most beautiful.
The Guol, the square, is the place for meetings and public activities.
At nightfall, on feast days, the Co Tu gather around the fire to play gongs and join in the traditional “tung tung da da” dance.
The village is headed by a respected “village elder”. The social division of the village is determined by the wealth of each person’s procession, gongs, buffaloes, jewelry and fabrics…
Family
The groom’s family is responsible for the cost of the ceremony.
The family is patriarchal, the man takes care of the work in the fields, the woman takes care of the education of the children, the house, the small market gardening and the animals.
The woman gives birth in a hut built behind the house or next to the house fire, with the help of some women, the baby will not be named for a few months.
The widow or widower also marries, if the conditions are right, the sister-in-law or the brother-in-law.
Les costumes
In the past, people used to wear bark suits that were worth the size of a large pig. The arrival of the brocatelle relegated this clothing to the only ceremonies.
The Co Tu people prefer black woven clothing with red and white patterns and white beaded inlays. The men wear loincloths and are bare-chested most of the time, for parties they wear a sleeveless top. Women wear a long skirt from the chest or a skirt at the waist and a sleeveless top.
The beliefs
The Co Tu believe that after death the souls of their loved ones become genies who will protect them and give them a good harvest, health and happiness.
Each village has a “sacred” object as a talisman (usually a stone) kept in the communal house. The Co Tu have the habit of “collecting graves” – after a few years, when the family is ready to face the economic conditions, a second burial more festive is organized, the grave will then be richly elaborated and decorated, a buffalo will be sacrificed.
There are many worship ceremonies associated with production, health…
Smaller worship ceremonies only need to sacrifice chickens or even a chicken’s egg, larger ones will sacrifice pigs and even larger ones a buffalo.
Les arts
Handicrafts include weaving and pottery (clay) making. They are very skillful in decorative carvings of tombs, communal houses, with representations of men, women, buffalo heads, birds, snakes, wild animals, chickens…
The Co Tu people have many ancient stories telling, legends, human society, the birth of clans…
The common musical instruments are, a gong, a drum, a flute, a lute and an erhu (a two-stringed fiddle).
