KADAI
The Kadai language group includes four ethnic groups: the La Chi, La Ha, Co Lao, and Pu Peo. They inhabit remote highland areas near the northern border in the provinces of Lai Chau, Son La, Lao Cai, and Ha Giang. Their languages preserve traces of ancient connections between communities belonging to the Austroasiatic and Austronesian language families.
Depending on the locality, they practice either shifting cultivation—clearing land by cutting, burning, and planting seeds in holes—or permanent farming, including terraced rice fields, plow-based upland fields, or stone-hole agriculture, growing maize, rice, tuberous plants, gourds, pumpkins, and medicinal herbs.
Their housing styles vary: stilt houses (La Ha), ground-level houses (Co Lao, Pu Peo), or semi-stilt/semi-ground houses (La Chi). Depending on the region, their clothing may be indigo-dyed in black or blue, or vibrantly colored using patchwork techniques. Their main staple foods include non-glutinous rice, glutinous rice, or maize, depending on the farming conditions. All of these groups have ancestor worship customs. Their ways of life have been heavily influenced by neighboring ethnic groups with larger populations, such as the Tay, Thai, Nung, and Hmong.
(Source: Vietnam Museum of Ethnology)
