Hmong Village

I’ve seen the Hmong in Vietnam and my sister has a friend who is Hmong. They were originally from southern China. During the Vietnam War they worked for the Americans. There are a lot of Hmong in US. Some can’t get passports so they can never leave, because they are being punished for not supporting the Communist government in Laos. It is similar in Vietnam. 

Hmong house + guard dog!

The Hmong was different to the Khmu and they seemed to have a different lifestyle. They are more industrious and seem to have a motivation to work for money. Mung, the guide explained that they sell their baskets in the markets.

By the way, Mum is so hopeless with languages that she could only remember the guide’s name as Mung beans! I forgot to take a photo of him, but I will on Monday when we are going to meet his wife and children in his village.

Bamboo being shaved

When I was in Phnom Penh last year, we saw a film called BOMB HUNTERS with Sally. It was about Cambodians risking their lives with UXO in the ground, from the Vietnam/American War, to collect the bombs to sell the metal.

Today I saw a shell of a bomb the Hmong people found. Then we saw a knife making village where they buy metal to melt and hammer into knives.

UXO shell

sweet potatoes being dried

Hmong also believe in spirits. If someone is sick they get a sharman to help get rid of evil spirits which make people sick. 

Add caption

At the village we saw a man shaving bamboo to make strips. These are woven into baskets. We also saw their vegetable gardens with nets around them. Mum told Mung that she has a problem with possums in Sydney because they eat our vegetables so she needs to get nets. Mung said if the Hmong had possums, they would be very HAPPY! (because they would eat them!). 

Vegetable garden

We saw how clever the Hmong were to keep rats out of the rice storage hut. They put strips of metal around the wooden post because rats can’t cling to the metal. Mum told Mung that she has to put water around Binky’s bowl because the ants can’t swim!

metal wrapped around post to stop rats

Hmong have honey!

a "creative" photo of the nets over the vegetable garden

Creative photo of a spider.

Not a creative photo of a spider - but you can see it well.

Mung is 29 years old. He speaks excellent English which he learned himself. He comes from a Lao village and when he was 12 he became a monk for 3 years. All Buddhist men should be a monk for some of their life. Mung said he had to be a monk before he got married. He said it was hard at first, leaving his parents although he was in the same village. Every village has a small Wat and usually about 3 monks. BTW, I found out from Mung that monks are allowed to touch their mothers and nurses, I thought they weren’t allowed to be touched by any women.

the metal being shaped into knives