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Thái people (Vietnamese:người Thái) inVietnam, also known asTáy people, are officially recognized by the Vietnamese government as one ofVietnam's 54 ethnic groups. They areTai ethnic groups that speak variousTai languages and use theTai Viet script. They mostly live in theNorthwest Region ofVietnam and are culturally and linguistically distinguished from otherTai peoples of Vietnam such as theNùng andTày people, who are natives in theNortheast Region. In Vietnam, theThái nomenclature is composed of several Tai groups, of which the main groups are theBlack Tai (Tai Dam,Thái Đen),White Tai (Tai Don,Thái Trắng) and theRed Tai (Tai Daeng,Thái Đỏ). TheTai Lue people are officially classified as a separated group, calledLự. They mostly speak languages in the Chiang Saen branch of theSouthwestern Tai languages. Thái people inVietnam all originate fromYunnan. However, they (Tái minorities in Vietnam) are also different from the Thai people of Thailand although they are both related and speakKra–Dai languages.
The Tai peoples migrated south gradually fromYunnan to the region and also toVietnam,Laos andThailand during a period between the 7th and 13th century.[1] They centered in the valley ofMuang Thaeng (today'sĐiện Biên Phủ), a place strongly connected to the legend ofKhun Borom. By the 11th century, the Vietnamese chronicleĐại Việt sử lược recorded the Black Thai had formed a polity in Sơn La calledNgưu Hống (Chinese:Heishui). The kingdom was conquered by theLê dynasty and incorporated intoDai Viet's territory in the 15th century.
Like in other Tai societies, the core social units of the Thái in Vietnam were thevillage (ban) and the chiefdom (mueang, Vietnamese:mường), each consisting of several villages and ruled by aChao lord. The Thái mainly settled in valleys alongside the course of rivers and cultivate rice. A number of thesemueang in the region grouped together and formed a long-term alliance, calledSip Song Chau Tai (Twelve Lands of Thai). This federation ofSip Song Chau Tai maintained political autonomy and had tributary relationship with the regional powers, such as China,Lan Xang,Siam and the dynasties of Vietnam.
In 1841, theNguyễn dynasty established the town ofĐiện Biên Phủ in the Muang Then Valley as an administrative office (Phủ). This was done for more direct control of the region and to stop bandits who were involved in opium trade.[2]
In 1888, Sip Song Chau Tai was incorporated into the French protectorate ofTonkin and became part ofFrench Indochina. This was arranged by the French explorer and colonial representativeAuguste Pavie who signed a treaty withĐèo Văn Trị, the White Thai lord of Muang Lay (Lai Châu) on 7 April 1889.[3]
The White Thai fought alongside the French in theFirst Indochina War, against both the communistViet Minh and the nationalistViệt Nam Quốc Dân Đảng (VNQDD),[4] In 1948, the French colonial administration declared theTai Federation (French: Fédération Thaï, Tai: Phen Din Tai, Vietnamese: Khu tự trị Thái) to be an autonomous region. The Federation was disbanded after theBattle of Dien Bien Phu and the Thái lordĐèo Văn Long went into exile in France.
The Tai Dam and the Tai Don mostly live in the provinces of the Northwestern Plateau:Điện Biên,Lai Châu,Sơn La andHoà Bình. The Tai Daeng are found in western part ofNghệ An andThanh Hóa province where they are a major ethnic group.
According to the 1999 General Survey, there were 1,328,725 Thái people in Vietnam.[5] In Sơn La, they form a majority in the province (54.8%). They are the largest ethnic group in Điện Biên (38%) and Lai Châu (32.3%).
Other groups include thePhu Thai inHà Tĩnh and Nghệ An (population: 200,000),[6] theTay Thanh (Tay Nhai), theThai Yo and the Tày Đà Bắc inHòa Bình province.
| Austroasiatic (Vietic) | |
|---|---|
| Austroasiatic (Bahnaric) | |
| Austroasiatic (other) | |
| Hmong–Dao | |
| Tai–Kadai | |
| Sino-Tibetan (Chinese) | |
| Sino-Tibetan (Tibeto-Burman) | |
| Malayo-Polynesian | |
| Immigrants and expatriate | |
The 54 officially recognised ethnic groups are ranked by population in their language families according to2019 census
| |
