Lac people

Two Lakkian women wearing áo dài and carrying nón lá hats.

The Lac or Lạc people (Lakkian: người Lạc, Menghean: 駱族 / 락족 Ragjok) are an ethnic group in southwestern Menghe. They are the second-largest ethnic group in the country, after the majority Meng, and they are the largest of the country's southwestern ethnic minorities. Most live in the Lakkian Semi-Autonomous Province, where they are guaranteed special cultural and linguistic rights.

Over centuries of foreign rule, Lakkian language and culture absorbed a number of influences from neighboring states and ethnic groups. Traders and missionaries arriving from West Meridia converted most of the Lakkian population to Shahidism in the 11th century CE, and the current social structure still reflects a historical hierarchy separating rural Lakkians from urban Taleyan elites. Repeated periods of Menghean occupation - from 1354 to 1518, 1597 to 1826, and 1901 to present - diluted this hierarchy, and also led to the incorporation of many aspects of Meng culture, including architectural styles and vocabulary. Nevertheless, the Lac people identify as a separate ethnic group, and the Menghean government does not place them under the otherwise catch-all Meng label.

Etymology

Records from the Meng dynasty refer to the early Lac as the Wŏl, or Wŏlsŏ, meaning "west of the Wŏl river." The term Lạc first appeared in the 2nd century CE, and unlike Wŏl, it was an endonym rather than an exonym. The precise etymology of the term remains unclear. The earliest written records use the Meng character 駱, which originally referred to a white horse with a black mane; the ancient tribes of the Chŏllo region were known for their horsemanship, even after they transitioned to sedentary agriculture. More recently, some linguists have argued that Lạc is derived from a word for canal or water, in reference to the irrigation systems which branched out from the Wŏl river; similar nouns today include lạch, "canal, ditch, waterway" and nước rạc, "ebbing tidal water." In this theory, the character 駱 is purely phonetic.

History

Rock art in Tĩnh Bái prefecture, believed to date to the 5th century BCE.

According to legend, the Lac are descended from an ancient clan that broke away from the Yellow Emperor's kingdom 5,000 years ago. They first settled on the Chŏllo plain, but they were driven out again by the Meng dynasty, retiring to the far side of the Wŏl river. Historians disagree on the extent to which this account reflects actual events; the Yellow Emperor is regarded by many as a mythical or at least mythically embellished figure, but Meng conquests onto the Chŏllo plain may have displaced the local semi-nomadic people westward.

During the 3rd century CE, the various Lac tribes united into the kingdom of Tống, which at its peak stretched from the Wŏl river into what is today Argentstan. During the centuries that followed, Tống resisted Meng efforts at conquest, rising in power during the Five States and Seven Fiefdoms period and maintaining its independence during the Jin and Sŭng dynasties, albeit with some loss of territory in the latter. Even as the Lạc in this period resisted Menghean political control, they adopted many aspects of Meng culture, including the Chữ Nôm alphabet.

In the 9th century, growing numbers of Taleyan and Khalistani merchants began arriving by sea, bringing with them a new religion: Shahidism. The new traders were initially confined to the coast, but their number and influence grew over time as the South Menghe Sea trading network flourished. In 1026, Taleyan merchants backed a Shahidist rebel movement and managed to seize power in the south, forming the Ayyubid Sultanate. During this period, Shahidism was established as a state religion, and the practice of traditional Lạc faiths was outlawed. By the middle of the 12th century, the vast majority of the population had been converted to Shahidism. Even after conversions, this period laid the groundwork of a persistent social order in which Ummayan-speaking Taleyan elites dominated the government while the Lac majority was relegated to a lower social status.

Lac lands were conquered by the Menghean Yi dynasty in the 14th century, bringing another wave of Meng cultural influence. By this time, however, Shahidism was firmly rooted into Lac culture, and traditional religions did not see much of a resurgence. Likewise, Taleyan traders continued to enjoy privileged status under the Yi, as trade with Meridia flourished. A short-lived Lac state emerged in the wake of the dynastic collapse following the Menghean Black Plague, but it was later re-integrated into the Myŏn dynasty. Following the Uzeri Rebellion, Lac lands were part of an independent Uzeristan, this time under a Taleyan ruling dynasty.

Lac unrest against their Taleyan rulers provided the justification for a Menghean military intervention in the early 20th century, which integrated Lac lands into the Federative Republic of Menghe. The national leadership in Donggyŏng granted the Lac people greater autonomy, and sharply curtailed the influence of the Taleyan elite, though tensions between the two groups would persist through the coming century. Under the Greater Menghean Empire, federal minority rights were revoked, and state policy favored assimilation of the Lac through coerced conversions to Sindoism and imposition of the Menghean language. Anti-Meng, pro-independence sentiment grew during the Pan-Septentrion War, but after the Allied occupation authority restored Taleyan merchants to administrative posts in 1946, this gave way to anti-western sentiment. By the end of the Menghean War of Liberation, a major insurgency had broken out in Lac territory.

Initially, Lac insurgents favored independence over reintegration into Menghe. A provisional agreement in 1963 guaranteed the Lac their own Semi-Autonomous Province with cultural and legal autonomy, winning over enough militia units to restore Menghean control. The resulting Lakkian SAP, established in 1964, gave the Lac people protected linguistic, cultural, and social rights, and relegated Taleyans to a marginal social status, inverting the long-standing social pyramid. Nevertheless, political rights under the DPRM were sharply circumscribed, and the Menghean famine of 1985-87 took a heavy toll on the Lac population. Lac provincial autonomy continued after the Decembrist Revolution, though efforts to restore harmony between the Lac majority and the Taleyan minority have remained a source of tension, especially as rapid economic growth tips the balance in favor of urban areas.

Religion

A mosque in Hồng Xuyên, blending traditional and West Meridian styles.

In the 2010 Menghean census, 91% of Lac people idetified their religion as Shahidism. Of the remainder, 7% identified as nonreligious or following traditional faiths, and 2% identified as Christian. Among Lakkian Shahids, 99% are of the Rashaida sect, and only 1% of the Kharjii sect. Orthodox Shahidism has a relatively limited following among the Lac people, and in surveys most Lakkians identify themselves as moderate or secular Shahids.

The version of Shahidism practiced by the Lac people incorporated a number of local traditions as it spread north, and as such it differs greatly from Shahidism as it is practiced in West Meridia, or even as it is practiced among Taleyans in the cities. Traditional songs, dances, and clothing styles, for example, were smoothly integrated into Lakkian Shahidic practice, though practices involving human images were abolished in the 12th century as a form of idol worship.

Language

A selection from Nguyễn Du's The Tale of Kiều, showing Chữ Nôm characters.

The Nhân Chính market in Thu Bồn, with banners in the Constans alphabet.

The Lakkian language (Tiếng Lạc) is the main language of the Lac people. It is an analytic language, and it does not have agglutinative variations for case, number, gender, or grammatical tense. It uses subject-verb-object word order and head-initial modifier ordering, and measure words for nouns. It is broken into predominantly single-syllable words, and makes use of six vowel tones. Many of these features resemble classical Menghean, though Lakkian is properly classified as part of the Lakkic language family; modern Botong-ŏ Menghean, based on the Donghae dialect, is markedly different.

Lakkian did borrow a large number of vocabulary words from the ancient Menghean language, sometimes alone and sometimes in compound formations with native Lakkian words. An estimated 45% of Lakkian words were formed this way. Directly borrowed words have matching Gomun characters, though the pronunciation and word order may differ. For example, "Menghe" in Menghean is Mengguk (멩국 / 孟國), while in Lakkian 孟國 is pronounced Mạnh Quốc; the Chŏnsan mountains (천산 / 天山) are pronounced Thiên Sơn. Many of these loanwords were imported by the 3rd-century kingdom of Tống, which adopted classical Menghean characters for government proclamations and documents; previously, the Lakkian language had no writing system.

A revised writing system, known as Chữ Nôm, appeared in the 14th century, following the Yi dynasty's invasion. In addition to existing and new Menghean loanwords, it borrowed some Gomun characters to represent the phonetic sounds of indigenous Lakkian words, and even created a number of characters with no Menghean counterpart by combining or removing Gomun radicals (e.g., 𠀧 ba for "three," 𡗶 giời for "sky," 𧘇 ấy for "that/those") to indicate a new meaning or pronunciation.

In 1887, the Sieuxerrian ethnographer Henri Constans developed a phonetic writing system for Lakkian based on the Latin alphebet, with diacritics used to indicate vowel tones. The new alphabet was given official status after the Federative Republic of Menghe annexed the Uzeri Sultanate, and taught in schools as part of an effort to improve literacy. Kwon Chong-hoon banned the use of the Constans alphabet, on the basis that its Western origins had no place in Menghe, but the Sinmun-based alternative proved clumsy and unpopular. Following the Menghean War of Liberation, the Constans alphabet was reinstated for everyday use, though Chữ Nôm characters are still used in advertising and in dictionary definitions, much like Gomun characters in Meng-majority areas of Menghe.

Naming customs

Shahidic Lacs traditionally have three-part names. As in other parts of East Hemithea, the family name is placed first, and is inherited from the father, though women generally keep their surnames when marrying. This is followed by two given names: one from the traditional lexicon of Lakkian-language names, and one from Quranic scripture. For example, a person with the name Ngô Đửc Ali has the family name Ngô, the given name Đửc, and the Shahidic name Ali. Lac people practicing traditional religions use a second Lakkian name in place of the Shahidic name, and the small Lakkian Christian population uses biblical names, e.g. Lê Tấn Biển Đức (Lê Tấn Benedict). All Lakkian surnames and given names have an equivalent Chữ Nôm character, and most of these are original Mengja characters rather than Lac constructions.

Traditionally, the Lakkian name is used in most everyday settings, while the Shahidic name is used in religious settings. The two may also be used together in contexts where it is important to distinguish between two people with the same Lakkian given name. Today, official government documents, such as the Resident ID card, treat the two as a combined, two-part given name, and the shortened version as an everyday nickname.

In formal settings, it is customary for Lac individuals to be addressed by their first name, usually with an appended honorific. For example, a woman named Võ Kiệm Fatima would normally be addressed as chị Kiệm, "Mrs. Kiệm," rather than "Mrs. Võ." The same applies to titles like "Mayor," "General," and "Chairman." In religious settings, the Shahidic name is used instead: anh Muhamad for "brother Muhammad."

A guideline in the Foundational Law of the Lakkian SAP states that when official government business is being conducted in Lakkian, Meng individuals and place names may be addressed by the Lakkian reading of the characters in their name. Thus, Choe Sŭng-min's name (崔承民) would be rendered in Lakkian as Thôi Thừa Dân, and Donggyŏng (東京) as Đông Kinh. Likewise, appendations and honorifics would attach to the given name, not the surname, as is standard in Menghean. Conversely, when official government business is being conducted in Menghean, Lakkian individuals and place names are referred to using the Meng reading of shared characters, or, where the Chữ Nôm characters are not present in Menghean, using a standard Menghean language#Sinmun approximation. Titles and honorifics would then be attached to the surname. Thus Governor Hoàng Thái Abdullah's name (黄太) can be rendered in Menghean as Hwang Tae or Hwang Tae Abdulla, and "Governor Hoàng Thái" as Hwang dojisa. This guideline was judged necessary because many Lakkian consonants and vowel tones are absent in Menghean, and vice versa, meaning that accurate phonetic transcription is difficult.

Clothing

Lac woman in an áo tứ thân, with a small cap in place of a headscarf.

Despite Quranic prescriptions about women's dress, traditional outfits like the áo tứ thân, áo dài, and áo bà ba remain common, and are still considered core elements of Lac national dress. Most women do not wear head coverings in day-to-day life, and among those who do, light scarves and skullcaps are the customary option. Part of this divergence relates to the political economy of historical Lac society, where women were expected to perform agricultural and artisanal work outside the home and could not do so while wearing heavy or loose-fitting fabric. More conservative women's dress also gained an association with the elite, orthodox Taleyan merchant class, and by the 19th century Lac activists and intellectuals were promoting the humble áo bà ba as a symbol of ethnic identity.

Beginning during the period of rule by the Yi dynasty, Lac men of high status customarily wore the cross-collared áo giao lĩnh robe, which was influenced by traditional Meng clothing. This was already in decline by the 18th century, and it was outlawed following the Uzeri Rebellion. Variants of the sarong replaced it for daily wear, with a more elaborate áo gấm for formal occasions. Observant Shahids may wear a taqiyah or songkok in day-to-day life, and the songkok is part of the standard uniform for police officers in the Lakkian Semi-Autonomous Province.

Practical peasant clothing like the áo bà ba remain common despite Shahidic sartorial prescriptions.

Peasant farmers of both sexes traditionally wore the nón lá, or "leaf hat," when tending to the field, and although it is also common in Meng regions and in Dayashina, the nón lá remains a traditional symbol of Lac culture. The city of Điện Thuận is famous for nón bài thơ, or "poem hats," which have poems written around the brim in Chữ Nôm script.

Shahidic costumes are more common during religious ceremonies such as Friday prayers and Eid al-Fitr. Customarily, men attending mosque services must wear some kind of taqiyah, and women must wear some kind of hijab, though practices vary by mosque and are generally more conservative in the south. White clothing is also preferred for religious ceremonies, as it symbolizes purity and humility. Since the 1970s, the Menghean government has outlawed the wearing of full-face coverings like the burqa outside of religious ceremonies, though headscarves which leave the face uncovered are permitted.

See also

• Meng
• Daryz