In addition to language, ethnic groups can often be readily distinguished by their clothing and styles of personal adornment. Traditional attire is considered one of the most distinctive expressions of an ethnic group’s material culture. At the vibrant highland border markets, such as Nàn Xin Market, Cốc Pài Market, Bản Máy Market, and Hoàng Su Phì Market, which are traditionally held every Sunday, visitors can encounter representatives of nearly every ethnic community in the region. Each ethnic group is characterized by its own unique styles of shirts, trousers, skirts, and headscarves.

Ethnic groups also differ in their hairstyles and methods of wrapping headscarves. Practices such as keeping natural white teeth, blackening the teeth, or covering them with gold are not only matters of personal preference but also important elements of each group’s cultural identity. Every ethnic community is associated with its own distinctive color palette. The differences extend beyond the obvious contrasts between brown and indigo or red and white; even within the indigo spectrum, numerous shades can be observed. Indigo dye is produced entirely from natural indigo plants, resulting in varying degrees of intensity. For example, the indigo garments of the Hà Nhì people, although often worn for many years, are regularly re-dyed to maintain their deep, fresh color. In contrast, some indigo-dyed garments display a blend of indigo and brown tones, creating a distinct visual appearance.

Figure 1. Traditional Attire of La Chí Women

The distinctive color of the La Chí traditional costume makes it easily recognizable amid the vibrant array of colors found at highland market gatherings.

Compared with many other ethnic groups, the traditional attire of the La Chí is relatively simple and unadorned. In the La Chí language, the word Pu means “shirt” or “garment,” similar to the Cao Lan term Pu dăn dinh for a traditional robe. This term is believed to originate from the Tai–Kadai (Tày–Thái) language family. Traditionally, La Chí men wear long robes extending to the calves. The robe has five panels, long sleeves, buttons fastened under the right arm, and a decorative embroidered seam along the front opening. The inner flap is shorter, reaching only to the chest. This long robe represents the traditional form of men’s clothing.

Today, the traditional robe has been adapted into a shorter version that extends only to the thighs. This modified style is especially popular among younger men, teachers, and local government officials of La Chí ethnicity. Men continue to wear wide-legged trousers with each leg measuring approximately 30–35 cm in width. An interesting linguistic feature is that the La Chí word for trousers, quen or quanh, closely resembles the Pu Péo term quân and shares a striking similarity with the Vietnamese word quần. Whether this resemblance reflects a common linguistic origin or results from long-standing cultural interaction remains an intriguing question.

La Chí men traditionally wear their hair long, extending beyond the shoulders. They commonly wrap or fold a headscarf around their hair to keep it in place, while hats are seldom used. A small indigo cloth bag with a red fabric border—except for the flap—measuring approximately 27 × 22 cm is usually carried at the waist to hold matches, tobacco, and other personal belongings.

The traditional appearance of La Chí men, characterized by the long robe, wrapped headscarf, the Tai-derived term for the robe, and the Vietnamese-derived word for trousers, evokes the historical attire once commonly worn by Vietnamese, Tày, and La Chí men. This suggests that, in the past, the traditional clothing of these ethnic groups shared many similarities.

Figure 2. Traditional Costumes of La Chí Men and Women

La Chí women traditionally wear trousers, although a small number still wear skirts similar to those of the Tày people. Following the general pattern observed in the evolution of women’s clothing among the Vietnamese and the Tày, the transformation of La Chí women’s attire appears to have progressed from skirts to trousers. While this transition occurred among the Vietnamese around the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, it took place much later among the Tày and the La Chí, extending for nearly another century. Consequently, the few women who continue to wear skirts preserve an ancient cultural tradition, whereas the practice of wearing trousers has gradually become the dominant custom after a long period of cultural change.

The most distinctive element of La Chí women’s traditional attire is the long outer garment. Known as the pu, this four-panel robe is split down the front without buttons. When worn, the left front panel, decorated with a colored fabric trim, is folded across to the right side and secured with a cloth sash instead of silver buttons. The collar is carefully embroidered with colorful fabric and intricate needlework. During festivals and major ceremonies, women often wear three long robes layered together. The tailoring of this garment closely resembles the pu dăng dinh robe of the Cao Lan–Sán Chỉ people and also bears similarities to the traditional robes once worn by Vietnamese women in the ancient royal capital.

Accompanying the long front-opening robe is either an inner blouse, similar to that worn by Thai women, or a traditional bodice (yếm), as found among the Vietnamese, Mường, Cao Lan–Sán Chỉ, and La Chí peoples. Together, the front-opening robe and the embroidered bodice form a harmonious and unified costume, since the bodice would not be visible beneath garments fastened under the arm or buttoned at the center.

The La Chí bodice is made from a square piece of white fabric measuring approximately 37–40 cm on each side. The upper corner is cut to form a neckline and attached to two ties fastened behind the neck, while two additional ties at the side corners are secured behind the back, similar to the traditional bodices of the Vietnamese and Mường peoples. Unlike the plain white bodice of Mường women, which is largely concealed beneath the richly decorated waistband of the skirt, the La Chí bodice serves as a focal point of decoration. Its ornamentation includes parallel fabric bands across the upper section, four parallel zigzag embroidery lines in colored thread that intersect in pairs, and stylized floral motifs. Visible between the lapels of the outer robe, these embroidered patterns contribute to the simple yet elegant appearance of the La Chí women’s costume.

Instead of wearing conical hats, La Chí women traditionally wear headscarves. Whereas Vietnamese women commonly use square scarves, La Chí women prefer long scarves known as kha la. Similar in style to the piêu scarf of the Thai people, the kha la measures approximately 2.85 meters in length and 0.33 meters in width. Both ends are embroidered with colored threads – typically white or blue – and decorated with stylized floral motifs composed of four triangles, each half embroidered with different colored threads. Unlike the Thai style of wrapping the piêu, the La Chí scarf is tied behind the neck, allowing the embroidered ends to hang gracefully down to the waist.

La Chí women traditionally wear earrings and bracelets, whereas men generally wear only bracelets and do not wear necklaces, unlike the H’Mông. Children wear clothing similar to that of adults, although such attire is not particularly suitable for young children and often gives them a more mature appearance.

Shamans wear ceremonial garments that differ from everyday clothing when conducting rituals. Their ritual attire consists of a long robe extending below the calves, split down the front and secured with a cloth belt. They also wear a wide cloth hat with chin straps. During certain ceremonies, such as rituals related to upland rice cultivation, the officiant may wear a hat or attach a small piece of dried buffalo hide (approximately 20–30 cm wide) to the back. Hats are not traditionally considered a standard component of La Chí attire. A similar practice is also found among the Pu Péo people, whose ritual specialists wear hats adorned with a small bamboo star measuring approximately 6–7 cm in diameter during outdoor ceremonies. This similarity may reflect historical and cultural connections between the La Chí and Pu Péo communities.

Betel chewing and tooth blackening are long-established customs widely practiced throughout Southeast Asia, including among the Vietnamese and several ethnic minority groups in Vietnam. Historically, in resisting the forced assimilation policies of imperial China, the Vietnamese people preserved distinctive cultural practices, expressing their determination through the saying: “Fight to keep our long hair; fight to keep our blackened teeth.” At that time, blackened teeth represented an important cultural marker distinguishing the civilizations of the South and the North. The custom remained common among the Vietnamese lowland population until only a few decades ago. Today, the La Chí people continue to preserve the tradition of tooth blackening, primarily as an expression of aesthetic beauty and cultural identity.

Figure 3. Ritual Attire of a La Chí Shaman

There are various methods of blackening teeth, with different ethnic groups using different natural materials. For example, the Xinh Mun people use a substance extracted from tree resin, whereas the La Chí blacken their teeth (ton nhĩ) using leaves. The process begins by chewing the leaves of the nhấn tế vine – a climbing plant similar to wild betel – and holding the chewed leaves in the mouth for a period of time. Repeating this procedure two or three times a day gradually turns the teeth yellow. Next, the leaves of the mía phe plant, which have a bitter and pungent taste, are thoroughly chewed and held in the mouth. After repeated applications, the teeth gradually become black. To maintain the deep black color, both types of leaves are chewed once a week.

An important step in the process is thoroughly cleaning the teeth beforehand so that the natural dye can adhere more effectively. According to La Chí aesthetic beliefs, the darker the teeth, the more beautiful they are considered.

Similar to the Nùng and Dao peoples, though to a lesser extent, La Chí youth also decorate their teeth with gold coverings. This practice is regarded as a form of personal adornment and an expression of maturity. In the past, the customs of gold-capping or blackening teeth were so widespread that they gave rise to ethnonyms such as Hắc Xỉ (“Black-Teeth People”) and Kim Xỉ (“Gold-Teeth People”). In the eighteenth century, the scholar Lê Quý Đôn also recorded the presence of the “Gold-Teeth People” in Tuyên Quang. These ethnonyms, however, were generic designations rather than references to specific ethnic groups, as the practices of tooth blackening and gold-capping were shared cultural traditions among several ethnic communities in the northern mountainous regions of Vietnam.

Among the La Chí, customs also vary by locality. Communities in Bản Phùng and Nàn Xin do not traditionally practice betel chewing, whereas in Bản Pắng and Bản Díu, chewing betel remains a common cultural practice.

Source: Nguyễn Văn Huy. Traditional Culture of the La Chí People. Hanoi: Writers’ Association Publishing House.