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T
he Vietnamese government has long been supportive of developing the country’s trove of medicinal plants, and now it even wants Vietnam’s herbal medicine to go global. While that may seem to be good news to Vietnam’s practitioners of traditional medicine (TM), ethnic minorities who have guarded their Indigenous knowledge for generations are already having difficulties passing down their knowledge to their community members.
But that has not deterred the TM practitioners among the Yao (also known as Dao) in Sapa, a hill station town of Lao Cai province in northwestern Vietnam, from trying to teach their children – mostly daughters or daughters-in-law – about their insights on herbal medicine and climate; combining traditional wisdom with scientific knowledge to create new products; and dispelling myths that are no longer in tune with today’s realities.
Among the Yao, the women are the traditional receptacles of their community’s TM knowledge. One main obstacle the Yao herbalists face in preserving and sharing what they know, though, is that they are often unable to express themselves clearly in Vietnamese, the language of the younger generation. At the same time, the women usually have had little formal education and are unable to write even in their native Yao language. With much of their TM knowledge going unwritten, they fear it may one day be forgotten.
“I wish there was a way to take my knowledge from my head,” says Tẩn Tả Mẩy, a renowned Red Yao herbalist in Tả Phìn, a village in Sapa. “I am not able to tell my children what I know about herbal plants. They all speak better Vietnamese than the Yao language. I have to bring them to different forests to show them (my knowledge).”
To many like Associate Professor Hồ Ngọc Sơn, Deputy Dean of Forestry at Thái Nguyên University of Agriculture and Forestry, the use and conservation of the indigenous knowledge of the Yao people should be promoted via policies and management practices.
“The Indigenous knowledge of the Yao people in utilizing plants for medicinal purposes and adapting to climate change is rich and diverse,” says Dr Hồ, who has done ethnographic research with Yao communities in the country’s various northern provinces. “Rather than solely paying attention to scientific significance, the effective use and promotion of the Yao people’s Indigenous knowledge in natural resource management and climate change adaptation could be better achieved through collaboration with businesses and aligning with societal needs.”
Forest people
Believed to have migrated from southern China in the 18th century, where there are still communities of this ethnic group, the Yao today are found not only in Vietnam but also in Laos and Thailand. In Vietnam, the Yao are further subdivided into smaller groups, including the Red Yao, so called because of their red headgear. Most Yao in Vietnam currently live in northern Vietnam, particularly in Hà Giang and Lào Cai.
The Yao make up the second largest ethnic group in Lao Cai, next to the Hmong. According to official data, the Yao numbered nearly 110,000 in 2019 in Lào Cai. They rank ninth in size among Vietnam’s ethnic groups. In Vietnam, the term “ethnic minority” is officially used to refer to everyone but the Kinh majority that accounts for 86 percent of the population of almost 100 million. Indigenous knowledge, as a result, refers to the local wisdom, knowhow, and practices of ethnic minorities that are scattered throughout the country.
The Yao’s knowledge about the forest and nature is closely linked to their own beliefs. The Yao refer to themselves as “forest people” (kemian 林人), who maintain a deep connection with the forest throughout their lives, from cradle to grave.
The Yao also consult their traditional “Book of Common Knowledge” or thôngthư (通书), which provides them with strategies to adapt to natural fluctuations. The book also has practical reminders, such as one telling people to make preparations during the spring to make the best of the year. It also says that in the years of the Tiger or Cat ,there are more likely to be droughts.
“It has turned out to be rather accurate,” says Siệuvà Tẩn Tả Mẩy, a 60-year-old teacher. “So when there might be droughts, people would grow maize, because it needs less water.”
That the females among the Yao have ended up having the ethnic group’s TM knowledge is primarily because Yao communities have been heavily influenced by Confucian values. These prioritize the education of men in literature and rituals, while women are expected to fulfill the dual roles of wife and mother and to engage in domestic tasks such as harvesting vegetables and plant picking. While the women spend a significant amount of time in the forest going through the flora primarily for food, they have also been figuring out other uses for the plants.
Such knowledge among the women, however, has not gone hand in hand with learning how to write in Yao, which is based on Chinese characters.
Tẩn Tả Mẩy, for instance, says that like her two grandmothers, she has never had a chance to learn to read and write in Yao. She also cannot think of any other woman in her community who knows how to read Yao characters. “I do not think there is any,” says Tẩn Tả Mẩy.
Tẩn Vần Siệu, a renowned Yao language teacher in Tả Phìn, says that when he started his private classes to teach Yao characters, he had to convince the parents to allow their daughters to join the class.
“Prior to the 2000s, I do not think women could afford any chance to learn how to read and write Yao characters,” he says.
Today Tần Vần Siệu, who has won national recognition for his dedication to teaching his mother tongue, is proud to have many female students in his class.He admits, however, that the lack of motivation to learn written Yao language is still prevalent.
Keeping Indigenous knowledge alive
For Yao herbalists, this has been a major concern, since a mostly oral transmission of knowledge always carries a risk that it will eventually be lost down the road. In truth, Yao people do not always agree on what to call certain plants because the transmission had been largely family-based, with little exchange within the community.
“Families do not share their knowledge with each other,” says Tẩn Tả Mẩy. “However, when mediums are asked to come to cure a certain disease, they may share some information with the patient’s family, but often expect to receive gifts in exchange.”
Determined to learn as much as she can, Tẩn Tả Mẩy has had to visit different villages and collect the names of medicinal plants. She has asked her daughter-in-law to note down the knowledge in Vietnamese.
Due to patrilocal practices, Yao women are inclined to move out to live with their in-laws after getting married. Consequently, senior women often teach their daughters-in-law about the forests and their trove of medicinal plants.
Phàn Khé, from Nậm Cang village, obtained knowledge of herbal medicine from her grandmother-in-law, who had learned it secretly from her husband. Currently, Phàn Khé teaches her daughter-in-law, Chảo Mẩy Phin, how to select and combine various herbal leaves for preparing bath water for tourists who visit and stay at their homestay accommodation, the main source of income for their family of six.
“There are too many types of plants with a lot of functions,” says Chảo Mẩy Phin. “However, she taught me first and foremost which one is bathable, drinkable, neither, or both,” she adds, referring to her grandmother-in-law.
Phán Khé herself remarks, “There might be a lot more functions (for these plants) but we do not know them yet.”
During each trip to a forest, near or far, every woman in her family would carry home 30 to 40 kilograms of leaves on their backs. Phán Khé says that this is considered normal for Yao women. She has instructed her daughter-in-law to pick only the leaves of the plants to ensure these would continue to grow.
Chảo Mẩy Phin has taken her mother-in-law’s wisdom to heart. “There are many plants that have disappeared because people have taken away the roots,” she says.
One plant that her mother-in-law has taught her to be cautious of is Gelsemium elegans, or câylángón in Vietnamese. The Yao consider this as the most poisonous plant in the forest, but acknowledge that it has many subgroups that include non-poisonous ones. Its “male variety,” for instance, is beneficial and can be used to heal wounds caused by falling. The “female variety,” however, is inedible and can be fatal when ingested. Whenever Phán Khé herself sees “female” câylángón, she uproots them to prevent others from mistakenly picking the poisonous variety.
Ready medicine
To minimize the need to go to the forest, Phàn Khé has begun cultivating certain herbal plants in her own garden. But there is another practical reason for having such medicinal plants close at hand. Health facilities are few and far between in areas where the Yao live. In Sapa, for instance, there is only one major public hospital, along with small and medium-sized clinics. Some Yao also say that such facilities are usually staffed by Kinh, who they find to have discriminatory attitudes toward the Yao people.
Vietnamese laws allow both traditional and Western medicine for diagnosis and treatment in healthcare facilities, subject to regulations. Article 5 of the 2008 Law on Biodiversity in fact encourages individuals and entities to combine scientific technological advances with traditional knowledge.
Tần Tả Mẩy, who has been an herbalist for the last 30 years, takes short courses now and then in Hanoi and combines her Indigenous wisdom with Western medical knowledge.
Like Phàn Khé, she believes “there are uses for very familiar plants that we do not know yet,” and adds that she has been doing experiments “whenever I can.” She recounts that an experiment she did with chùadù (pennywort) and another plant resulted in the extraction of essential oil of pennywort, which she is now producing under the “Mẩy Đia” or the “Medicine of Mẩy” label. (Đia is the Vietnamese pronunciation of the word “medicine,” 藥, in Yao language).
Tần Tả Mẩy’s modest herbal-medicine venture is now run by her daughter-in-law. Still, she says, she encourages her family and friends to see doctors whenever they fall ill.
“In the past, we depended entirely on spiritual mediums to cure our illnesses,” Tần Tả Mẩy says, “but now, we need to do medical check-ups.”
Yet while she says that she would seek help from doctors to determine the nature of ailments or illnesses, she still ponders over whether to choose traditional or Western medicine.
“It is important to consult doctors,” says Tần Tả Mẩy. “But I often choose herbs.” ◉
