At the evaluation meeting

The final appraisal council was headed by Dr. Vũ Chiến Thắng, Deputy Minister of the Home Affairs Ministry.

As reported, Vietnamese Hmong people divided in 06 groups including Mong Douz, Mong Lengz, Mongz Duz, Mong Siz, Mongz Njuôz, and Na Mieu group with the population of about 1.4 million, concentrated mainly in the border areas with China, Laos and Cambodia, and the Central Highlands region and Tay Ninh province. The Mong ethnic people have rich and diverse faith life with unique identities, featuring through traditional festivals of Gau Tao, Nao Song, Nao Cong, etc.

The Mong people maintain a strong faith life leaning towards polytheism, especially the ancestor worship. Over time, several outdated practices in faith practices have been gradually eliminated by the Mong people, fine traditional cultural identities have been preserved and promoted in modern life. That has created many changes in faith practices of the Mong people and raised issues in preserving the unique cultural values of this ethnic minority community.

The research project clarified the current faith life of the Mong people in regions in Vietnam, outlined missionary process of Catholicism and Protestantism into Mong communities, the State’s policies on religion and ethnics, as well as forecast changes in the faith life of Mong people and proposed policies for faith practices of Mong people.

During the event, members of the assessment council highlighted the project’s scientific and practical values, and Prof. Đỗ Quang Hưng proposed the project steering committee to continue developing more in-depth research on the Mong people in the coming time.

Deputy Minister Vũ Chiến Thắng speaks at the event

Speaking at the conference, Dr. Vũ Chiến Thắng highly appreciated the practical research results of the project as well as the contributions of appraised council members the research of Hmong people' faith life.

NL