- The Viet People
The Viet, or Kinh, people make up 87% of the national population. They live throughout the country, but are concentrated primarily in the deltas, midlands, and coastal religions. The oldest form of political organization of the Viet-Muong dates to the beginning of the first millennium B.C.
- Vietnam has 54 ethnic groups
Many of these include numerous local groups. The language of ethnic groups is also diverse with five linguistic families: Austroasiatic, Austronesian, Tai-Kadai, Miao - Yao and Sino-Tibetan. Each ethnic group has its own cultural identity while still sharing certain similarities.
The culture of ethnic groups is a continuity of tradition, of mutual exchanges and mutual influences across and within national borders but also regionally, especially the influences of China, India, and Southeast Asia. Afterwards, western cultural factors have been incorporated, especially in the globalization time.
- Central Highlands
This linguistic group includes 15 ethnicities, with a population of about 730,000 (1989 census), living in the region from Quang Binh in the north to Tay Ninh in the south.
Mon-Khmer highlanders traditionally practice cyclic shifting agriculture, returning periodically to the same field after it has lain fallow for some years. In certain places, they cultivate rain-fed rice paddies, tilled by the hooves of buffalo, with seed rice sown by broadcasting.
In the center and south of the Central Highlands, matrilineal extended families are very common. The dominant form in northern Truong Son is patrilineal families, which appeared here in ancient times.
- HMong & DAO
The Hmong, Yao and Pathen ethnic groups live in the northernmost mountainous provinces, with some in the northern part of Central Vietnam. The Hmong live in the highlands, while Yao and Pathen are concentrated mainly in the midlands.
Most cultivate dry fields and practice shifting cultivation, but some cultivate wet-rice paddies. Hmong and Pathen live in houses built on the ground. Varying from place to place, Yao people live in houses built on the ground, in stilt houses, or in houses built half on the ground and half on stilts. Textiles, appliqué, embroidery, batik and metalwork are highly developed.
The Vietnam Museum of Ethnology is home to three permanent exhibitions. The Bronze-drum Building was inaugurated in 1997 and was the first exhibition on all 54 ethnic groups of Vietnam. Its artifacts are beatifully displayed using contemporary museum design concepts.
From 1998 to 2006, local and genous architecture from many different regions were reconstructed in the Architecture Garden for sightseeing and presevation of cultural architec. In 2013, the Vietnam Museum of Ethnology opened the Kite Building to focus to the world culture displays.
