Funeral Ceremonies of the Mang in Lai Chau Province

Abstract

This article focuses  on the customs and habits relating to funeral ceremonies of Mang in Lai Chau province the so-called “cradle” of Mang people. The article discusses issues of Mang world view, such as how the beliefs and furneral rituals are closely related to each other. Mang community has many traditional funeral-related ceremonies that reflect many of their traditional cultural values which are 1) the belief system; 2) a close-knit relation between man and man, between the living and the dead; and 3) mutual help in the Mang community. In addition, this article also raises some funeral-related questions that should be solved: poor sanitation and environmental pollution caused by a Mang custom that keeps the dead in the house for a long time; waste of time and money resulted in the declined economy of the dead household after the funeral.