Funeral Practices among the Muong in Hoa Binh Province

Abstract

This article presents the Muong ethnic group’s religious worldview. The author describes in detail their conception of the soul and process of death, and the highly ordered shaman funeral performance. Funeral rituals and Muong cultural values are changing in the face of rapid socio-economic changes and the cultural integration of the Muong’s cultural traditions with different cultures of other ethnic groups, especially those of the Kinh. These changes manifest themselves in the following aspects: practicing funeral ceremonies in a shorter time, the shortening of witch songs and food offerings to the dead. The Muong continue to practice their funeral ceremonies in order to ensure their ancestors will have a good life in the afterworld and that they in turn will bestow blessing on the living relatives.