The Hmong are an ancient tribal people -- A people preserved through millennia by strong family ties and rituals. The vast majority of Hmong today live in the remote highlands of southern China. But the Hmong do not claim China as their ancestral homeland. "Long ago," say the Hmong, "we came to a land of dry sands and of cold and snow, but we could not live there. This was the second place. After that we lived in a land six months light and six months dark. This was the third place. Then we came to Mongolia. This was the fourth place.
Somewhere during their travels, while crossing a river, some say, they lost their language. Since them without a script of their own, the Hmong have kept the history of their people in their hearts. Some scholars admit that these or similar legends are so widespread among he Hmong as to suggest their authenticity.
The written annals of China add details of the Hmong sojourn in that huge land. The Chinese describe an ancient people called Miao (Meow) living in the yellow river valley in the third millennium B.C. (a full 4,000 years before the declaration of independence). The same chronicles describe an ancient Miao kingdom between river plains, and drove the Miao, further south, and finally to the rugged isolation of the South China mountains -- Guichou province. Resplendent with orchid sprayed waterfalls and melon strewn footpaths lined with poinsettia bushes, it is an area so remote that the first roads were built there only decades ago. The South China Miao are the Hmong of twentieth century -- About 5,000,000 strong. Most Hmong resist being called Miao, which is actually a term of derision. "We are the Hmong," they say, which means "free men."
From the South China, some Hmong migrated into Vietnam, laos, Burma and Thailand.
During the Vietnam War, the Hmong were secretly recruited and trained by the United States CIA to conduct rescue missions and guerilla activity in the war zone. When Vietnam and Laos fell to the Communist in 1975, many Hmong fled across the great Mekong river to refugee camps in Thailand. Those who remained waves of refugees flooded into Thailand from whence they have been resettled across the globe.
About 60,000 Hmong have cone permanently to the United States. Whether the Hmong community is 100 as it is in Argentina, or 30,000 as it is in California, the Hmong will find each other. The neighborhood is like village at home; grandma and grandpa, mother and father, sister and brother all live together. To be Hmong is to live with other Hmong. In fact, to be successful is to be raised Hmong.
Through long lost and wandering upon the face of the earth, the Hmong are not lost to themselves. A strong sense of identity preserves their culture. They consider themselves a people that exist for a special purpose on earth.
The religious life of the Hmong is centered in the household with the senior male presiding in household religious affairs. Various sacrificial offerings of food or animals are common. Where cases of grave sickness or difficult problems arise, a Hmong priest, usually called a shaman by Western observers, may be summoned to assist the family. Much of the Hmong ritual, including the routines of the shaman, is to bring power over the influence of "bad spirits" which afflict mankind. The death of a Hmong is followed by several days of audible mourning over the body. The shaman also enters the ritual to give instructions to the deceased on special knowledge necessary to pass the guardians of the path to the Hmong abode of the dead. The mournful shrill of the Qeej (keng) usually accompanies the song.
And as for new life, a Hmong baby enters ritual practices soon after birth, with the binding of strings on her or his wrists by male relatives, while chanting a blessing on the infant. "May you be protected from sickness and evil. May you grow to sit with the elders." For the Hmong, these are sacred and joyous occasions -- always followed or proceeded by a big feast including many, many clan members.
Intertwined with the ritual of the Hmong is the stunning handiwork for which he women are noted. Thought anciently to have been the symbolic guardian of the passage-way through a veil between this world and the next, the embroidery, called paj ntaub (pan dao), remains a colorful part of everyday life, too. Lavishly displayed by women and men as part of their sacred vestments at weddings, funerals, and the biggest guided by their mothers, aunts and grandmothers, the girls patiently reproduce he intricate designs with impossibly small stitch ... tiny enough, in fact, to give the impression of being woven into tapestries, instead cloth worked with surface stitching, counted cross stitching, counted cross stitch, applique, and reverse applique. Sewn on everything from headgear, sashes, skirts, slippers, and baby carriers, to cushion covers and wall hangings, paj ntaub is a tribute to Hmong women, especially to prospective brides. Portraying a young girl's ability to be diligent, disciplined and creative, it is a promising trousseau. Also sought after by westerners for its gatherings across the nation. Literally translated as "flower cloth," paj ntaub frames itself nicely with several borders, alternating between plain fabric, appliqued triangle designs, and chains of surface stitching. The center is a beautiful, sometimes vibrating, geometric picture, masterfully executed in applique and/or cross stitch, with colors ranging from the lime green, hot pink, turquoise blue, and gold, to white, earth brown, sun yellow, blood red, royal blue and rich violet. Recognized, however, for its vivid capability to preserve the great cultural heritage of the Hmong., it persists as a guardian of their passage-way from the old home to the new, from one world to the next.