THE KINH

Derivative:  Viet
Population:  65.8 million people (as of 1999)
Locality:  All over country. Mainly in the deltas and urban areas.

Customs and culture
The Kinh live in villages all over the country, but the main population concentrates in the delta. Their villages are usually surrounded by bamboo. Each village would have a communal house where all affairs of the community are worked out. Each village would have their own conduct code regulating the acts and relation of the villagers.

The King women used to dye their teeth black. Chewing betel nuts is a habit among the King.

The King society tend to be both matriarchal and patriarchal. But the father normally takes charge of all family affairs. The children normally take the family name of the father, even though some take that of the mother. The eldest son is to take care of the worshipping of the family.

The King worship their ancestors and practice Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism or Christianity.  The King also tend to believe and animism and observe many local cults. Generally speaking the King society is polytheist.

Language
The Kinh language called Tieng Viet (Vietnamese) belongs to Mon-Khmer Group, a sub-group of Austro-Asiatic Language Family. However throughout the history, the King language has been influenced by Chinese and French. Vietnamese is a tonal language. There are 02 forms of King writing: The Chinese-based system called Chu Nom is no longer used by the public; the Latin-based on is used commonly as the national language.

Dress
The King clothes is like Western clothes nowadays.

Economy
The King mainly practise wet-rice cultivation for a long time. They built the embankment and irrigation systems to support their farm work from the ancient time. The King from early have used various advanced techniques to to their farm work. Besides the King would have different extra occupations to support their life such as making ceramics, wooden furniture...