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Vietnamese people
người Việt

Top: Triệu Thị Trinh • Nam Phương • Trưng Sisters Middle: Phan Boi Chau • Lê Lợi • Nguyen Dinh Chieu Bottom: Lê Văn Duyệt • Ho Chi Minh • Ngo Bao Chau
Total population
77,000,000
Regions with significant populations
Vietnam      74,000,000 (2008 est.)[1] (86% population of Vietnam)
USA 1,642,950 (2007)[2]  Cambodia 600,000 [3]  France 250,000 [4]  Taiwan 120,000 - 200,000 [5]  Australia 174,200 (2001) [6]  Canada 151,410 (2001) [7]  Laos 100,000  Malaysia 87,000 [8]  Germany 83,526 (2004) [9]  United Kingdom 55,000-70,000 [10][11]  Czech Republic 60,931 (2010) [12]  Poland 45,000  Japan 41,136 (2008) [13]  Russia 36,225 [14]  China 30,000  Philippines 27,600  Thailand 19,876  Norway 18,333 (2006) [15]  Netherlands 18,000 (2007)  Finland 4,000 [16]
Languages
Vietnamese
Religion
Predominantly Mahayana Buddhism, with influences of Taoism and a background of Confucian thought (Triple Religion theory). Significant Roman Catholic, Hoa Hao Buddhist, Cao Dai and small Protestant minorities.[17]
Related ethnic groups
Gin people of China (also known as Jing or Kinh) Muong people Southern Chinese or other people in South China. For vague historical references, see also Bǎiyuè.

The Vietnamese people (Vietnamese: người Việt or người Kinh) are an ethnic group originating from present-day northern Vietnam and southern China. They are the majority ethnic group of Vietnam, comprising 86% of the population as of the 1999 census, and are officially known as Kinh to distinguish them from other ethnic groups in Vietnam. The earliest recorded name for the ancient Vietnamese people appears as "Lạc".

Although geographically and linguistically labeled as Southeast Asians, long periods of Chinese domination and influence have placed the Vietnamese culturally closer to East Asians, or more specifically their immediate northern neighbours, the Southern Chinese and other tribes within the South China. The word Việt is shortened from Bách Việt, a name used in ancient times. Nam means "south".

If regarded as a single ethnic group, the Vietnamese constitute one of the world's largest."CIA World Factbook". May 8th, 2012. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/vm.html. Retrieved 11 May 2012. 

Origins[link]

The ancient Vietnamese people were first known simply as the Lạc or Lạc Việt in recorded history, and the country of Vietnam during that time was known as Văn Lang. Archaeological evidence of the bronze age Dong Son Culture (also known as Lac Society) suggests the ancient Vietnamese people were among the first to practice agriculture.

According to a research study done by the Hôpital Saint-Louis in Paris, France: "the comparison of the Vietnamese with other East Asian populations showed a close genetic relationship of the population under investigation with other Orientals", with the exception of seven unique markers. These results, along with remnants of Thai enzyme morphs, indicate a theory of a dual ethnic origin of the Vietnamese population from Chinese and Thai populations.^[18] A 2001 HLA study headed by laboratories at the Mackay Memorial Hospital in Taipei (Taiwan) classifies the Vietnamese people in the same genetic cluster as the Miao (Hmong), Southern Han (Southern Chinese), Buyei and Thai, with a divergent family consisting of Thai Chinese and Singapore Chinese, Minnan (Hoklo) and Hakka.^[19]

Legend and early history[link]

According to legend, the first Vietnamese descended from the dragon lord Lạc Long Quân and the female heavenly angel Âu Cơ. They married and had one hundred eggs, from which hatched one hundred children. Their eldest son Hùng Vương ruled as the first Vietnamese king.

The First Vietnamese[link]

Historians believe that the earliest Vietnamese people gradually moved from the Indonesian archipelago through the Malay Peninsula and Thailand until they settled on the edges of the Red River in the Tonkin Delta. Archaeologists follow a path of stone tools from the Early Pleistocene Age (600,000-12,000 BC), across Java, Malaysia, Thailand and north to Burma. These stone tools are thought to be the first human tools used in Southeast Asia. Archaeologists believe that at this time the Himalayas, a chain of mountains in northern Burma and China, created an icy barrier which isolated the people of Southeast Asia. During the Ice Age, (12,000-8000 BC) the extreme northern and southern parts of the earth froze into giant glaciers and icebergs, while at the equator temperatures did not fall below freezing. Due to the formation of icebergs in the far north, the ocean levels around the equator dropped significantly. This resulted in the exposure of the shallow areas surrounding the coasts and islands of Southeast Asia - today known as the Sunda Shelf.

It is generally thought^{[citation needed]} that the exposed Sunda Shelf looked like a giant salt plain, and that perhaps people ventured out across this area to settle on other coasts or islands. Later, when the glaciers melted, the Sunda Shelf again disappeared under water. Because it is a relatively shallow body of water, it has always provided a safe area for traders and travelers in small boats to pass safely without the threat of high or choppy seas. In this way, the geography of the area has had a lot to do with the way in which cultures developed. As the map indicates, outside the Sunda Shelf are some deep ocean basins which were not often crossed until heavier and wider Chinese vessels (massive vessels from the Song Dynasty (960-1279) that dwarfed later European man-of-war sailing ships) could traverse these deep and sometimes dangerous seas.

As the glaciers melted and the seas near these coasts rose, traders and other travelers who wanted to migrate to other areas, or perhaps to proselytize religion, used boats as transport. For the next 4,000 years, until 8000 BC, people also moved across the mainland of Southeast Asia towards the Tonkin Delta, some stopping and settling along the way. Eventually, the descendants of these migratory peoples entered the Neolithic Age (from around 8000-800 BC), when humans started to use simple stone tools. In the Early Neolithic Period (8000-2500 BC), those who arrived to settle along Vietnam's northern coasts were probably negritos, or short, dark curly-haired people who, according to one theory^[which?], came south from China. Remains of these people and their culture have been found in the Hoa Binh Caves along the Red River and in the Tonkin Delta. In the Middle Neolithic Period (2500-2000 BC), more people appeared in the area of present-day Vietnam and settled at another location called Bac Son, in a central area of the Tonkin Delta. These people were probably somewhat taller and lighter-skinned than the negritos from Hoa Binh; they excelled in the art of basketry as well as in the manufacturing and use of polished double-edged stone tools.

Earlier Vietnamese groups[link]

Map of Văn Lang, 500 BC.

Sometime after the advent of the societies found at Hoa Binh and Bac Son, another group of people developed a culture at Quynh van (Nghe-An) where an aspect of their religion was manifested in large mounds of mollusk shells which had been collected from the Red River Delta. Bodies had been buried under these piles of shells in a seated position with bent knees - in the same position as many buried bodies found throughout Indonesia and the Philippines. This signifies to archaeologists that these early people had an advanced society based on fishing and that their religion was oriented toward the sea. At a location further south of the Tonkin Delta, in the central region of Vietnam's coast, remains of another culture have been found at Sa Huynh. This culture existed from about 4000 to 1000 BC. Tools, ornamental beads, and funerary jars have also been found at these archaeological sites. These jars were usually located at the water's edge and probably signified a dead person's journey out to sea.

Throughout Southeast Asia, the Neolithic Period can be considered the period in which organized societies developed. During this period the Vietnamese people spread across a large area from the foothills of northern Vietnam's western cordillera (Truong Son) to the eastern coast. It is thought that they lived in small communities with groups of extended families living in a simple communal way. The growing of rice, their staple food, had developed into two distinct methods, shifting cultivation, done on a dry field, usually in upland areas, and wet rice cultivation, which involved the construction of dikes around rivers that collected water into knee-deep ponds in which the rice was grown.

Pictures of Vietnamese indigenous repelled in highlands and pejoratively called "Moï" (savage). They are now part of the 53 minorities.^[20][21][22]

Cultural and historical influences[link]

South[link]

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

Vietnam today is characterized by two major river deltas, the Red River Delta in the north and the Mekong River Delta in the south. In prehistoric times a kingdom formed along the coasts north of the Mekong River Delta. It was composed of Malayo-Polynesian people and was highly influenced by Indian and Indonesian traders and religious people. This area developed into the kingdom of Champa which was similar to other Hindu-Buddhist civilizations which were being formed in Indonesia, Burma, Thailand, and Cambodia.

Champa did not become an established kingdom until 192 AD after which time it became quite advanced with walled cities, books and archives, palaces, and monuments, many of which were built by slaves. Residents of Champa were able to grow two crops of rice per year with a sophisticated system of irrigation which was overseen by a water chief, someone selected to monitor the irrigation ditches and canals. While some cities in Champa remained centers of religion and trade, this kingdom was mostly made up of small territories in river valleys and on coastal plains, each with a local ruler who was seen by his subjects as a representative of the gods. The height of Cham civilization occurred during the 6th to 8th centuries. At this time, much trading occurred between the Chams and the highlanders who needed salt as well as with coastal villages in Vietnam and with China. Important trade items included elephant and rhinoceros tusks, cardamom, bee wax, aromatic woods and betel nut. However, when times were not going well in the small coastal city-states, the people turned to looting and pirating in other coastal towns of Champa and Vietnam. After centuries of these pirate raids, the Vietnamese began to fight back and eventually conquered Champa, but not before many aspects of Cham society were incorporated into the societies of Vietnam Cham society is organized in a cluster of City-States, not very different from ancient Greece, in contrast of centralized Vietnamese society influenced by China in the north.

North[link]

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

Before the Chinese actually colonized Vietnam, groups from southern China began to move into the Tonkin Delta in order to start new lives after being forced to leave their homelands. Thus, around the 3rd century BC, changes in China began to heavily influence the Dong Son culture which was thriving in Vietnam. One important series of changes occurred along the Yangtze River in southern China. According to historians, in 333 BC, three cultures, the Shu, the Ch'u, and the Yueh began to fight among themselves, causing the Yueh to move south in small scattered kingdoms. At the same time, the central power of northern China, the Ch'in Dynasty, began to split so that a large number of princes and members of the aristocracy also moved south to start their own small kingdoms. Cantonese "Yueh" gave the name "Viet".

People of Tonkin, 1861-1880