Week 8 Summer Vang - Earth Song

In the Hmong culture much of the ancient stories about the Hmong people are told through a special song called "Kwv Txhiaj which is extremely similar to that of the Earth song. Hmong people have a vast history of oppression in which much of the Chinese dynasty and Lao Empires forced their culture onto the indigenous Hmong people. Much of the Ming and Qing Dynasty in China dating as far back as the late 1300s forced Hmong people to adopt Chinese writing systems and the Chinese language. Many times Hmong people were killed for adopting their own writing systems or for practicing customs that were foreign to the Chinese. Although many Hmong did assimilate to the Chinese language, there were a few Hmong who continued to develop the Hmong language. However because many Hmong were lost to the Chinese culture and because there was so much oppression of the Hmong, Hmong people were not able to truly keep record of their written language or keep a written record of Hmong history. Therefore as stated above, much of Hmong history was told orally through kwv txhiaj. 

As stated in the article titled, Earth song as storywork: Reclaiming Indigenous knowledges, "For us, songs are like stories. They are the things that we have from the time we are physically born until the time we pass to the spirit world." (pg. 1) Kwv Txhiaj was a way for the Hmong people to not only tell of the history, but to also tell of the way of life and the culture of the Hmong. Songs went into great detail of how the Hmong lived, what customs or rituals were done when they were alive, and what the spirit world was like after death. Much of Hmong culture would revolve around the Hmong funerals which were rich in the spirit realm and in the spiritual path a soul would take after death. However now that Hmong people have become so accustomed to simple story telling and new novels of the history and culture of Hmong people, the traditional kwv txhiaj is starting to die. Now only the elderly or the prodigies of the elderly who have practiced kwv txhiaj for many years, know how to sing kwv txhiaj. This leads to only a few who know about the deep Hmong culture and rituals performed at funerals, weddings, "Ua Neeg," and others. Hence it is extremely important to begin educating the youth and as many people as possible of this traditional kwv txhiaj before it dies out with the older generation of Hmong. 

This is a video of a man singing Kwv Txhiaj to raise the door of the spirit realm which is usually performed at Hmong funerals. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATg-9C_8jiI