The Lantun and Sida people

The villages of the Lantun and Sida people are situated about 4hrs apart, by a pretty tough trek over 2 small mountains. The Lantun village is fairly easy to get to, you can almost drive to the door of the village Headman's house, now that the Loas government has realised that there is money to be made from tourists, and has built a small road off the main highway. To get the Sida village you must be prepared for a fairly exhausting climb up two steep mountains (and at the time of this visit, also made extremely slippery by Monsoon rains).

Strangely enough it is the Lantun, this unique group of only 3000 people, living in Loas, and a few hundred more in neighbouring vietnam, that seem the least touched by modernisation. The ladies still shave off their eyebrows at 15 as a sign of womanhood, and continue to do so until death. All still wear the traditional Indigo clothes,worn for hundreds of years. The indigo dye is produced by the ladies of the village, which they use to dye all their clothes. The indigo plant is processed in a large pot filled with water, by scooping and pouring the mixture with their indigo stained hands. Eventually the mix thickens into a paste and is poured through a sack cloth and the remaining gloop is used as dye.

They also sell their dyed clothes to tourists (mainly backpackers) to earn a little extra cash, and tour companies pay to allow groups to visit the village. The day we arrived a spirit ceremony had been in progress since the day before. A village elder was sick, and the local, let's call him soothsayer/spirit guide (SSG for short) for want of a better term had just finished his diagnosis (no doctors for these guys, they believe in spirits). The SSG had spent the last 24hrs non-stop speaking to the house spirit of the sick man to find the problem,and solution. He did this by reading chants from a book that we were told only a few hundred people still alive could read it.

Once the house spirit informs the SSG of the particular ailment (evil spirit) and what sacrifice must be made to appease it the village gathers in the house of the sick man. Effigies are made of the evil spirit, and are burnt whilst the SSG's young assistant rings his bell to ward it away from the home. Then the sacrifice is made to the house spirit for his help, in this case a young goat. The raw meat is offered to the house spirit, and once it is accepted they cook it and a celebratory feast takes place.

We were invited to watch the ceremony but not to film it. We still had about 6hrs before it began so we set off for the Sida village. Even with my, and my 2 American companions eagerness to return in time (but not I think Ria's, after all she is a vegan, and I myself was feeling a little uncomfortable about watching an animal sacrifice) we missed most of the ceremony. The trek was just a little too long and coupled with breaks to allow the Monsoon rains to pass over the mountains we only managed to catch the end of the ceremony.

Unfortunately, I didn't get quite the same insight into the Sida people's way of life. They were not expecting us and the headman had gone hunting. We did get to deliver the school supplies and were treated with great hospitlity by his wife. In my eagerness to return to the Lantun village to see the full ceremony, goat an all, I turned down an offer from an elder to spend the night in the village. This is something I hope to do on my return.