“I am old. I’ve been wear­ing tra­di­tion­al clothes for a long time. These clothes are 20 years old. I wear tra­di­tion­al clothes every day. I am old, so I just wear tra­di­tion­al clothes” Tình says smiling.

Tình is a sweet grand­ma from the Black Lo Lo Eth­nic Group in Viet­nam. We spot­ted her from the oth­er side of the hill­side vil­lage. Her bright­ly col­ored eth­nic clothes stood out in sharp con­trast to the earth­en tones of the mud-walled hous­es. It isn’t com­mon to see peo­ple from the Lolo eth­nic group wear­ing their tra­di­tion­al clothes in every­day life. Many peo­ple have it, and it is still val­ued and appre­ci­at­ed, but for the younger gen­er­a­tion it’s much more con­ve­nient to wear more mod­ern clothes.

She had a warm and wel­com­ing demeanor and her eyes light up when she talked about her life and kids. As we left she kept grasp­ing our hands, hap­py to share a few hours with us.

Tình, 80 years old
Lô Lô Đen (Black Lo Lo) Eth­nic Group
Ha Giang, Vietnam

I was fas­ci­nat­ed with the tra­di­tion­al hous­es of Ha Giang Viet­nam. I’d nev­er seen any­thing quite like it, even in pho­tos of the region. The walls are made entire­ly of mud! (They do have a wood­en sup­port struc­ture.) Once dried the walls crack, cre­at­ing a beau­ti­ful tex­ture that I want­ed to include in Tình’s portrait.

Tibeto-Burman Ethnic Groups in Vietnam

The Lo Lo Eth­nic Group is one of the 6 Tibeto-Bur­man Eth­nic Groups liv­ing in the remote moun­tain­ous regions of North­ern Viet­nam, con­nect­ed through a shared ances­try, lan­guage, and cul­ture. Their ancient nomadic lifestyle is reflect­ed in the var­i­ous pieces of dif­fer­ent col­ored cloth and adorn­ments of nuts, shells, and sil­ver coins on the front of their tra­di­tion­al clothes. The 6 Tibeto-Bur­man Eth­nic Groups in Viet­nam are: Cong, Ha Nhi, La Hu, Lo Lo, Phu La and Si La.

Lo Lo Ethnic Group — Summary