The Elegance of the Cong’s Traditional Costumes
The Cong, residing primarily in the Northwest region, particularly in the provinces of Lai Chau and Dien Bien, is one of the minority ethnic groups with a population of fewer than 10,000 people. They have still kept many distinctive traditional cultural features and their eye-catching and uniquely patterned traditional outfits
Men wear a set of black indigo clothing, fastened with plain fabric buttons without any decorations, whereas the attire for Cong women is more intricate and includes additional accessories. The headscarf worn by Cong women resembles the Pieu scarf of the Black Thai. They often use silver or gold jewelry to enhance their feminine beauty and protect their health.
Cong women wear two types of shirts, including a long one with alternating green, red, yellow, and white panels, interwoven with unique embroidered patterns at the hem, and a black-stitched arm, with a slit at the chest and buttoned along the hem, decorated with silver buttons and colored threads. The Cong women wear the shirts with floral or plain black skirts.
Their skirts are sewn from brown or black fabric and adorned with patterns such as stripes, clouds, stylized dancing figures, and small and large tower motifs, created with colored thread in green, yellow, purple, and white. The tower symbolizes the thriving forest. The skirt waistband is sewn with a wide piece of fabric in either green or black. The belt is sewn with two layers of indigodyed cotton fabric and serves to prevent the skirt from slipping and adds beauty to the costume.
The Cong do not cultivate cotton for weaving, but they purchase indigo-dyed fabric from the Thai and Lao ethnic groups to sew, tailor, and decorate with unique cultural patterns of their own.
For the hairstyle of Cong women, besides its aesthetic value, it is also used to distinguish between married and unmarried women. This is primarily reflected in the hair bun tradition. Unmarried women tie their hair at the back, while married women tie their hair on the top of their heads. The hair bun is tied very high and secured with two interlocking bone hairpins. These bone hairpins, aside from holding the hair, also serve as decorative accessories for Cong women, adorned with attached silver coins.
When visiting Nam Khao Commune in Muong Te District, Lai Chau Province, the local girls proudly display their "Bem," a traditional container that mothers pass down to their daughters to hold fabric, clothes, and jewelry. The Bem is always placed under the family altar and is never moved. Thanks to the skilled weaving technique of the Cong, the Bem remains sturdy, fresh, and free from decay over time./.
By Cong Dat/VNP
Translated by Hong Hanh