The Culture of Preservation and its Impact on Hmong Funerals

The Culture of Preservation and its Impact on Hmong Funerals A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for graduation with Honors in Religion 2020 ________________________ ii Table of Contents Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................ iv Preface ............................................................................................................................ 1 Introduction .................................................................................................................... 4 Methodology ................................................................................................................... 5 History of the Hmong...................................................................................................... 7 Diaspora........................................................................................................................ 10 A History of the Double Diaspora: China and Laos ................................................... 11 Diasporic Consciousness: Homeland Idealism ........................................................... 13 Assimilating in Diaspora ........................................................................................... 16 Diasporas and Hmong Funerals: ................................................................................ 19 “Quintessential sense of a unique Hmong identity” Across Countries ........................ 19 Fieldwork...................................................................................................................... 22 Individuals’ Roles and Their Duties........................................................................... 25 Kav Xwm ............................................................................................................... 25 Niam Ua Mov and Tub Ua Zaub ............................................................................ 29 Txiv Cuab Tsav...................................................................................................... 31 Txiv Qeej ............................................................................................................... 33 Txiv Taw Kev/Qhuab Ke ........................................................................................ 34 Looking Forward .......................................................................................................... 38 Examples of Hmong American Forward-Thinking Methods of Preservation in Hmong Funerals and Culture ................................................................................................. 39 Teng Her: Qeej Lessons......................................................................................... 39 Hmongism: An Approach to Accessibility ............................................................. 41 Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 44 Appendix A: Glossary ................................................................................................... 47 Bibliography ................................................................................................................. 49 iii Acknowledgements iv Preface As of May 18, 2020, according to Worldometer, a statistics website that updates daily, more than 319,000 people worldwide have died from the COVID-19 outbreak.1 In the United States, as well as in much of the rest of the world, group and community gatherings have become limited in an attempt to staunch the spread of the COVID-19 virus; funerals have not been exempt from this. Because of this, it would be remiss of me to not talk about the impact of this pandemic on funeral rites and other mourning rituals in a thesis about funerals. Worldwide, traditional forms of grieving and sending the deceased off are being affected. “As the crisis has deepened, mourning rituals have fallen by the wayside.”2 Everywhere, people are being forced to either postpone their mourning rituals, or to mourn at a distance. In the United States, with the release of precautions and guidelines from the White House advising gatherings to be no more than 10 people, the National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA) followed suit, announcing their recommendation that: “until further notice, funerals be limited to no more than 10 of the decedent’s immediate family members.”3 Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota reiterated this message in his issue 1 “COVID-19 CORONAVIRUS / DEATH TOLL,” Worldometer, Last modified May 18, 2020, https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/coronavirus-death-toll/. 2 Ellen Barry, “She Was More Than a Statistic in a Pandemic: ‘We Didn’t Want Her to Get Lost,’” New York Times, April 7, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/22/us/coronavirus-deaths-unitedstates.html?auth=login-email&login=email. 3 “NFDA Announces New Guidelines for Funerals During COVID-19 Pandemic,” NFDA, April 1, 2020, https://www.nfda.org/news/in-the-news/nfdanews/id/4972/nfda-announces-new-guidelines-for-funerals-during-covid-19-pandemic. of the stay at home executive order to Minnesotans.4 Although this is for everybody’s safety, it has nonetheless disrupted the ways in which people mourn, in this especially distressing time. For Hmong funerals, which are known to be large with high attendance due to the culture of community and reciprocity that exists within many parts of the Hmong community, this makes things especially difficult. Knowing the scale and importance of Hmong funerals to the Hmong community, Governor Walz—and Mayor Melvin Carter of St. Paul in a separate outreach attempt—reached out to Hmong community leaders in Minnesota to express his concerns, and to urge them to advise the community to limit the number of attendees at funerals to only 10 people, or to completely postpone the funerals.5 Hmong community leaders heeded this advice. On March 20, 2020, Nao Houa Moua, the president of the Hmong 18 Council (a group created by the 18 Hmong clans in Minnesota to support and assist the Hmong community there) and two other members went onto the Suab Hmong News Network (a Hmong broadcasting network on YouTube), attending to the Governor’s advice, to urge the Hmong community to follow the new group gathering restrictions in place to help prevent the spread of the virus, specifically in regards to limiting the gatherings at funerals.6 4 Ryan Faircloth, “Funeral services, family grief disrupted by COVID-19 in Minnesota,” Star Tribune, March 31, 2020, https://www.startribune.com/funeralservices-and-family-grief-disrupted-by-covid-19-in-minnesota/569225022/?refresh=true. 5 Ibid. 6 Suab Hmong Broadcasting, “SUAB HMONG NEWS: Koom haum 18 Xeem MN nrog Melvin Carter (St. Paul) tham kev tiv thaiv Khauslausnas,” YouTube, March 20, 2020, video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dthHawGKZTY&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR0e CK7N-TuirDY3ckaqeltDX2Q1U_KkixL6U-A7KQX4fq4RvM3T3jYY0DQ. 2 Hmong funerals are an incredibly important aspect of Hmong culture. Funerals are thought of as the last time relatives and those who cared for the deceased get to be with them. After the burial, the soul of the deceased has 13 days, 10 to wander as a spirit in the world, and then three to be in their home—which is now their gravesite—to be fed by their family before they go on to be reborn.7 And this is only the case if they have had the qhuab ke song (an instructional song that is sung to guide the deceased) sung to them by the txiv taw kev/qhuab ke (the guide to the spirit world). If the qhuab ke is not sung to the deceased, no other rites in the funeral process can be done other than the burial.8 The importance of funeral rites and mourning rituals has been amplified by the COVID-19 outbreak. Although it is unfortunate and unfair to so many people and so many cultures during an especially distressing, mournful time, something these unfortunate times show is how important community is. Many Hmong people are coming together to gather funds for families who have lost loved ones to COVID-19 so that they can continue to pay morgues to hold the bodies of their loved ones while funeral plans are postponed. Hmong funerals have never been able occur without the help of the community. Hmong funerals are a constant reminder of how reliant Hmong people are on their community. In a time like this, when community gatherings, which are so essential to Hmong funerals, are being restricted, due to forces outside of everyone’s control, it is more important than ever to look at, and remember how this rite is a crucial part of maintaining the Hmong community. 7 8 Chue Nou Lee (Txiv Cuab Tsav) interview with the author, December 2019. Fa Chang (Txiv Taw Kev/Qhuab Ke) interview with the author, December 2019. 3 Introduction When a Hmong child is born, their placenta needs to be buried. The burial of the placenta is very important as it holds an important role in the Hmong funeral ritual. Back in Laos, “a boy’s placenta [was] buried next to the main spiritual pillar, while that of a girl [was] buried under the parents’ bed in the house in which the child was born.”9 A part of the Hmong funeral rites includes the txiv taw kev/qhuab ke (the guide to the spirit world) guiding the soul of the deceased by retracing their steps back to their birthplace. Their birthplace is marked by the site where the placenta was buried. My dad told me that when he and my mom die, that they will be able to be guided back to their birthplace in Laos because their placentas were buried there. I then asked him what would happen to me. He told me that, since he and my mom did not bury my placenta, I would probably end up at a medical waste plant because the doctors just threw my placenta away. Although he was joking, this question has stuck with me ever since. Thinking logistically, if I, and other Hmong born in the United States, do not have a placenta to retrieve, how can our funerals even be done? But more than this, what makes Hmong-ness if one of the very first things that was supposed to be done, the burying of our placentas, was not done? Were we doomed to live in this sort of limbo, in-between our Hmong and American identities from the very start? This early conversation with my dad, along with these thoughts, led to my questioning what exactly Hmong-ness is, and what preservation is. 9 Bruce Thowpaou Bliatout, “Hmong Death Customs: Traditional and Acculturated,” Ethnic Variations in Dying, Death, and Grief: Diversity in Universality (Washington D.C.: Taylor and Francis), 86. 4 The question of preservation, what it is and the best way to do it, has been, and continues to be, a very prominent one in discussions amongst many Hmong Americans. Oftentimes preservation is presented as a one-dimensional concept; either a culture is retained by staying exactly the exact same, or it is lost forever. Another fear is the problem of the supposed inevitability of assimilation. With the fear of this inevitability, many Hmong Americans choose to look backwards, both historically and geographically, for a trace of an authentic culture that has “already been lost” to them in this new country. The fear of losing their culture is also tied with a fear that they will never be accepted into this new country, this new home, creating dissonance between both the fears of preserving and not assimilating, or assimilating and not preserving. Although this conflict is obviously not a strict dichotomy, conversations surrounding the best route forward can often become fixed in a dichotomous fashion. The understanding of preservation being at complete odds with assimilation can often make immigrant groups feel as though they need to choose between one or the other. But although there, undoubtedly, are struggles amongst Hmong Americans between the ideas of assimilation and preservation, I argue that the Hmong peoples’ history of persecution, and the creation of the second diaspora, has created a stronger culture of preservation in Hmong American communities’ approaches to Hmong funerals. Methodology To find some current methods of preservation in the Hmong American community, I conducted participant observation research and interviews at Hmong funerals in St. Paul, MN. The resulting study provided me with a qualitative depiction of the practices of Hmong funerals in the context of diaspora within the US. Every weekend, 5 there are usually at least two funerals happening in some part of St. Paul, Minnesota. My observations of funerals mainly covered the procedures—who does what, and how— carried out by the individuals who held certain roles in making the funeral happen. The individuals that I interviewed held these roles: the Kav Xwm (the funeral director(s)), Txiv Qeej (the qeej—a reed-type instrument—master(s)), Txiv Cuab Tsav (the deceased’s “brother”10 who makes offerings to the deceased), the Niam Ua Mov (the head ladies who prepare the food for the funeral)/Tub Ua Zaub (the head boys who are in charge of the vegetables and chopping the meat), and the Txiv Taw Kev/Qhuab Ke (the guide to the spirit world).11 Along with giving me a clearer picture of what goes on during a Hmong funeral, these interviews also helped clarify why exactly these roles are such important, necessary aspects of the funeral process. This research was necessary because of the gap in information and texts on Hmong funerals in the US context, on American born Hmong, and on how Hmong American feelings of Hmong-ness have evolved since the early 21st century. Many sources about Hmong Americans document their lives as recent immigrants but, although Hmong Americans are technically still pretty new to the country, much has changed since the 1990s and first decade of the 2000s, when Hmong Americans were still learning how to navigate this strange, new country. This is not to say that these earlier texts on Hmong Americans, and the texts on Hmong funerals outside of the US, are not of use. But 10 The use of “brother” does not mean that it has to be the actual brother of the deceased. This role can be filled by any close (in lineage) male relative with the same last name. 11 I was granted permission to use the real names of most of the participants. In the occasion that that permission was not given, I used a pseudonym when discussing the participant. 6 through the use of participant observation and interviews of Hmong Americans, in the context of Hmong American funerals, I attempt to delve into what the future of preservation looks like for the Hmong in America. I will begin by investigating this through looking into the historical narrative of the Hmong peoples as being one of migration and assimilation. History of the Hmong Taking a look at the speculations behind Hmong peoples’ origins is useful in that it highlights a history of migration. Almost all of the works that discuss Hmong people at any length outline some sort of history of the Hmong people; the most important points to highlight are discussed here. While the historical and geographical origin of Hmong people is a contentious topic, for the most part, scholars do agree on one point: Hmong people migrated into southern China from somewhere else.12 The earliest documentation of the Hmong is in China, but many speculate that Hmong peoples’ origin begins before China because of their “physical appearance, their language, and their legends.” 13 Many early accounts by Catholic missionaries of Hmong people—who, along with other ethnic groups in China, are categorized under, and called the Miao people in China—describe many Hmong people as having “blond hair and blue eyes.”14 This early documentation of 12 Keith Quincy, Hmong: History of a People (Cheney: Eastern Washington University Press), 17. 13 Ibid., 18. Former Eastern Washington University professor Dr. Keith Quincy gives an overview of, Father F.M. Savina’s, a French priest who was sent to Laos and northern Vietnam in the 1900s, book Histoire des Miao that he wrote while being with the Hmong people. I looked for English translations of this book, but could not find any, otherwise I would have used Savina’s own words to talk about what he said. But even though I could not find the translation, I am still using Quincy’s descriptions of Savina’s words because this is an important point in explaining the muddy origins of the Hmong people and where peoples’ ideas came, and evolved from. 14 Ibid., 18. 7 Hmong people with fair skin, blond hair, and blue eyes continues to be used as a case to argue that the Hmong are not only not originally from China, but that they are also not originally from Asia. Through looking at Hmong folktales, author Tim Pfaff suggests that the Hmong do not have origins in China. In his book about the Hmong, Hmong in America: Journey From a Secret War, Pfaff writes that “Hmong folktales describe a place having six months of light and six of dark, where snow lay on mountains and ice covered lakes.”15 This along with other Hmong folktales, such as the creation myth “Creation, Flood, Naming Story” provides scholars with evidence that the Hmong did not originate in China. This myth is laid out in Norma J. Livo, a professor of education at the University of Colorado, Denver, and Dia Cha’s, a professor of cultural anthropology and Hmong culture and history at St. Cloud State University, collection of Hmong folktales, Folk Stories of the Hmong. This myth begins with the flooding of the universe, and shares many other similarities with the biblical creation myth.16 Because of this myth’s similarities to the biblical creation story, and because of the tale that speaks of six months of light and six months of dark, scholars like Quincy speculate that the Hmong may be 15 Tim Pfaff, Hmong in America: Journey From a Secret War (Eau Claire: Chippewa Valley Museum Press), 12. I looked for the exact folktale that talks about this but was unable to find it. This seems to be a consistent finding in Hmong folktales though because it was almost always mentioned in the history sections of most of the sources that I read. 16 Dia Cha and Norma J. Livo, “Creation, Flood, Naming Story,” Folk Stories of the Hmong: Peoples of Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam (Englewood: Libraries Unlimited, Inc.), 42. The description of this myth occurs on pages 41-43. There are many existing variations on the specific details in the myth, depending on who is telling the myth, as it is an oral story. 8 “related to a people who long ago migrated from the west into Eurasia and, later into Siberia.”17 Although the origins of the Hmong people is unclear, the hypotheses on the Hmong peoples’ origin highlights a history of migration which is important in understanding the Hmong peoples’ history of persecution. Martha A. Bloomfield, an author and oral historian specializing in stories of marginalized peoples, reflects on the Hmong peoples’ history of forced migration in her book Hmong Americans in Michigan: Throughout their history, the Hmong fled for their survival from those who wanted to dominate or kill them individually and collectively and to destroy their culture and way of life. They have suffered from disease, starvation, torture, and separation from family and friends. Over hundreds and even thousands of years, they have constantly experienced major dramatic change in their lives— geographic, economic, religious, social, and political. They have sought safe havens in each of the new countries to which they fled to protect themselves so they could work and raise their families.18 Bloomfield’s statement highlights the difficulties that Hmong people have faced in their attempts at settling into a place and calling it home. This history of persecution and forced migration is particularly interesting to look at because it has been cited by both Bloomfield and Lillian Faderman, a scholar of lesbian and ethnic history and literature, in her book I Begin My Life All Over, as one of the reasons why Hmong people continue to have such strong ties to other Hmong communities in other countries, as well as why the Hmong, although they always find a way to assimilate into the new culture, have a way of maintaining their own distinct culture and sets of practices. Faderman likens the 17 Keith Quincy, Hmong: History of a People, 29. Quincy, along with most other scholars, only speculate about these origins. Savina is the only person who strongly believed that the Hmong people originated from the Caucasus with the groups who are now in Russia and Siberia (26). 18 Martha Aladjem Bloomfield, Hmong Americans in Michigan (East Lansing: Michigan State University Press), 2. 9 Hmong in Laos to the Jews, stating: “The Hmong maintained their distinctiveness from the majority population that surrounded them, but sustained their ties with other Hmong in distant villages through a shared religion, language, and history of persecution, much like the Jews who were scattered in shtetlach all over Eastern Europe.” 19 Faderman’s work refers to the Hmong in Laos and paints an image of how this history of persecution continues to push Hmong people to hold onto the ties that keep them connected with other Hmong people. This history of persecution has created a culture of preservation for the Hmong. The culture of preservation allows for the ability of important Hmong practices and rituals, like Hmong funerals, to be transferred from the mountains of Laos to the cities of the US. Hmong peoples’ culture of preservation, similarly to those of other displaced groups, was partially created by—and continues to be reinforced by—the creation of the diaspora. In glancing at parts of the Hmong diasporas, we are able to see some ways in which the culture of preservation exists in Hmong funerals, as well as when it is at odds with the culture of assimilation that is often expected of incoming groups. Diaspora Before delving into the culture of preservation and when it clashes with the culture of assimilation present in western societies, a brief rundown of the Hmong diasporas is necessary. 19 Lillian Faderman and Ghia Xiong, I Begin My Life All Over: The Hmong and the American Immigrant Experience (Boston: Beacon Press Books), 2. Ghia Xiong served as Faderman’s link to the Hmong community by translating and conducting interviews for non-Enligh speakers. 10 A History of the Double Diaspora: China and Laos As stated previously, the Hmong peoples’ origins are unknown, but the earliest place they can be traced to is in China. The Hmong lived in China for thousands of years, and many continue to live there today. But, “as a result of overpopulation, Chinese occupation of native territories, and political oppression”20 at the hands of the Chinese, a series of rebellions took place of rebellions from 1733-1737 and 1795-1806.21 These rebellions were filled with bloodshed, “which drove many Hmong out of China in two successive waves, during 1800 (when large numbers also arrived in Yunnan) and 1860, into Tongkin (north Indo-China) and the northern Lao states. More left after the last great Miao rebellion in Guizhou of 1855-72, synchronized with the Tai Ping revolt.”22 This was the first diaspora that the Hmong experienced. This first diaspora spread the Hmong out into different countries, but countries that were still relatively close to each other. This was not the case for the second diaspora. My parents, along with many other Hmong families, fled Laos in droves during the 1970s through the 1990s, after the United States withdrew their troops from Laos and Vietnam. During the Vietnam War, partially as a result of the North Vietnamese invasion of Laos, the CIA recruited Hmong people, along with other ethnic groups in Laos, creating a mercenary army to fight against the incoming wave of North Vietnamese.23 20 Gary Yia Lee, “Nostalgia and Cultural Re-Creation: The Case of the Hmong Diaspora,” Crossroads: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 19, no. 2 (2008), 127. 21 Nicholas Tapp, Sovereignty and Rebellion (Singapore: Oxford University Press), 18. 22 Ibid., 18. 23 Sucheng Chan, Hmong Means Free: Life in Laos and America (Philadelphia: Temple University Press), 29. 11 This recruitment of Hmong men soon turned into the recruitment of Hmong boys. As my parents, and other first-generation Hmong Americans, explain, the CIA told the Hmong that if they helped the US and fought with them, that they would receive protection and be provided with a plot of land in Laos to create a sovereign Hmong nation, although there is no legal proof of this.24 The Hmong fought a secret war for the US, which resulted in the loss of many Hmong men and boys’ lives. They were then left to deal with the aftermath when the US troops withdrew after “the Lao People’s Democratic Republic was proclaimed on December 2, 1975.”25 Once the Hmong lost the support and protection of the presence of the US troops, the North Vietnamese and Pathet Lao began to persecute the Hmong. After what was seen as a betrayal by the US for not offering any assistance to the Hmong except for “the most important Hmong officers and their families,”26 many Hmong attempted to flee, on foot, to Thailand to avoid being captured. While many made it to Thailand, many also died along the way; drowning while attempting to cross the Mekong River, getting captured and killed by the Pathet Lao, dying from exhaustion or starvation. This created a new diaspora for Hmong people, the largest one yet. Once at the Thai refugee camps, “church organizations and small communities sponsored the first wave of Hmong immigrants,”27 to the US. Most of the Hmong who did not migrate to the US “settled in France, Australia, and Canada.”28 This mass dispersal of Hmong people created a disruption to the system of kinship and reciprocity that is necessary for many Hmong 24 Ibid., 30. Ibid., 44. 26 Ibid., 45. 27 Keith Quincy, Hmong: History of a People, 219. 28 Ibid., 219. 25 12 ceremonies and rituals. The disruption caused by the distance between families and groups of Hmong people was heightened by the culture of assimilation that exists in most western societies, the United States in particular. Diasporic Consciousness: Homeland Idealism As often happens when groups migrate from one place to another, they are expected to assimilate to the dominant culture present. Or, if this expectation to assimilate is not there, the sense of inevitability of assimilation is present. Although the Hmong have a strong culture of preservation, this culture of preservation stems from the fear of losing their culture. Regina Lee, a scholar of diasporic communities, describes that in diaspora, “these anxieties are exacerbated by such phenomena as rapid globalization and its accompanying impact on mobility and (homeland) memories.”29 These fears of losing memories of Laos and of assimilation have contributed to the rise in homeland idealism, a form of consciousness Regina Lee uses to theorize diasporas, in the Hmong community. These fears of losing memories of Laos include the memory of the landscape, of life back in Laos, and of the cultural and religious knowledge attached to those places. R. Lee defines homeland idealism as: a type of consciousness that “credits the homeland as being the most powerful motivator of diasporic behavior… consciously and psychically located in the past and looking back at that past, idealizing it in the form of a ‘magical belief’ so that the past becomes larger than life.” 30 This formulation of a diasporic consciousness places emphasis on the “homeland” and a sort of longing for 29 Regina Lee, “Theorizing Diasporas: Three Types of Consciousness,” in Asian Diasporas, ed. Robbie B. H. Goh and Shawn Wong, Cultures, Identity, Representation (Hong Kong University Press, 2004), 54. 30 Ibid., 59. 13 how life used to be. For this reason, it describes many Hmong American communities very well. Although the Hmong do not have a homeland like the Jewish concept of Israel, there is still a similar longing for Laos as if it is the Hmong homeland, “because it is the immediate motherland where many of the first generation Hmong in Western countries were born or grew up.”31 Many memories of Hmong life in Laos are tied to the agrarian, village lifestyle that is often described in faultless language by those who grew up in Laos. Even the conflicts between the Hmong and Lao, pre-Indochina and Vietnam War, often get reduced to small disagreements to maintain this idyllic memory of the past. Homeland idealism keeps groups in diaspora focused on an imagined past, making it easier to forget the bad times, creating a culture of preservation based in nostalgia. The second Hmong diaspora’s contribution to the Hmong culture of preservation is defined by looking backwards to see what is true, and how to replicate it, in order to become true, authentic Hmong again. After some years of adjusting to life in the US, many Hmong Americans began going back to Laos and Thailand to visit family and homes that were left behind. When they went back, many of them made documentaries recording what life was like in Laos and Thailand. Something that happened with the creation of these documentaries, is that the way of life that was documented in these home-videos became conflated with this idea of an authentic, “real” Hmong life. Gary Yia Lee focuses on this transnational activity as one of the key links connecting Hmong in the Hmong diaspora. He lays out the idea that Hmong Americans who go back and document Laos and Thailand are simply attempting to make a profit: Those who are more enterprising have made feature movies based on their former lifestyles and legends in the homeland—historical documentaries that show 31 Gary Yia Lee, “Nostalgia and Cultural Re-Creation,” 128. 14 scenes from the old country—all of which are aimed to make financial profits from the exiled Hmong communities by appealing to their melancholy longing for a mythical homeland.32 Although there are sure to be some folks who are simply aiming at making financial profits, I disagree with G. Lee’s assumption that these films are only made by moneyhungry entrepreneurs. In fact, many of these films are made by nostalgic Hmong Americans who go back to Laos and Thailand with the intention of filming these scenes and stories to share with their families and friends back home.33 Hmong Americans do go back and film their Hmong Lao, or Hmong Thai, relatives performing rituals. But this is not purely for profit. Although these videos are feeding into Hmong Americans nostalgia for their homeland, many Hmong Americans who film these videos believe that they are helping their relatives back in America, or other western countries, learn how to do these rituals in the authentic way. This feeds into the homeland idealism theory, but at the same time, it highlights the aspects of Hmong culture that are thought of as important. Videos are made by Hmong from western countries to bring back to show their relatives and friends because the practices and ways of living that are captured are thought of as cultural skills and cultural knowledge that are necessary to know and remember. 32 Ibid., 129. There used to be many VHS tapes sold at Hmong New Year and the Fourth of July celebrations in Minnesota. These VHS tapes were made by Hmong Americans (mostly Hmong men) documenting their trips back to Laos and Thailand. In these videos, they would mostly go to visit their relatives who stayed behind, go and converse with “real” Hmong people about life in Laos and Thailand, and/or just show what the landscape looked like. These tapes were often tear-filled documentations of reunions between family members who had not seen each other in decades, or who had not known until recently that their family members were alive. In these videos, because a hu plig (calling the soul) ceremony is often done for someone when they come back to Laos or Thailand, there were also often documentations of the hu plig ceremony. 33 15 But by showing what life for Hmong people back in Laos and Thailand is like, the users of this transnational media form are implying that there is an authentic way to be Hmong, and that that is not the way that Hmong Americans are doing it. This contributes to why so many Hmong Americans especially have so much fear about the future of Hmong culture and feel such a strong urge to preserve through looking back. But this fear is not only created through the production of documentaries showing what Hmong life is like in Laos and Thailand. Much of this fear and push to preserve through looking back comes from the culture of assimilation in the US. First-generation Hmong use these forms as a way of reliving the past, not of trying to re-create the practices as they are done in Laos and Thailand. But the implications of the sentiment behind these videos of homeland idealism and authenticity as fixed in the past often make the 1.5-generation and second generation Hmong Americans feel that there is no way to be Hmong without replicating the past, complicating their senses of identity in a multi-cultural world. Assimilating in Diaspora As the first-generation Hmong refugees attempted to cling onto their way of life back in Laos and Thailand, their children, both the 1.5-generation and second-generation, were brought up immersed in American culture. This is not inherently a dichotomy, as multi-culturalism obviously exists, but with the Hmong’s culture of preservation, the culture of assimilation present in the US brought about difficulties that many Hmong parents and grandparents were not expecting. With regards to the new generations, Gary Yia Lee explains that: In the rush to assimilate to mainstream Western societies, or in the daily rat race to make a living, many Hmong have no time to learn their own cultural skills, and have become vicarious spectators…In their preference to consume rather than produce, many Hmong in diaspora also prefer to convert to other religions simply 16 because they find Hmong rituals too hard to learn, or to have too little relevance in their new life. These factors have greatly contributed to Hmong culture undergoing many changes, replacements, or losses.34 Lee’s explanation reveals a couple of things. The first is voicing the struggle that many immigrant groups face; assimilating into a culture in order to have the chance of succeeding in this new country. Because it can often be harder for first-generation immigrants to assimilate, this generation often encourages their children to assimilate, to heighten their chances of success. In the process of assimilating, in concurrence with Lee, many children of first-generation Hmong immigrants do not have time to also fully learn about their culture. Another point that Lee’s explanation reveals is that Hmong culture and American culture can often be pitted against one another. He hits on the notion that if one culture is chosen, then the other one must not be relevant anymore. Lee’s explanation almost seems to portray the children of first-generation immigrants as having a flippant attitude towards Hmong culture. Lillian Faderman echoes Lee’s argument while also complicating it by focusing on the struggles that these younger generations face: “They want to honor their parents’ culture by learning aspects of it, but there is no time to do that in America…Learning about your parents’ culture necessarily takes a low priority compared to preparing yourself to succeed in America—which entails learning about the larger American culture.”35 Faderman adds to Lee’s account, that although the subsequent generations do not necessarily want to lose knowledge of, or a connection to, their parents’ grasp of Hmong culture, that juggling both cultures can be difficult and one’s “relevance,” or seeming “importance” can often dominate the other. 34 35 Ibid., 131. Faderman and Xiong, I Begin My Life All Over, 13. 17 Yet even though this struggle between preservation and assimilation exists, G. Lee, along with most of the participants I interviewed, emphasizes that there are still young people finding the time to maintain and preserve these “cultural skills.” G. Lee explains that this is done through the cultural reproduction strategies of: [1)] relearning ritual chants and their performances such as the funeral music qeej tuag36 (life-ending mortuary music) or the txiv xaiv37 (selective blessing) chanting by young people and individuals through classes sponsored by Hmong organizations… [2)] encouraging the use of modified religious and funeral rituals so as to render them more acceptable to the new societies they now live in… [and 3) as was talked about earlier,] the production and consumption of large numbers of music videos, feature films, and video documentaries depicting “real” heritage items and traditions from the homeland.38 All of these strategies suggest that Hmong Americans and Hmong American youth are attempting to preserve the cultural skills that have been so important to Hmong for so long. Although assimilation happens and some aspects of Hmong culture are lost along the way, but as G. Lee and Nicholas Tapp, an anthropology professor at the Australian National University in Canberra, Australia, who did extensive field research on the Hmong people of Thailand and China, note, there are some aspects of Hmong culture that are quintessential parts of the Hmong culture. There continue to be many shared aspects between Hmong groups from different countries that are distinctly Hmong, such as some of the main rites that continue to be a part of Hmong funerals. 36 Another term for the qeej tu siav (the song of expiring life) Another term for the txiv taw kev/qhuab ke (the guide to the spirit world) 38 Gary Yia Lee, “Nostalgia and Cultural Re-Creation,” 137. 37 18 Diasporas and Hmong Funerals: “Quintessential sense of a unique Hmong identity”39 Across Countries In his book The Hmong of China: Context, Agency, and the Imaginary, Tapp records his observations of a Hmong village and the rituals and culture that exist there in an attempt to identify what similarities and differences exist between the Hmong and Han of the region. Although Tapp’s main research focused on Hmong communities in Thailand, he decided to study a group of Hmong of China because of how the Hmong of Thailand often talked about their nostalgic longing for China as the “authentic” place of Hmong culture and knowledge: Power, knowledge, capability, sovereignty, is always located in these accounts in the long-ago, and that agency is located in the lands of China where, it is almost always assumed, Hmong traditions and customs must have been better preserved…Any Hmong with a concern for his past and culture (and there are many of these) will wish to visit China to see how Hmong culture should be “properly” performed.40 The longing described among the Hmong of Thailand for an authentic Hmong China is something that Hmong Americans experience as well, but rather than longing for an authentic Hmong China, most long for an authentic Hmong Laos. There is a belief that every time the Hmong migrate, a little bit of knowledge is lost. The place that came before always holds more knowledge than the place that they are in now. Although this belief does not only pertain to Hmong funerals—but to all of Hmong culture—this belief makes looking at China and the Hmong of China’s death rituals necessary, for China is the first known location of the Hmong, and therefore the most “authentic” because of its 39 Nicholas Tapp, The Hmong of China: Context, Agency, and the Imaginary, (Leiden: Brill), 188. 40 Ibid., 16. 19 title as the authentic geographic past of the Hmong. This is not for the sake of finding the “authentic” Hmong funeral practices, but to see what aspects are shared and what aspects are different. Examining Tapp’s account of Hmong Chinese funeral rites, alongside other texts, highlights the existing differences between the ways in which the rituals are conducted in China versus elsewhere; but even so, there remain similarities, such as the sense of nostalgia, which remains even for the Hmong of China. In his chapter on funeral rites, “The Primacy of Death Rituals,” Tapp details information such as the family’s responsibilities after the death of a family member (focusing on his observations of the deaths and funerals of elderly men, in particular) and the rites that take place during the funeral, “which may last up to two weeks.”41 Some of the responsibilities of the family, that need to be done before the funeral begins, include: The ceremonial shaving and cutting of the hair by the sons and daughters of the deceased, enormous practical preparations…such as the making of the drum and the plaiting of a hemp rope. Two or more messengers, lineage relatives, are despatched to invite and inform relatives of the death…and to invite the ritual specialists who include the Master of the Way and the players of the qeej and drum. Then there is the clothing of the corpse in the special clothes usually prepared many years before for burial, and the washing of the face by his or her sons (usually their wives).42 This account of pre-funeral proceedings, although there are still differences, is not too different from the proceedings that take place in a Hmong village in Thailand that author Patricia Symonds recounts in her book Calling in the Soul: Gender and the Cycle of Life in a Hmong Village. Symonds mentions observing all of the proceedings that Tapp 41 42 Ibid., 170. Ibid., 170. 20 mentions above,43 but does not mention anything about a “ceremonial shaving and cutting of the hair.” Tapp attributes some of the differences, such as this one, to the Han’s, the majority group, influence on the Hmong of China. But even though there has been Han influence on the Hmong of China, these two texts emphasize the importance of the qhuab ke (“Showing the Way”44 or the “Song of Opening the Way”45) song, “which guides [the soul] back to the village of his ancestors from where he will be reborn as a member of the same clan, sung by a local Master of the Way who has been specially invited to the funeral”46 and the qeej (a reed-pipe instrument made “of six bamboo pipes and a wooden chamber similar to a wind chest, through which the voice intones a highly stylized and ritualistic language”47) songs, along with the drum, that also guide the soul. Bruce Thowpaou Bliatout, a Hmong American author and medical administrator born in Laos, describes the prefuneral customs to the post-funeral activities that were performed when he lived in Laos, in his essay from 1993, “Hmong Death Customs: Traditional and Acculturated.” Some of these prefuneral customs include picking a funeral site, purchasing the coffin, and providing the deceased with a set of clothes and animal sacrifices to take with them to the spirit world.48 Bliatout highlights the same things that Tapp and Symonds do, the need for families to find and select individuals who will take part as the key officials who will officiate the funerals: 1) the txiv taw kev/qhuab ke (the 43 Patricia V. Symonds, Calling in the Soul: Gender and the Cycle of Life in a Hmong Village, (Seattle: University of Washington Press), 114-115. 44 Ibid., 114. 45 Nicholas Tapp, The Hmong of China, 171. 46 Ibid., 171. 47 Yer J. Thao, “Culture and Knowledge of the Sacred Instrument Qeej in the Mong-American Community,” Asian Folklore Studies 65, no. 2 (2006), 250. 48 Bliatout, “Hmong Death Customs,” 84. 21 guide to the spirit world who sings the qhuab ke), 2) the txiv qeej (the qeej, or reed pipe, player).49 For the most part, the differences and similarities that exist between the Hmong Chinese funeral rites and the Hmong Thai, and Hmong Lao funeral rites highlighted here are reflective of how the rest of the funeral rites differ and are similar between the three. There are far more similarities than there are differences, and as Tapp points out, “despite the many features of funeral and mortuary ritual which the Hmong share with the Han, it is particularly the [qhuab ke], combined with the playing of the various qeej and the gentle feeding of the corpse, that a quintessential sense of a unique Hmong identity and past is expressed.”50 Although there are differences that exist between Hmong funeral rites, there are also aspects that remain distinctly Hmong. It is not the fact that there are more similarities than differences that is important. The important part is what the similarities are. The similarities in this diaspora continue to be having a culture of preservation and homeland idealism, a focus on community and reciprocity, and an emphasis on the qhuab ke song and the qeej, both of which are a part of Hmong funerals. These are the things that remain prominent parts of Hmong culture in the midst of the diaspora. These are also some of the things that were most touched upon in my research. Fieldwork In December of 2019 and January of 2020, I attended two funerals and conducted research through participant observation and interviews in St. Paul, Minnesota. Today, 49 50 Ibid., 85. Nicholas Tapp, The Hmong of China, 188. 22 Hmong funerals51 in the US often occur over a period of three to four days, starting on Friday and with the burial on Monday morning, to be in accordance with the American work week. This research provided me with a qualitative depiction of what the duties of individuals in special roles entail. My observations of funerals mainly covered the procedures—who does what, and how—carried out by the individuals who held certain roles in making the funeral happen. Along with giving me a clearer picture of what goes on during a Hmong funeral, these interviews also helped shed light on why exactly these roles are such important, necessary aspects of the funeral process. Each of the participants explained their duties in great detail, from how they were chosen to fulfill this role at this funeral, to what they actually do during the funeral, to how they acquired these skills. The individuals that I interviewed held these roles: the Kav Xwm (the funeral director(s)), Txiv Qeej (the qeej—a reed-type instrument— master(s)), Txiv Cuab Tsav (the deceased’s “brother”52 who makes offerings to the deceased), the Niam Ua Mov (the head ladies who prepare the food for the funeral)/Tub Ua Zaub (the head boys who are in charge of the vegetables and chopping the meat), and the Txiv Taw Kev/Qhuab Ke (the guide to the spirit world). Understanding the duties that these individuals described, gave me a clearer understanding of what Hmong funerals are like and how they are carried out. Along with this, interviewing these individuals 51 My use of the term “Hmong funerals” refers to funerals done by, and for, Hmong people who still follow kev cai dab qhuas Hmoob (the “traditional” religious rites and practices of Hmong people). This is not to say that “untraditional” funerals done by Hmong people (e.g. funerals done by, and for, Hmong Christians) are not still Hmong funerals. This distinction is simply made to clarify which Hmong funerals I attended and examine in this paper. 52 The use of “brother” does not mean that it has to be the actual brother of the deceased. This role can be filled by any close (in lineage) male relative with the same last name. 23 highlighted the aspects of Hmong funerals that are thought of as important, and worthy of being preserved. Through the descriptions of their roles and explanations of why their roles are important in, and out of, the context of a Hmong funeral, I also obtained a better understanding of how the Hmong culture of preservation functions in regards to these roles, and in regards to the cultural knowledge that was deemed the most important by each individual. Through my fieldwork, I learned a lot about Hmong funerals and how they are conducted. But I also learned how important it is to already have extensive cultural knowledge of Hmong culture and Hmong funerals to even begin to learn the skills and knowledge needed for these roles. Because of this, it is important to have more context and knowledge of what goes on at Hmong funerals, and not just the aspects that have been thought of as the quintessential parts, highlighted earlier by Tapp and G. Lee, of Hmong culture. It is important to note that both of the funerals that I attended were funerals for elderly Hmong men who passed. This is important to note because funerals for elderly Hmong men are often more intricate and complex than funerals for any other individual. This is because Hmong men are viewed as the heads of households and also often hold more leadership roles in Hmong communities. Funerals for the elderly are also often filled with more intricacies because of the age and impact that the deceased has had on their family and community. I want to note this to call attention to the fact that funerals and the details involved in the funerals differ depending on the identity of the deceased. 24 Individuals’ Roles and Their Duties Kav Xwm The head kav xwm is someone who is chosen by the family of the deceased to take charge of the deceased’s funeral. Tong Pao Vue, the head kav xwm at one funeral, explained how a kav xwm comes to take on this role at any particular funeral, saying: “When someone is 120 years old, the family begs* the kav xwm to come work for them.”53 He is asked by the family of the deceased to come help them out and take on their duties while they grieve. There are also other kav xwm, who the head kav xwm finds, who help him with the duties. Tong Pao summarized his role as: “one who supervises everything to make sure that there is peace and that there are no conflicts at the funeral. He also oversees the food and drinks at the funeral and is the one who resolves conflicts, if there are any at the funeral.”54 When I asked him how he became a kav xwm, inquiring about what the steps were and what the knowledge required was, he explained that although there are school-like settings where one can go to acquire knowledge necessary to become a kav xwm, that it is really just about knowing Hmong culture and having knowledge about Hmong funerals. This knowledge, and experience observing and being a part of funerals, is necessary to carry out the duties of a kav xwm because of the duties that the kav xwm holds. 53 Tong Pao Vue (kav xwm) interview with the author, December 2019. Tong Pao’s reference to “120” years of age is a polite, or “pretty,” way of referring to a deceased person. * This idea of begging is more of a tradition, than necessarily a matter of necessity in order to get the proposed kav xwm to offer his time and services. 54 Ibid. 25 Tong Pao told me that the kav xwm oversees all that goes on in the funeral home. He calls the kis (a man who acts as a representative of a family) and hauv qhua txooj—a group made up of three important people: the txiv chuab tsav (the deceased’s “brother” who does not have to be their actual brother), the muam phauj (a “sister” of the deceased’s, from the husband’s side), and the txiv dab laug (a “brother” from the wife’s side)—to come pay their respects to the deceased. These family members are important and must attend the funeral to ensure that due respect is being paid to the deceased and to their spouse, if they had a spouse in life,55 on top of participating in the crucial cob nyuj rite. Tong Pao describe this rite, called cob nyuj, as, in short, the giving and killing of cows. The head kav xwm, along with the other kav xwm, calls the hauv qhua txooj (mentioned above) together to distribute cows for the right people to kill and cook. The rules are: [If it is a man who has passed] we assign a cow to the txiv chuab tsav (the deceased’s “brother”) and the muam phauj (a “sister” of the deceased’s, from the husband’s side), to kill. But if it’s a woman who’s passed, then we also give a cow to the txiv dab laug (a “brother” from the wife’s side) to kill. Beyond that if there is a cuas nyab (a daughter-in-law’s birth father) and cuas ntxhais (the fatherin-law of the deceased’s daughter) then they are called upon and also assigned to kill a cow to bring back. This is an important rite because this meat is then distributed to the thawj lwm tub ncig56—these are the individuals who have been asked to come work and perform their 55 The kis comes to ask about the preparations for the dead and about the living and dead and if they get along. The muam phauj comes to ask what the deceased left behind for the nyab (the wife of the deceased). The txiv dab laug comes to ask his sister what was left behind from her for his yawm yij (his brother in law, his sister’s husband, aka the deceased). 56 “Thawj lwm tub ncig” is the term for the three categories of positions that need to be filled. The kav xwm reaches out to skilled individuals to fulfill these positions. It is 26 duties by the family, who are also overseen by the kav xwm—as a way to show appreciation and thank them for the work and time they are putting into helping out the family in their time of need. In terms of compensation, Tong Pao made clear that there is no set price or means of compensation for his duties: “Some families give us $100 to show appreciation along with the meat. Some families don’t have money so they just give the meat. And some will give $30-40. It all just depends on the family’s wealth. There’s no set price. It’s just all to show appreciation. However much they can give is what they give.” Tong Pao explained that back in Laos, the giving of meat (as is explained above) was the way to show appreciation to those individuals who helped the family during the funeral, and continues to be a way to show appreciation if the family does not have the funds to pay the individuals. It is clear from his explanation that payment is not a driving force that influences individuals to take part in these roles. When I asked him what differences there were between how things are done now versus back in Laos, Tong Pao only mentioned two main differences. One difference is the change in coffins and burial methods. Back then, they would make the coffins out of “wooden slats put down one by one together…They were just big pieces of wood that were laid on top of each other that would require people to carry the pieces of wood with the individuals from these three categorizations of individuals whom I interviewed. The three categories of positions includes: “1) the cuab tsav, 2) the txiv taw kev, 3) the txiv qeej, tub ua zaub, niam ua mov, and kav xwm.”56 The first two categories are just individual roles that need to filled. The cuab tsav is also a member of the hauv qhua txooj group. He is a very important person who will be touched upon more. The txiv taw kev is also known as the qhuab ke, another important, key role that will be touched upon in greater length later. And the third category consists of many different individuals who all share their role. All of these individuals’ roles will be expanded on later in this section. 27 the body on it to the burial site.”57 So the people who would make the coffin were also those who carried the body. This practice has changed because there are now coffins that can just be bought. Because of this, no one needs to make the coffin anymore. Along with this, because there are funeral homes, which are far away from the gravesite, Hmong funerals no longer require someone to carry the body and the coffin to the gravesite. Another difference that Tong Pao pointed out is the way in which the cows are killed for the cob nyuj rite. Back in Laos, the kav xwm would go bring the cow to the individuals to kill. Tong says: “You would be the one to cut up the cow to split it up. But now you go to Long Cheng58 and they cut up the cow for you there and you can just tell them how you want it cut up and they’ll cut it and split it up nicely for you.”59 These were the main changes that he could remember and that he thought were of note. From Tong Pao’s description of his role and the intricacies he oversees, it is clear that cultural knowledge and skills are of the utmost importance. For instance, things like the knowledge of who has to kill a cow depending on the gender of the deceased is crucial knowledge to the kav xwm because it is knowledge that ensures that justice is being done to the deceased and the deceased’s family. Tong Pao’s description of his role highlights the continued importance of reciprocity and community in Hmong culture. Two other roles that highlight the importance of community and reciprocity are the roles of the niam ua mov/the tub ua zaub (although these are two roles, they are combined here because of the overlap between the roles) and the txiv cuab tsav. 57 Ibid. “Long Cheng” is a Hmong butchery in St. Paul, MN. 59 Tong Pao Vue, interview. 58 28 Niam Ua Mov and Tub Ua Zaub These two roles are often overlooked and thought of as very simple because their duties can seem simple when compared to overseeing the successful execution of a funeral. Nevertheless, these are roles that are absolutely essential for funerals to be able to function. Without these ladies, and boys at some points, working tirelessly in the kitchen, no one would be fed. Staying in the funeral home for hours on end, for three to four days straight, would be impossible without the help of these ladies. The niam ua mov are ladies who are asked to come and be the head cooks at the funeral. There are usually at least two of them and they are chosen for this role by the family because the family members of the deceased, or other folks who attend a lot of funerals, have seen them frequently helping out in the kitchen at funerals before. Their presence at other funerals helps them to become known as skilled and capable of fulfilling the duties needed to see the funeral through. The niam ua mov’s duty is to make food for everyone so that the deceased’s family does not have to work. The niam ua mov are the head cooks, but there are also many ladies who come to the funeral to assist the niam ua mov out in the kitchen, either by helping them cook or by passing the food out to the guests. The tub ua zaub are two boys who are “begged” to come chop meat and vegetables. The two tub ua zaub that I spoke to explained that their duties are pretty much to do what the niam ua mov tell them to do.60 Although they have the specific duty 60 This was something that was said during an informal interview that I had with the two men. I did not formally interview these two men by using a voice recorder. It was a casual conversation in which they explained to me what their duties are and were aware that I was taking notes of our conversation. 29 of being recruited to chop the meat and vegetables, the tub ua zaub explained that most of their knowledge and guidance of what to do came from the niam ua mov. Similar to the niam ua mov, the tub ua zaub are asked by the family to come help out at the funeral. But unlike the niam ua mov, these two men were recruited through an organization. This organization is a resource made up of individuals from the same clan (with the same last name) so that they can follow a clan-based system of helping in which one family within the clan helps another family, in the hopes that that family will help the other family in the future. Although this is not how all tub ua zaub are often found, this is a new resource in place for families to find other “family members” to help them out in their time of need. These two roles are important because they highlight the cultural knowledge and skills of cooking that are essential parts of Hmong culture. There are foods that have become traditional Hmong funeral foods61 that are almost always cooked at funerals in St. Paul. This is knowledge that is necessary to have in order to be able to carry out these roles. Another role that emphasizes the importance of community and reciprocity is the txiv cuab tsav. 61 Although every funeral has different dishes and snacks, there are some foods and snacks that can almost always be found at a Hmong funeral. Some of the main foods are: steamed white rice, boiled beef and chicken, kaopia (a thick rice noodle soup dish made from rice and tapioca flour cooked in a chicken broth), kaopoon (a red curry rice noodle soup dish). Some of the main snacks are: nava (a tapioca coconut drink desert), sweet sticky rice wrapped in banana leaves, crispy lotus flower cookies, steamed rice cakes. 30 Txiv Cuab Tsav The txiv cuab tsav is the “brother”62 of the deceased “who holds the spoon and dishes for the dead. [He is] the one to hold the spoon and cup to offer the food to the deceased who has left us.”63 Chue Nou Lee, the txiv cuab tsav at this funeral, explained that the deceased needs to be offered food by him at every meal time. Before anyone else can eat, the txiv cuab tsav brings two small bamboo sticks “and the spoon and cup to bring up and laig dab, offer food to the deceased”64 right up until the burial of the body, when he has to communicate to the deceased and tell them that they are going to be buried.65 Chue Nou explained that when a body is being buried, like at mealtimes, the cuab tsav has to “bring the bamboo sticks and the cup to tell them that it’s time and tell them to drink a cup of alcohol, two cups, three cups, four cups, five cups, six cups, seven cups. For women it's seven cups. For men it’s nine cups. For a child, if they’re a girl then it’s still seven cups. For a boy then it's nine cups.”66 This is so that when the burial is complete with the dirt and flowers atop the casket, that the cuab tsav can then tell the deceased that he has nothing more to offer them; that there are neither any more bamboo sticks nor any more cups of alcohol to offer the deceased. The cuab tsav then has to explain to the deceased: “You have 10 days to go become whatever spirit/thing you want to become to be able to go into the afterworld. Then you have 3 days to be in your 62 The use of “brother” does not mean that it has to be the actual brother of the deceased. This role can be filled by any close (in lineage) male relative with the same last name 63 Chue Nou Lee (txiv cuab tsav), interview with the author, December 2019. 64 Ibid. 65 Ibid. 66 Ibid. 31 gravesite to be fed by your family, to have the food sent to you.”67After this, the deceased goes on to be reborn. This is the end of the txiv cuab tsav’s duties at the funeral. If the family is planning on tso plig/daws kauj (releasing the spirit), then they will ask for him to come and offer food to the spirit of the deceased again. When I asked Chue Nou if there are any young people learning to be a cuab tsav, he explained that there is no way one can “learn” how to become a cuab tsav because “each family has their own way of doing laig dab (offering food to the deceased).”68 Unlike some of the other roles, there are not really systems set up to learn how to become a cuab tsav other than just by watching how relatives laig dab and replicating their actions because every family has their own way of offering food to the deceased. The txiv cuab tsav’s role is one that requires knowledge from the family for which he is going to be fulfilling the role for. This is a big reason why it is important for the cuab tsav to be a “brother,” a male relative with the same last name, because some practices continue to be done differently by different clans. Knowledge for this role is gained by attending many funerals and observing how the txiv cuab tsav offers food, placing emphasis on the importance of community because attending funerals is a way to show support for the community while also gaining knowledge about the particular skills needed to carry out the role of txiv cuab tsav. Although the txiv qeej and txiv taw ke/qhuab ke roles continue to place importance on community and reciprocity, these roles and the skills and knowledge that come with them, are thought to be the most well-preserved roles, by the individuals in the 67 68 Ibid. Ibid. 32 roles and also by scholars. This is because much of the skill required of them has not been adapted in the same ways that the other roles have had to be adapted. The txiv qeej and txiv taw ke/qhuab ke roles have been better able to remain unchanged because of the nature of their cultural skills and because of the attachment that Hmong people place on these as being fixtures of Hmong identity. Txiv Qeej After the qhuab ke is sung, then the txiv qeej plays the qeej tu siav. There are often around three to four txiv qeej (qeej masters) who are asked to come play the qeej (reed-type instrument often made of bamboo) at Hmong funerals. Tou Thao,* one of the txiv qeej at the funeral explained to me that there are multiple songs that the txiv qeej plays at a funeral, but that the qeej tu siav is the most important. The qeej tu siav, “the song of expiring life” or “the song of cut-off breath,”69 is a song that also guides the soul of the deceased. Tou explains that the txiv qeej’s duty during the qeej tu siav is: To tell the deceased what their house is like, where their grandma and grandpa are and tell them to go towards them, and how to get through the hills and valleys where the caterpillars are70 going through the same path that was taken when the creator created the world which allowed the deceased to be born as a human.71 In the qeej tu siav, the txiv qeej has to explain to the deceased why they have died. He leads the deceased on the “same path that was taken when the creator created the world which allowed the deceased to be born as a human.”72 Tou emphasized the importance of * Tou Thao is a pseudonym. Catherine Falk, “Hmong Instructions to the Dead: What the Mouth Organ Qeej Says (Part One),” Asian Folklore Studies 63, no. 1 (2004): 2. 70 The caterpillars in the hills have poisonous hairs, and the caterpillars in the valleys have sharp hairs so the deceased has to wear special shoes so that they can walk through the hills and valleys so that the caterpillars’ hairs don’t poke the deceased’s feet. 71 Tou Thao* (txiv qeej) interview with the author, December 2019 72 Ibid. 69 33 playing the song exactly correct, so that the deceased knows which path to take when they arrive at the forked intersection. Once the deceased chooses the correct intersection towards their grandparents and towards rebirth, the txiv qeej says goodbye to the deceased and his duties for the qeej tu siav are done. After this, a big portion of the txiv qeej’s duty is complete. The only thing remaining is playing the meal songs to tell the deceased to come eat. When I asked Tou if there are young people learning the skills necessary to become a txiv qeej, he said that there continue to be many who go to him to learn. Tou explained that learning to play the qeej is something that is done aurally, there is no sheet music for the qeej and for the qeej songs. It is just about memorizing the pieces. There is still cultural knowledge that is necessary to become a master txiv qeej, but it seems as though much of what makes the qeej songs so well-preserved is that the qeej is an accessible skill to acquire. Because it is a symbol of Hmong identity, it is more easily able to draw Hmong youth in to learn to play the qeej. Txiv Taw Kev/Qhuab Ke The txiv taw kev, who is also known as the qhuab ke, is the soul guide who sings the qhuab ke song to the deceased to guide them towards their grandparents. The song is absolutely essential in sending the deceased on. Without it, the deceased will be unable to find their way to their grandparents. Fa Chang, the txiv taw kev at this funeral, described his duties, saying that the first step is to “give water to the deceased to wash his face to see if he’s really dead or not. The second step is to give a bit of breakfast to him to eat.”73 73 Fa Chang (Txiv Taw Kev/Qhuab Ke) interview with the author, December 2019. 34 These are tests to use on the deceased, to see if they are really dead or not. If they are not dead, then they are told to get up, if they are dead, then the duties continue. Fa explains that if the person is truly dead, then they need to be told the story of how the earth and people came to be, and how people came to die. It is necessary for the deceased to receive the information about how, and why, humans die so that they can retell that story to Ntxwj Nyoog (one of the lords who guards the doors to the otherworld) to get through the doors to their grandparents to be reborn. He then goes on to tell many other stories, like how food was introduced to earth, how humans acquired thread to make clothes, how bamboo and trees came to be, and why reproduction was created.74 These are all important pieces of information for the deceased to have so that they can explain that they are human and not an animal to their grandparents when they reach them, so that they can be reborn as a human. Upon finishing this section about how life and death came to be on earth, Fa moved on to the portion of the story in which the txiv taw kev sends the soul on by thanking the Dab Vaj Dab Tsev (the house spirits) and the Dab Rooj Txag (bedroom spirits). Fa walked through why the deceased needs to ask for permission from the house spirits to be able to leave: This guy who died today is an old guy who had a lot of respect from the community and was the head of the house so the spirits are preventing him, asking why he is leaving if he’s the head of the house, so he needs to ask them for permission and thank them for protecting him and his family in the past, but he needs to say that he can’t stay anymore so he needs to thank them so that he can go. He needs to explain that they were unable to protect him and prevent these sicknesses from him this time which is why now his feet are lying in bed and his head is on his pillow because they were unable to help him this time.75 74 75 Ibid. Ibid. 35 Once the deceased is allowed to leave from their house spirits, the deceased needs to go back through all of their other homes and places they have lived to ask permission from those house spirits too, all the way back to where they were born and where their placenta is buried. After retrieving the placenta, it is now time to journey to the hills and valleys “where they will throw away their sicknesses and pains.”76 Upon throwing away their sicknesses and pains, the txiv taw kev has to lead the deceased through getting through the gates of heaven, and through requesting the paper to become a human again in the next life, rather than an animal. Once the txiv taw kev leads the deceased through this step, he guides them to the split fork path that leads to rebirth. One path has “parents that are smiling and very affectionate. These are not your real parents. Don’t go to them. They’re just tricking you. They will treat you badly in life and will sell you. Go towards the parents that are sitting still and not showing you any affection, those are your true parents.”77 Once this happens, the txiv taw kev tells the deceased that he is going back to earth and that they need to stay with their new parents to be reborn. This is the end of the txiv taw kev’s duties. When I asked Fa if there are young people still learning the skills needed to become a txiv taw kev, he said that there are a lot of young people who know how to sing the qhuab ke and who are learning how to sing it. Fa explained that even though there are variations in the song, depending on the txiv taw kev, that all of the important points always have to be in the song. It only depends on how one wants to sing the song that influences the differences between versions of the qhuab ke. Fa went on to explain that 76 77 Ibid. Ibid. 36 learning to become a txiv taw kev requires some basic knowledge of Hmong funerals and tradition already, and then from there learning the song is just like learning a lot of other things: studying for long hours a day with a teacher. Like the other roles, a basic knowledge of Hmong culture is necessary to be able to become a txiv taw kev. Finally, I also asked Fa a question that had been bugging me for a long time: What happens to us US born Hmong whose placentas were thrown away by doctors? Fa replied, saying that it does not matter, “No matter what, we still say the same thing, it’s based on tradition. No matter what, it stays the same thing.”78 Fa’s response supports Nicholas Tapp’s note that the qhuab ke remains an expression of something that is quintessentially a part of the Hmong identity. No matter how far the diaspora spreads the Hmong apart from one another, the qhuab ke remains a part of Hmong culture and Hmong identity. This is punctuated by something else that Fa said. When I asked him what the difference, and if there was any, between the qeej tu siav and the qhuab ke, Fa said: They follow the same things and both thank the places and resources that have been used so they follow the same trajectory. But if there’re no qeej songs that are played, that’s okay. The body can still go on to be buried. But if you don’t sing the qhuab ke and tell the deceased the way, then don’t play the qeej songs. Just go bury the body. Don’t do anything. If the qhuab ke is sung, there is not anything else that needs to be done. Other rites are performed out of respect for the deceased, but, as Fa said, after the qhuab ke, the funeral can technically be finished. This points to the importance of the qhuab ke as a standalone. The qhuab ke is an epic story that describes the Hmong world in the Laos homeland, with the imagery of the hills and valleys filled with caterpillars and the imagery of the old 78 Ibid. 37 Hmong houses in Laos. This imagery is something that is familiar even in my mind, even though I have never been to Laos. These images of Laos are from my parents’ stories and from the nostalgic videos that Gary Yia Lee spoke about. Although I have never seen, or stepped foot in Laos, it feels like it is a part of me. What makes the qhuab ke song so compelling to even 1.5-generation Hmong Americans, who barely remember Laos, and to second-generation Hmong, who have never been to Laos, is the promise of being led to one’s grandparents who are finally back home in Laos, and being reborn as Hmong. Maybe this is why the qhuab ke has been so well preserved, because of its promise of continued Hmong-ness, implying that we are all already Hmong (knocking aside those lack of authenticity claims), and that we will continue to be Hmong even after death. Looking Forward The belief that Hmong culture is dying is simply not true. This idea has been supported by the culture of preservation based in nostalgia, a notion that suggests that culture is fixed and that there is such a thing as an authentic version of a culture. Through my interviews with leaders in the St. Paul Hmong funerals community, this has been proven completely false. Some of the interviewees mentioned some sort of change that has occurred between the migration from Laos to the US, but none of them used this as a justification for, or even mentioned, the idea that what is being practiced now is somehow no longer Hmong. These leaders and professionals in their field understand that change occurs. Maybe they are remembering stories that they heard passed down from their parents or grandparents about how things used to be, and how they have changed from the migration from China to Laos. Through looking at two preservation attempts by Hmong Americans, I identify ways in which preservation attempts counter, or support, 38 the dichotomous way in which assimilation and preservation are understood, and highlight some ways that the language used in these cases causes harm to Hmong culture preservation attempts. Examples of Hmong American Forward-Thinking Methods of Preservation in Hmong Funerals and Culture Teng Her: Qeej Lessons In an article from the Medium entitled “New Generation of Hmong Learn Art of the Qeej — Music for Souls of the Dead,” we see young Hmong leaders like Teng Her emerging. Teng is a qeej master and started teaching qeej lessons in 2010 to young boys after he noticed a change occurring in the Fresno Hmong population: “Since all those elders passed away, and a lot of them have retired, there’s no one to teach anymore…If there’s anyone out there willing to learn, I’m willing to teach just to keep on the tradition.”79 In 2016, at the time in which this article came out, recognizing the importance the qeej and its role in Hmong funerals, Teng, the only qeej teacher in Fresno, took on the role of passing on his knowledge of the qeej and the funeral songs. This is an example of a forward-thinking method of preservation because of Teng’s obvious dedication to the transmission of knowledge. The knowledge and skills that Teng holds in regards to the qeej are seen by him as important and necessary to continue passing on. In Fresno, California, a city with a high Hmong population, there is a demand for qeej players. Teng exemplifies a prominent part of the Hmong culture of preservation tied 79 Charlie Kaijo, “New Generation of Hmong Learn Art of the Qeej — Music for Souls of the Dead,” Medium, August 2, 2016, https://medium.com/@ThekNOwYouthMedia/new-generation-of-hmong-learn-art-ofthe-qeej-music-for-souls-of-the-dead-9a8eeb17445f. 39 around the emphasis on community and reciprocity by teaching youth how to play the qeej and also leading a group of them to go play at funerals on the weekends.80 Although Teng’s move to pass on his knowledge and skills of the qeej to Hmong youth is a seemingly positive preservation method, Teng’s position is also seen as being against the culture of assimilation (which is also tied to the culture of success) in the US. Many Hmong people, both young and old, are critical of Teng’s choice to teach qeej lessons. Although some other qeej teachers also have another job, Teng only teaches qeej lessons, “When asked what he would be doing if not teaching the qeej, Teng shrugs. ‘I would be like everybody else I think. I’d just have a job. Maybe I would have a good college education.’”81 The very fact that this is presented as a conflict suggests that there is some dissonance at play between his choice to pass on knowledge of the qeej to future generations, and pursuing a life just “like everybody else.” Teng’s choice to teach qeej lessons to these boys in lieu of “being like everybody else,” has led to him being ridiculed by many older Hmong people who believe that he is turning down an opportunity to succeed in the US by not getting a college education and also for not charging the boys more money for his lessons. Teng proclaims that charging any more than the $25 a month he already does, would just put the tradition in more jeopardy because many of the boys’ families are already struggling as is.82 To charge families more money would result in losing boys who want to learn how to the qeej. He and many of the older students, along with other colleagues of his, believe that this should not be turned into a business, but should rather stay something that remains accessible to those 80 Ibid. Ibid. 82 Ibid. 81 40 who want to learn. Because ultimately, the more people who know and have access to this knowledge, the more people there are to continue on this tradition. These conflicts show that there are disagreements within the community about how preservation should be done and how people should be participating in preservation attempts. But more than this, it reveals a culture in the US that pits assimilation (success) against the carrying on of traditions and culture. Teng’s continued dedication, despite the ridicule he faces from the Hmong American and American communities stem from a feeling of duty to preserving Hmong culture and the skills necessary to continue conducting Hmong funerals. While Teng is attempting to preserve Hmong culture in order to be able to continue conducting Hmong funerals in the way they traditionally have been conducted in the US for the past couple of decades, a relatively new Hmong group has emerged with a different presentation of preservation. Hmongism: An Approach to Accessibility A group of Hmong Americans from the Twin Cities formed a group on August 5, 2012 and established a church called the Temple of Hmongism. On their page explaining why the name of the group is “Hmongism,” they also lay out that this is not a new religion, that they are not turning away from traditional Hmong culture and practices, but that they are only making the Hmong culture and religion more accessible with their changes and adjustments: “It is only a SIMPLIFIED VERSION of our traditional religion which we call it ‘Dab Qhuas Hmoob.’ Dab Qhuas Hmoob in English is Hmong religion. And a better term for ‘Hmong religion’ is Hmongism.”83 They formed this group and 83 “Why Use ‘Hmongism’?,” hmongism, accessed February 18, 2020, https://www.hmongism.org/why-use-hmongism. 41 church because of the hardships that they observed occurring among Hmong Americans in the Twin Cities area. The biggest hardship was one surrounding the cost of Hmong funerals, which can cost anywhere from $30,000-$70,000 and sometimes even more.84 On their “Peb Yoj Leej Twg” (“Who We Are”) page, they say that one of the big things that they are attempting to do with the creation of this temple and group is to lessen the cost of funerals by shortening the time, the amount of days that the funeral takes, along with the length of many of the rites in the funeral, such as the qhuab ke and qeej tu siav songs. Much of what is said about why they simplified the Hmong religion is about making the religion and its ceremonies more accessible to poverty-stricken, and young Hmong. The language used constantly reiterates that these changes are for the benefit of us all, “Only through this temple can we protect each other from our crooked relatives, and protect each other from poverty and falling behind, so that we can grow and have a good religion like other people.”85 The creation of Hmongism was to help the community so that the Hmong community does not continue to suffer losses due to the expensive and lengthy costs of traditional Hmong rituals and ceremonies, like the funeral. This preservation attempt by Hmongism is an interesting one in that, on one hand, the attempt to make it more accessible is incredibly laudable. Hmong funerals are very expensive and add additional stress on an already grieving family, which is unfair. Hmongism’s approach to preserving Hmong culture and funerals by appealing to 84 “Peb Yoj Leej Twg,” hmongism, accessed February 18, 2020, https://www.hmongism.org/peb-yog-leej-twg. 85 Ibid., I translated this sentence from: “Tsuas yog tib lub ncauj ke no xwb peb pawg ntseeg thiaj li yuav tiv thaiv tau peb los ntawm tej kwv tij neej tsa nkhaus, tiv thaiv tau peb txoj kev txom nyem thiab txoj kev poob qab, thiab peb thiaj li yuav loj hlob muaj ib tus dab qhuas zoo heev li luag lwm haiv neeg.” 42 assisting under-resourced, poverty-stricken and young Hmong groups by shortening Hmong funerals is very innovative. Hmongism’s reasoning for shortening Hmong funerals and Teng’s stance on qeej lessons are community-oriented methods of preservation with accessibility in mind. On the other hand, there is similar language present of the need to assimilate in order to be successful like other religions. This language of “falling behind” and having “a good religion like other people” is harmful in that it suggests that Hmong culture and religion is inherently at odds with American culture, hence the reason why it is necessary to “American-ize,” which also means to “Protestant-ize,” Hmong culture and religion, in order for it to be successful in the US. Although accessibility is wholeheartedly an issue that Hmong Americans face in regards to the ability to continue conducting Hmong funerals in the US, it is untrue and unfounded to say that Hmong funerals and Hmong culture, in the forms that they are currently in, are holding Hmong people back in the US. It is because of language like this that assimilation and preservation are so often understood in, and discussed in, such a dichotomous fashion. Although these accounts are far from the only Hmong American preservation attempts, these two examples do highlight some strengths and struggles that Hmong Americans continue to face in continuing the culture of preservation that was heightened in the second diaspora. Some strengths that are seen from these two examples are attempts at making Hmong culture more accessible. The lowering of costs and purposeful targeting towards low-income families is a way in which both Teng and the Hmongism group are working to preserve Hmong culture while making it more accessible to all Hmong people. Another way that Teng and Hmongism are working towards preserving 43 Hmong culture is by being resources to their Hmong communities. Teng is one of the only qeej teachers in Fresno, taking it upon himself to continue passing on his skills and knowledge of the qeej. Hmongism is providing models of what a shortened, one-day, Hmong funeral that still contains the essential parts of the qhuab ke and qeej tu siav can look like for folks who cannot afford to put on the usual three to four day ceremony. The options that Teng and Hmongism are providing their Hmong communities is a step towards strengthening preservation attempts, because only through making Hmong funerals and culture more accessible can they be better preserved. But at the same time, because of the dualistic understanding between preservation and assimilation that continues to exist, these preservation attempts are also filled with ideas and language that frame these two as separate categories that cannot co-exist. Although the culture of preservation in Hmong American communities has been strengthened and the dichotomy between assimilation and preservation has lessened, there is still more work to do until Hmong funerals and the knowledge and skills involved in Hmong funerals are accessible to all and Hmong Americans no longer feel as though they have to choose between assimilation or preservation. Conclusion The Hmong peoples’ history of persecution continues to strengthen Hmong Americans’ cultures of preservation by attempting to bridge the gap between assimilating and preserving Hmong funeral practices. The history of persecution that affected many first-generation Hmong Americans from Laos continues to permeate through the consciousnesses of their descendants. Many Hmong Americans continue to feel a closeness to Laos, and to see it as their homeland even though so many of us have never 44 seen or been to Laos. The Hmong state of diaspora has increased the nostalgia for the past in many Hmong Americans, but it has also strengthened the Hmong culture of preservation that was created by this history of persecution. Through my field research, I saw different ways in which preservation was being carried out by certain roles involved in funeral ceremonies: The kav xwm, niam ua mov/tub ua zaub, and txiv cuab tsav are preservations of Hmong identity in that they uphold the importance of community and reciprocity in Hmong culture. The qeej tu siav and qhuab ke songs are preservations of Hmong identity in that they remind Hmong people that we are all Hmong, no matter where we were born. There is no authenticity test that needs to be passed to be Hmong and reborn as Hmong. Initially, this topic drew me in because I just wanted to know more about Hmong funerals. But as I continued researching and conducting the interviews, I noticed more of my own fears of the loss of the Hmong culture coming out into my writing. When I was young, my parents always talked about why the Hmong in Laos were persecuted and they often emphasized this, the Hmong peoples’ history of persecution and forced migration, as being one of the main reasons why we had to preserve our culture. As they explained it, losing the knowledge of our past and of our practices would be an insult to those who came before, to those who worked so hard to ensure that the future generations, the 1.5 and second-generations, had the chance at having a future. Because of this fear, I myself was caught up in this hopelessness of the future of Hmong culture and of our ceremonies, leading me to contribute to this dichotomous understanding of cultural preservation being a nostalgic preservation versus assimilation. This idea of going backwards as going back to what is true and authentic is detrimental to the progress and evolution of a culture, as 45 cultures are always changing, no matter how hard one may try to keep them the same. For this reason, looking at Hmong funerals in the US, one of the most important ceremonies in Hmong culture, was crucial. The interviews that I conducted helped me realize that fixating on our culture as being set in the geographical past homeland of Laos was a way in which we were actually not preserving our culture at all. Preservation is not just about fixating on the past and recreating culture. As the leaders in the St. Paul Hmong funeral community emphasized, the key to preservation is adapting cultures to the new environment. Many of them spoke about how impractical it would be to try to replicate the ways that funerals were conducted back in Laos and spoke about the adaptations they have had to integrate since arriving in the US as if it were second nature. In their descriptions and explanations of their roles, adapting is just something that has to be done in order for a culture to carry on. When adaptations occur, some things are lost and others are gained. But one of the most important things that I learned is that Hmong-ness cannot be lost. If we are all to be guided back to Laos, to our grandparents’ homes, and to be reborn as a Hmong person at the end of all of this, how can it possibly be that we lost our Hmong-ness just by being in a new country? 46 Appendix A: Glossary cob nyuj – The giving and killing of cows. hauv qhua txooj — A group made up of three important people: the txiv chuab tsav (the deceased’s “brother” who does not have to be their actual brother), the muam phauj (a “sister” of the deceased’s, from the husband’s side), and the txiv dab laug (a “brother” from the wife’s side). hu plig – A ceremony done by s shaman to call in someone’s soul. kav xwm – The funeral director(s). kev cai dab qhuas Hmoob – The “traditional” religious rites and practices of Hmong people. laig dab – The txiv cuab tsav’s duty of offering food to the deceased. niam ua mov – The head ladies who prepare the food for the funeral. qeej – A reed-type instrument often made out of bamboo. qeej tu siav – The “song of expiring life” is a song played by the txiv qeej to guide the soul of the deceased. qhuab ke (song) – The song that is sung by the txiv taw kev/qhuab ke (soul guide) to guide the deceased on their path to the spirit world. thawj lwm tub ncig – The individuals who have been asked to come work and perform their duties by the family, who are overseen by the kav xwm. 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