Muong

The Muong are a highland people of northern Vietnam who share ancient roots with the lowland Vietnamese. Their religion is polytheistic and shares many supernatural beings with Vietnamese folk religion; its main festival is the lunar new year, when the Muong pray to their ancestors.

Every living person is thought to have many souls, and life passes into death in stages. The Muong creation epic traces the first people to a cave in the mountains, from which they spread to the villages; one son, called the king Việt, went down to the plains to build a capital.