Lachi in Vietnam

Lachi
Photo Source:  Copyrighted © 2024
Operation China, Asia Harvest  All rights reserved.  Used with permission
Map Source:  People Group location: IMB. Map geography: ESRI / GMI. Map design: Joshua Project.
People Name: Lachi
Country: Vietnam
10/40 Window: Yes
Population: 15,000
World Population: 17,600
Primary Language: Lachi
Primary Religion: Ethnic Religions
Christian Adherents: 3.00 %
Evangelicals: 0.05 %
Scripture: Unspecified
Ministry Resources: No
Jesus Film: No
Audio Recordings: No
People Cluster: Tai
Affinity Bloc: Southeast Asian Peoples
Progress Level:

Introduction / History

The Lachi in Vietnam claim two historical founders of their race: Hoang Din Thung and Pu Lo To. They are reputed to have created many different species and to have educated the people how to live and farm.

What Are Their Lives Like?

Most Lachi live simple lives. They cultivate rice. Lachi women are renowned for their skill in weaving and indigo dyeing.
Each family clan owns drums and gongs which are used in ritual ceremonies. At weddings the groom's family must provide a suitable amount of money to the bride's parents to repay the cost of the girl's upbringing. Lachi homes are constructed on stilts and consist of three sections. The largest room contains the ancestral altar.

What Are Their Beliefs?

The Lachi hold annual ceremonies determined by the lunar calendar. They pray for seeds before they plant them, believing each seed has a soul. They invoke the spirits to watch over the harvest, to ensure plenty of food for the entire village. The New Rice Festival along with the New Year and Seventh Month festivals are the largest, most colorful, and most important festivals of the year.

What Are Their Needs?

The Lachi are blocked off from Christian witness because the atheistic governments of both China and Vietnam forbid evangelism. The nearest Christian communities to the Lachi are among the Hmong Daw and Hmong Leng, but the Lachi do not share a common language with the Hmong. The two groups rarely have contact with each other.

Prayer Points

Pray the hearts of the Lachi people would be stirred to hunger after God, to drink of living water.
Pray for family-based Disciple Making Movements to soon transform Lachi society, blessing them spiritually and economically.
Pray for the Lord to move in the hearts of believers to give up their own rights and sacrifice their lives to see the Lachi people blessed by the work of Jesus Christ, the only savior.

Text Source:   Joshua Project