The Jarai are an ethnic group based primarily in Vietnam's Central Highlands. The Jarai speak an Austronesian language and number approximately 332,557. They are the largest of the upland ethnic groups of the Central Highlands known as Degar or Montagnards. Tay Nguyen, translated as Central Highlands is one of the regions of Vietnam. ... The Austronesian languages are a family of languages widely dispersed throughout the islands of Southeast Asia and the Pacific, with a few members spoken on continental Asia. ... The Degar (referred to by French colonists as Montagnard) are the indigenous peoples of the central highlands of Vietnam. ...
The Jarai live primarily in the Gia Lai and Kon Tum Provinces, with some others in the Dak Lak Province and a few thousand in Cambodia. Following the Vietnam War, many Jarai (as well as members of other Montagnard groups) who had been allied with the United States were resettled with their families in the United States, particularly in the state of North Carolina. Gia Lai is a province in the Central Highlands of Vietnam. ... Kon Tum province lies in the Central Highlands region of Vietnam and shares borders with Laos and Cambodia. ... Dak Lak (in Vietnamese, Đắk Lắk) is a Province of Vietnam. ... Combatants Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam) United States of America South Korea Thailand Australia New Zealand the Philippines Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) National Liberation Front (Viet Cong) Commanders Strength ~1,200,000 (1968) ~420,000 (1968) Casualties South Vietnamese dead: 1,250,000+ US dead: 58,226 US... Official language(s) English Capital Raleigh Largest city Charlotte Area - Total - Width - Length - % water - Latitude - Longitude Ranked 28th 139,509 km² 805 km 240 km 9. ...
Culture
The Jarai perform their music on gongs, xylophones, zithers, and various other traditional instruments. Dock Rmah, a prominent Jarai musician living in the United States, received a Folk Heritage Award from the North Carolina Arts Council in 1996. Primitive drums are known as Tam Tams or slit drums. ... 1996 (MCMXCVI) is a leap year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year for the Eradication of Poverty. ...
External links
Dock Rmah page at North Carolina Arts Council site
Ethnologue report for Jarai language
The Far East - Cambodia
Jarai in Cambodia A site dedicated to linguistics among the Jarai people of Cambodia
Jarai society follows a matrilineal succession, meaning that family names are passed on from mother to child, and there's a kind of egalitarianism to cooperative villages of hunter-gatherers, river fishermen (villages are usually near water), and subsistence farmers.
Jarai people are rumored to have migrated from the central coast long before the "Chinese millennium" some 2,000 years ago, and settled near Pleiku and Kontum, where most Jarai people are found today.
Jarai musical talents are renowned (see a whole set of Jarai drums and gongs in the small Hilltribe Museum in Buon Ma Thuot).
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