Tea plays a very important role in the marriage ceremony of the Dara-Ang people. In fact the wedding cannot take place without it. Following the beliefs of the Dara-Ang people tea symbolizes engagement and communicates to the society that the couple will be married. A Dara-Ang legend tells the story of two teenagers who fell in love. The man was very poor and didn’t have enough money for marriage. The couple used “Ya-Yer” or tea leaf as a symbol of their engagement and give it as an offering to announce their intentions to their ancestors. Throughout history the Dara-Ang people have used tea as an essential element of the wedding ceremony. |
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| Tea is used as a symbol to
teach the couple about the nature of marriage. The leaves have
qualities of bitterness and sweetness, alluding to the fact that living
as a couple is both bitter and sweet. This shows that the pair must
endeavor to endure through life like the tea leaves and the tea. When
the bride moves to come and live with the bridegroom, a new room must be
prepared to welcome the new daughter-in-law. As children are born and
the family expands the older brother may move away to his own house
with his new family. He must ensure that his younger brothers can take
care of his parents. The Dara-Ang hold strongly to this tradition of
obligation to their parents because they believe in expressing the
gratitude towards their parents for bringing them up. After a woman has agreed to marriage, the man will return home for an auspicious meeting with the village fortune teller. After that, the man will arrange the date of the wedding with the bride. The Dara-Ang people use boiled eggs to show honor to the family of the bride. An egg is given to each relative who attends during the three days of the ceremony. In a Dara-Ang wedding, a separate ceremony is arranged for both the man and the woman. Each of them invites friends and relatives to share a meal. The man will pay all expenses involved in the ceremony. If the man cannot afford this, the woman will pay and the man must stay with her family. |
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When the marriage ceremony reaches its last day, the bridegroom and the bride’s guide, “Por-Nang”, go to the bridegroom’s house. When the bridegroom and friends reach the bride’s house they must perform a ceremony called “Ga-Hmam” as they believe the ceremony ensures that they will live in the house for a long time and that bad spirits cannot separate the couple. Therefore, the “Ga-Hmam” ceremony shows that they are a complete couple and is an important part of the wedding. When the ceremony is finished, the bride is taken to the bridegroom’s house along with the couple’s friends. When they arrive at the bridegroom’s house, elders from the community come to hold a ceremony. The elders give blessings to the bridegroom using tea leaves and then boil the leaves and drink the tea all together |
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| The day after the series of
ceremonies has finished, the couple go to the temple to gain merit.
From that time the couple will take a novitiate as their adopted child.
For example, if the novice has the Buddhist name “Naam-Sang”, the wife
will call her husband that Naam-Sang’s father and the husband will
call his wife Naam-Sang’s mother. This shows respect to one another. The names that the couple call each other change again when the wife gives birth. They then use the name of the child they have given birth to to replace the name of the adopted child. For example if the mother and father are originally called “Naam-Sang” and they call their first child “Nim” then the mother and the father will use “Nim” to call each other. Generally, Dara-Ang people will marry between the age of 16 and 20 years old, as this is the period of time is when the woman is at reproductive age. A woman younger than this age is called “Di-Pea” in Dara-Ang language, and a man is called “Ga-Yom”. However, in Dara-Ang marriages there is often an age gap as womens marry earlier than men. The Dara-Ang tribe divides into the following age groups: |
- birth to 3 years old - “Gong-Da”
- 4-8 years old - “Gro-Roy”
- 9-15 years old - “Gro-Ra”
- 16-20 years old -“ Di-Pea”
- 21-30 years old - Ya-Ba-Nueb” (meaning housewife).
- 31-45 years old - “Ya-Ba-Nueb-Kae”
- Over 46 years old - “Ya-Gud”
Old women who have not married are called “Di-Pea”Brui”, meaning spinster.
Men:
Age groups are divided similarly to women
- birth - 3 years old - “God’Nga”
- 4-8 years old -“Gro’Roy”
- 9-15 years old - “Gro-Ra”
- 16-20 years old - “Ga-Yom”
-21-30 years old - “Da-Ba-Nueb” (meaning Husband)
- 31-45 years old - “Da-Ba-Nueb-Ga”
- Over 46 years old - “Da-Gued”
Old men who have not married are called “Ga-Yom-Brui”
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