According to the Tai Dam's creation story, the Lo Cam family is to be the ruling class and the Luong the priests.

As communism descended on South Vietnam and Laos, the Tai Dam feared reprisals for their anticommunist past.

Arthur Crisfield, an American language instructor, wrote letters to foreign governments on the group's behalf.

[1] Early in their history, the Thai adopted wet rice cultivation, using suitable irrigation networks.

They also cultivate swidden fields, where they grow rice, corn, and subsidiary crops, especially cotton, indigo and mulberry for cloth weaving.

[2] The ethnic group's name originates from the traditional black skirts and headdresses worn by Tai Dam women.

Pregnant women are not allowed at funerals for fear of spirits surrounding the situation, which Tai Dam believe can infiltrate the woman's womb and be born through the fetus.

A meal cannot go without ground chili mixed with salt and accompanied by mint, coriander leaves and onion.

Cooked food processing ranges from roasting, steaming and drying to condensing frying, and boiling.

Tai women wear short and colorful blouses, accented down the front with lines of silver buttons in the shapes of butterflies, spiders and cicadas.

On festival occasions, Tai women can wear an extra black dress, with an underarm seam or like a pullover which has an open collar, thus revealing the silver buttons inside.

White Tai men have an additional upper pocket on the left and their collar is fastened with a cloth band.

At festivals, people wear long black dresses, with split underarm seams and an internal white blouse.

Baskets may be carried with the aid of tump lines tied around the carrier's forehead; at times, pack horses are used.

In the past, the Tai respected the selling and buying of marriage and the son-in-law's staying with the girl's family.

Tai women generally adopt the custom of wearing their hair in a bun or chignon immediately after this first wedding ceremony.

The mother is warmed by fire, fed rice using a bamboo tube, and must abstain from certain foods for a month.

There are rituals to educate the child in gender-specific work and a Lung Ta (title meaning "Great Uncle" who is a respected elder of the community, i.e. Great Uncle Bob, Lung Ta Bob) is invited to the house to name the baby.

Xong: Calling the spirit to come back and live in the section of the house reserved for the worshipping of ancestors...