...their territory into districts or zones, muangs, each limited to a single valley. For centuries the Tai Dam has their own government and each district was under the control of a chao muang or district prince, to whom the commoners had to pay taxes. The Tai Dam thus possess a long history of self—government.

Tai Dam society was based on a feudal system in which the aristocrats were the privileged people. The members of the ruling nobility owned all the land and had total authority over commoners. Commoners or ordinary people were the majority class who worked their rented land and had some rights in village decision making. A third class comprised of people who had become debt slaves of another family. Finally, the lowest social class were non-Tai people, members of other ethnic groups, such as Xinh Munh and Khamu, who had to perform labor in the fields of the ruling class.

During the 19 th Century, many Tai Dam fled their homelands after being invaded by the Simense army, and later by Yannanese Haw bamdits.

During the Dien Bien Phu War (1953—1954), migrated to other parts of northern and central Laos to avoid military service under the French. They migrated as far as Luang Nam Tha, Bokeo and Udomsai provinces.

Population
In 2000, there were about 65,000 Tai Dam living in Laos.

Language
Tai Dam language can be understood in part by the Tai Khao and Tai Deng. The Tai Dam have their own script, but most members of their ethnic group are illiterate.

Houses and villages
Traditionally, the Tai Dam built their houses on stilts with distinctive semi-circular turtle shaped roofs, which extend over the verandahs at each end. Nowadays, most of the Tai Dam of Laos construct the roofs of their houses in a rectangular shape. The verandah runs along the length of the house.

A bamboo ladder leads to the verandah to the entrance door. The interior consists of a large single room, with an earthern fireplace at the side opposite the entrance, including all the kitchen utensils in the corner nearby. The household members usually sleep on the floor on bamboo mats along the wall of one of the longer sides of the house, with protective mosquito nets. During the day, the mosquito nets are rolled up leaving only the bare bamboo mats to remind hat this is the sleeping place. Traditionally, Tai Dam have little furnishing in their houses. Valuables and traditional costumes are kept in a wooden or woven bamboo box and daily attire is hung around the walls.

The space under the house is often divided up for different functions – one part for storing firewood and agricultural tools, the loom is located in the central part under the house and one side is used to keep the buffaloes during the night.

Society — Family and Marriage
The family is the basic unit in Tai Dam society. They live, eat and farm together. Traditionally, the entire family lives under one roof, there being a mutual respect for one another at all levels. The oldest male of the family is the head of the household. The Tai Dam prefer to live in extended families, with three to four generations in a house.

The Tai Dam have a courting ball game similar to the Hmong during their lunar New Year celebration in December. The Tai Dam game forms part of an agricultural festival normally held in February in a field outside the village. Girls and boys split into two teams and play the game with a ball passed through a bamboo hoop hanging from a pole. After the game, couples pair off or sing love songs to each other.

In the past, the parents arranged marriages and it was customary that the boy spent a considerable period of time working for the bride's parents. Today, Tai Dam usually choose their own partners and don't work for their partner's parents.

The marriage ceremony, called baci, is held at the groom's family household, during which the bride bows in front of the ancestral alter of her husband's ancestors before returning to her parents' house for the other part of the marriage ceremony. A married Tai Dam woman is never incorporated into the clan of her husband. She keeps the surname she had before marriage, and after the death of her parents she maintains an ancestral shrine in their honor.

Husbands and wife generally live in harmony and their is almost no division of labor by sex. Both women and men plow the fields, hoe, fish, cook and do household work. Traditionally, the eldest son lived at home after marriage. Today, it is popular for the husband to move for a period of one year into the house of his wife's parents because of more intermarriages with other ethnic groups. After that period, they are free to move into the husband's parents' house or build their own.

After birth, three months have to elapse before the parents symbolically give the newborn officially a name by placing a cord around its neck.

Custom, religion and ceremony
The Tai Dam are non—Buddhist and so share their archaic Tai culture and social organisation which reflects to a certain extent that of the ancient Tai people before the Indianization of mainland Southeast Asia in the first millennium.

The strong patriarchal aspect of their social structure indicates a Chinese influence. Certain elements of their culture are similar to ancient Chinese culture. For example, the hierarchical distribution of dieties, myths of cosmogony and the sexual themes of seasonal rites performed at the beginning of the agricultural calendar.

The Tai Dam are not Buddhist, a feature that sets this large Tai group apart from many other major Tai groups in mainland Southeast Asia. Most members of Tai Dam follow traditional animistic beliefs. Religious beliefs of the Tai Dam are mainly centered on spirits ( phi ), life essences ( khwan ) and cosmology. They are constantly subject to the power of many spirits, including the spirit of the village and the district, the ancestral house spirit, the spirit of the sky ( phi fa ) and many more spirits of the natural surroundings.

The Tai Dam believe that the spirits named tean are the creators of mankind on earth and give khwan to individuals. The Tai Dam consider the human body to be composed of 32 khwans found in 32 important organs of the body.

The Tai Dam have religious leaders or shamans (mo) and sorcerers or traditional healers (mod). The mo perform religious rituals and advise the villagers, including the village chief, on religious affairs. The mod is employed to heal patients who fell ill due to the involvement of certain spirits. The mod can be of both sexes. He or she has the power to communicate with the troubling spirit and has the knowledge to make appropriate sacrifices to appease the spirit to return the patient's khwan .

Traditionally, if a Tai Dam villager dies, a gun is fired three times into the air to announce the death of a group member. All villagers stop work and everyone prepares for the funeral. The body is washed by relatives and dressed in its finest Tai Dam costume. The body is placed in a casket with the face covered in a death-cloth, called phaa khum naa . The body is kept for one or two nights in the house before it is buried. On the day of the burial, a pig, or cow or buffalo is slaughtered and sacrificed to the spirits of the dead. In case of a child's death, the Tai Dam don't perform a funeral ceremony, but bury the body immediately.

Crafts
Tai Dam women are highly reputated for their weaving skills. Elegent, lively, complex designs including flowers, birds, leaves and other decor on hand-woven blankets and tablecloths are sold throughout the world.

Traditionally, Tai Dam women used natural dyes to make their bodices and phaa sins. Everyday they spend many hours spinning, weaving or embroidering. Every Tai Dam household has at least one loom beneath the house, often two or more. Traditionally, daughters learn the arts of weaving and embroidering from their mothers from a young age.

Tai Dam men in Laos still practice their handicrafts, weaving back-baskets, food containers, traps and many other kinds of household utensils.

Clothing
The traditional Tai Dam costume worn during festive occasions by both sexes consists of an ankle—length tunic of black or dark blue indigo colour with rows of thick white and red stripes, running down from each shoulder to the hem. On normal days, Tai Dam women dress in a tight, long—sleeved black or dark blue bodice buttoned in front with silver butterfly clasps, reaching down to the waist. They also wear a phaa sin and often a dark kerchief or turban with red embroidery on a plain indigo or black base, a specific characteristic of Tai Dam weaving. When they do not cover their hair under a turban or kerchief, Tai Dam women wear their hair in a bun on top of the head, often decorated with a silver Piastre.

Though the pattern of the tight bodice remains the same until today, the colour has been subject to modernisation over the years. Today, green, pink, yellow, white and grey, give a much more colourful and bright appearance in comparison to the more traditional style.

Traditionally, Tai Dam men wear a similar tunic to the women. This garment reaches down above the knees. The border at the neck consists of a narrow red hem.

Today, however, most Tai Dam in Laos dress on ordinary days in Lao fashion. Women wear a white blouse or t—shirt, men dress in pants and leave their upper body naked during the heat of the day, or wear a home-made long-sleeved black vest buttoned in front, decorated with red, green and yellow strings along the hem.

Agriculture and economy
The Tai Dam are wet as well as dry rice agriculturists. Many of their rice paddies are terraced. They usually prefer to cultivate rice in paddies, but when space for paddies in the valley are limited they also use the slash-and-burn method to cultivate dry rice in the mountains.

Sometimes, the Tai Dam use simple bamboo water wheels with large jars, also made from bamboo, to lift water from a stream into shallow canals leading to their paddies.

Besides rice, the Tai Dam cultivate many kinds of vegetables, spices and fruits for home consumption. Many Tai Dam families also grow cotton and raise silkworms.

The Tai Dam rear buffaloes, cattle, chicken, ducks, pigs and dogs, all for meat. The Tai Dam use crossbows and ancient rifles to hunt small game, such as deer and boar, and use traps to catch rats, squirrels and snakes. They are fond of eating fish, catching them with nets, bamboo traps and spears. They collect wild plants, yams, herbs and fruits in the forest.