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The Tày belong to central Tai-Kadai language group living in northern Vietnam. They are sometimes also called Thô, T'o, Tai Tho, Ngan, Phen, Thu Lao, or Pa Di.

There are about 1.5 million Tày people living in Vietnam. This makes them the second largest ethnic group in Vietnam after the majority Viet ethnic group. Most are in northern Vietnam in particular in the Cao Bằng, Lạng Sơn, Bắc Kạn, Thái Nguyên, and Quảng Ninh Provinces, where they live along the valleys and the lower slopes of the mountains. They also live in some regions of the Bắc Ninh and Bắc Giang provinces. They inhabit the fertile plains and are generally agriculturalists, mainly cultivating rice. They also cultivate maize, and sweet potato among other things.

Tày villages are usually based at the feet of mountains and are often named after a mountain, field or river. Each village has about 15-20 households.

The Tày are closely related to the Nung and the Zhuang on the Chinese side of the Vietnamese-Chinese border.

It is common for Tày women to wear skirts or sarongs which go down to the knee, and are split up the right side with five buttons along the armpit and narrow sleeves.

Tày songs include the “Lượn”, which is a kind of duet between lovers and a kind of poem.

The majority adhere to ancestor and spirit worship. An altar for the ancestors is usually placed in a central location in the house. The altar room is considered sacred, and guests, or women who have given birth, are not allowed to sit on the bed in front of the altar.

The Tay people speak the Tai Dam language, among other Tai dialects. Literacy in their own language is quite low among Tày people, probably around 5% or less. Dialects include Central Tày, Eastern Tày, Southern Tày, Northern Tày, Tày Trung Khanh, Thu Lao, and Tày Bao Lac. There is a continuum of dialects to southern Zhuang in China.

• Hoàng Văn Thụ, General Secretary of the Indochina Communist Party.

• Nông Ðức Mạnh, the current General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam since April 22, 2001.

• Hoàng Đức Triều, pen name An Định, a communist and poet, who worked with Ho Chi Minh.

• Lê Thế Khanh is seemed to be the first poet written in Chinese language in Vietnam with the poem "Cố Hương Từ".

• Bế Văn Phụng, Tư Thiên Quản Nhạc Madarin of Mạc reign who transfer Theng music into a kind of imperial music, author of lượn "Tam Nguyên".

• Nông Quỳnh Vân, author of lượn "Hồng Nhan Tứ Qúy".

• Hoàng Đức Hậu, a famous poet, composing the first of two parallel line of verse that nobody can't make the second one.

• Nông Quốc Chấn, a famous poet.

• Nông Văn Dền, alias Kim Đồng, is one of five first unionist of Ho Chi Minh Young Pioneer Union (an chidren organization of Communist Party of Vietnam).

• La Văn Cầu, an army hero in resistant war against French colonial.

• Bế Văn Đàn, an army hero in resistant war against French colonial.

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