Mnong people

The Mnong or Munong people are an ethnic group mainly living in the Central Highlands and Southeast Vietnam, and Eastern region of Cambodia. They are made up of two main groups: Western Mnong and Eastern Mnong. Western Mnong includes smaller groups such as: Bhiet, Bu-Neur, Rehong, Kong-Khang, Ksèh, Nong, Prèh, Tí-Prì, Perong, Bu-Deung. Eastern Mnong includes: Gar, Briet, Kil, Krieng, Kesiong, Rlam living mainly in mountainous areas.
Every group speaks a variant of the Mnong language, which along with Koho language, is in the South Bhanaric group of the Mon–Khmer family.
A big community with around 47,000 people of Mnong live in the Cambodia's northeastern boundary province of Mondulkiri where they are known as Bunong.

Culture

Epics take an important part in Mnong people's life. Many of these epics, such as Con đỉa nuốt bon Tiăng, or Mùa rẫy bon Tiăng are quite long.

Notable people

Y Thu Knul, a Laos - Mnong person, a chieftain who established Buôn Đôn, a famous elephant hunting and taming village in Central Highlands. Y Thu Knul caught over 400 wild elephant in his life. In 1861, he caught a white elephant and gave it as a present to the Thai royal family, leading the king of Thailand to bestow upon him the name "Khunjunob".
N'Trang Lơng, also known as Pa-Trang-Loeng, a tribal chief who led villagers against French colonizers in a 24 years uprising from 1912 to 1935. One of the most well-known action of N'Trang Lơng was the assassination of - a French writer, and explorer - who was famous for the adventure book Les Jungles Moï, as well as brutal actions against the Mnong people.
Điểu Kâu - an ethnologist, Điểu Klứt and Điểu Klung - two epic tellers, are three brothers in a family, who collected, recorded and spread M'nong epics. In August 2008, folk artist Điểu Kâu died of old age. This was a great loss for the M'nong people because they consider Điểu Kâu to be the keeper of their cultural identity.