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 People
The origins of the Vietnamese people are a combination of
the Mongol races of north and east Asia, with Chinese and
Indian influences. The population had reached an estimated
77.3 million in 1999, and is surpassed only by Indonesia as
Southeast Asia's most heavily populated country. However,
Vietnam is the regions most ethnically homogenous country
with the Vietnamese making up about 90% of the population.
85% of Vietnam's ethnic-minority population belongs to indigenous
groups - the largest of which are Thai and Hmong - who have
been settled in the mountainous regions of the country for
many centuries. About 3% of the population is ethnic Chinese
living in the urban centres of the South.
 Language
Vietnamese language reflects the country's unique mix
of racial and cultural origins, with its fusion of monotonic
Mon-Khmer, and Tai tonality and grammar. Having been a Chinese
province for over a millenium (111 BC-939 AD), most of the
country's governmental, literary, and technical vocabulary
comes from the Chinese language.
Though a writing system called Chunom, using partly modified
Chinese characters, was developed in the 8th century. It was
a French missionary in the mid-17th century who developed
a system of spelling using the Roman alphabet that employed
additional signs and several accents to indicate the tones.
The use of this script spread and it was made the official
written language by the French in 1910. Called Quoc-ngu or
national language, it is now universally learned and written
by all Vietnamese.
Religion
With ten million followers and 20,000 pagodas, Buddhism is
undoubtedly the largest established religion, however Vietnam
has a rich and wide variety of religions based on imported
faiths and popular beliefs, with several indigenous groups
embracing animism, theism and ancestor worship. Catholicism,
introduced by European missionaries, is the second largest
religion, with about six million followers, and more than
6,000 churches.
Vietnam's indigenous religions, including the Cao Dai and
Hoa Hao sects, have their holy lands in the city of Tay Ninh
and the provinces of Chau Doc and An Giang in the Mekong Delta.
They peacefully coexist with one another and have contributed
to the struggle against foreign aggression through the Vietnam
Fatherland Front.
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