listening to their legends, one is forced to admit their surprising similitude with the Babylonians narratives concerning the creation of the world. These people too speak not only of a unique God, but of the creation of the world, the creation of the first man, the creation of an original couple, of the first sin, of a deluge, of. a "tower of Babel", of the confusion of tongues, and the hope of the coming of a savior.All these accounts are truly very troubling indeed, as it is impossible to find out where the Miao brought them from... Other nations, even as far as in America, have like legends regarding the origin of the world
History of the Hmong, By J. Mottin, Odeon Store Ltd, 1980
Savina (op.cit.: X-XI, 103-104 and 246-247) states that the Miao inform him they originally moved to a region called “To Sia” (which he translated as a big plateau but should have correctly been “highlands” or “Toj Siab”) to the north of their current abode in China (Hunan). The move took place, following these Biblical events:He also claims that the Hmong have folk stories that are similar to those in the Bible such as tales about the creation of the world, the first woman being made after the first man, the original sin caused by the woman eating the forbidden strawberry (but not an apple as in the Bible)1, their banishment from their original home, and the Great Flood.
- the confusion of the tongues (which he describes in Hmong as: phay lu), and
- the dispersion of people (phay du phay te) after the destruction of the Tower of Babel (Nthay Ndu – heavenly stairs).
Savina (op.cit.: 103) links the Hmong to an origin in Mesopotamia where Biblical mankind was believed to have first started, for only the Hmong, the Armenians and the Chaldeans still “keep memories of the Deluge, the Tower of Babel, the confusion of languages and the scattering of peoples” - with Hmong traditions “possessing stories that closely parallel to the first chapters of Genesis.” These interpretations are very common in older books about the Hmong.
Diaspora and the Predicament of Origins: Interrogating Hmong Postcolonial History and Identity by Gary Yia Lee, PhD, Hmong Studies Journal, 8: 1-25.
1 L'auteur de cet article semble tout ignorer de la Bible et semble avoir des a priori hostiles (il n'est bien sûr question dans la Bible ni d'une pomme ni d'une fraise blanche) mais nous le citons n'ayant pas encore mis la main sur le texte original de Savina.
A lire (mais introuvable): Histoire des Miao de F.M. Savina. Un prêtre catholique et anthropologue français qui a étudié à fond leurs mythes et croyances ancestrales.
Les Hmong nomment ainsi les 3 fils de Noé qui ont repeuplé la terre après le déluge:
Lo Han (Cham), Lo Shen (Shem), et Jah-hu (Japheth)