The Hmong keep much of their wealth in the form of silver jewellery.  On New Year's Day they wear it all in an impressive display.  Even children and men wear silver ornaments.  Both men and women, for example, wear silver neck rings and bracelets.  Many women wear silver earrings.

Family and clan comprise the most important social units among the Hmong.  The eldest male of each unit has unlimited authority over the members.  He is responsible for the general welfare, and must settle all disputes.  Respect for elders is the most important thing in Hmong culture.   There are twelve clans, and at least nine are found in Vietnam.    Each clan has its own way of doing things, and it is absolutely forbidden to marry within one's own clan.  Taboos vary from clan to clan, so things forbidden in one clan may be allowed within another.

The Hmong, even more than some other tribal peoples, practice a strict male-female division of roles.  An illustration of this is the custom of giving a newborn boy a gift of metal so that one day he can forge a weapon.  Girls, on the other hand, are taught basic skills like cooking, needlework, and weaving from a very early age.  It bears repeating that the society is male-led, and ancestry is reckoned through the male line.  Polygamy is not uncommon. 

Hmong boys and girls usually marry at about 17 or 18 years of age.  They must find marriage partners from a different clan.  But it is somewhat common to marry cousins, as long as they are from a different clan.  The New Year festival is the main time for courting, and young people pair up to play games and sing songs to each other.  The Hmong girl has the right to accept or refuse her prospecitve husband, but the young man must get permission from his parents before marriage.  This is because the groom's parents must pay the cost of the wedding and the dowery to the bride's parents.  The dowery may be quite expensive, sometimes requiring the newly-married husband to work for his wife's father for a number of years.  The wife (and children) do not belong to the groom until the bride price has been paid in full.  

There is a custom that allows the girl to be kidnapped by the groom and his friends and "forcing" her to marry him.  Most of the time this is all for show, and the girl is quite willing to marry the young man.  Sometimes the "kidnapping" is more in earnest.  If the young man keeps the girl for two days, he may demand a marriage, and the parents of the young girl cannot refuse.  This latter type of forcible marriage has been the cause of much unhappiness.

Western people often visualize tribal people like the Hmong as living in a state of bliss -- in the cool and quiet of pristine mountains, away from urban pollution and stress.  The reality is quite different.  The dry season finds villages filled with smoke from burning fields.  The wet season turns the trails and village streets into a swamp.  Woman and children must trudge for miles in search of ever more scarce firewood.  Opium addiction, alchoholism and wife beating are depressingly common.  Hmong are denied citizenship, persecuted by the government, and harrassed and cheated by townspeople.  

Fundamentally, their greatest need is that of a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.  The many that have already believed is a cause for rejoicing, but the task is not complete.

They desperately need an understanding of the Gospel in their own language that is relevant to the way that they see the world.

They need exposure to genuine Christians who love them and are committed to the incarnational principle of the Bible.