yeej koob,
good question....
1. protective spirits of the house
dab rooj txag, qhov cub, qhov txo, qhov rooj, ntuj dab (the main spirit pillar of the house), xwm kab, plag xua (each of them has a specific duty)
protective spirits from outside
dead ancestors (such as mother/father), kiab yeeb (guan yin, nkawm niam txiv, dab niam txiv xa, etc), xeeb tebchaws (also included are dead ancestors), tswv ntuj, yawm zaj, yawm xob, nkauj yaj yuam, nraug yaj yig, nkauj hnub nraug hli (sab vaj tim tswv kab 4ceg kaum ntuj)
keep in mind, per belief, these entities could also harm you if you do not respect them.
as for the 2nd question. tswv ntuj, tswv theeb, yawmsaub etc...are all "titles." they are not names. tswv ntuj was invented by mong in reference to the lord of everything (i have a feeling it was from christianity). tswv theeb was a copied term borrowed from christiniaty by the chinese in early 1900s; and since hmong and chinese are so close, mong began using the term "tswv theeb" as a name too.
yawmsaub, in my opinion, was also a borrowed term from missionaries back in 1750, after the first war of the last 3 wars between mong/chinese. at that time, missionaries were very eagered to help out the hmong after they got crushed. although samule pollock had the most influence on the hmong (and he helped created the tabtiab alphabets if i am not mistaken), there were earlier missionaries who, i'm sure, had some influences on the hmong "religious" system since that time.
if you think about it, hmong (1750) just lost the war. it was a this time that mong began their first wave toward vietnam. those who remained went through very hard time--ntuj kawg xubzeb teb kawg xub ntoo..NTUJ TEB TAAG QUAS NCUA...hince lug txaj is created at that time. anyway, missionaries took advantage of this and influenced the mong--promising a savior (christ). out txiv xaiv, nkauj, qeej, etc were all "bettered" during this time too.
"ntxwj nyoog, txiv tuj iab/daw" is purely a bible influence, used during nkauj and txiv xaiv. "dej kub hlab, dej kub npau" is clearly a qeej song influenced by the bible and missionaries.
going back to yawmsaub (a title), i believe it is also a bible versioin from "yaweh, yashaw, yeshua, yahovah, etc." the true name of jeuss is "yeshua," which is very similar to yawmsaub.
the only--seem to be--god that mong has is Niam laj sab, txiv sab sua (a copy by the ultimate chinese god...SHANGDI). some hmong call it saab tim or laajsabtim. but since it is after a chinese god, some call it txiv saab sua too. note: these names only exist in old matriamonial songs and qhuab ke.
more later
