The Ba na live mainly on cultivation of burnt-over land which brings them rice, subsidiary crops, vegetables, fruit, sugarcane and cotton for cloth weaving. Apart from burnt-over land cultivation, the Ba na rear cattle poultry, pigs and goats. Dogs are loved as pets and are never killed. Almost all the villages have forges. In certain places, the Ba na have produced simple pottery, women weave cloth to make their family’s clothes. Men practise basketry and mat-making. The Ba na often barter goods such as cocks, axes, baskets of paddy, pigs or copper pots, jars, gongs and buffaloes.

The Ba na live in houses on stilts. In the past, the elongated house were popular because they suited the extended family. Now there are short houses suitable for small families. In each village, there is a communal house called the rong which stands out for its height and beauty. It is the centre of cultural activity for the village community, the place where the old men gather to discuss public affairs and is used for receiving guests and performing rituals and ceremonies. Unmarried young men and widowers sleep the there at night.

According to matrimonial custom, a young man and woman can each take the initiative in marriage, their parents involving themselves only to ensure respect for traditional principles. After marriage, the young couple live alternately in both their parents’ families with an interval arranged by the two families. After the birth of the first child, they are allowed to set up their nuclear household. The children are always treated with kindness and consideration. People living in a village are never given the same names as others. In case two people who bear the same name meet one another, they will hold a ceremony for fraternisation and define hiearchy according to age.

Ba na children have equal rights of inheritance. The members of a family live equally and are on the best of terms with one another.

The Ba na venerate the spirits relating to human beings. Each spirit has a proper name like a pronoun, boc (Mr.) or da (Mrs.). According to their beliefs, the deceased turns into the soul. Firstly the soul remains in the village cemetery, then it comes to the ancestral land after the "grave abandoning" ritual. This ritual is the last farewell to the deceased.

The Ba na have a rich literary and artistic heritage including folksongs and unique dances performed at festivals and religious rituals. Musical instruments are diverse with sets of gongs of various combinations, t’rung xylophone, bro, klong put, ko ni, khing khung, go-ongs stringed zithers and to not, arong and to tiep trumpets. The aesthetic sense of the Ba na is expressed in their unique wood-carvings, in the extraordinary decorations on their communal houses and in particular the carved statues arranged in funeral houses, all of which reflect aspects of a vivid life of the Ba na.