In this study, mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequence polymorphism was used to assess genetic diversity of nine Vietnamese local chicken breeds. In addition, two Chinese breeds kept in Vietnam were included in the analysis for comparison. A 455-bp fragment of the mtDNA D-loop region was sequenced in 222 chickens of these 11 breeds. As reference, a skeleton was constructed based on chicken mtDNA sequences taken from the Genbank. Haplotypes of the nine Vietnamese local and two Chinese breeds were aligned together with these sequences. The Vietnamese and Chinese breeds showed a high degree of variability. In total, 37 haplotypes were identified in the chicken breeds studied forming eight clades. Thereby, the majority of individuals of the two Chinese breeds grouped together in one clade which is assumed to have its roots in the Indian subcontinent. Although the Vietnamese chicken breeds were distributed across all eight clades, most of them clustered in three main clades. These results suggest that the Vietnamese domestic chickens have originated from multiple maternal lineages, presumably from Yunnan and adjacent areas in China, South and Southwest China and/or surrounding regions (i.e. Vietnam, Burma, Thailand, and India).