Miao culture Miao
ancestors once lived in “ Miao
has a long history, one saying is: their ancestors may be a portion
of “San Nan” people. The other saying is that they originated
from “Bing”
people during the “Shang” period.
They are settled mainly in “Xiangxi, Qiandong” which is included
in the names of “ Miao
primarily settled in southeast of Miao
doesn’t have their own words, her language belongs to Miao-Yao
language of Sino-Tibetan language. Miao lives in the mountains and
depends on agriculture. Dry rice, vale,
buckwheat,
potato and bean are their main crops, while hemp is their economy
crop, which can be used to weave. Miao people have rich oral folk
literature, such as ancient songs, poetry, love songs, and so on.
They are also good at dancing, especially at Lusheng dance. Miao
takes farming as the main work and hunting as the supplementary.
Miao has been known for its
cross-stitch work, embroidery, brocade, batik, paper-cut and
handmade ornaments, etc., are world-famous for their elegant
techniques. And
Miao’s batik
technique
has
been thousands years.
Miao has a variety of costumes (up to 130 species) which can be
compared with any nation in the world. Miao is fond of singing and
dancing, especially for its love songs and Liquor songs. And Lusheng
is the most representative instruments of Miao. Miao has evolved her mother culture into a multi-seed culture, and formed a huge and complex cultural system. Let’s take costumes for example, we can see that various costumes are the symbol of Miao culture, while the other nation often takes one for identification. And there lists 173 species in "Chinese Ethnic Costumes Maps". Every festival, you can see crinoline wafting and silverware clanking, everything seems to be so splendid. Different
"sub-group" symbols were formed in different environment,
different culture, custom, religion and groups, which had different
local dialects to correspond with them. The
reason why their languages are so complicate may be due to their
long-term movement and separation. There are three main dialects,
seven sub dialects, 18 local dialect, however, they all belong to
Miao-Yao language branch. In The
most popular festival is “Tiaohua Festival”. Basically such
festivals are more or less the same, just different in date, form,
calling. Such as “Tiaochang”, “Tiaoyue”, “Tiaodong”, “Tiaonian”,
“Wanhuapo”, “Zuohuachang”, “Tiaohuachang” and “Lusheng
Festival”, “mountain climbing Festival ”, “Ganqiupo”,
“Sister Festival”, “Naochong”.etc. Which are the main social
activities of young men and women. Miao
has their own New Year. In Guiyang, Huang Ping and Songtao etc, they
have their “Siyueba Festival”, in Qingshui River they have
“Dragon Boat” Festival, in southeast “Qian” they offer
sacrifices to the ancestors in “Guzhao Festival”, and they also
have “YingLei Day”, “bullfight festival”, “Jishu festival
”, “Shayu festival ”, “Zhaolong festival” etc. Miao
has colorful and exquisite music as follows: “Gu songs”,
“Youfan songs”, “Fei songs”, “Jiu songs”, “Shan
songs”, “Jisi songs” and so on. Among which, “Gu songs”
and “Fei songs” are the most typical. Miao instruments such as
Lusheng, trumpet, wooden drum,
sister
flute , have their own traits. The most representative dancing is
Lusheng dance, including “Lusheng Pai Dance”, “Lusheng Yuan
Dance”, “Lusheng Sifang Dance”, “Lusheng Dao Dance”,
“Lusheng Qun Dance”, “Lusheng Mangtong Dance”, “Lusheng Gu
Dance”. And they all have a long history and a strong heritage,
which retain many primitive and archaic features, as instanced by
the emphasis on rhythm, stress orderly pace. Can you imagine
hundreds of people dancing in an according action? Of course, it
shows a mountain momentum and is so impressive. “Double
Lusheng dance” ,“Interlink Lusheng dance”, “Gunshanzhu”,
are among Miao’s folk dance contest,. Miao culture has a
tremendous penetration in history, meanwhile, Miao music in the
language of poetry, passes on from original to the modern society
and put through thousands of years’, from generation to
generation. Miao almost has maintained its primeval society,
environment, ancient crafts and custom, attracting attention both at
home and abroad. And you can see Etiquette Miao
pays great attention to etiquette. They will slaughter fowl for
visitors hospitality. According to their custom, if you come all the
way there, you are supposed to drink “horn wine”. In dinner,
King heads should be given to the elder of their guests, while
Drumsticks to the youngest guests. There is another custom of King
Heart, that is the oldest master uses chopsticks to pick up fowl
heart to the guest. Instead of eating it, the guest should assign it
to every elder at present. Guest should explain first if he can
drink little or don’t eat fat, otherwise, it can be recognized to
despise the owner. Miao
people are very warmheart and ebullient, they don’t like pompous
and hypocritical. They won’t snatched the first before their
guests; they talk to each other respectfully; they wear full dress
to welcome their guest; Prepare dinner out of the village awaiting
the arrival of distinguished guest; if visitors comes home, men
owner
should call the hostess home, and she should sing to welcome guest;
The hostess isn’t supposed to go upstairs in front of guests; In
dinner fowl is the most delicious, especially the heart and liver,
which should first be given to the elder or guests, then assigned to
everybody according to age . Guests should not call hosts “Miaozi”,
they prefer to call themselves “Meng”.
Costume
Miao girls like to
wear
silver attires
in
nature. They often dress their bob in the head and wear beautiful
silver corns which is about 20 centimeters high. In front of the
corns, there is six different level of silver tilting wing with a
logo of “two dragon playing one pearl”. In some areas , they
adds about one meter silver horn with colorful belts to the crown,
making the crown more beautiful and nobler, small
silver-flower-accessory-decorated belts attached to crown border.
The silver necklaces are made of silverslices and silver circles.
The Miao wears silver-made lock and collar
in the prothorax,
with silver manteau attached with little argent bells in the front
and back. Their earrings and bracelets are made of silver as the
others. Only the fiery-red sleeve are of embroider made, and the
cuff are inlaid by silver accouterment. The overall clothes Miao
girls dressed may be several kilograms’ weight, some of which are
handed down by generations. As old saying goes: “girls wearing
silver dressings are more beautiful than goddess”. The delicate
Miao’s dressings revealed Miao’s wisdom and talent. Miao cloths
are not the same in different areas. Men usually hood their head,
and of short wearing in contrast of women’s daintily. Well-dressed
Miao women have exquisite decoration strew in them. Some of which
have more than forty layers, called “Hundreds Pleat
Skirt”. Various stitchwort which are colorful, delicate and
antique, indicate exquisite hands of Miao women. Except for
stitchwort, Miao women are also good at weaving and batiks making. Custom To
be a guest, you should never nip the chicken head with chopsticks.
You should not nip the chicken livers, sweetbread, legs. Chicken
gallbladder and sweetbread are for old women, while the chicken legs
are for the kids. When say goodbye to the host, don’t forget to
say “Wa Zhou” politely, which means “Thanks for your
hospitality” In
some areas, Miao don’t wash their dishes, pots, and other
containers until they eat new rice, which means to wipe the dated
rice and to welcome the new rice. If you wash them at will, you will
scour off property, and clear the meals away. While on the hill, you
should make a mark with straw to kill the illness devil, and
shouldn’t drink the raw water directly. You cannot touch the cloth
by the road for avoiding leprosy infection. To avoid hurting
ancestor, kids are not allowed to play bows and arrows in the yard.
Don’t get over the kids’ heads; otherwise they will be kept from
growing longer. Women are not allowed to sit on the same wooden
stool with the elderly.
Marriage Miao
marriage is monogamy. Before their marriage the young should go
through tradition social activities, for example: “meet the
girls” is the conventional manner for their free love. HuaShan
Festival (holding on lunar may fifth, also named FlowerMountain
Stepping ) is the most popular in Miao. During the day,
go-to-holiday-dressed young people get together, they sing, tread
drums, TiaoShizi and do LuSheng dancing. Sticky
rice is the imperative food during the process of youth love. Miao
in Chengbu city in Eating In
most areas Miao eat three meals a day, taking rice as their staple
food. Fried sticky rice cake is the most familiar of fried food.
Adding some fresh meat and sour vegetables into the cake, it will be
more delicious. Capsicum
is their main
condiment,
hence the saying “No capsicum no food”. Miao food boasts kinds
of dish. There are Various vegetables including pulse, melon,
greengrocery, radish and so on. Most Miao are good at making bean
food. Miao
used to use bloating way to preserve food. They like to bloat
vegetable, chicken, duck, fish, pork to sourness. Nearly every Miao
family owns their pot for bloating, which is called sour pot. Miao
boast a long history for wine brewing. From barm-making, fermenting,
distillation, to modulation, caching, they have their own ways.
Their ordinary daily beverage is oil tea. In western Festivals Miao
used to believe in animist, worship of nature and ancestors. So they
have a lot of festivals, except for traditional New Year and worship
festivals. They also have something special, such as “Duck
festival”, “Fish festival”, “Tea-leaves picking festival”
and so on. In addition to the preparation of wine and meat, seasonal
food is also essential.
Miao New Year
Generally, Miao Year is at the first Mao Day of the first moon,
which lasts three to five days or 15 days. Every family have to
prepare enough food before. Which should include pork ,Mutton and
enough sticky rice wine. The dinner is supposed to be very rich and
should contain every color and flavor, and the best sticky rice are
used to prepare “Nian ba”. After all of these done, they can
invite each other for dinner. Fish
festival Mostly
it is held in the riverside, that is, the women brought rice, meat,
preserved ham ,sausages there. As long as the fish is caught, they
can cook in the fire and have fun until they exhausted. Drum
Festival “Drum
Festival” is the largest Commodities worship festival, which is
held every 7 years, while the big one needs 13 years. Generally it
holds during the “Yihai” Day of Lunar October-November.
Meanwhile they are supposed to kill a bull, jump Lusheng dance and
offer sacrifices to the ancestors. They also can invite friends and
family to come together in order to to promote their relationship
and make it harmony. Florescence
Festival It’s
a grand traditional festival of Miao. It usually holds at annual
first, third and sixth day of the first lunar month. Every place
Miao living should hold this festival and should erect a flower
pole. This is a good moment for young lovers, and is an important
entertainment of Miao. Miao people, either men or women, old or
young, wearing gold and silver, come all the way to the flower pole
from all directions. Then they start to blow Lusheng, jump tripod,
play broadsword, bullfighting, wrestling, compete thrush and climb
pole. “Back
knock Festival” It
is most prevalent in part district of “Fu’ning”, and is held
during the third to the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, and
it is Miao young men and women’s festival. They gather at the
hillside with gorgeous mountain scenery,. When it begins men rush
out to the chosen girl to arm her neck, and cover her eyes with
another hand, the other young man then go to knock her back. But the
girl won’t surrender, she laughs and tries to get rid of them.
Once succeeds, she will pay him back in his own coin. They are
laughing while struggling and chasing for each other with alive and
kicking. After exhausted, they can find a place talking to each
other sweetly (with a long line connecting two bamboo, they can hear
each other talking and singing) in order to form soul mate. After a
heart-to-heart conversation, they should tell their parents and
choose an auspicious day to get married. Buildings As
they live seprately, Miao buildings have their own character, most
of which are made of woods with tiles and fir cortex or grass
covered. While in the |
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