The Dai are a religious people of all people, and all of them believe in the Southern Theravada Buddhism, also known as Hinayana Buddhism [5]. It is said that Southern Theravada Buddhism was introduced by a man named Ajuttarasi, and has a history of more than a thousand years.
The Dai people call their religion "Shasana", and the Buddhism they believe in is called "Shasana Pachodama". The name "Pachodama" refers to the Buddha, Chodamo Siddhartha Siddhartha Gautama, who was the founder of Buddhism.
In Xishuangbanna, there is a very interesting traditional religious customs, that is, the Dai men have to become monks, that is considered to be educated, not barbaric. And only men who have been monks can be favored by girls. The good family of young boys at the age of seven or eight into the Buddhist temple, three or five years after the return to secularism. When they enter the Buddhist temple dressed up and escorted by their relatives, blowing and beating their heads, amidst the laughter of the crowd, they proudly believe that they have begun to receive the protection of the Buddha and are able to grow up to be a man. Then they shave off their hair, put on their robes, and begin to calmly recite sutras, learn culture, and earn their own living. Nowadays, because of the 9-year compulsory education, young boys go to school during the day to learn Chinese and other sciences, and at night they study Dai culture in the Buddhist temple, which is very hard.
Ethnic culture
Calendar
The Dai have more than 1,000 years of old Dai literature, and there is an ancient Bayeux scripture. The Dai have their own unique calendar. There is a difference of 638 years between the Dai calendar and the Gregorian calendar, i.e., 639 years of the Gregorian calendar is the first year of the Dai calendar. The year of the Dai calendar is a solar year, but the month is a lunar month. The Dai calendar is divided into three seasons: January to April is the cold season, May to August is the hot season, and September to December is the rainy season. September is a leap month every three years, and this calendar is still commonly used in Thailand and Burma.
Medicine
Dai medicine (Dai), Mongolian medicine (Mongolian), Korean medicine (Korean), Uyghur medicine (Uyghur), Tibetan medicine (Tibetan), and Zhuang medicine (Zhuang) are the six most famous ethnic medicine systems in China.
Literature
The Dai people are very fond of poetry, especially long narrative poems. Narrative poems such as "Shao Shu Tun and Nan Manona" and "E and Sang Luo" are valuable cultural heritages of the Chinese nation.
Theatre
Dai Opera Dai Opera is one of the unique ethnic minority operatic styles in Yunnan, circulating in Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture, Dehong Dai Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture, counties and cities in Yunnan Province and in some of the Dai inhabited areas in Baoshan.
The Dai Opera originated from the Dai song and dance performances with certain characters and Buddhist scriptures, and then absorbed the artistic nutrition of Dian Opera and Shadow Show, gradually forming a more complete form of opera. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, Yingjiang Dry Cliff Tusi Department organized the first Dai opera class in the history of Dehong. Soon, the Dai opera spread to other areas of Dehong, Dehong ten Toji Yamen has set up Dai opera class, building theater. At the same time, Dai Opera spread from Tusi Yamen to the folk, and a large number of folk Dai Opera performing organizations emerged. After the establishment of New China, Dai Opera had a new development; the first professional performance group, Luxi County Dai Opera Troupe, was established in 1960, and was expanded into Dehong State Dai Opera Troupe in 1962.
In 1962, "E and Sang Luo" caused a sensation when it participated in the Southwest Region Minority Drama Observation and Performance, and was known as the "Pearl of Southeast Asia". In addition to professional groups like the Dai Theater Troupe of Dehong Prefecture, almost all of the larger Dai villages have amateur performance teams. At present, Dai Opera is basically loved by the elderly only, and young people are not very interested in it because they do not understand it. The difficulties in passing down the Dai Opera are becoming more and more obvious
[Ethnic Festivals
The major festivals of the Dai are the Dai New Year - the Water Festival, the Door Closing Festival and the Door Opening Festival.
The Water Splashing Festival
The Water Splashing Festival is a traditional festival for the Dai people to send off the old and welcome the new, which takes place in the middle of April in the Gregorian calendar. The main activities during the festival are worshiping ancestors, piling up sand, splashing water, throwing sandbags, racing dragon boats, setting off fireworks and singing, dancing and revelry. The Water Splashing Festival held in the sixth month of the Dai calendar every year is the grandest festival, which is called "Sangkan Bimai" in Dai language. The festival is called "Sangkan Bimai" in Dai language. At that time, the Buddha should be fine, and a feast is held to invite monks and friends and relatives to congratulate each other by splashing water. Now, because the water splashing activity is the main content of the Dai New Year festivities, this activity is loved by the people of all ethnic groups.
Gate Festival
"Gate Festival" in Dai language is called "Into the Pits", which means that Buddha enters the temple. It is a traditional religious festival of the Dai ethnic group in Yunnan, which is held on September 15 of the Dai calendar (mid-July of the lunar calendar) every year and lasts for three months.
Legend has it that every year in September of the Dai calendar, the Buddha goes to the Western Heaven to preach with his mother, and returns to the earth only in 3 months. Once, just as the Buddha went to the West during the period of preaching, thousands of Buddhists went to the countryside to preach, stepping on the people's crops, delaying their production, the people complained a lot, very dissatisfied with the Buddhists. When the Buddha learned of this, he felt uneasy in his heart. From then on, every time the Buddha to the West when preaching, will be the Buddhists are gathered together, the provisions of the three months are not allowed to go anywhere, only repentance, in order to atone for the sins of the past. Therefore, it is called the "Shut the Door Festival".
Open Door Festival
The Open Door Festival, also known as the "Out of the Pits", is a traditional festival of the Dai, Brown, De'ang and some Wa ethnic groups who believe in Hinayana Buddhism in China. It is a traditional festival of the Dai, Brown, De'ang and some Wa ethnic groups in China. It is popular in the Yunnan region, originating from the ancient Buddhist custom of settling down during the rainy season, and is similar to the Buddhist festival of Xiefu in the Central Plains. It is celebrated on the 15th day of the 12th month of the Dai calendar (around the middle of the 9th month of the lunar calendar).
Open Door Festival, symbolizing the end of the rainy season for three months, said to lift the taboo on marriage between men and women since the "Closed Door Festival", that is, from now on, young men and women can begin to fall in love freely or hold weddings. On the day of the festival, young men and women go to a Buddhist temple in full costume to worship the Buddha, and offer food, flowers, sticks of wax, and coins. After the festival is over, a grand cultural gathering is held to celebrate the end of the Anju fasting period since the Kannon Festival. The main events include the lighting of sparks and gaoseng, the lighting of lanterns, and singing and dancing. Young people also dance around the village with lanterns in the shape of birds, animals, fish and insects. The festival is also a celebration of the harvest as it coincides with the completion of the rice harvest.
National Taboos
Taboos against outsiders riding horses, driving cows, picking burdens and tousled hair into the cottage; into the Dai family bamboo building, to take off their shoes outside the door, and in the house to walk lightly; can not sit on top of the fire or across the fire, can not enter the owner's inner room, can not sit on the threshold; can not move the tripod on the fire, and can not be stamped on the fire; taboos on the home whistles, clipping nails; not allowed to use clothes as pillows or sit on pillows. clothes as pillows or sit on pillows; when sunbathing clothes, tops should be sunbathed in a high place and pants and skirts in a low place; shoes should be taken off when entering a Buddhist temple, and it is taboo to touch the head of a young monk, a Buddha statue, a goshawk, a flag and a series of other holy objects of the Buddhist family. You can't just make loud noises.
]Ethnic Diet
Daily Food Customs
The Dai mostly have the habit of eating two meals a day, with rice and glutinous rice as the main food. The Dai in Dehong eat mainly round-grained rice, while the Dai in Xishuangbanna eat mainly glutinous rice. Usually is now pounded [chōng] now eat, folk believe: japonica rice and glutinous rice only now eat now pounded, not to lose its original color and flavor, and therefore do not eat or rarely eat overnight rice, accustomed to eat with a hand pinch rice.
Outside laborers often eat in the field, with a banana leaf or a crowd of rice together with a ball of glutinous rice, accompanied by salt, chili, sour pork, roast chicken, mumble (Dai, meaning sauce), moss pine can be eaten. All the accompanying dishes and snacks are mainly sour, such as sour bamboo shoots, sour pea flour, sour meat and wild sour fruit; like to eat dry sauerkraut, the method is to dry the green vegetables, and then boiled in water, adding papaya juice, so that the flavor becomes sour, and then dried and stored. When eating, put a little boiled vegetables or put in the soup. This kind of sauerkraut has a place in the Dai people eat almost every day. It is said that the reason why the Dai people often eat sour dishes, is because often eat indigestible glutinous rice food, and sour food helps digestion.
The daily meat diet of pigs, cows, chickens and ducks, do not eat or eat less mutton, the Dai living in the interior like to eat dog meat, good at making roasted chicken, barbecued chicken, extremely happy fish, shrimp, crabs, snails, moss and other aquatic products.
The moss into the dish, is the Dai's unique flavor dishes. The Dai people eat moss is selected in the spring river water moss on the rocks, to dark green for the best, fished into thin slices, sun-dried, with bamboo gimlets to wear up to be used. Cooking, thick fried in oil, thin roasted with fire, crispy rubbed into the bowl, and then pour boiling oil, then add salt and stir, with glutinous rice balls or bacon for dipping, its flavor is incomparable.
Cooking fish, more into sour fish or roasted lemongrass fish, but also into fish chopped grits (i.e., roasted fish whacked into a mud, and large coriander and other seasonings centralized), fish jelly, fire-roasted fish, eel in white sauce, and so on.
When eating crab, generally will be crab even shell with meat chopped into crab sauce with rice to eat, the Dai called this crab sauce for "crab mumble".
Bitter gourd is the most abundant and most consumed daily vegetable. In addition to bitter melon, Xishuangbanna also has a kind of bitter bamboo shoots, so there is a bitter flavor in the Dai flavor, more representative of the bitter dishes are cooked with cow bile juice and other ingredients of the cow sapi gazpacho platter.
Insect specialties
The Dai region is humid and hot, and there are many kinds of insects, which are used as raw materials to make various kinds of flavorful dishes and snacks, which is an important part of the Dai food. Frequently consumed insects include cicadas, bamboo worms, big spiders, field turtles and ant eggs.
Cicadas are caught in the summer, every evening, the cicadas fall in the bushes, the cicada wings are wet with dew, can not fly, the women will quickly pick the cicadas into the bamboo basket, back into the pot after the drying sauce. Cicada sauce has the medical effect of clearing heat and removing toxins, removing pain and swelling.
The Dai people generally like to eat ants eggs, often eat a kind of yellow ants nesting in the tree, take ants eggs, the first ants away, and then take the eggs, ants eggs of different sizes, some as big as mung beans, some as small as a grain of rice, white crystal bright, washed and dried, and eggs together with fried food, the taste of fresh food can be raw food can be cooked food, raw food, when the system of soy sauce, cooked food, when the eggs with eggs dressed set of deep-fried, the commonly used sour fruit, Bitter Melon, Bitter Bamboo Shoots, Punching Pepper, supplemented by wild peppercorns, coriander, garlic, lemongrass, pure flavor, clean and sanitary.
Specialty drinks
The Dai people are addicted to wine, but the degree of wine is not high, it is home brewed, sweet flavor. Tea is a local specialty, but the Dai only drink large-leaf tea without spices. When drinking it, it is only slightly fried on the fire until it is burnt, and it is slightly mushy when brewed and drunk. Chewing betel nut, mixed with tobacco, lime, day after day. Because of the long-term chewing lips and teeth are black, oral fluid such as blood, people think it is beautiful. The pottery industry is more developed, and most of the drinking and eating utensils are made by women.
Ritual Food Customs
Religious Food Customs
The Dai people generally believe in Theravada Buddhism, and many festivals are related to Buddhist activities. The Water Splashing Festival held in the sixth month of the Dai calendar every year is the grandest festival, when the Buddha is to be fine, and feasts are held to invite monks and friends and relatives to congratulate each other by splashing water. During the Water Splashing Festival, in addition to wine and dishes to be sumptuous, a variety of Dai flavor snacks are also many.
If there is a kind of patty cake, it is made of glutinous rice pounded into a ball, wrapped in a round cake made of suzuki sugar filling, wrapped in a banana leaf smeared with wax oil, and can be eaten with a fire baked and softened or dipped in honey after deep-frying. Bashi is made by stirring rice flour into granules with water, pounding it into balls after steaming, rolling it into thin and big round cakes, folding them into stacks when they are cold, and putting them into bowls when they are hot and soft, and sprinkling them with various kinds of seasonings. Splash mochi is made of glutinous rice flour and into a ball, wrapped in brown sugar steamed, then wrapped in a layer of fried bowl of bean noodles, wrapped in banana leaves can be used as a snack for guests.
There is also the sticky rice mud deep-fried into hemp crispy, and so on. The more important festivals are the Door Closing Festival (July 15 on the Dai calendar) and the Door Opening Festival (December 15 on the Dai calendar), both of which are festivals of the Southern Theravada Buddhism. Xinping, Yuanjiang, Jinggu, Jinping and other places Dai Spring Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival, etc., the content and activities are largely the same as the local Han Chinese, the more typical foods are dog meat soup pots, pork jerky, pickled eggs, dried eels and so on.
Festival food customs
In Xishuangbanna Dai, a house, the whole village should come to help, the completion of the new house to congratulate the new house, the first to go up the stairs is a young man, carrying a bull's head, singing blessing song, the strong men to lift the box, the married women to hold the bedding, the girls with the meal in turn, and then in the fire on the support of the tripod, set up a crowd of tables, set the wine and food, singing congratulations to the new house song, the folks have to give The hosts will also send some gifts to symbolize good luck.
"Catch pendulum cassowary chicken" is a young men and women in Xishuangbanna to food rumors of love, that is, the girl will be cassowary chicken to the market to sell, if the buyer is precisely the girl's man of interest, the girl will take the initiative to come up with a stool, so that it sits beside them, through conversation, such as the two sides of the love affair, the two end of the chicken, carrying a stool to the woods to spit each other out. Stool to the woods to spit out each other's feelings; such as the buyer is not the girl's person of interest, the girl will double the price; and then "eat small wine", in the engagement of men and women, the male side picking food and wine to the female side of the house to invite guests when the guests dispersed, the male side of the three male companions accompanied by the female side of the female side of the female side and the female side of the three female companions, * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * table. "Eat small wine" is said to eat three dishes: the first is hot; the second should be more salt; the third should have sweets. It means hot, deep and sweet.
The wedding day is held in both homes, mostly in the woman's home first. At the wedding banquet, the table should be covered with green banana leaves, and the dishes include Blood Want (White Want), which symbolizes good luck, rice cake and various dishes. Banquet before the bride and groom to do the tethering ceremony, that is, by the bridegroom with a white line around the shoulders of the two sides, and with two white lines were tethered to the bride and groom's wrists, symbolizing purity, and then by the elderly will be pinched into triangles of glutinous rice dipped in salt, placed on the fire on the tripod on the apex of the fire, and then let the fire naturally come off, symbolizing the love of the iron as solid. Yuanjiang Daping Township bride after crossing the door to sit on the bench with the groom, eat four eggs mixed with glutinous rice, and drink two cups of wine; Yuanjiang river Dai brides crossing the door, by the male party to each sender of meat 4 slices, 4 ribs, 4 meatballs, 4 crispy meat 4 pieces, and then you can eat the main meal.
Sacrifices and food customs
The Dai people also enshrine their own village community God, the Dai people called "go to Raman", also known as "Phi Man", is the protection of the God, to be sacrificed twice a year, before planting rice seedlings to pray for a bumper harvest, after the fall harvest for the Thanksgiving, to collectively kill a cow or a pig, each family to prepare tribute. After the fall harvest, in order to give thanks, a cow or a pig will be killed collectively, and each family will prepare tributes to be sent into the room dedicated to the God of the community, and after the rituals are recited, everyone will **** eat. The new members of the community should make offerings of chickens, wine and strips of bacon to the God of the community.
In Menghai and other places slaughtered sacrificial animals still retained plagiarized cattle and fish eating cowhide custom. Xishuangbanna once tribal gods, some offerings must be black cattle, white pigs. Yuanjiang, Xinping and other places of the Dai, generally worship the Dragon Tree, the Dragon God, Yuanjiang riverside Dai every year in March of the lunar calendar sacrifices Dragon Tree, the whole village to kill the red bull, before killing the red bull with white ash on the body of the pattern, but also in the cattle on the body of the red and green cloth. In the same month, but also to kill the pig sacrifice "heaven and earth mother" in order to bless the livestock peace.
In the Dai folk, especially in some remote areas, there are still some taboos in cooking, such as: burning wood to burn from the root first; shall not be crossed from the fire; can not casually move the tripod on the fire and so on.
Typical food
The Dai flavor cold and hot pickles have typical dishes and snacks. Such as: coconut casserole chicken, deep-fried sesame crisps, cow spattered skin, sour meat, fire fish, pickled cow's head and so on.
Ethnic Costumes
Female Costumes
Traditional
Dai Ethnic CostumesThe dress of Dai women is colorful and beautiful. Dai women are generally slim, pure and delicate face, look ting ting yu standing, elegant, so known as the "golden peacock" beauty. They not only look beautiful, but also good at dressing up, one by one with a unique dress to dress up like a flower like jade.
The Dai women generally like to wear narrow-sleeved short clothes and tube skirts, to fully display their slender figure. Above wearing a white or scarlet underwear, outside is a tight-fitting short blouse, garden collar and narrow sleeves, with a large lapel, but also to the lapel, there are water red, light yellow, light green, snow white, sky blue and other colors. Nowadays, they are mostly sewn with georgette, silk, indeed and other materials. Narrow-sleeved short shirt tightly over the arm, almost no gap, there are many people also like to use flesh-colored clothing sewing, if not look carefully, but also do not see the sleeve tube, before and after the lapel just waist, tightly wrapped around the body, and then a silver belt tied with a short-sleeved shirt and the mouth of the unity skirt, under the long to the ankle of the unity skirt, the waist is slim and thin, the hemline is wide. Dai women's attire, fully demonstrated the female chest, waist, hip "three" beauty, plus the fabric used by the soft, bright and colorful, no matter walking or doing things, all give a person a kind of graceful, elegant and elegant feeling.
Modern
Women's clothing not only maintains the traditional characteristics of the Dai, but also absorbs the Han style. The traditional short shirts and tube skirts of the Dai are still favored by women. The sleeves of the shirts they wear are long and thin, allowing only one arm to pass through. Shirt body tight and narrow, long and waist only, just in the tube skirt on the silver belt, mostly light-colored. When it is cold, the jacket a variety of colorful sweaters, suits.
Elderly women wrap their heads in white towels. Middle-aged women with long hair, coiled hair on top, with various colors of sarongs wrapped head, young girls also use sarongs wrapped head. Young girls and young women wear their hair in braids, and the hair style is the same as on the mainland. Only on festive occasions do young girls wear their hair in a bun tilted slightly to the left, decorated with hairpins and flowers. When young women coiled their hair, their hair was not long enough, so they put a stocking over their hair to increase the length of their hair and coiled it into a bun.
Women like to wear bracelets, rings, earrings, necklaces, etc., which can be made of gold, silver, jade or imitation. Baby girl was born a few days, by the parents with a decontaminated needle for the doll ear piercing, in preparation for bringing earrings. For women, the silver belt is indispensable, the belt decorated with peacocks, lotus flowers and other flowers. Women believe that the wider the silver belt, the more beautiful it is.
The "Tube Pa" is still very popular, but it is mostly used by middle-aged women, and many girls have switched to carrying leather bags.
Men's clothing
The Dai men generally wear collarless lapel or lapel small-sleeved shirt, wearing long pants, with white cloth, green cloth or scarlet cloth head, some wear tweed hat, appearing to be dashing and generous.
The Dai people, both men and women, always like to go out and carry a satchel made of woven silk on their shoulders. Satchel colorful, simple style, with a strong color of life and national characteristics. Patterns of rare birds and animals, trees and flowers or geometric shapes, realistic images, lifelike. Each pattern contains specific content, such as: red, green is to commemorate ancestors; peacock pattern indicates auspiciousness; elephant pattern symbolizes a good harvest and a good life, which fully expresses the Dai people's desire and pursuit of a better life.
Men, women and children like to wear slippers barefoot.
]Ethnic Customs
The Dai people all believe in Buddhism, but primitive religious activities are also more common, such as sacrifices to the gods of the village, the village ghosts, agricultural rituals, hunting rituals, spirit worship.
The Water Splashing Festival
The Water Splashing Festival is the New Year's festival of the Dai people, and also the most important festival of the Dai people, which is held in the fourth month of the lunar calendar (equivalent to the fifth month of the Dai calendar) every year, and usually lasts for three to four days. The first day is "Mai Day", similar to the lunar New Year's Eve, which is called "Wan Duoshanghan" in Dai language, meaning to send the old. At this time, people want to tidy up the house, clean up, prepare the annual meal and various activities during the festival. The next day is called "annoyed day", "annoyed" means "empty", according to the custom of this day is neither the previous year, also does not belong to the year after the year, so it is "empty day "; the third day called" MaiPaYa late Ma ", it is said that this is the Paya late spirit with the new calendar back to earth day, people used to regard this day as the day of the king comes, is the new year's day of the Dai calendar. Water Splashing Festival
The Water Splashing Festival originated in India, is an ancient Brahmanism ceremony, later absorbed by Buddhism, about the end of the twelfth century to the beginning of the thirteenth century in the twelfth century A.D. through the Burmese with the Buddhism into the Dai area of Yunnan Province, China. With the deepening influence of Buddhism in the Dai area, the Water Splashing Festival has become a national custom that has been passed down for hundreds of years. In the process of passing down the festival, the Dai people gradually combined it with their own national myths and legends, which gave the festival a more magical meaning and national color.
To this day, there is a very interesting myth circulating among the Dai people: In ancient times, there was a devil in the Dai area who did a lot of evil and abused his power to make the crops fail, and the people had no peace of mind, and the people did not have enough to live on. People hated him, but they tried many ways to deal with him. Later, the devil took seven women as his wives. Seeing the miserable lives of their fellow countrymen, the girls were determined to find a way to destroy the demon. The seven clever girls discovered the devil's Achilles' heel in his words, that is, only the devil's own hair can kill him. One night, when the demon was drunk and fell into a deep sleep, the girls bravely pulled a hair from his head and tied it tightly around his neck. Sure enough, the demon's head immediately fell off. But as soon as the head hit the ground, the ground burst into flames. Seeing that it would become a disaster, the girls immediately picked up the head, and the fire was extinguished, and the demon disappeared with it. In order to prevent the fire from rekindling and plaguing the people, the sisters decided to take turns holding the demon's head, changing it every year. At the time of the annual change, people gave the girl who held the head a rinse in order to wash away the blood stains and the exhaustion of adulthood. Later, the Dai people, in honor of these seven resourceful and courageous women, splashed water on each other on this day every year, and from then on formed the grand festival of the Dai people to bid farewell to the old and welcome the new - the Water Festival.
Yunnan people know the famous Dai Water Festival, but the legend of the origin of the festival has two kinds. Xishuangbanna, Dehong legend is by the "seven princesses to kill the fire demon" story from, but is located in Lijiang Huaping area of the Dai Water Festival story is unique. The Dai people here are the northernmost Dai tribe in China and even in Asia. Their story is like this: Legend has it that a long time ago, the Jinsha River, a gathering in the deep forest of the Dai village, because of the forest fire, the villagers are in danger of being engulfed in flames, a Dai man named Li Liang, in order to protect the village, undaunted by the dangers of rushing out of the fire net, picking from the Jinsha River buckets of water, splashing the fire, after a day and a night of exertion, the fire was finally splashed out, the villagers were saved, Li Liang! Because of the exhaustion of sweat flow dry, thirst on the hill. The villagers called fresh water to Li Liang to quench their thirst, but after drinking ninety-nine picks of water could not quench their thirst, and then Li Liang jumped headlong into the river, turned into a giant dragon, and went down the river. Some people said that he turned into a big tree. Dai people in order to commemorate Li Liang, every year on the third day of the third month of the lunar calendar, each house cleaned up, sprinkled with pine leaves, and in the selected riverside or wells, with the green tree set up a half-mile-long green shed, under the shed sprinkled with thick pine needles, both sides of the water tank full of water, the sun when the top of the midday sun, the crowd walked under the shed with each other with a pine branch dipped in the water sprinkled body, expressed the nostalgia and the blessing of the New Year to Li Liang. This activity continues to this day, the Dai people resigned to welcome the new year, blessing auspicious festival - Water Festival.
Also, legend has it that Zhuge Liang once came here and taught the Dai people to take baths, build high houses and plant, etc. So on the third day of the third month of the lunar calendar every year, people will pounce on each other to express their blessings.
Water Festival blessings
In the "Mai Day", early in the morning people will pick flowers and green leaves to the Buddhist temple offerings, stretching to the water "bath" - for the statue of Buddha! The Buddha's image is washed with fresh water. After the "bathing Buddha", the collective mutual water splashing began.
Groups of young men and women with a variety of containers of water, pouring out of the streets and alleys, chasing and playing, and splashing. "Water flower release, Daijia crazy", "splash wet all over, happiness for life"! Symbol of good luck, happiness, health, a flower in the air bloom, people splash to their heart's content, laughter, happy and unusual, soaked to the skin, the excitement is very high.
The Water Festival Love
The Water Festival is also a wonderful time for unmarried young men and women to seek love and cultivate happiness. During the festival, the Dai unmarried young men and women like to do "throwing bags" game. The flower bag crafted with flower cloth in the girl's hand is a token of love.
Throwing bag that day, the girls dress up as much as they can, and then hit the flower umbrella, carrying a small flower bag to the "bag field", and the young men on both sides, thirty to forty paces apart, began to each other to throw the flower bag. If the young man can not catch the girl threw the flower bag, you have to prepare the flowers in the girl's hair on the fly, the girl if you can not catch the young man threw the bag, you have to insert the flowers to the young man's chest so gradually selected each other, a romantic love story began ......
Splash Water Festival activities
Splash Water Festival activities
Splash Water Festival activities
Splash Water Festival activities
Splash Water Festival activities
Splash Water Festival activities
Dragon Boat Rowing
Dragon Boat Rowing is one of the most exciting events of the Water Festival, and is often held on the third day of the festival, Mai Paya Evening Ma. On that day, crowds dressed in festive costumes gather on the banks of the Lancang and Ruili rivers to watch the dragon boat race.
The river is moored in green and colorful dragon boat, the boat sits dozens of sturdy sailors, the horn, ready to start the dragon boat like an arrow flying forward, suddenly the whole river, drums, gongs, horns, applause, one after another, sound corresponding to the atmosphere of the festival reached a climax here.
"Putting Gao Sheng"
"Putting Gao Sheng" is another reserved program of the Water Splashing Festival. Gao Sheng is a kind of fireworks made by the Dai people, filling the bottom of the bamboo poles with gunpowder and other ingredients, placing them on the bamboo frame, connecting the fuse, and setting them off at night.
Put on the high rise, ignite the fuse so that the gunpowder combustion will produce a strong thrust, the bamboo as a rocket into the air. Bamboo spit with white smoke, emitting whooshing whistling sound, at the same time in the air released brilliant pyrotechnics, as if the flowers, colorful, very wonderful. The ground is cheering, applauding one after another, talking, praising the sound of endless, very lively.
The Water Festival Dance
The Dai people are good at singing and dancing, and the Water Festival is naturally filled with dancing. Large-scale dances are mainly arranged on the third day of the festival, such as the Elephant Foot Dance and Peacock Dance. From seven or eight-year-old dolls to seventy or eighty-year-olds, all dressed in festive attire, gathered in the village square, to participate in the collective dance.
The Elephant's Foot Dance is enthusiastic, steady and dashing. The dancers form a circle and dance with the manganese gongs and elephant foot drums, cheering "my, my" or "water, water" while dancing! Peacock dance is beautiful, elegant, lyrical, is the soul of the Dai dance, dance to the peacock's various postures as the basis for the recreation of the interest and beauty, focusing on the cohesion of the Dai sons and daughters of the aesthetic purpose. There are also many dancers to show off their own improvisation, some sing while dancing, some even dance while drinking, such as intoxicated, wild and unrestrained, jumping for several days and nights also do not know how to get tired.
The Dai Family
Family Forms
The basic form of the Dai family is a monogamous, patriarchal family. Since there are differences in social development in different regions, there are also differences in the form of family marriages.
In Xishuangbanna, before the liberation, more remnants of dyadic marriages are still retained, which is manifested in the fact that the family and marital relations are not very stable, and marriage and divorce are relatively free. However, due to the existence of the family and village community form, the marriage of young people is directly related to the rights and obligations they should enjoy to the family and village community, and therefore requires the consent of the family head and the head of the village community.
Men and women are mature in love, the man that is to invite their uncles and aunts to go to the woman to propose marriage. At this time, the woman's parents generally do not speak as a rule, by the head of the family and the head of the village community to answer the question, ask "door" years and how to feast friends and relatives, etc., by the head of the head of the family can be recognized to get married. After the marriage, the man must go to the woman's home to work for several years as promised before he can bring his wife back. When a new family is established, the village community will distribute the "share of land". If the two sides do not agree, with the consent of the headman, hand each other a pair of wax strips, even if the divorce formalities; if the man left home for several months without news, the woman can find another spouse; one party died, no matter how old, but also to do the divorce formalities, i.e., a pair of wax strips placed on the coffin of the deceased, will be sent to the museum material to the mouth of the building, that is, with the deceased to indicate the divorce.
Gengma, Menglian Dai family marriage pattern is similar to Xishuangbanna, but the remnants of the spouse marriage is more diluted, the main manifestation of divorce can not be easily.
Family Marriage
The family marriage in Dehong and the Dai areas in the interior has a more distinctive feudal color, and the marriage is completely built on the basis of sale and arrangement. The general bride price is 300 yuan, and there are many other expenses, such as the burden of "open door money", "closed door money", "worship money", "Buddha fee", "the master of the house", "the money", "the money", "the money", "the money", "the money", "the money", "the money", "the money", "the money" and "the money". fees", "recognition fees", "matchmaking fees" and so on, amounting to more than a dozen kinds of fees. This has essentially become the price of women.
Many young men from poor families, because they can not afford this fee, they took the form of stealing relatives, picking up the marriage, that is, men and women matured feelings, to determine the date of the "marriage". Young men times their partners, with machetes, coins, to a predetermined place of ambush, when the girl came, "grab" and run. The girl pretends to shout to inform her family, the male will withdraw the coins to escape. The fact that they will be entrusted to the matchmaker to the woman's home to propose marriage, the two sides invited the head of the people, friends and relatives will discuss the solution, the bride price is set, before the official door into marriage.
In addition, in these areas, the phenomenon of the family member is also more common, but in nature and Xishuangbanna has been completely different, it is not the legacy of the original custom, but the product of feudal marriage. The social status of those who have gone into the family is extremely low, and their children have no right to inherit property.
The Dai wedding
The wedding of the Dai people, known as the folk "gold yawning", including the meaning of marriage feast. The wedding date can only be set during the period from the "Open Door Festival" to the "Close Door Festival" (after the 15th day of the 12th month of the Dai calendar and before the 15th day of the 9th month of the following year), and the wedding ceremony will be the blessing of the bride and groom and the tying up of the threads as the main contents.
The wedding ceremony was held at the bride's home, where pigs and chickens were killed (some people also slaughtered cows), and sumptuous banquets were prepared to invite friends and relatives and the townspeople of the village. On the day of the wedding, in the bride's house, set up "Mao Huan" (directly translated as soul table), set up one to three contempt table, with banana leaves on the surface, on top of a pair of boiled male and female chickens, and glutinous rice in banana leaves, as well as rice wine, pounded salt sticks, salt, bananas, red cloth, white cloth, white thread and other things. The male and female roosters are covered with caps made of banana leaves called "Soretong" in Dai language. After making preparations for the wedding, the bride's girlfriend accompanies the bride as she dresses up and waits for the groom to come to the door. The bridegroom also dresses up at home, and accompanied by friends and relatives, goes to the bride's bamboo house to perform the marriage ceremony.
When the ceremony begins, the bridegroom is seated in the center of the "Mawhuan", the elders sit around the table, the couple is kneeling in front of the bridegroom according to the position of the male right and female left, surrounded by friends and relatives on both sides. Those sitting in front of the "Mawhun" extend their right hand on the table and listen quietly to the celebrant recite the blessing. The bridegroom removed the cover on the food leaf cap, first for the bride and groom blessing: "Today is a good, auspicious day, now is the best hour of the day, you two love to be married, gold phoenix and copper phoenix into a pair, the day will be happy and beautiful, I wish to give birth to a son will get a son, looking forward to giving birth to a woman will get a woman, I wish you all happiness and prosperity, and will never part. " .
After the bridegroom read the toast, the bride and groom each pulled down a ball of glutinous rice on the table, dipped in some rice wine, salt, pounded salt cupping, plantain and then set in front of the table. The bridegroom took a long white thread and wrapped it around the shoulders of the bride and groom from left to right, and put the ends of the thread on top of the "Mao Huan", indicating that the hearts of the couple are tied together. Then take two strands of white thread, respectively, wrapped around the wrists of the bride and groom, wishing the newlyweds a hundred years of good luck and no disasters. The elders present also each take two strands of white thread, respectively, tied to the groom, the bride's hands, while tied to the line, while reading some words of wishing. After chaining the line, the wedding ceremony is basically over, the wedding banquet began, the bride and groom to toast to the guests.