Tujia language belongs to the Tibeto-Burman group of the Sino-Tibetan language family, the Tujia language branch, which is also believed to be categorized as the Myanmar-Yi language branch, is a very ancient and unique language within the Tibeto-Burman language family. The vast majority of the people speak Chinese, and only a few settlements still preserve the Tujia language. There is no national script and the Latin script created in 1984 is used. The Chinese language is commonly used. They worship their ancestors and believe in many gods.
Cultural Etiquette
The Tujia people love to sing mountain songs, which include love songs, wedding songs, hand-swinging songs, labor songs, and pan songs. Pendulum dance, Youyang folk songs, Youyang ancient songs included in the national intangible cultural heritage list, Youyang County in 2010, 100,000 people with the pendulum dance to create a Guinness World Record, was named by the Ministry of Culture, 2011∽2013 annual "China's folk culture and art of the townships", October 18, 2010, Guizhou Province, along the river Tujia autonomous county was named "China's folk culture and art of the townships". On October 18, 2010, Yanhe Tujia Autonomous County, Guizhou Province, was named "China's Tujia Mountain Song Township". Traditional dances include the "Pendulum Dance", the "Eight Treasures Copper Bell Dance" and the "Maogus". Musical instruments include the wooden leaf, "dongdong quin" and "playing the guy".
The traditional festivals of the Tujia people include the New Eating Festival, the Sheba Day, the New Year's Catch, the Cow King Festival, the Flower Dynasty Festival, and the Festival of Washing God.
The main etiquette is: to meet and greet each other, and if there is a guest in the house, they will be treated with hospitality. If there is a New Year's Day to the Tujia people home guests, the host will also take out the snow-white patty cake to bake, to be baked on both sides of the golden blossom, blowing pat clean, into the filling of sugar or honey, hands to the guests. Some places for guests to eat patties also some attention, that is, the baked patties to the guests, the guests shall not blow pat fire ash, to take over the bite, then the host will snatch back to blow pat clean, dipped in sugar and then to the guests.
Daily food customs
Tujia daily staple food in addition to rice, in order to the most common bao gu rice, bao gu rice is mainly bao gu noodles, the right amount of rice mixed with some of the tripod cans to cook, or steamed with a wooden steamer. Sometimes also eat beans rice, that is, green beans, peas, etc. and rice cooked into a meal to eat, poop and deep-fried noodle cake is also a seasonal staple food of the Tujia people, and some even eat until the time of planting rice seedlings, in the past, red pota in many areas has been treated as staple food, is still some areas of the winter after the regular food. Tujia cuisine to sour and spicy as its main feature. Folk families have sauerkraut jar, used to pickle sauerkraut, almost meals are not away from the sauerkraut, sour chili pepper fried meat as a delicacy, chili pepper is not only a dish, but also every meal is not away from the condiments. Such as rice-planting season, the morning to add a meal "over the morning", "over the morning" is mostly made of glutinous rice dumplings or mung bean noodles, a snack. It is said that the "morning" meal to eat dumplings have a good harvest, good luck. Tujia people also like to eat oil tea soup.
Festivals, rituals and food customs
Tujia folk pay great attention to traditional festivals, especially in the New Year is the most solemn. At that time, every family will kill the New Year's pig, dyed red and green, dried and made to do mung bean powder, boiled rice wine or smack wine, and so on. Pork and cabbage is an indispensable dish for Tujia folk on New Year's Day and festivals. The second day of the second month of the lunar calendar every year is called the social day, when to eat social rice. Duanyang Festival to eat dumplings. Glutinous rice poi is one of the most popular foods among the Tujia folk. The Chrysanthemum Festival is a time for playing poi, sending poi to daughters on the moon, and throwing poi on the beams of houses for repairs. During the festivals, gifts to friends and relatives are usually given to each other. In addition to glutinous rice, there are also sorghum, millet and paulownia. Preserved meat is the top dish of the Tujia people. After the winter solstice, the large pieces of pork with
salt, pepper, five-spice powder cured, hanging in the fire kang, under the burning cypress branch field, smoked and become. It is generally said that the guests are invited to eat tea means to eat oil tea, yin rice or dumplings, lotus eggs and so on. Hunan Xiangxi's Tujia treat guests like to cover the bowl of meat, that is, a large piece of fat meat to cover the bowl, the following is equipped with fine meat and pork ribs. In order to show respect and sincerity to the guests, the meat should be cut into large slices and the wine should be served in large bowls. Regardless of the wedding, funeral, house building and other happy events are to organize a banquet, generally accustomed to nine bowls of food per table, seven bowls or eleven bowls of food, but no eight-bowl table, ten-bowl table. Because the eight-bowl table is called spoon eating flower seat, ten bowls of ten and stone homophonic, are regarded as the guest is not respect, so avoid eight and ten. The Tujia people organized a banquet divided into water (only a bowl of boiled meat, the rest are vegetarian, more than the Department of the period before or after the table), the Senate seat (sea food), pastry buckle seat (a bowl of rice noodles or fried noodles made of crispy meat) and five products four lining (4 plates, 5 bowls, are meat dishes). Seats are divided into generations of young and old, and the dishes are served in an orderly manner. Drinking wine is essential for the Tujia people, especially during festivals or when treating guests. The common ones are sweet wine and smack wine made from glutinous rice and sorghum, with low degree and pure flavor.
Sacrificial Food Customs
The Tujia people used to be superstitious about ghosts and gods and worshipped their ancestors, and they had to pay great tribute to their ancestors on every New Year's festival, and small tribute on the first day of the year and the fifteenth day of the year as well. The food for ancestor worship includes pig's head, deep-fried noodle cake, poop, chicken, duck and five grain seeds. In some cases, before each meal, first use chopsticks to clip a small amount of vegetables inserted in the rice on the silent moment, said the deceased ancestors please eat first, and then they began to eat, the sixth day of the sixth month of the lunar calendar for the sacrifice of the king of the soil, each village should be set up to swing the hand of the hall, will be the pig's head, fruits and other offerings placed in front of swinging hand of the hall. October first day of the winter festival, slaughtering chickens and ducks for a feast. In addition, the Tujia people also honor the God of the stove, the God of the land, the God of the grains, the God of the rags, and the God of the rags, and sacrifice Luban in the repair of the house, the offerings in addition to meat and wine, but also a large rooster.
Typical Food
The Tujia people love to eat food such as bacon, oil tea and white chili, and there are also the following food: Hepai, the most common dish eaten by the Tujia people in New Year's festivals, which is often put on the table together with Baogu Shaojiu; deep-fried noodle cake, a Tujia snack, which is processed with glutinous rice and then deep-fried, and often used to be soaked in water and made as tea for the guests to wash the dust; mungbean powder (rice flour) made of rice, mungbean and other raw materials; deep-fried bao, also made with rice and other raw materials; and fried bao, also made with rice and other raw materials. Mung bean flour (rice flour), made of rice and mung beans; deep-fried poi, also known as oil incense or "lamps nest", is made of rice and soybean as the main raw material.