I. Customs of the Buyi People
1. Clothing
Buyi people's clothing is mostly green, blue and white. Before the 1970s, men wore turbans, short shirts with lapels or long shirts with big lapels, and long pants. After the 1970s, men's costumes were similar to those of Han Chinese.
Women's costumes have many styles, and the older costumes of the Buyi are still preserved in the areas of Zhenning, Guanling, Puding, and Liupanshui: a short coat with a large placket, with the neckline, shoulders, sleeves, and the edges of the legs set in brocade and batik geometric patterns of various colors; a long pleated skirt sewn in blue batik on a white background, and a variety of silver jewelry.
2, diet
Buyi people to rice as the main food, and eat corn, wheat, red barnyard, buckwheat and so on. Especially like glutinous food, and there are a variety of production methods, such as made into patties, round sugar poi, ear block poi, pillow dumplings and triangular dumplings. On New Year's Day, must eat glutinous rice, and to glutinous rice poop gift to friends and relatives.
3. Architecture
The Buyei people live in several kinds of buildings, half-floor houses and bungalows. The half-floor house has the architectural pattern that the back half is a bungalow and the front half is a building, or the left (right) half is a bungalow and the right (left) half is a building. The building and half building construction is the traditional building form of the Buyei ethnic group.
4. Marriage
Historically, the marriage customs of the Buyi people varied from place to place. There are marriages arranged by parents, and there are also completely independent marriages. From the historical records, the Buyi people in the Ming Dynasty before the marriage is independent. After the Ming Dynasty, due to the frequent exchanges of various ethnic groups and cultural exchanges, especially the influence of the Han culture represented by Confucianism, the marriage customs of the Buyi people gradually changed, and the conclusion of the marriage from the independent choice of the match became absolutely arranged by the parents.
5. Burial
Buyi burials before the Qing Dynasty, cremation, no grave. It was only after the middle of the Qing Dynasty that graves were gradually built and monuments erected. When an old man dies, the bereaved family will report the death to his uncle's family and close friends, and ask the "Bumo" (priest) of this ethnic group to choose an auspicious date to hold the funeral.
Second, the Miao customs and habits
1, clothing
Miao clothing in various parts of its own characteristics. Miao men in northwestern Guizhou and northeastern Yunnan wear patterned linen clothes and woolen blankets with geometric patterns on their shoulders; most Miao men in other places wear short clothes with lapels or left lapels, long pants, big belts, long green scarves, and in winter, their feet are often wrapped in bindings.
Women's clothing styles are complex and diverse, according to incomplete statistics, up to 130 kinds of more than the head of the bun and scarf, the color of the shirt, embroidery patterns, as well as the skirt with or without and length, etc., not only between provinces, but also between counties, and sometimes even between the village and the village, there are often different characteristics.
2. Diet
The dietary customs of the Miao people have their own characteristics. Southeast Guizhou, western Hunan, Hainan Island and Guangxi Rongshui Miao, the staple food for rice, but also corn, sweet potatoes, millet and other grains; northwest Guizhou, southern Sichuan, northeast Yunnan Miao, corn, potatoes, buckwheat, oats and other staple food. There are many kinds of by-products, including meat, home-raised livestock, poultry and fish, and vegetables such as beans, vegetables and melons, in addition to collecting wild vegetables and engaging in fishing and hunting to supplement.
3. Architecture
The Hmong live in clusters and villages surrounded by lush forests and beautiful scenery. Most of the villages have gates and evergreen trees are planted in the villages. The Miao region is rich in timber, so most of the houses are wooden structures, with tiles or cedar bark and thatched roofs. In Qianzhong or Qianxi area, there are also thin slate roofs.
4. Marriage
Miao marriage is strictly prohibited for those who are of the same clan, and most of them are intermarriages with different surnames, and some of them can be intermarriages with different clans of the same surname. The main form of marriage is independent marriage, in the past there are also parents arranged, but before the marriage of young men and women have a relatively free love activities, mostly held at festivals or leisure time, there is a fixed location near the village, by the village girls and young men from outside the village where the song, the two sides intend to give each other gifts as tokens of love.
5, funeral
In the past, the Miao funeral form is more complex, there are tree burials, hanging coffins, cave burials, cremation and earth burials. Tree burial that is, after death with the bark wrapped up and hanged on the tree, Jianhe County, Guizhou Province, swinging long township of the Miao people have used this burial, until the 1950s gradually disappeared. Huishui, Luodian, Wangmu and a few other places of the Miao hanging coffin burial custom inherited until the 1930s. Earth burials have become the main type of burial used by the Miao today.
China.gov.cn-Buyi
China.gov.cn-Miao