The Roc Bird Dance is a folk dance that has been passed down among the Dai, Jingpo, Achang, De'ang, Wa and Brown ethnic minorities in Yunnan. It is a kind of men's self-indulgent dance, which is named because the dancers carry elephant foot drums. The elephant foot drum is made of mango tree or cottonwood tree trunk hollowed out and covered with cowhide, shaped like an elephant's foot. The drum has a long and short points, the long 1.7 meters or so, in the long 1 meter or so, the short 0.7 meters or so. The long elephant foot drum dance is dignified and elegant, the dance step is slow, the drumming method is changeable, and the drum beat is rich in rhythm; the elephant foot drum dance is steady and solid, robust and powerful, and the action range is larger, there are flinging drums, turning drums, tucking the legs and other skillful actions, and the short elephant foot drums are famous for their flexibility and leaping, and there are competitive contents such as fighting drums and drum races. The Elephant Foot Drum Dance is the representative dance of Yunnan Province, and all the grand festivals are danced by the elephant foot drum. Peacock Dance: In Dai language, it is called "Jialuochong", "Bother Luochong" or "Jannanluo". It is the most popular dance among the Dai people, and is spread in the Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture of Dehong and Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture in Yunnan. Xishuangbanna is known as the hometown of peacock, and in the minds of Dai people, peacock is a symbol of good luck, happiness, beauty and kindness. Therefore, the peacock has become the most popular folk dance of the Dai people. During the Water Festival, peacock dance is an indispensable activity. At that time, Dai people gather together to celebrate the festival by striking the gongs, playing the drums, and dancing the beautiful peacock dance. Peacock Dance is a kind of masquerade dance in the earliest days, the actor wears a golden crown of the Bodhisattva on his head, his face is covered with a mask of vajra, his waist is tied with a peacock made of colorful paper or flowery cloth, and his two hands hold the tail of the peacock's wings with a line, and with the rhythm of the gongs and drums, they make all kinds of beautiful peacock movements. Later, the dance is performed without props, accompanied by elephant foot drums and gongs. The Peacock Dance is very popular in the Dai area of Xishuangbanna, and almost every village has an outstanding one. Garland Dance: called "Jar Dong" in Dai language, it is a collective dance of young people. It is mainly popular in some areas of Dehong Dai Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture and Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture. Nowadays, it is only danced during grand festivals and has become an organized dance performance. The garlands in the garland dance are made of brightly colored flowers tied on a bamboo grate about two meters long, and when the dance is performed, both hands hold the ends of the garlands and focus on the changes of the garlands while moving the pace. The dance is performed with both hands holding the ends of the garlands while moving the steps, focusing on the changes of the garlands and forming patterns with national characteristics. When the garland dance reaches the extreme music, it is directed by one person, and the dancers move from the slow plate to the fast plate together, with tiptoe step and "small jump with wrong step" and other movements. Roc Bird Dance: The Roc Bird Dance is called "Jialun" in Dai language. It is an ancient folk dance of the Dai people in the grand festival. It is mainly popular in Ruili County, Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture. Roc Bird Dance is robust and rugged, with big and powerful movements. The dance mainly shows the action of the roc bird fighting with the rain god and the temperament of defying violence. The movements change quickly and powerfully, and the modeling time is long. The "three bends" dance posture has prominent edges and corners. For example, the appearance of the action is generally a big jump after a big dance modeling, showing the roc bird from the air swiftly and quickly down the spirit. More claw hand (fingers open into a fan) and palm hand type, these hand styles to strengthen the strength of the action. There are only one or two performers in the Roc Bird Dance. In the past, the dance was performed with props and masks of the roc bird type, which have been abandoned, so that the dance movements have been fully developed. The drums are unusually rich, and the sound of the drums is deep and powerful. Throwing Bags: Throwing bags is not only a traditional recreational activity favored by young men and women of the Dai ethnic group, but also a way for them to choose objects and look for lovers. Whenever the Dai New Year comes, the girls will carefully use the flower cloth to make a kind of multi-ling shaped cloth bag, the bag is filled with sheep seeds, the corners are decorated with flower spikes, there is a 60 cm rope in the middle, and the bag is also embroidered with colorful flower patterns. This is the girls' love token - flower bag. Throwing bags, men and women on each side of a number of people stand on both sides of the square, with the bag thrown at each other. Anyone who can not catch and make the bag to the ground is penalized, the man can not catch, the bag of money lost to the woman, the woman can not catch, the body ornaments lost to the man, the man took the victory, rows to the home on display, but not as a possession, the next day is still the original sent back to the woman. Every year in the New Year, there is a feast for guests to throw the bag event. On this day, the nearby villages and villages of young girls, all flamboyant and beautifully decorated to the square, there must be 50 or 60 people. Each person carrying a cottonseed bag, by an older do leader, mention a blue flowers, foreign guests with many coins to the square to fight, two opposing formations, the center of the interval is less than five feet. Dai girls do not wait for you to stabilize, fifty or sixty cottonseed packets will have to throw over, of course, most of the number is on the ground, and lost, a group of female generals scrambled up to collect the reward, each issued to the copper yuan three. Again against the game, the guest side, as usual, the cotton bale thrown over, they can not catch, each person to send a flower.
In this way, to lose all the copper yuan, flowers are scattered, party began to meet put you will go to the table. Splash: Dai bathing Buddha Festival around the time when the Han dynasty around the Qingming Festival, also known as the Water Festival is a youthful meaning of men and women carnival day. On the day of the Water Splashing Festival, young men and women in villages and cottages, early in the morning they will go to the mountains to pick wildflowers and branches, and bring them to the Buddhist temple for the Buddha. At noon, put a statue of Buddha in the courtyard, take water to bathe Buddha. After the bath, they pour water on the flowers. Men and women to splash each other with water as a play, until the body drenched, and then together with the water parade in the street, encountered people will be splashed with water, was splashed regardless of whether it is the head of the Tusi or the Han Gong, are only reported with a smile. In this day was splashing water on the body is a kind of good luck, so people are deliberately to go to the street to let the youth play splash, such as crazy like crazy play, until the street in the water into the canal, the beginning of the drenching fun return. Dragon boat race: every year on the day of the Dragon Boat, the Dai people are held dragon boat race, the race, with the usual sailing in the river in the small wooden boat, tied to the color, each boat by young men driving more than one person, in the river for the speed of the race, hundreds of miles within the men and women are packed and dressed up on both sides of the fence, drums and gongs, lively and extraordinary. The winners will get prizes. Fire Lantern: Fire Lantern Dai language called "Gongfei". On the night of the Water Festival, people can see Dai people putting huge fire lanterns into the sky. Fire Lantern is a traditional activity during the Water Splashing Festival. Legend has it that when Buddhism was introduced to Xishuangbanna, it competed with the primitive religions for the right to preach, and the Buddhists used the fire lanterns to compete with the primitive religions
Putting the fire lanterns into the sky to compete with the primitive religions to see who can rise higher. As a result of the competition, the fire lanterns rose higher than the high rise, and Buddhism was victorious, and the fire lanterns were then spread. Later, the fire lanterns became a kind of spiritual support for the Dai people, who tied money and other objects to the bottom of the fire lanterns, so that the fire lanterns would bring these things to the sky, and at the same time, bring the souls of the people after their deaths to the sky as well. Today, the Dai people have given new contents to the fire lanterns, which are flying to the sky with the beautiful ideals and wishes of the Dai family. The fire lanterns are made of cotton paper, and it takes hundreds of sheets of cotton paper to make one fire lantern. The bottom of the fire lantern is not paste, with dozens of pounds of cotton thread wound up to do the wick, wick with vegetable oil soaked through. When the fire lanterns, first use the bamboo pole to the uninflated fire lanterns open, and then ignite the wick. After the wick is lit, the hot airflow will be dried up paper bag type of fire lamp up bulging, into an oval balloon, then, as long as the hand to grab the bottom of the fire lamp a release, it is like a hydrogen balloon as Xu Xu rising on. Good quality fire lamps, can run continuously in the air for several days and nights, looking up from the ground, just like the stars in the sky.