The Dulong People, a people who "don't pick up the road and don't close their homes at night"
The Dulong people are one of the less populous ethnic minorities in China. With a population of 7,426 (2000 census data), they are mainly found on both sides of the Dulong River gorge in the western part of Gongshan Dulong Autonomous County in the Nujiang Lisu Autonomous Prefecture in northwestern Yunnan Province, on both sides of the Nujiang River in the north, as well as in the neighboring Qile Township in Weixi Lisu Autonomous Prefecture, and Tsawarlaw in Tsum County of the Tibet Autonomous Region. In addition, there are also many Dulong people living in Myanmar.
The Dulong people call themselves "Dulong", "Dima", historical name, he called "pry", "ornate", "ornate people", "ornate people", "ornate people", "ornate people", "ornate people", "ornate people", "ornate people", "ornate people". In 1952, according to the will of the nation, the name was officially named "Dulong", "Di Ma", "Dulong", "俅", "俅人", "俅子", "俅子", "洛", "曲洛", and so on. In 1952, according to the will of the nation, it was officially named "Dulong".
The Dulong have their own language, but no writing. In the past, they used to rely on carved wooden knots to remember things and pass on information. The Dulong language belongs to the Tibeto-Burman language group of the Sino-Tibetan language family, and the Gonsan Nu language is basically common.
The Dulong people have been living in the mountains since ancient times, the conditions are harsh, the transportation is closed, so the social development is relatively slow, the productivity level is low, before and after the founding of new China is still retained a strong remnant of the original communal system. The economy was dominated by slash-and-burn agriculture, with a large proportion of gathering and hunting.
Women also used to have the custom of writing faces. Housing was mostly wooden or bamboo. The only festival is the New Year. In the past, there was no fixed time, mostly held in the lunar month, and the length of the festival varied.
History
The Dulong are one of the ethnic minorities in China that have preserved the characteristics of the patriarchal family communes at the end of primitive society. Although the general trend of development has been on the road to increasing disintegration, but in terms of productive forces, land forms, social organization and marriage system still have the obvious characteristics of patriarchal family communes. The clan name of the Dulong was first mentioned in the article of customs of Lijiang Road in Dayuan Yitongzhi, and it was called "Pry". In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, it was called "俅" or "曲". After the founding of new china, according to the will of the people, will call themselves dulong as the national title. Before the founding of New China in the 1940s, due to the barrier of mountains and rivers and the oppression and exploitation of successive reactionary rule, the development of social productive forces of the Dulong people was characterized by the following features: slash-and-burn primitive agriculture predominated, and gathering and fishing and hunting still accounted for a large proportion; the tools of production were very simple, and the transition from hoeing to plowing had not yet taken place; the division of labor was not obvious, and there was only the natural division of labor between the two sexes; the exchanges were still at the stage of primitive bartering; the Dulong people were still at the stage of primitive bartering; and there was also the stage of bartering. Barter stage; Dulong people live in great poverty, there is no exchange of commodities, the use of carving wooden knots to keep track of things, before the end of the iron tools passed to the Dulong area, the Dulong people generally use the natural hooks and curves of the branches of the natural part of the hoe made of small wooden hoe digging. The small wooden hoe is pointed like a crane's beak, which is called "Gora" in Dulong language, and it is the first primitive tool used by the Dulong people for hoeing and plowing agriculture. It was not until after the founding of New China that this face was completely changed.
Diet
The Dulong people eat corn and buckwheat, and like to drink wine, eat barbecued meat, drink tea and smoke tobacco.
The Dulong have the habit of eating two meals a day. Breakfast is generally barley fried noodles or barbecue taro; dinner to corn, rice or millet made of rice-based, but also with a variety of wild plant roots ground into starch into cakes or porridge to eat. The Dulong folk still retain many ancient cooking methods, the most common of which is to use a special slate pan to cook slate poi. When branding slate poi, more than the use of Atun or Dong palm starch, with bird eggs and into a paste, and then poured on the hot slate pan, with branding with food, a distinctive flavor.
The Dulong's daily dishes include planted yams, bean pods and melons, as well as collected bamboo shoots, bamboo leafy vegetables and various mushrooms, which are usually eaten with chili peppers, wild garlic, and salt, and then boiled and eaten in a pot. Winter is the peak season for hunting in the Dulong area, and wild beef is the main meat in winter. When consuming wild beef, the beef is first air-dried, then baked over a slight fire, then pounded into silk, made into meat floss or cut into small pieces, sealed in a bamboo tube to preserve or carry.
The Dulong River also produces a variety of fish, with thin scales and thick skin fish. Dulong people like to eat fish with Ming grilled or fried after dipping seasoning to eat, and often baked fish as a drink of small dishes. Bee pupa is one of the most delicate dishes of the Dulong folk, and it is said that there are more centenarians among the Dulong people, which is related to the frequent consumption of bee pupa. Typical foods of the Dulong people include: taro boiled in river hemp, chicken stewed in soju, and Jimi.
Architecture
The production and life of the Dulong people are mainly concentrated in the river valleys and foothill platforms, and the Dulong villages are situated on the mountains and alongside the water, with most of the wooden houses lightly constructed on the steep slopes. In order to make the flash flood flow away from under the house, the side facing the river is overhanging. The hardworking Dulong people's houses are only surrounded by gabion bars covered with thatch on the four walls, the whole building structure is simple, and some of them are stacked on the stone base of the whole section of the logs, covered with sturdy huts. Into the home of the Dulong people, the first thing that jumps into the eye is that draped over the body, placed on the bed or spread on the cabinet as a decorative Dulong blanket. This blanket is made of cotton and linen, hand-woven with colorful threads. Soft texture, simple and elegant, is the Dulong people proud of the national crafts.
Religion
The Dulong people believe in primitive religion, and believe that there is a spirit in everything, and they regard all natural disasters and diseases as a kind of supernatural god's power at work, so all the mountains, rivers, trees, boulders and so on have become the object of people's worship. Preside over the rituals or play trigrams of the sorcerer, the Dulong people called "Namusa" or "Raider of the Woods", most of the system is naturally occurring, but also by the family head of the part-time, they are not exclusively engaged in religious activities, and usually participate in a certain amount of labor. Some of the existing Dulong believe in Christianity.
Clothing
The traditional clothing of the Dulong people generally wears black-and-white straight strips of intersecting linen or cotton clothes, with shorts underneath, and it is customary to use a piece of linen to be pulled diagonally from the armpit of the left shoulder to the chest, exposing the left shoulder and the right arm, and the corner of the left shoulder is knotted with a straw rope or a bamboo needle, and the waist is equipped with a crossbow, a bag of arrows, and a machete. Women more in the waist tie wear dyed oil vine ring for decoration, often draped in colorful, beads, chest chain, earrings, and even copper and silver coins often hung on the neck and under the ear. In the past, there was the custom of writing noodles. Women had to carry delicate gabion baskets on their backs when they went out. Men and women did not wear hats, and were mostly cloaked and barefoot.
Clothing and quilt dual-purpose Dulong carpet
Simple clothing, in the past, more than a piece of linen or two pieces of cloth draped all over the body, the day for the clothes, the night for the quilt.
Before the founding of New China, the dress of the Dulong was very simple. Both men and women used the hemp weaving cloth - Dulong carpet to wrap their bodies as clothes. Dulong blanket is generally about 1 meter wide and 2 meters long. More diagonally draped behind the back, from the right shoulder to the left armpit around the chest, in the right shoulder at the knot, bare left shoulder and right arm. Some women use two, from both shoulders diagonally draped to the knee, left and right wrap forward. One is tied tightly with a rope at the waist to cover the front and back, and the other is naturally draped down. Dulong blankets are sturdy and wear-resistant, easy to use, and can be used as clothes during the day and as quilts at night. It has always been loved by the Dulong people. After the founding of New China, from 1951 to the early 1960s, the state allocated a large number of cotton clothes and pants to the Dulong people every year. Later, with the rapid development of the economy, culture, transportation and other undertakings in the Dulong area, all kinds of fashions were constantly imported into the Dulong area. However, many Dulong people, no matter what clothes they wear, still like to wear Dulong blankets on the outside of their clothes. Form a distinctive national style and the characteristics of the times.
The Dulong carpet is woven with handmade waist machine. In the past, it was spun with pure hemp yarn. After the founding of New China, as the mainland's cotton and woolen threads entered the Dulongjiang area one after another, women like to use various colors of cotton and woolen threads and hemp threads have been mixed weaving Dulong blankets to make their texture softer and the stripes more beautiful and generous.
Marriage
The Dulong line outside the marriage, monogamous individual families, freedom of love, the Dulong young men and women fall in love, they will give each other a love object. The girl gives the boy a bed of her own carefully woven Dulong blanket, and the boy gives the girl a hoe or his own basket.
When it comes time to propose marriage, the young man will ask a man who can speak well to go to the woman to say marriage. When he goes, he carries a teapot, tea leaves, cigarettes and a teapot in his backpack.
To the girl's home, regardless of the attitude of the other side, the marriage counselor will be as fast as possible, the teapot will be filled with water, he went to the fire pit to burn a big fire, put on the teapot. Then take out the tea leaves and tea pot from the backpack, go to the girl's home cupboard to take out the bowl, ready to make tea. The girl's family, whether they agree or not, can only gather around the fire and wait. As soon as the water is turned on, the bridegroom immediately brews the tea in the tea pot and pours it into the bowl. In order, first honor the girl's parents, then the girl's siblings, and finally the girl herself. Next, they began to talk about the marriage, saying nothing more than how good the young man is, how the family likes the girl and so on.
To a certain point, the girl's family did not say anything, but only the girl's father or mother will drink the tea, the girl and the other people will follow the tea, the marriage is complete. If, late into the night, the tea is still not drunk, then come back the next night. If no one still drinks the tea for three nights in a row, it means that the girl's family does not agree with the marriage. If you still want to talk about it, you need to wait until next year.
The Dulong wedding is relatively simple, in the ceremony, the parents of both sexes to introduce their sons and daughters, encouraging the newcomers to care for each other, and in the future, one side of the hand, foot broken or blind can not be separated. Then the couple drink the same wine and everyone dances the Dulong dance, then the ceremony is over.
Customs
Whether it is drinking, eating or eating meat, the housewife shares the food within the Dulong family. Guests are also given an equal share when they arrive. Generally, each family has several fire pits, and one more is added after the marriage of each child, and cooking is undertaken by each fire pit in turn.
The Dulong folk invite each other in a very unique way, usually with a piece of wood as an invitation to invite each other's invitations, when the wood to be invited to the guests to send the wood to be invited to the home of the wood engraved on the wood a few notches on the said a few days after the feast ceremony. The invited guests should bring all kinds of food to show their appreciation. Guests enter the gate of the fortress, to first drink a tube of wine with the host ***, and then sit down to dinner, and watch the songs and dances to cheer. After nightfall, men drink by the fire and read a toast, then throw the bowl of wine on the bamboo shelf on the fire, with the mouth of the bowl towards the sky as an auspicious omen.
The Dulong people are very hospitable, such as in the case of hunting beasts or a family to kill pigs and cows, it will form a kind of distant relatives and neighbors *** gathering feast. In addition, the Dulong people have the custom of entertaining unrecognized passers-by, and guests who pass by and stay with us, as long as they come to their homes are warmly received. Think there is rice does not give the guests to eat, the dark does not stay guests live, is a kind of shameful thing. They have a good traditional habit of not picking up the road, not closing the house at night, and regard stealing as the most shameful behavior. When the Dulongs perform some primitive rituals, tourists are not allowed to visit the rituals.
Faraway tattooing customs
Tattooing, anciently known as "carving questions", "tattooed muscles", "tattooed face", "embroidered feet ", "embroidered face", "ink stabbing", "Zaqing" and so on. It is a method of body decoration in which patterns or symbols are engraved on the skin with pointed sharp instruments such as thorns, needles, knives, etc., and the color is infiltrated so that it is preserved for a lifetime and never fades away. Its origin is very early, by primitive people in the skin body painting for decoration or religious activities developed from the custom. Was widely popular in southeast Asia, Oceania, Central and South America and Africa in many primitive peoples. So far, many indigenous peoples in these regions still regard it as an irreplaceable decoration, and love it with all their families. China's southeastern and southwestern regions, the ancient style of tattooing is also very prevalent. Until modern times, in the Li, Dai, Brown, De'ang, Dulong, Kino, Wa, Nu, Jingpo, Lhoba, Gaoshan and other ethnic groups, this custom still has some vestiges.
The Dulong women's tattoos are mainly focused on the face, so they are often called "face painting" and "face painting". Whenever a young girl reaches the age of twelve or thirteen, she will be tattooed to symbolize adulthood. Wen, by the elderly experienced women first with a bamboo stick dipped in pot-smoke water in the girl's face to draw a pattern, and then use a small wooden stick to hit the thorns of the thorns or sticks with needles, so that according to the pattern of the piercing of the skin and flesh, and then the bottom of the ash or grass rubbed into the wounds, scabs off that is into the greenish-blue pattern. Patterns can be roughly divided into two kinds: the upper and middle reaches of the Dulong River, more than from the heart of the eyebrow to the bridge of the nose pricked with the diamond pattern connected to five or six, and then to the mouth as the center, to the wings of the nose on both sides of the unfolding, and continue to prick the small diamond pattern of the United States by the cheeks to the jaw at the confluence of the composition of a party circle, the square circle of the vertical pricked with the stripe, the square circle of the horizontal pricked with the dotted lines above the eye parts. The whole pattern is like a butterfly spreading its wings and wanting to fly. The lower reaches of the Dulong River is relatively simple, generally only two or three lines of vertical stripes in the lower jaw. Other parts of the text does not.
According to historical records and folklore, the Dulong women tattooed the origin of the custom of the face, there are specific historical reasons. In the past two or three hundred years, the power of the Tibetan Tusi and Lisu slave masters constantly penetrated into the Dulong area, and brutally exploited and oppressed the Dulong people. In particular, the Tibetan Tsawarlong Toastmasters, every year to the Dulong people to force the collection of a wide range of tributes, and even the mouth, ears, nose, hair are taxed. If they could not afford to pay, they would take women into slavery in Tibetan areas. Especially young, beautiful Dulong women often face the danger of being taken away from their homeland. In this special socio-historical environment, the Dulong women in order to be free from captivity, to escape the ravages and trampling of the Tusi, had to take a negative self-help approach: with pot smoke smeared cheeks, and even preferred to endure the pain of their own face dyeing and carving into a never wash away "ink and green lines", become a person is not like a person, the ghost is not like a ghost, so that the living people are afraid of fear, dare not approach. The people were afraid to come near. Over time, the formation of the custom of tattooing the face, and has continued to the beginning of liberation. Therefore, the tattoo is historically a form of negative struggle of Dulong women against national oppression and for personal safety.
Carving Wood to Remember Things, Knotting Ropes to Calculate Time
The Dulong did not have their own writing, and before the founding of New China, they had been relying on carving wood to remember things or to convey information, and knotted ropes to calculate time.
The Dulong people's wood carvings are widely used. Carved with a variety of symbols of the wood carving plays the same role as the ordinary text, paperwork. It can record and convey the orders of the Tusi, civil debts, and the list of bride price. Government (Tusi) issued by the larger woodcut, shaped like a wooden sword, about 20 centimeters wide, about 70 to 80 centimeters long. It is slightly thicker in the center, flattened on both sides, with a slanting point at the top and a handle at the bottom. Different content to carve different notches or line segments, graphics and so on. Such as used to convey the Toji tax handout of wood carving, the upper left side carved a large gap, under the carving of a few small gaps, it is said to come to a big steward, a few attendants. The right side carved a large gap, two small gap, it is required to come to a headman, two people to meet. Wood carvings are sometimes accompanied by arrows, spices, chicken feathers and other different objects, to indicate different meanings. Such as arrows that arrive soon, spices that if you do not obey will be severely sanctioned, chicken feathers that quickly pass, etc.. This kind of wood carving is generally held by the person who sends the wood carving while sending an explanation.
Folk use of woodcut smaller. Commonly used to record debt and financial gifts and other matters. Such as a family sacrifice ghosts without cattle, from friends and relatives to borrow cattle, must measure and write down the size of the cattle. The specific method is: first a gabion to measure the chest circumference of the cow, and then measure the length of the gabion with a fist, and the number of fists correspondingly carved on both sides of a piece of wood. Finally, the piece of wood is split in half down the center, with each side holding one half. When the cattle are returned, the difference is measured in the same way, and the difference is made up with grain, the more the less the better. Then the woodcuts are thrown into the fire and burned, and there is no dispute.
The use of knot-rope timing is also widespread. It refers to the use of a thin hemp rope knot timing, each knot represents a day. If you go out to do business, you can tie a knot one day. When you come back, you have to untie one knot a day, so that you can accurately calculate the date and trip. The annual festival is the most joyful time for the Dulong people. But because there is no fixed date, so every year need to be temporary agreement. The agreement also relies on the knotting of ropes to complete. If you decide to celebrate the festival 10 days later, you will prepare a number of 10 knots in the rope, given to friends and relatives, after a day to solve one. When the last knot is finished, it means that the festival is coming, and everyone kills pigs and cows, singing and dancing to celebrate the New Year.
"No one picks up anything on the road, and no one closes their house at night"
The Dulong region has a simple folk culture, and the ancient custom of "no one picks up anything on the road, and no one closes their house at night" still exists today. No matter who, on the road to pick up something, will never take for themselves. Or wait for the owner to come back to look for, or try to find out where the owner is going, try to return to the original owner as early as possible. People go out on long distances, often divided into several parts of the food they carry, along the way hanging in the trees or put in caves and other places, waiting for the return trip to eat. Passers-by, no matter how hungry, will never take food without authorization. Even clothes and other items can be placed on the roadside at any time, as long as the upper pressure of a stone, indicating that it is the owner of the goods, others will not pick up.
The Dulong people don't pick up anything on the road, and they never steal. Most of their granaries are built behind the house, or even far away from home on the mountain or the edge of the ground. The door to the barn is only inserted horizontally on the bamboo or wooden stick, from the risk of being stolen. Even if you are away from home, the door is so simple to dispose of that no one will ever enter privately.
The traditional virtues of the Dulong people are also manifested in many other ways. Such as a thing the whole village to help the virtue of solidarity and mutual help; respect for the elderly and love for the young, help the poor and needy virtues; politeness, hospitality, and so on.
Astronomical calendar
The Dulong have their own unique calendar. The Dulong people in the long-term production and life struggle, according to the natural changes, from the year when the snow closed the mountain to the next year when the snow closed the mountain is called a year, called "extreme friend". And the year is divided into twelve more or less time varying festival month.
January, called "A Mang", meaning the month of snow, in this January, everyone rest, individual households planted dry yams.
February is the month when the grass starts to grow and a lot of yams are planted.
March, called "Xujiu", meaning the month of sowing, began to sow millet, taro, cotton and other crops.
April is called "Changmujiang," meaning the month of blossoming, when peach blossoms bloom, cranes concentrate their calls, and sowing is completed.
May is called "Ashi," meaning "month of the burning volcano," when a lot of volcanoes are burned and planting stops.
June is called "Buang", meaning the month of hunger, when all the food is eaten, and the month of famine, when a lot of wild food is collected.
July is the month of the blossoming of the mountain grasses, the gathering of grass and the collection of wild food.
August is the month of frost, when the mountain grasses are frozen to death and the harvesting of crops begins.
September, called "Shanluo", meaning the harvest month, harvest millet, grain, tares, buckwheat.
October, called "Sogi Koshi", meaning the month of snowfall, the harvest is over, grain is stored, and snow falls on the mountain tops.
November, called "Le Terrier", meaning the month of water fall, the river falls, looking for winter firewood, cutting buckwheat, in preparation for winter.
December, known as the "Tak then cut", meaning the month of the New Year, also known as the "Roshi Shira", women cut live hemp, weaving linen, cow dance.
The Dulong's festival is not very strict, and its seeding time is based on the blossoms and birds. Every year, the arrival of spring, peach blossom, "sue Kela" bird chirping, spring planting will begin. When the king of the birds, "Sokdeludu," calls, the sowing must be completed, so the flowers bloom and the birds call to direct the people's production. There is no concept of 30 days in a month, but the month is relatively large and small. Generally, the "month of snow" was very long, sometimes more than two months. When the harvest fails, the "hunger month" begins in May. Therefore, some Dulong people can only say 10 months, some can only say "hot season", "cold season". The hot season is when it rains a lot and the cold season is when it snows.
After the founding of New China, the Dulong people began to learn advanced calendars, learning scientific farming calendar has become a reference for folk farming. Dulong people gradually give up this primitive natural calendar algorithm, and use the same calendar with the Han Chinese people (summer calendar), but the folk custom is still "sowing month", "harvest month", "New Year month However, folk customs still include the terms "sowing month," "harvest month," and "New Year's month. Older people in general are less accustomed to the summer calendar and still use changes in natural phenomena as a sign of production.
Festivals
There is only one traditional festival of the Dulong people, the New Year, which is called "Karjangwa" in the Dulong language. It is held every year after the fall harvest, usually between December and January, and the exact time and duration of the festival vary.
The New Year's Day is usually organized by family or village, and the specific time is agreed upon before the festival. At that time, each family to invite friends, *** degree of the New Year. The nearer the message, the farther to send "knot rope" or woodcut as "invitations". The day before the festival, to prepare the meat, wine and food and "Ladar". The "ladar" is a bamboo pole on which a new burlap blanket is hung. The burlap blankets are hung according to the number of people in the family, and if there are a few people, then there are a few, but not less. They believe that more is a sign of prosperity for people and animals, and less is bad luck.
The Dulong New Year is both a harvest celebration and a festival of worship. Therefore, on the day of the festival, a very important activity is to plagiarize oxen to sacrifice to the "Gemon God" and other gods. "Gemon" is the ancestor of human beings in Dulong myths and legends, and he created human beings. The Dulong people believe that by praying to him, the bulls will be able to avoid calamities and illnesses, protect human beings, and bring good weather and good harvests to the earth.
The length of the festival often depends on how much food is prepared. It usually lasts two days or four or five days. The most important ritual during the festival is the "bull plowing and sacrificing to heaven". When plowing a bull, the organizer of the festival first ties the bull to a stake, then a young woman drapes a burlap blanket over the bull's back, hangs a bead chain on the bull's horns, arranges offerings, lights up a pine tree and pine tree hair (pine leaves), and finally a young man with both parents stabs the bull to death with a sharp bamboo spear, then cuts up the beef on the spot and boils it in a big pot immediately. During the festival all the Dulong people have to take the family as a unit, greet each other, *** with congratulations.
Plagiarized cattle to the sky
Dulong people to celebrate a good year and held a ritual activity. Generally held in the fall of each year on a certain day, the most important is also the largest scale is the annual festival of "Kaqiao wow" on the ceremony.
Plagiarized cattle ritual ceremony by the sorcerer presided over. At the beginning of the ceremony, the bull, which is used for the ritual and is clad in a doron carpet, is brought into the field and tied to a thick wooden stake. With the ox as the center, people automatically form a circle and dance and jump around with sharp points and gongs, waving swords and spears.
Then, by the village in the respected family head or sorcerer to a fat and strong bull to the village square in the center, tethered to stand, the women swarmed, have bead chain and other ornaments hung on the bull's horns, and then elected one of them the most beautiful young girl, so that she first draped in a piece of colorful Dulong carpet, and then she gave the bull to drape to the back;
When the other offerings are set up, the officiating priest, the chief of the ceremony, the chief of the ceremony, the chief of the festival, the chief of the festival, the chief of the festival, the chief of the ceremony, the chief of the festival and the chief of the festival, the chief of the festival and the chief of the festival. other offerings are set up, the officiating priest lit pine and pine hair, reciting words, praying to the Gemon, praying for his blessing of human and animal safety, all things go well, so that the ritual ceremony into a climax. Then the sorcerer stabbed the ox under the armpit with a sharp bamboo spear, and the ox was plagiarized to death. Then everyone cooks the meat and shares it. The shaman also carries the bull's head on his back and leads the crowd to dance around the "Sacrificial Bull". At this time, the atmosphere of New Year's Eve reaches its climax. We drink and eat meat, while singing and dancing, Dulongjiang River, into a sea of joy. Finally, all participants in the plagiarism ceremony are equally divided into a beef, we drink dinner, *** celebration of the good year, and pray for the next five cereals, people and animals flourish.
Folk songs ?
The Dulong language called "door rent", for the meaning of the tune, is a variety of folk tunes. Each tune can be sung on a wide range of subjects. The different tunes have not yet been given a clear name, but can only be categorized by the content of their lyrics and the form in which they are sung. Commonly, there are narrative songs, custom songs, mountain songs, love songs, labor songs, ritual songs and so on.