Dai is one of the ethnic minorities in China, and it is also the main ethnic group in Thailand and Laos. This paper collects and sorts out the folk customs and materials of the Dai people for everyone. Welcome to read!
brief introduction
Dai is a unique ethnic group in Yunnan, mainly living in Xishuangbanna, Dehong, Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture, Gengma, Menglian and other fertile places under tropical and subtropical climate conditions.
Dai ancestors were one of the ancient Baiyue people. Dai? It means someone who loves freedom and peace. The national characteristics of the Dai nationality are distinct and prominent, and people generally like singing and dancing. The dance image is vivid and delicate, and the movements are mostly the simulation and beautification of animal forms. What are the most popular? Peacock dance? 、? Elephant foot drum dance? , especially? Peacock dance? Boarding the elegant hall, its graceful dance and delicate emotions vividly simulate this beautiful animal-peacock, and beautify it with anthropomorphic methods, bringing people into a poetic realm and making the audience in metropolis fall for it.
Dai language belongs to Sino-Tibetan language family and belongs to Dai language branch of Zhuang-Dong language family. Dai people have their own characters, which are used by Dai people to record rich historical legends, religious classics and literary poems. Dai people can not only sing and dance well, but also create splendid culture, especially Dai calendar, Dai medicine and narrative poems.
history
Since ancient times, Dai ancestors have lived in Yunnan, Guangxi, Guizhou and other places, and have close ties with Zhuang, Shui, Buyi and Li. Baiyue? . What do they use? Tattoos and broken hair? For * * * the same customs, but mixed with each other. Their footprints are still in Laos, northern Thailand, Myanmar and India. They were the first people to grow rice and use plowing. BC 1 century, there are records about Dai ancestors in China history books.
well-behaved
Since ancient times, the Dai people have been a nation that pays attention to etiquette. When foreigners arrive at the Dai family, the host will take the initiative to greet them, serve tea and water, and entertain them for dinner. No matter men, women and children, they always smile at their guests, speak softly and never shout, swear or swear. When women walk in front of guests, they should fold their skirts and bow their waists. The guest is downstairs, not from the upstairs where the guest is. Every family has several sets of clean bedding for guests. In some Dai villages, there are buildings dedicated to receiving guests along the road? Sarah's room.
Will you be influenced by your master when you visit Dai's house? Splash water? And then what? Tie the line? Polite. When the guests arrived, there was a small booth of Dai people at the door. Water soaked in petals was filled in a silver bowl, and it was gently splashed on the guests with branches and leaves. After taking a seat on the bamboo building, Lao Mitao will tie a thread on the guest's wrist and wish him good luck, peace and happiness. The distant guests who have been to the Dai village were moved by the warm and friendly reception of the Dai people and left an unforgettable impression.
Holidays and festivals
What are the main festivals of the Dai people? Closing day? 、? Opening day? And the water-splashing festival. ? Closing day? Mid-July is the busy farming season, during which Buddhist festivals are mostly concentrated, so as to concentrate on production and hold grand ceremonies? Buddha? Activities, with food, flowers, silver coins, paper money and other offerings to the Buddha. ? Closing day? It will last about three months until mid-October? Opening day? So far.
The biggest festival of the Dai people is the Water-splashing Festival. The time is April every year. According to the time series, April in the solar calendar is equivalent to the first month in the Dai calendar. Songkran Festival is also the New Year of Dai people. According to the traditional custom, early in the morning, people will bring flowers and green leaves to the Buddhist temple for sacrifice and clear water to welcome the Buddha. After all this, large-scale splashing water on each other began. I saw groups of young men and women, filled with water in copper bowls and washbasins, pouring out of the street, playing and chasing, splashing on everyone and getting soaked from head to toe. This is auspicious water, blessed water. People spilled and dumped to their heart's content. No matter who is splashed or splashed, they are extremely happy and laugh loudly.
During the Songkran Festival, a dragon boat race will be held on the vast Lancang River. The water boat will be decorated with colorful flowers, dressed as Jackie Chan, peacock and big fish, and dozens of young men and women will paddle hard. The audience on both sides of the strait will be like a cloud, and the sound of gongs and drums and cheers will resound through the sky.
At night, there will be fireworks in the village, which are made by the Dai people themselves. Use a bamboo dozens of feet long, fill the root with gunpowder and other ingredients, and put it on the elevated bamboo. When the fuse is lit and the gunpowder burns, bamboo flies into the sky like a rocket, emitting gorgeous fireworks in the air, just like flowers, the stars are shining and dazzling, making the night sky of the festival particularly beautiful.
Songkran Festival is a popular festival, and a happy festival usually takes three to five days.
marriage customs
? Catch braised chicken? Eating ballads is a way of courtship for young men and women in Xishuangbanna, that is, girls take braised chicken to the market to sell. If the buyer is a girl's lover, the girl will take the initiative to take out a stool and let him sit next to him. Through conversation, if the two sides love each other, they will carry chickens and stools to the Woods to express their feelings. If the buyer is not the girl's lover, the girl will double the asking price.
? Have some wine? When a man and a woman are engaged, the man picks up the dining tables and goes to the woman's house to treat them. When the guests dispersed, the man was accompanied by three men and three women and set a table. ? Have some wine? Talk about eating three dishes: the first one is hot; The second way is to put more salt; The third course should have sweets. It means passion, depth and sweetness. Congratulations on the completion of the new house. The young man went upstairs first, carrying a bull's head and singing blessing song. Mature men carry boxes, married women carry bedding, and girls carry food in turn. Then they set up a tripod on the fireplace, set the wine table, prepared dishes and sang songs to congratulate the completion of the new house. The villagers also send some auspicious gifts to their owners.
On the wedding day, the wedding will be held in both parties' homes, mostly in the woman's home first. At the wedding reception, the table should be covered with green banana leaves, and the dishes include blood flourishing (white flourishing) symbolizing good luck, rice cakes and various dishes. Before the banquet, the bride and groom should make a tie ceremony, that is, the wedding uses a white line to bypass the shoulders of both sides, and two white lines are tied to the wrists of the bride and groom respectively, symbolizing purity. Then, the old man kneaded the glutinous rice into a triangle, dipped it in salt, and put it on the top of a tripod on the fireplace to let it fall off naturally after burning, symbolizing that love is as strong as iron.
Dress
In traditional Dai costumes, men mostly wear double-breasted or large-breasted collarless tops and fat pants, and a few people wear dark tubular skirts with white, blue, light blue and light yellow cloth heads. Due to different regions, there are obvious differences in women's clothing. Women in Xishuangbanna wear white, crimson or light green tight-fitting narrow-sleeved tops, all kinds of foot-long skirts and silver belts. Women's hair accessories are very particular, with high bun and flowers on it. There are also large cloth towels wrapped around their heads. Dehong and Gengma's women, wearing waist-high coats and colorful skirts, have their hair tied behind their heads and the rest dragged behind their backs. The material used to be homespun, but now it is mostly silk and plain cloth, which shows the graceful figure of Dai women.
prescribe a diet
Rice and glutinous rice are staple foods. Dehong Dai's staple food is japonica rice, and Xishuangbanna Dai's staple food is glutinous rice. Usually eaten immediately. People think that japonica rice and rice need to be eaten immediately without losing their original color and fragrance, so they don't eat overnight meals or rarely eat them, and they are used to pinching rice with their hands. All dishes and snacks are mainly sour, such as sour bamboo shoots, sour pea powder, sour meat and wild sour fruit; I like to eat pickled cabbage. It is said that Dai people often eat sauerkraut because they often eat sticky rice food that is not easy to digest, and sour food helps digestion.
The daily meat is pigs, cows, chickens and ducks, and don't eat or eat less mutton. Dai people who live in the mainland like to eat dog meat, are good at roast chicken and roast chicken, and are very fond of aquatic products such as fish, shrimp, crab, snails and moss. Eating with moss is a unique flavor dish of Dai people. Cooking fish, mostly sour fish or roasted citronella fish, in addition to making fish chop naan (that is, mashing grilled fish into mud and mixing coriander, etc.). ), fish jelly, grilled fish, eel with white sauce, etc. When eating crabs, they are usually chopped into crab paste with shells and meat. Dai people call this crab sauce? Crab Nanmibu? .
Bitter gourd is a daily vegetable with the highest yield and consumption. In addition to bitter gourd, Xishuangbanna also has a kind of bitter bamboo shoots, so there is also a bitter taste in Dai flavor. The representative bitter vegetable is a mixture of cowhide and cold dishes cooked with ingredients such as ox gall.
There are many kinds of insects in the hot and humid areas of Dai nationality. Flavor dishes and snacks made by insects are an important part of Dai food. Common insects that eat are cicadas, bamboo worms, Okumo, soft-shelled turtle, ant eggs and so on. Dai people are addicted to alcohol, but their alcohol content is not high. They brewed it themselves, and it tastes very sweet. Tea is a local specialty, but Dai people only drink big leaf tea without spices. When drinking, only stir-fry on the fire until it is burnt, and drink it slightly after brewing. Chewing betel nut, mixed with tobacco and lime, all day long. Typical foods include dog meat soup pot, dried pork, salted eggs and dried eel.
build
Dai people have lived in bamboo houses for more than 1000 years. This kind of building is very suitable for the climate of tropical rain forest in South Asia. This bamboo building is divided into two floors. There is a fence on the ground floor, which is a place to store sundries and raise livestock. Upstairs is where the family lives. Every bamboo building has a balcony where families can enjoy the cool breeze and dry clothes. Inside the room is a large living room, covered with bamboo mats, where family members sit for dinner, rest and reception. There is a fire pit in the center of the house, which can cook food and keep warm. The living room is connected to the bedroom, usually three to five rooms, depending on the number of family members. Visitors are usually not allowed to spend the night in the bedroom.
The furniture at home is very simple, and most of it is made of bamboo. All the tables, chairs, beds, boxes, cages and baskets are made of bamboo. Every family has a simple quilt and a tent. Occasionally, some felt, lead iron and other utensils, farm tools, pot knives, etc. are used, which are rarely redundant. Pottery utensils are also very common, and the patterns of water tanks are all local.
Building a new house is a major event in Dai people's life. Before building a house, you must first choose a good address and lay a good foundation stone. Next, you should prepare eight main columns. Because the whole bamboo building is built on these eight main pillars, the material selection of the pillars is very important. When the selected wood is carried into the village from the Woods, the villagers will blow horns to welcome it and splash water to bless it. Four of the eight pillars? Male column? What about four? Mother pillar? Cover the post with men's clothes and women's clothes to show the difference. When building a house, the whole village will come to help, which is the tradition of Dai family. At that time, the host should prepare rich food and wine to entertain the villagers who come to help and the relatives and friends who come to congratulate. The whole atmosphere is like a holiday.
taboo
It is forbidden for outsiders to ride horses, drive cattle, carry loads and enter the stockade unkempt; When entering the Dai bamboo house, you should take off your shoes outside the door and walk gently inside. You can't sit above or across the fireplace, enter the owner's inner room, or sit on the threshold; The tripod on the fireplace can't move, and the fire can't be pushed; Don't whistle and cut your nails at home; Don't use clothes as pillows, and don't sit on pillows; When hanging clothes, the coat should be hung at a high place, and the pants and skirts should be hung at a low place; Take off your shoes when you enter a Buddhist temple, and avoid touching Buddhist sacred objects such as the head of a young monk, Buddha statues, spears and flags.
No outsiders are allowed to peep in the bedroom. According to the previous custom, if the host finds an outsider peeking at the host's bedroom, the man will be the host's door-to-door son-in-law, or work hard in the host's home for three years, and even the female guest will serve in the host's home for three years. Therefore, tourists should never peek at the master's bedroom because of mystery, whether they are visiting or being guests. Although the past customs have been broken, peeking into the bedroom is always unpopular.
religion
Dai people believe in Buddhism. In Dai areas, exquisite buildings and unique shapes can be seen everywhere. According to Dai customs, boys and boys were sent to Buddhist temples at the age of seven or eight to live as monks. After entering the temple, the Buddha held a ceremony to enter the temple, shaved his hair, wore a yellow robe and lived in the temple for three to five years. In the meantime, they can't go home, and everything has to be self-reliant. After secularization, you can get married and have children, join the army and go to school. When sending a child to a temple, the child usually rides on his brother's shoulder, and relatives at home bring daily necessities and bedding. After entering the temple, the Buddha held a ceremony to enter the temple, shaved his hair, wore yellow robes and lived in the temple for three to five years. In the meantime, he can't go home, and everything has to be on his own. After secularization, you can get married and have children, join the army and go to school.
dramatic literature
The development of Dai literature can be roughly divided into four stages: first, the emergence and development of ancient songs, myths and creation epics; The second period is the formation and prosperity of heroic epics, legends and ballads; Third, the rise and prosperity of stories and narrative poems; Fourth, the new literature flourished.
The famous "Dai Ancient Songs" contains 30 Dai ancient songs, which reflects the production activities and living conditions of Dai ancestors in primitive times. There are myths about the origin of heaven and earth, such as "Should Open Heaven in Eight Days", "Ancient Lotus" and "Gapa in Mei Fei". Myths about human origin include "gourd man", "gourd lays eggs", "human fruit" and "dirty clay man", flood myth includes "gourd seed" and totem myth includes "bird girl". Epics include Patamagaro, Changed Zagongpa (Guhe), Mudu and The Origin of Everything in the World. The heroic epic is Li Feng. Ballads are mainly love songs, folk songs, labor songs and children's songs.
Dai people love poetry very much, especially long narrative poems. The introduction of Buddhism and the creation of Dai language laid the foundation for the prosperity of narrative poetry. Dai folk artists accept, translate and spread foreign Buddhist literature, and at the same time absorb Dai folk stories and create a large number of long folk narrative poems. According to textual research, there are as many as 550 narrative poems by Ayi (that is, the practice story of Buddha reincarnation with the origin of Buddha as the core content).
Generally speaking, the common narrative poems of Dai people include Golden Frog, Pocket, Big Leaves, Golden Antelope, Sweet Valley, Sour Fish, Eyes of Twelve Princes, etc.
Dai opera
Dai drama is a unique art of Dai people, which spreads in Dehong Autonomous Prefecture, Gengma County, Lincang County, Menglian County, Pu 'er City and other places in Yunnan Province.
Dai drama originated from dance performances and Buddhist scriptures with certain characters, and absorbed the artistic nutrition of Yunnan opera and shadow play. At the same time, Dai drama spread from Tusi yamen to the people, and a large number of folk Dai drama performance organizations appeared. After the founding of People's Republic of China (PRC), the Dai drama has made new development. 1960 The first professional performance group, Luxi Dai Troupe, was established, and 1962 was expanded to Dehong Dai Troupe.
1962 "He E and luo sang" participated in the drama performance of southwest ethnic minorities, which caused a sensation and was praised as? Pearl of Southeast Asia? . Except for professional groups such as Dai Opera Troupe in Dehong Prefecture, almost all the larger Dai villages have amateur performance teams. Basically, Dai dramas are only loved by the elderly, and young people are not interested because they don't understand them. The inheritance of Dai drama is increasingly difficult.
Traditional Dance: peacock dance
What is the name of Dai language? Hey, Luo Yong? 、? Hate Luo Yong? Or? Jiananluo? . This is the most popular dance of the Dai people, which is popular in the Dai settlements. Rich and beautiful Dai township, known as? The land of peacocks? In the past, peacocks with common charming postures would dance whenever the morning dawned or the setting sun shone obliquely. Therefore, in the eyes of Dai people, peacock is a symbol of good luck, happiness, beauty and kindness. During the festival, Dai people gather to watch peacock dance and folk artists perform peacock dance according to folk stories, myths and legends and Buddhist stories. For example, peacock dance, based on the fairy tale The Devil and the Peacock, is widely circulated among the people. The dance shows that the devil wants to occupy the peacock as his wife, and the peacock with a human face is struggling to shake its beautiful feathers. The brilliant light blinded the devil brothers and the peacock won.
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