Cultural customs of Shan nationality

The Shan people call themselves "Tai", and they are the same people as the Dai people in China, the Thai people in Thailand, the Lao people in Laos and the Ahong people in India. Due to the influence of Buddhism, more than 95% of the Shan people believe in Buddhism, which is strikingly similar to the Burmese, Meng and other Buddhist peoples in culture and is one of the main ethnic groups that inherit Buddhist culture.

prescribe a diet

Shan people like to eat glutinous rice three times a day and have the habit of not eating overnight meals. The dishes are mainly sour, spicy and astringent, with fewer varieties. I like to eat chicken, fish, pork, fish and shrimp sauce, lobster sauce, pickles and so on. Banana rice and bamboo rice are famous foods of Shan people. Especially bamboo rice is delicious. The making of bamboo rice is very simple. When cooking, first wash a bamboo tube and open it. Put glutinous rice, citronella, pork, salt and water in a bamboo tube, then block the opening with grass and seal the top with mud outside. After that, you can barbecue by the fire. Bake until the outer wall of the bamboo tube bursts, and then take out the rice in the bamboo tube to eat.

Shan people are used to grabbing food with their hands when eating. After dinner, I don't like drinking cold water like Burmese, but drinking green tea. When they drink tea, they like to put a little salt, thinking it is the only taste. There are not many kinds of Shaanxi snacks, and the famous one is "Kuobo" red glutinous rice cake. This kind of cake is made by mashing cooked glutinous rice and fried sesame seeds. Shan people also have the custom of smoking and eat areca.

Dress

Shan men's wear includes bags, tops and trousers. Mailbags are mostly made of silk and are usually worn in festivals and celebrations. The colors of Shan hills are white and pink. The style of Baotou of Shan people is different from that of Burmese people, and the ends of the headscarf are directly stuffed into the headscarf. In order not to drop the bag, some people pin it on specially. Usually, Shan people wrap their heads with towels. Shan coats are divided into shirts and coats. Shirts are mostly white with long sleeves and stand collars. The coat is made of fine cloth with collarless lapels, and the buttons are 5 pieces of cool buttons. The trousers on the trouser legs are very big, and most of them are black.

The women's dress of Shan nationality is the same as that of Myanmar nationality. Wearing a big-breasted long-sleeved shirt on the top and a sarong on the bottom. Shan women often wear long hair on their heads and decorate them with combs and flowers. But there are also many women, especially rural women, who like to wear headscarves. When going out, Shan people often wear pointed hats, shoulder bags and slippers. Shan people advocate tattoos. In Shan society, whether a man has a tattoo is considered brave. The habit of marking whether or not. Shanren11-/kloc-0 started tattooing at the age of 2. The tattoos of the Shan nationality are exactly the same as those of the Burmese nationality. The skin is first described by acupuncture, and then painted with purple-black plant dyes. Previously, the mountain man was covered with various patterns from his knees to his chest, such as tigers, lions, elephants, flowers and plants.

Civilian residence

The folk houses in Shan State are dry-column buildings, most of which are made of bamboo and some are made of wood. Generally every family has a bamboo building. The bamboo building is built in the middle of the yard, surrounded by fruit trees and vegetables, and the yard is often surrounded by bamboo fences. Shanzhulou covers an area of about 10 m square, divided into three rows of 2 1 wooden columns, and the ground is paved with bamboo or wood. Houses have herringbone roofs, and the walls are often divided into thick mats with bamboo strips. The bamboo building of Shan nationality is basically the same as that of Myanmar nationality, with people living upstairs and livestock raising and sundries piling up downstairs. The upper floor of Shanzhu Building near the stairs is the corridor and balcony. There are water tanks and cold water tanks on the balcony, which is a place for the whole family to wash. Stairs are usually opened in the house downstairs (there are no walls downstairs, only pillars supporting the house). Upstairs is bounded by a row of pillars in the middle, and outside is the hall. The hall is the center of the family's diet and daily life, with a one-meter square fireplace. Inside is the bedroom, where the whole family can rest.

The bedroom of Shan folk houses is rectangular, and the family lives together for generations. Shan people don't sleep in bed, but they can sleep by spreading mats on the ground. When sleeping, according to the age order from the inside out, the old man and food are in the innermost part of the bedroom, and the young man sleeps by the door. Family members should sleep in separate seats with only mosquito nets in the middle. Guests are not allowed to wear shoes upstairs, touch the central pillar of the room, enter the bedroom or cross the fire pit when visiting. If you want to spend the night, guests can only sleep in the main room. Generally, there are only thirty or forty families in mountain villages. There are pagodas and temples in the stockade, and there are shrines in each hall. After building a house, mountain people often choose auspicious day to move and hold a relocation ceremony. On the night of moving, the host will invite relatives and friends to read Buddhism, give lectures and entertain guests with food. The next morning, the monks should be invited to fast, be ordained, read the disaster relief sutra and give alms.

domestic

The Shan people are monogamous. Each family generally has only two generations of parents and children. Every family is an independent production unit. Within the family, either father or mother can be the head of the family, responsible for the livelihood of the whole family and arranging housework. The Shan family is orderly, and each family member has his own fixed seat. Women enjoy equal rights with men in the family. However, Shan families occasionally have a preference for sons over daughters. After the child gets married, the son can still live with his parents, but the daughter wants to get married. When there are many children at home, the son can also live separately from his parents, or build another bamboo house in his parents' yard. If there is no son at home, you can recruit a son-in-law at home. When both parents die, the eldest son should bear the responsibility of the father, and the eldest daughter should bear the responsibility of the mother and raise the younger siblings. Every family is used to living in the stockade.

festival

The traditional cultural festivals of the Shan nationality are basically related to Buddhism.

The most solemn festival is the Bathing Buddha Festival, also known as the Water-splashing Festival. During the Songkran Festival, Shan people all over the country will hold a certain scale of celebrations. On the first day of the Buddha Wash Festival, all good men and women will bathe and change clothes in the morning, go to the temple to worship the Buddha and listen to the scriptures, set up a colorful shed in the temple, and invite the Buddha to bathe in the colorful shed. Everyone is scrambling to get clean water to welcome the Buddha and give alms to the monks in the Buddhist temple for peace and health. On the second day of the Bath Buddha Festival, the Shan people began to splash water on each other and bless each other with clear water to wash away the filth of the year. If you splash water on your elders, you should salute first, and then respectfully splash water on your elders' hands. A young man can sprinkle clean blessing water on his favorite little girl. During the Bath Buddha Festival, Shan villages will sing songs of blessing everywhere, and there will be bursts of elephant foot drums.