Introduction of an ethnic group in China

Tujia ("Bizka" in Tujia language) now has a population of 8.02 million people, ranking seventh in the country's total ethnic population, mainly located in Hunan, Hubei, Chongqing, Guizhou adjacent to the Wuling Mountains, **** there are two Tujia Autonomous Prefectures, 24 Tujia Autonomous Counties, in January 1957, was formally recognized as a single ethnic minority. Tujia language belongs to the Sino-Tibetan language family Tibetan-Burmese language group in an independent language, the Tujia do not have their own national script, general Chinese.

They are mainly engaged in agriculture. The art of weaving and embroidery is the traditional craft of Tujia women. The traditional crafts of the Tujia people also include carving, painting, paper-cutting, batik and so on. Tujia brocade, also known as "Silankappu", is one of the three famous brocades in China.

The Tujia people love to sing mountain songs, including love songs, marriage songs, songs of swinging hands, labor songs, pan songs and so on. Traditional dances include the "Pendulum Dance", the "Eight Treasures Copper Bell Dance" and the song and dance "Maugus". Musical instruments include suona, wooden leaf, "dongdang quin", "playing guys" and so on.

Etiquette: meet to greet each other, family guests, must be hospitality. If there is a New Year's Day to the Tujia people home guests, the host will also take out the snow-white patties to bake, to be baked on both sides of the golden blossom, blowing pat clean, into the filling of sugar or honey, hands held to the guests. Some places for guests to eat patties also some attention, that is, the baked patties to the guests, the guests shall not blow pat fire ash, to take over the bite, then the host will snatch back to blow pat clean, dipped in sugar and then to the guests.

In September 1957, the establishment of Hunan Province Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture.

In 1983, the Exi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture of Hubei Province was established, and in April 1993, it was changed to Enshi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture.

Liang Xiao (front), daughter of Tujia brocade weaver Liu Weixiang, and her sister walk past the wooden building of their house wearing Tujia Silankapu costumes. The Tujia word "xilankapu" is a kind of Tujia brocade. "Xilan" means "quilt" and "kapu" means "flower". Kapu" is the flower cover of Tujia. Tujia girls learn the art from their elders when they are young, and when they get married, they take a full set of brocade as their dowry. Silk, cotton and linen are used as raw materials, and generally red, blue and green are used as warp threads, while the weft threads are free to choose their own colors. It is woven by hand with ancient looms and picking knives by adopting the method of passing through the warp and breaking the weft, and picking the weaving on the opposite side. Xilan Kapu is generous in composition, exquisite in weaving, rich in patterns, bright and warm in color and ancient, known as the living fossil of Tujia culture.

Daily food customs Tujia daily staple food in addition to rice, the most common to the baguette rice, the baguette rice is based on the baguette flour, moderately mixed with some rice with a pot, boiled or steamed in a wooden steamer. Sometimes also eat beans rice, that is, green beans, peas, etc. and rice cooked into a meal to eat, poop and deep-fried noodle cake is also a seasonal staple food of the Tujia people, and some even eat until planting rice seedlings, in the past, red pota in many areas has been treated as staple food, is still some areas of the winter after the regular food. Tujia cuisine to sour and spicy as its main feature. Every family has a pickle jar to pickle sauerkraut, almost every meal is not away from sauerkraut, pickled chili pepper fried meat as a delicacy, chili pepper is not only a dish, but also every meal is not away from the condiments. Soybean products are also very common, such as tofu, tempeh, soybean leaf skin, tofu milk. Especially like to eat with residue, that is, soybean grinding fine, slurry residue is not divided, boiled and clarified, plus vegetables cooked can be eaten. Folk often put beans rice, rice plus baguette soup together with the slag to eat. Tujia usually three meals a day, generally eat two meals at leisure; spring and summer farming, labor intensity is greater when eating four meals. Such as rice-planting season, the morning to add a "morning", "morning" is mostly glutinous rice made of glutinous rice dumplings or mung bean powder a snack. It is said that the "morning" meal to eat dumplings have a good harvest, good luck. Tujia people also like to eat oil tea soup.

Festivals, rituals and food customs Tujia folk pay great attention to traditional festivals, especially in the New Year is the most solemn. At that time, every family should kill the New Year's pig, dyed red and green, drying and become), do mung bean powder, cooking rice wine or smack wine and so on. Pork Hap Choi is an indispensable dish for the Tujia folk on New Year's Day and festivals. The second day of the second month of the lunar calendar every year is known as the social day, when to eat social rice. Duan Yang Festival to eat dumplings. Glutinous rice poi is one of the most popular foods among the Tujia folk. The Chrysanthemum Festival is a time for playing poi, sending poi to daughters on the moon, and throwing poi on the beams of houses for repairs. During the festivals, gifts to friends and relatives are usually given to each other. In addition to glutinous rice, there are also sorghum, millet and paulownia. Preserved meat is the top dish of the Tujia people. Once the winter solstice is over, large pieces of pork are cured with salt, pepper and five-spice powder, hung on the fire kang, and smoked under the burning cypress branches. Some households store bacon for two or three years. Cut into chunks of bacon, compact meat, red, fragrant and attractive. On New Year's holidays or friends and relatives at the door, the table full of dishes, the top must be set bacon. Tujia people are very hospitable, usually tea and rice, if there are guests, summer first drink a bowl of glutinous rice sweet wine, winter will first eat a bowl of boiling water soaked doughnut deep-fried noodle cake, and then to wine and food to treat the guests. Generally speaking, to invite guests to eat tea means to eat oil tea, yin rice or dumplings, eggs, and so on. The Tujia people in western Hunan prefer to treat their guests with meat in a covered bowl, i.e., a piece of extra-large fat meat to cover the mouth of the bowl, with fine meat and pork ribs underneath. In order to show respect and sincerity to the guests, the meat should be cut into large slices and the wine should be served in large bowls. Regardless of the wedding, funeral, house building and other happy events are to organize a banquet, generally accustomed to nine bowls of food per table, seven bowls or eleven bowls of food, but no eight-bowl table, ten-bowl table. Because the eight-bowl table is called spoon eating flower seat, ten bowls of ten and stone homophonic, are regarded as the guest is not respect, so avoid eight and ten. The Tujia people organized a banquet divided into water (only a bowl of boiled meat, the rest are vegetarian, more than the Department of the period before or after the table), the Senate seat (sea food), pastry buckle seat (a bowl of rice noodles or fried noodles made of crispy meat) and five products four lining (4 plates, 5 bowls, are meat dishes). Seats are divided into generations of young and old, and the dishes are served in an orderly manner. Drinking wine is essential for the Tujia people, especially during festivals or when treating guests. The common ones are sweet wine made from glutinous rice and sorghum, and smack wine, which has a low degree and pure flavor. The Cow King Festival is one of the important festivals of the Tujia people.

Sacrificial Food Customs The Tujia people used to be superstitious about ghosts and gods and worshiped their ancestors, and they would pay great tribute to their ancestors on every New Year's Day, and small tribute on the first and fifteenth days of the year. The food for ancestor worship includes pig's head, deep-fried noodle cake, poop, chicken and duck, and grains and seeds. In some cases, before each meal, first use chopsticks to clip a small amount of vegetables inserted in the rice on the silent moment, said the deceased ancestors please eat first, and then they began to eat, the sixth day of the sixth month of the lunar calendar for the sacrifice of the king of the soil, each village should be set up to swing the hand of the hall, will be the pig's head, fruits and other offerings placed in front of swinging hand of the hall. October first day of the winter festival, slaughtering chickens and ducks for a feast. In addition, the Tujia people also honor the God of the stove, the God of the land, the God of the grains, the God of the rags, in the repair of houses and houses sacrificed to Luban, offerings in addition to wine Luban, offerings in addition to wine and meat, but also a large rooster.

Typical food The Tujia people love to eat poop (mochi), bacon, oil tea and other foods, in addition to the following: combined dishes, the Tujia most commonly eaten on New Year's Day, often with the Baogu Shaojiu on the table; deep-fried noodle cake, Tujia snacks, fried with glutinous rice after processing, often used to soak the water when the tea for the guests to wash the dust; mung bean powder (rice flour), made of rice, mung beans and other raw materials; deep-fried poop, also known as oil incense or "lampshade nest". "lamps nest", is made of rice, soybean as the main raw material fried.