What are the customs and traditional culture of Gelao people

1. Customs

In terms of diet, the staple food is corn (mountainous area) and rice (Pingba area), followed by various kinds of beans, wheat, buckwheat and potatoes, and they like to eat hot and sour food and glutinous rice cake, etc. Among the side dishes of Gelao, glutinous rice cake is the most precious food. Gelao side dishes, to glutinous rice patties as a precious food, the annual festival to play poi "ancestor sacrifice", festive hospitality, the end of the sun to send in-laws, the sun dedication to send friends and relatives, this custom has been preserved to this day.

Smacking wine is also a specialty of the Gelao people. It is made from corn, wheat, millet, and sorghum, and after being cooked, it is fermented and bottled. When installing the tank, first use two finger-large, about one-meter-long water bamboo poles (one of which is bent by a fire), except for the top to leave a bamboo section, the rest of the bamboo section is hollowed out and inserted into the tank and then sealed.

The longer it is sealed, the more flavorful the wine will be. When you drink it, you will empty the top bamboo section, straight pole into the air, and bend the pole as a suction device. Whether it's a feast or an ordinary hospitality, it is sucked according to the order of the old and the young.

Whenever a wedding or funeral celebration, a banquet is held to honor the guests. Generally twenty or thirty tables, more than a hundred tables. Because there is often no preparation in advance, so the funeral table is generally not very elaborate, hanging guests do not care, there is "not welcome not send funeral gift, since the self-service from the sentiments" of the custom. In the past, economic distress, it is not easy to run a seat, there are "funeral field now said, recruiting men to marry women can not afford to talk about, the birth of the full-term ghosts go up" said.

2. Traditional Culture

The Gelao people worship their ancestors, the bamboo king, the king of the barbarians, and the god of the mountains. There are shamans who specialize in rituals, praying for blessings and longevity, retreating from ghosts, and overcoming the spirits of the dead. The Gelao people started their business and live in the mountains, and their food, clothing, housing and transportation are closely related to the mountains and forests, giving rise to the idea that everything has its own spirit.

Some people worship ancient trees and boulders, and on the 14th day of the first month and the 3rd day of the third month of March, they offer wine, meat, and patties to pay homage to them, praying for the well-being of their children and grandchildren. Whenever there are droughts, floods, diseases or pests, they will collect donations and invite Taoist priests to set up jiao-festival ceremonies to pray to the gods for disaster avoidance and safety. The biggest and thickest tree in the forest near the house is often worshipped as a sacred tree.

Once chosen, the area is sealed off from any inappropriate behavior, including cutting down trees and grazing livestock, which objectively protects the local vegetation resources and maintains the ecological environment.

Expanded Information:

Overview of the Gelao People

The Gelao people have a total population of 579,400 people (2000), 96.49% of whom (559,000 people) are concentrated in two counties of the north of Guizhou Province, namely, Muchuan and Daozhen. The rest live in more than 20 counties and cities, including Anshun, Pingba, Puding, Guanling, Qingzhen, Zheng'an, Fenggang, Songtao, Qianxi, Liuzhi, Zijin and Dafang.

The Gelao were originally divided into many different branches, each with a different name. After the founding of New China, after consultation with representatives of the Gelao people from all over the world, and with the consent of the State Council, it was announced in 1956 that the name of Gelao was unified. 1983, with the work of ethnic identification and restoration of ethnic composition, according to the state's national policy, and with the approval of the governments above the county level, more than a quarter of a million more people were restored to the ethnic composition of Gelao.

The Gelao have their own language. Gelao language belongs to the Sino-Tibetan language family. It is close to the Miao language in its phonological system, and close to the Zhuang and Dong languages in its phonology and grammar in some individual cases. It has a small number of cognates with both the Miao and Yao languages and the Zhuang and Dong languages. One viewpoint in the academic community is that it is more appropriate to regard the Gelao language group as an independent language group in the Sino-Tibetan language family, and its name can be called the Bureaucratic language group or the Gelao language group.

The Gelao language is divided into four dialects, which are customarily called the "Draft Dialect", the "Ha Giving Dialect", the "Duo Luo Dialect", and the "Ao Dialect". "The Gelao dialect is divided into four dialects. The dialects of Gelao vary greatly from each other and show a crisscrossing distribution of dialects. Several Gelao dialects often coexist in a county.

In terms of language use, at present, only the Dagouchang of Pingba County in Guizhou Province, the Wanzizhai and Heizhai of Xixiu District in Anshun City, the Xinzhai of Puding County, the Ma'au of Guanling County, the Judu of Liuzhi, the Hongfeng Village of Pudi Township of Dafang County, the Moon Bay of Malipo County in Yunnan Province, and the Sanchong Gelao language of Guangxi's Longlin Gauzu Autonomous County are relatively intact.

According to a survey, the maximum number of Gelao people who speak Gelao completely or partially as their mother tongue at present is no more than 6,000, which is only about 1.1 percent of the total Gelao population. The vast majority of the Gelao use Chinese as their main means of communication. A few members also speak the local Miao and Buyi languages. The Gelao do not have their own script and generally use Chinese.

China.gov.cn-Gelao