Dai Ethnic Characteristics

Dai ethnic characteristics

Dai ethnic characteristics, China has fifty-six nationalities, the Dai is one of China's ethnic minorities, but also a long history and characteristics of the culture of the nation, has its own folk culture characteristics, the following share of Dai ethnic characteristics, I hope to help you.

Etiquette

The Dai people have been a ceremonial people since ancient times. When outsiders arrive at the Dai home, the host will take the initiative to greet them, serve tea and meals. Men and women, young and old, always smile at the guests, speak softly, never shout, do not curse, do not speak foul language. Women walk from the guests in front of, to close the skirt bowing light walk; guests in the downstairs, not from the guest location of the upstairs. Each family is equipped with several sets of clean bedding for guests. Some Dai villages also have a "Sala Room" along the roadside, which is dedicated to receiving guests. When guests come to the Dai family, they will be honored by the hosts with "splashing water" and "tying threads". When the guests arrive, a small Dai family will use a silver bowl to carry water soaked with flower petals, and gently splash the guests with tree branches and leaves. After walking up to the bamboo building and taking a seat, the old Mito will tie a line on the wrist of the guest, wishing the guest good luck and peace and happiness. Guests from afar who have been to Dai villages have been touched by the warm and friendly reception of the Dai people, leaving an unforgettable impression.

Festivals

The major festivals of the Dai people are the "Closed Door Festival", the "Open Door Festival" and the Water Splashing Festival. "Close the door festival" in mid-July, when it is the busy season, Buddhist festivals are also mostly concentrated in this period, in order to focus on good production, but also to hold a grand "fine Buddha" activities, food, flowers, silver coins, paper money and other offerings to the Buddha. The "Closed Door Festival" lasts for about three months until the "Open Door Festival" in mid-October. The biggest festival of the Dai people is the Water Splashing Festival. It takes place in April every year. According to the chronological calculation, the fourth month of the solar calendar is equivalent to the first month of the Dai calendar. The Water Splashing Festival is also known as the New Year's Day of the Dai Calendar. According to the traditional custom, early in the morning of this day, people have to pick flowers and green leaves to the Buddhist temple for worship, and bring the blue clarified water to wash the dust for the Buddha statue. After doing this, the mass mutual splashing began, only to see a group of young men and women, with a copper bowl, washbasin full of water, out of the streets and alleys, playing and chasing, splashing everyone, from head to toe, the whole body wet. This is auspicious water, blessing of water, people splash, pour to their heart's content, whether it is splashing or being splashed, are exceptionally happy, laughter ...... Water Festival period, in the broad Lancang River, to hold a dragon boat race, water boat tied to colorful flowers, dressed as dragons, peacocks, big fish and other images, by dozens of young men and women to paddle forward, the audience on both sides of the clouds, the drums and drums. The audience on both sides of the river is like clouds, and the sound of gongs and drums and cheers are loud and clear. At night, the villages and cottages set off Gao Sheng, which is the fireworks made by the Dai people themselves. With a few feet long bamboo, the root filled with gunpowder and other ingredients, placed on the bamboo built on a high shelf. Ignite the fuse, gunpowder combustion, bamboo that is, like a rocket into the clouds, in the air released brilliant fireworks, as if the flowers, stars shining, brilliant, the festival of the night sky decorated with special beauty. Water Festival is a festival to welcome the new, joyful festival, usually three to five days.

Marriage Customs

"Catch swing cassoulet" is the Xishuangbanna young men and women to food rumors of love, that is, the girl cassoulet chicken to the market to sell, if the buyer happens to be the girl's intended, the girl will take the initiative to come up with a stool, so that he or she sits beside them, through conversation, if the two sides, such as the two sides, the girl's intention, the girl will take the initiative to take out the stool, so that they sit on their own. Beside, through the conversation, such as the two sides of love, the two will end with the chicken, carrying a stool to the woods to spit each other love; such as the buyer is not the girl's intended victim, the girl will double the price. "Eat small wine", in the men and women engaged, the male party picking the food and wine to the female home to invite guests, when the guests dispersed, the male party by three male companions accompanied by the female party and the female party's three female companions, * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * table. "Eat small wine" is said to eat three dishes: the first is hot; the second should be more salt; the third should have sweets. It means hot, deep and sweet. The completion of the new house to congratulate the new house, the first upstairs is a young man, carrying a bull's head, singing the blessing song, the strong men to carry boxes, married women holding bedding, girls with meals in turn, and then set up a tripod on the fire, set up a table with wine and food, singing congratulations on the new house song, the townspeople also want to give the host some gifts to symbolize good luck. Wedding day both sides of the family to hold a wedding, mostly in the female family first. At the wedding banquet, the table should be covered with green banana leaves, dishes symbolizing good luck blood Wang (white Wang), rice cakes and various dishes. Banquet before the bride and groom to do the tethering ceremony, that is, by the bridegroom with a white line around the shoulders of the two sides, and two white lines were tethered to the bridegroom, the bride's wrists, symbolizing purity, and then by the elderly will be pinched into a triangle of glutinous rice dipped in salt, placed on the fire on the tripod on the apex of the fire, and let the fire naturally come off, symbolizing the love of the iron as solid.

Clothing

The traditional dress of the Dai people, men wear lapel or lapel collarless shirts, fat pants, there are a few people wearing a dark tube skirt, with white, blue, light blue, light yellow cloth head; women's clothing due to different regions and there are obvious differences. Xishuangbanna women wearing white, scarlet or light green tight narrow-sleeved shirt, under a variety of patterns of long and feet of the tube skirt, bundled silver belt, women's hair is very elaborate, combing high buns, and in the buns decorated with flowers; there are also used to wrap the head of a large cloth scarf. Dehong and Gengma women on the waist coat, under the colorful tube skirt, bun is located in the back of the head, the rest of the hair scattered drag a lock behind. Clothing material in the past for the soil cloth, now more silk, fine flower cloth, more show Dai women Pavilion, graceful figure.

Diet

Rice and glutinous rice are the main food. The Dai in Dehong mainly eat round-grained rice, while the Dai in Xishuangbanna mainly eat glutinous rice. Usually is now pounded now eat, folk think: Japonica rice and rice need to rice only now eat now pounded, not to lose its original color and flavor, and therefore do not eat or rarely eat overnight rice, used to eat with a hand pinch rice. All the accompanying dishes and snacks are mainly sour, such as sour bamboo shoots, sour pea flour, sour meat and wild sour fruit; like to eat dried sauerkraut, it is said that the reason why the Dai people often eat sour dishes, is due to often eat indigestible glutinous rice food, and sour food to help digestion. Daily meat with pigs, cows, chickens and ducks, do not eat or eat less mutton, living in the interior of the Dai people like to eat dog meat, good roasted chicken, roast chicken, fish, shrimp, crabs, snails, moss and other aquatic products. The moss into the dish, is the unique flavor of the Dai dishes. Cooking fish, more into sour fish or baked into lemongrass fish, but also made into fish chopped grits (i.e., fish grilled and whacked into mud, and coriander, etc.), fish jelly, fire fish, eel in white juice. Eat crabs, generally will be the crab shell with meat chopped into crab sauce with rice to eat, the Dai people call this crab sauce for "crab Mangmibu". Bitter melon is the most abundant and most consumed daily vegetable. In addition to bitter melon, Xishuangbanna also has a kind of bitter bamboo shoots, so there is a bitter flavor in the Dai flavor, more representative of the bitter dishes are cooked with cow bile and other ingredients, such as cow sapi gazpacho platter. The Dai region is humid and hot, and there are many kinds of insects. The flavorful dishes and snacks made from insects are an important part of the food of the Dai people. Insects often eaten include cicadas, bamboo worms, big spiders, field turtles, ant eggs and so on. The Dai people are addicted to wine, but the degree of wine is not high, and it is home-brewed with sweet flavor. Tea is a local specialty, but the Dai only drink large-leaf tea without spices. When drinking it, it is only slightly fried on the fire until it is burnt, and it is slightly mushy when brewed and drunk. Betel nut is chewed and mixed with tobacco and lime all day long. Typical foods include dog meat soup pots, pork jerky, pickled eggs, and dried eels.

Architecture

The ethnic groups have been living in bamboo buildings for more than a thousand years. This kind of building is very suitable for the climate of the South Asian rainforest. The bamboo building is divided into two floors. The ground floor is walled and is a place for storing sundries and raising livestock. The upstairs is where the family lives and lives. Each bamboo building has a balcony where the family can enjoy the cool breeze and dry their clothes. Inside the house is a large living room, covered with bamboo mats on which the family sits for meals, rests and receives guests. There is a fire pit in the center of the house, where food can be cooked and warmed. The living room is connected to the bedrooms, usually three to five, depending on the number of family members. Visitors are usually not allowed to spend the night in the bedrooms. Furniture in the house is very simple, bamboo is the most common, all tables, chairs, beds, boxes, cages, baskets, are all made of bamboo. Every family has a simple quilt and tent, occasionally also see some felt, lead and iron and other utensils, agricultural tools and pots and knives are only a set of useful, rarely seen to have a surplus, ceramic utensils are also very common, the form of the water Meng water tank pattern with local colors. Building a new house is a big event in the life of Dai people. Before building a new house, the first thing to do is to choose a good address and put down the cornerstone. Then the eight main pillars have to be prepared. Since the whole bamboo building is built on these eight main pillars, choosing the materials for the pillars becomes a very important thing. When the selected wood is carried into the village from the forest, the villagers have to blow trumpets to welcome them and pour water to bless them. Among the eight pillars, there are four "male pillars" and four "female pillars", which are covered with men's clothes and women's clothes respectively to show the difference. It is a tradition of the Dai family that the whole village will come to help in the construction of the house. At that time, the host will prepare sumptuous food and wine to entertain the villagers who come to help and the relatives and friends who come to congratulate them. The whole atmosphere is like a festival.

Taboos

Taboos outsiders riding horses, driving cattle, picking burdens and disheveled hair into the cottage; to enter the Dai family bamboo building, shoes should be taken off outside the door, and walk inside the house to walk softly; can not sit on top of the fire or across the fire, can not enter the master's inner room, can not sit on the threshold; can not move the tripod on the fire, and can not step on the fire with their feet; can not whistling in the house, can not be used as an excuse for the host to go to the fire. It is forbidden to whistle and cut nails in the house; it is forbidden to use clothes as pillows or to sit on pillows; when sunbathing clothes, tops should be sunbathed in the high place, pants and skirts should be sunbathed in the low place; shoes should be taken off when entering Buddhist temples, and it is forbidden to touch the head of the young monk, the Buddha statue, the goshawk, the flags and streamers, and a series of other holy objects of the Buddhist family. Bedrooms are not allowed to be peeped at by outsiders, and the custom in the past stipulated that if the host found outsiders peeping at the host`s bedroom, the man would have to be the host`s door-to-door son-in-law or do hard labor for three years in the host`s house, and even the female guests would have to serve in the host`s house for three years. Therefore, tourists, whether they visit the Dai family or guests, do not peep at the master's bedroom because of the mystery, although now breaking the past rules, but peeping at the Dai family bedroom is always unwelcome.

Religion

It is taboo for outsiders to ride a horse, drive a cow, carry a burden and enter the village with disheveled hair; to enter the Dai family's bamboo house, take off your shoes outside the door and walk lightly inside the house; not to sit above or across the fire, not to enter the master's inner room, not to sit on the threshold of the door; not to move the tripod on the fire and not to tread on the fire; not to whistle or whistle in the house. It is forbidden to whistle and cut nails in the house; it is forbidden to use clothes as pillows or to sit on pillows; when sunbathing clothes, tops should be sunbathed in the high place, pants and skirts should be sunbathed in the low place; shoes should be taken off when entering Buddhist temples, and it is forbidden to touch the head of the young monk, the Buddha statue, the goshawk, the flags and streamers, and a series of other holy objects of the Buddhist family. Bedroom is not allowed outsiders to peep, the past custom stipulates that if the master found outsiders peeping into the master's bedroom, the man has to be the master's son-in-law, or to the master's home to do three years of hard labor, even if it is a female guest has to go to the master's home for three years of service. Therefore, tourists, whether they visit the Dai family or guests, should not peep into the master's bedroom because of the mystery, although now the past rules have been broken, but peeping into the Dai family bedroom is always unwelcome.

1. Beliefs

Religion, the frontier Dai people generally believe in Theravada Buddhism, belonging to Hinayana Buddhism, while retaining the remnants of the original worship of ghosts and gods. Mainland Dai worship "Dragon God", "Dragon Tree", there are religious professionals "Bo Meng" and "Shi Maiden", on behalf of the person There are religious professionals, "Bo Meng" and "Shi Niang", who perform divination and cure on behalf of people. In Jinggu and other areas, there is also belief in Theravada Buddhism.

2. Clothing:

Women traditionally wear narrow-sleeved short dresses and tube skirts. Dai men wear collarless lapel or large lapel small-sleeved short shirts, under the long tube pants, cold days wearing felt, more white or green cloth head wrap. The custom of tattooing men is very common, both to show bravery, but also to ward off evil spirits and decorate the body.

3, diet

Dai staple food is mainly rice. The Dehong area eats round-grained rice, Xishuangbanna and other places love to eat glutinous rice, which is usually pounded and eaten now. Dai famous incense bamboo rice, also known as bamboo tube rice, out of the laborers often eat in the field, with banana leaves to hold a ball of glutinous rice, accompanied by salt, chili, sour meat, roasted chicken, mumble, moss pine can be eaten. Meat has pigs, cows, chickens, ducks, do not eat or eat less mutton, good roast chicken, roast chicken, like to eat fish, shrimp, crabs, snails, moss and other aquatic products. Frequently eaten vegetables include cabbage, radish, bamboo shoots and beans.

4. Architecture

Column architecture is a characteristic of Dai residence. The bamboo buildings of the Dai around Xishuangbanna and Ruili in Dehong have a unique style. Building nearly square, up and down two floors, the upper floor of the people, about 7 feet from the ground, the lower floor without walls, used to raise livestock and stacked goods, the top of the double beveled, more covered with woven "grass row". Pick up the stairs, there are corridors, drying platforms, you can dry things, cool.

The Dai in most areas of Dehong live in cottages, dissected bamboo for the wall or adobe for the wall, covered with thatch, more for the courtyard. Chuxiong Yi mountains in the Dai bamboo building, the roof is relatively wide and gentle, the main function is to ventilate the sun cool, rain secondary; housing overhead, people live upstairs, can avoid the ground hot summer heat and moisture, to prevent insects and vermin infringement; beams and columns inside and outside of the interspersed connection, all in one, very strong, can prevent the earthquake worry; downstairs, only a few columns, in the case of flooding, in general, can keep the bamboo building unharmed. In the Yishan Dai area, families have built bamboo buildings, and more for the Dai people's main residence.

5, Dai theater

The Dai have a traditional Dai theater. In the past, Xishuangbanna had a dance-based form of singing opera words, which was the prototype of Dai opera. Its plot is relatively simple, mainly showing the hunter with a knife and the disguised dragons, phoenixes, tortoises and cranes to fight. The development and perfection of Dai Opera is mainly in the area of Dehong. Therefore, Dai Opera is also called "Western Yunnan Dai Opera". In the early 19th century, it was practiced in Dehong Yingjiang's Zhanxi and Ganya.

6. Festivals

The festivals of the Dai people are mostly related to religious activities. The main festivals are Somen Festival, Open Door Festival, Water Festival and so on.

Expanded Information:

Dai, also known as Tai, Shan, etc., the national language for the Dai, belonging to the Sino-Tibetan family of Zhuang-Dong language Zhuang Dai language branch.

The Dai people regard peacocks and elephants as mascots, and their folk tales are colorful and colorful. The Dai people like to live by the water, love cleanliness, often bathe, and women love to shampoo, so they are known as "the people of the water", and they used to believe in the Theravada Buddhism and primitive religions in the past.

The Dai people in China are called Dance, Dana, Daiya, Dai tian, Daituan and so on according to their distribution areas. Xishuangbanna and other places called themselves "Dancing", Dehong and other places called themselves "Dai Na", the upper reaches of the Red River, Xinping, Yuanjiang and other places of the Dai people called themselves "Dai Ya", Ruili, Longchuan, Gengma borderline Ruili, Longchuan, Gengma border line of the Dai called themselves "Dai bandage", Lancang Mangjing, Mangna for the Dai bandage branch. The Han Chinese call Dai dancing for water Dai, Dai Na for dry Dai, Daiya for flower waist Dai.

The Dai are the main ethnic group in Thailand and Laos, accounting for 40% of Thailand's total population. The Dai are also the second largest ethnic group in Myanmar, and an ethnic minority in China, India, Vietnam, and Cambodia. According to the data of the sixth census in 2010, the Dai people in China *** there are more than 1.26 million people

Dai Ethnic Characteristics3

Dai Ethnic Festivals

Shutting the Door Festival, Open Door Festival:

Shutting the Door Festival, the Dai language " The Open Door Festival, called "Ongwasa" in Dai language, is fixed on December 15 of the Dai calendar (mid-October of the Gregorian calendar). On the day of these two festivals, men, women and children of all villages go to the Buddhist temple to hold a grand fine Buddha activities, offer food, flowers and money to the Buddha statue Buddha, in front of the statue of Buddha, chanting, dripping, in order to seek blessings from the Buddha. The three-month period from the Closed Door Festival to the Open Door Festival is the "Closed Door" period, which is the period of the year when religious activities are the most frequent. It is the most frequent time of the year for religious activities, such as paying homage to the Buddha, listening to his sermons, and having a small fine for 7 days. At night to set off fireworks, firecrackers, Gao Sheng (Kongming lanterns), held "catch swing". Closed during the period, young men and women can talk about love, but can not get married, can not go out; to be "open door" before you can get married and go out.

Water Festival:

Dai year - Water Festival is a traditional festival of the Dai people. The Dai language called "Sangkan Bimai" or "Lenghe Sangkan", meaning June New Year. Time in the Dai calendar in late June or early July (mid-April). It is held about ten days after the Qingming Festival in the lunar calendar and symbolizes the "best day". The festival usually lasts three days. The first two days are for sending off the old and the last day is for welcoming the new. Early in the morning of the festival, the men, women and children of Dai villages bathe and dress up to go to the Buddhist temple to fine Buddha, and pile up sand in the temple to build 4 or 5 pagodas, and sit around the pagodas to listen to the Buddha recite sutras. After that, the women each pick a load of water for the statue of Buddha "dust washing". After the Buddhist temple ceremony, young men and women exited, pouring water on each other to bless. Then groups of people marching around, splashing pedestrians to show their blessings. Xishuangbanna every year when the Water Festival, the Dai people have to be held in the Lancang River powerful dragon boat race, after the race will be the dragon boat dismantled and put into the Buddhist temple of the bamboo building for safekeeping, to be the next year before the arrival of the Water Festival, and then dismantled the dragon boat assembled, assembling the dragon boat called the "dry black".

Flower Street Festival:

The grandest festival in Huazhong Dai is the Flower Street Festival on the thirteenth day of the first month of the lunar calendar. On this day, thousands of young men and women from the surrounding villages converge on the flower street. The festival of the flower street is bustling, dressed in full dress little Bu young (young girls) in a long line, walk through the flower street, competition makeup than beautiful, infinite flavor; young men are wide-eyed looking for the right person. If they are in love, the two will meet in the lychee bushes under the phoenix-tailed bamboo, the girl took off the waist of the rice gabions, lifted the verdant banana leaves, only to see the fragrant glutinous rice dyed half golden and half bright red with the juice of the flowers to banana leaves one layer after another layer full of pork spine, deep-fried dry eel, pickled duck eggs and other delicacies. The two of them ate together and talked about love. After eating the rice-planting rice, the marriage proposal was finalized.

Wedding:

Dehong and mainland Dai areas of the family marriage has a more distinctive feudal color, marriage is completely built on the basis of the sale and arrangement. The dowry is usually 300 yuan, and there are many other expenses, such as the burden of "open money", "close money", "worship money", "Buddha fees", "recognition fees", "matchmaking fees" and so on, amounting to more than a dozen kinds of fees. This has essentially become the price of women. Many young men from poor families, unable to afford this fee, have taken the form of stealing relatives and picking up marriages, i.e., men and women will set a date for a "wedding" after their feelings have matured. Young men times their partners, with machetes, coins, to the predetermined location of the ambush, to be the girl to come, "grab" and run. The girl pretends to shout to inform her family, the male will withdraw the coins to escape. The fact that they will be entrusted to the matchmaker to the woman's home to propose marriage, the two sides invited the head of the people, friends and relatives will discuss the solution, the bride price is set, before the official door into marriage.

In addition, in these areas, the phenomenon of the family member is also more common, but in nature and Xishuangbanna has been completely different, it is not a remnant of the original custom, but the product of feudal marriage. The social status of those who have gone into the family is extremely low, and their children have no right to inherit property.