Brief introduction of Yugur nationality

Brief introduction of Yugur nationality

Yugur, population 10569, mainly distributed in Sunan Yugur Autonomous County of Gansu Province and Huangnibao Yugur Township of Jiuquan City.

Yugur people have been engaged in animal husbandry for a long time and have rich experience. After the founding of New China, 1954 Sunan Yugur Autonomous County was established, and animal husbandry has developed greatly. Now Autonomous County has become one of the important animal husbandry bases in Gansu Province. Autonomous county has also built pastures and deer farms to produce precious medicinal materials such as velvet antler, musk and bear gall.

The nomadic life from generation to generation has made the Yugur people form the custom of advocating riding and shooting. Both men and women are highly skilled in riding, and even at weddings, horses and bows and arrows are indispensable.

From the distribution area, Yugur people use three languages: Yaohur language of Turkic language family of Altai language family, Engel language of Mongolian language family of Altai language family and Chinese. There is no national language, and Chinese is generally used. Due to the loss of the national language, folk oral creation has become the main form of Yugur national art.

Yugur is a nation mainly engaged in animal husbandry. In the past, they not only lived in felt tents, but also wore clothes, shoes and socks, ate meat and milk from livestock products, and most of the utensils used for production and life were made of fur. Now, some people are mainly engaged in agricultural production.

Yugur history

The ancestors of Yugur people can be traced back to ancient Uighurs. Uyghur language means "unity" and "union" in ancient Turkic language, and it is their self-calling. In 745 AD, the Uighur khanate was established. The territory of the khanate includes the Mongolian grassland area south of Lake Baikal, north of Yinshan Mountain, west of Xing 'an Mountains and east of Altai Mountain. During the nearly one hundred years of the existence of the Khanate, nomadic tribes on the grassland took the Uighur Department as the core, gradually merged and regrouped into a unified Uighur family. Since then, Uighur has become the name of an ancient nation, including grassland nomadic tribes. Khan of the Uighur khanate accepted the knighthood of the Tang Dynasty and became a vassal state of the Tang Dynasty.

In 84O, under the attack of natural disasters and foreign enemies, the khanate collapsed. Several branches in the Ministry migrated to the west and south, and one of them reached Ganzhou (now Zhangye) in Hexi Corridor along the weak water, which was later called Hui Hui, the ancestor of Yugur nationality. By 895, the Uighurs occupied Ganzhou City and established an independent regime. 1208, the Uighur regime in Ganzhou collapsed under the attack of Xixia, and the ministries were scattered. One of them retreated to the south of Dunhuang, to the north of Qaidam Basin and to Lop Nur and Ruoqiang in the west, calling itself "Sali Uyghur", "Sali" and "Yellow", so China history books also called it "Huangtouwu". 1226, Sali Uighur was conquered by Mongolian army. 1368, the Yuan Dynasty perished, and the Ming Dynasty established three Davids, Anding, Antonie and Qu Chong, in Sariwei area. At the beginning of the 65438+5th century, the Yerqiang khanate in Tarim Basin expanded eastward, and the * * * religion was promoted by force, and the Suliwei Uighurs who believed in Tibetan Buddhism were forced to move eastward. At that time, some Mongolian tribes outside the customs followed them eastward to the foot of Qilian Mountain, and gradually merged into a new people's body, that is, today's Yugur, because they lived together with local ethnic groups such as Han nationality and Tibetan nationality for a long time.

Yugur music

There are about 8,800 Yugurs living in Sunan Yugur Autonomous County and Jiuquan, Gansu Province. Mongolian language family of Altai language family is used separately, with no characters, and Chinese is commonly used. They believe in Lamaism. Yugur folk songs have a unique style and simple and beautiful tunes. The wide range, wonderful decorative sounds and free folk songs in music remind people of the nomadic life and gorgeous costumes of Yugur people.

Yugur etiquette

According to the traditional custom of Yugur people, the old man will let you into the tent at the door and arrange for the guests to sit on the ground floor facing the door on the left. This is a VIP seat. It is best to sit on your knees first, and then sit cross-legged according to their custom. Generally, men sit on the left and women sit on the right. When the host invites you to dinner, don't stand up, don't walk around, and don't be too modest, although you eat well.

The hospitality of Yugur people is sincere and honest, and they hate hypocrisy. Yugur people divide meat into first class and second class according to their status, social status and relationship with their host family, and slaughter a sheep into twelve classes. Gifts can be taken away by guests. Folk tradition has the habit of offering tea first and then toasting. During the hunting season, Yugur people also have the habit of entertaining guests with picnics.

Drinking milk tea is an important habit of Yugur people. In the past, the diet was characterized by three teas a day, with tea as a meal. I usually eat some spaghetti in the evening. Therefore, when there are guests, Yugur people always treat themselves with a meal of ghee fried noodles tea first, and then treat themselves with mutton and highland barley wine. When drinking milk sticks, guests must eat the "curved core" (a kind of bulk dairy product) that sinks at the bottom of the bowl, which means they have eaten enough, otherwise the host will give it to you.

Yugur people drink good wine and drink a lot. Many people can drink 4 Jin of white wine. Some women can still drink a catty. It is one of the traditional customs to treat guests with wine. Their habit is to eat before drinking, and then drink after eating. Yugur people never want to drink, just drink all the wine. They have an old rule, that is, to propose a toast to the guests with various names and try their best to get them drunk. It seems that only in this way can they fulfill their friendship as hosts. Yugur people always propose a toast or two. No matter how many people are present, there are only two small glasses. Everyone present should take turns toasting the guests. No quality is overwhelming.

In addition, the Yugur people have a strong boxing style, and there are many programs and tricks. Almost all men, women and children can draw fists. There are two kinds of swordsmanship of Yugur nationality, one is called boxing, which is similar to that of Han nationality. The other is dumb boxing, not shouting. Each side only sticks out one finger at a time, and the outcome is decided in the order that thumb is bigger than forefinger, forefinger is bigger than middle finger, middle finger is bigger than ring finger, ring finger is bigger than little finger, and little finger is bigger than thumb. If two fingers are not adjacent, there is no result and the result is repeated. This kind of dumb boxing is only used by women and children or people who can't row and call boxing.

Yugur festival

On holidays or when there are guests, Yugur families should take out the best food to celebrate and entertain. During the hospitality and festivals, the most exquisite and best dishes are beef, sheep back and whole sheep. Among them, roast whole sheep is the most distinctive.

When having a picnic, chop up some wild sheep, put them in the belly of the overturned sheep, bury them in the pit where the residual fire burns, cultivate them with loess, smear them with mud and stew them for a long time. People who take part in picnics like to eat wild onions, garlic and buns. For banquets or festivals, there is usually meat and wine. Yugur people have the habit of drinking a cup or two. In addition to white wine and all kinds of wine, the wine they drink is a unique highland barley wine.

Festival custom is an element that constitutes national characteristics. The festival customs of Yugur nationality reflect all aspects of Yugur's material life and social life, and embody the unique style and rich connotation of Yugur culture. Yugur's unique holiday customs include horse mane cutting.

Horse mane cutting festival is held in the middle of April of the lunar calendar every year for one or two days. At that time, the host had to prepare ghee, milk tea, highland barley wine, hand-grabbed meat and a plate for cutting horse hair. There is a small tower with 7-8 floors made of fried noodles, and the tower is poured with ghee. The solidified ghee can fix the tower in the plate. The tower represents the center and all directions; The material of the food tower can symbolize abundance. At the same time, prepare a sharp pair of scissors and tie an auspicious white Hada on the handle of the scissors. At the beginning of the mane-cutting ceremony, the family brought a pony, and the owner invited an experienced shepherd among the guests to cut it. The guests recommended each other and gave up on themselves again and again. Finally, it was cut by a recognized person who is good at cutting manes and singing and dancing. He (she) cut the horse's mane and sang a mane-cutting song. The first lock of mane cut off was sent to the tent by him (her) himself, dedicated to "Mao Shen" and prayed for the blessing of "Mao Shen". Continue cutting after paying the bill, but leave some for other guests to cut. After cutting all the one-year-old foals for the host family, everyone went into the tent to prepare for a banquet. Jiuge replied, very happy. The host tries to make the guests eat and drink more; The guests warmly praised the master for being good at keeping the house and prospering the livestock. After dinner, the master rode away on a pony that had just been maned. Every time he passes by, he is congratulated by others. Cutting a horse's mane is a bit like holding a bar mitzvah for adults.

Marriage custom of Yugur nationality

The marriage customs of Yugur nationality are quite strange. At the wedding, the groom shoots three arrows without arrows at the bride (to avoid hurting people), which symbolizes that the bride and groom love each other and grow old together. After the shooting, the groom broke his bow and arrow and threw it at the door. The old man threw it into the fire and burned it. This custom comes from an old legend: once upon a time, there was no fire in Yugur, and then a hero brought it, so Yugur lived a good life. There was a newly married couple. The husband went out hunting and the wife accidentally put out the fire at home. In order to get a fire, she had to give her blood to the three-headed demon. A few days later, the husband came back, and his wife became skinny because the devil came to suck blood every day. After the husband knew it, he shot the devil's three heads with three arrows. He died of his injuries. Since then, in order to prevent the evil spirits from coming again, and to commemorate the hero who expelled the evil spirits, Yugur people began this ceremony at the wedding. It symbolizes that the bride is protected by a brave and shooting husband, and monsters dare not make waves. It contains the determination and desire of Yugur people to overcome evil and pursue a happy life.

The Yugur wedding is held in two days, the first day at the woman's house and the second day at the man's house, the latter being more grand. At the wedding, both men and women should invite singers. On the girl's wedding day, a headdress ceremony was held. On the same day, the relatives and friends of the woman's family gathered at the girl's house. The visitor brought a white Hada to the woman's parents to congratulate the girl on her marriage. In the evening, the host invited people to sit on the floor, with male guests sitting on the left and female guests sitting on the right. Amid laughter, the curtain of the wedding banquet was opened.

After several rounds of drinking, when Ran Ran, the morning star, rises, the bride, accompanied by the bridesmaid, enters the carpeted felt room and holds a ceremony of wearing a headscarf. Dai Daimian was presided over by two * * *. My uncles or singers are singing the elegant Song of Wearing a Head: the morning star is shining, the beloved girl is wearing her head/the cavalry is about to start/send the girl to her husband's door.

In the melodious singing, the girl who is about to get married, dressed up by two girls, changed her hair style, put on a trumpet-shaped felt hat, put on a chest ornament and a back ornament, and put on a headdress made of silver, jade, coral, agate and seashells. This ceremony means that the girl has ended her innocent girlhood and moved on to a new life.

At the dawn of the red sun, the priest announced that he would drink "horse wine". The bride, led by the bridesmaid, rode a horse or camel, bid farewell to her loving mother, went to the groom's house, drank and sang all the way, and was surrounded by a group of family members such as her father, uncle, brother and sister. On the way, the men's wedding team paved a carpet with a cooked sheep, wine and rice. When the farewell party arrived, the wedding guests presented Hada to the female guests to show their respect. Then the people who see me off get off the horse to drink and eat. This is called "pinching". After the "tip", the two men got together and walked to the man's house.

At the man's house, the woman's good rider, encouraged by her master, drove the horse and camel to the small felt house specially built for the bride, which was extremely powerful. The man's relatives and friends struggled to expel. Three rounds of impact, and then three times around the small yurt. This is a symbolic ceremony to test the ability of the man's family to protect the bride.

Then a ceremony was held to dedicate the leg of lamb to the groom: ghee was applied to the groom's forehead and the leg of lamb was hung on her belt. The significance of this ceremony is as expressed in the "Words for Giving Lamb Leg", "There is hair on the sheep's calf, just like the husband's family can't get rid of each other's good grades".

According to the custom of Yugur people, while giving sheep and calves, a ceremony of shooting arrows without clusters should be held for the bride. In the wedding folk songs of Kyle in Sana 'a and the bold toast song, a couple of Yugur newcomers walked into the bridal chamber and ate a calf of a sheep together, and began their sweet life.

Yuguzu clothing

The headdress of Yugur women is full of national characteristics. When a girl reaches the age of 15, she will wear "sardar", which means that when she grows up, she can get married. "sardar Pavilion" is a square burqa made of red cloth, which is decorated with shells and various corals.

Yugur women have the habit of wearing hats. This kind of hat is a felt made of white wool. It has two black edges in the front, the brim is not wide, the back is slightly tilted, the front is flat, and the top of the hat is decorated with red ears, hanging around the top of the hat. Some of them are decorated with various patterns, and they look like upside-down horns on their heads, which are very chic.

The hat of an unmarried girl is slightly different from that of a married woman: the unmarried girl wears a long red cloth belt with coral beads on it, and a lot of spikes made of red, yellow, white, green and blue corals and jade beads hang down on her forehead like a bead curtain. Comb five or seven braids with colored velvet thread at the end and tie them in the back belt. The well-dressed woman wore a wide cylindrical flat-topped hat with a bright red ribbon hanging from the top. Married women have long hair, that is, they comb their hair into three braids, one hanging behind their backs, and the left and right braids hanging from behind their ears to their chests. There are three headdresses tied on three braids, and each braid is divided into three sections. They are connected by metal rings, which are inlaid with ornaments such as silver, coral, agate, colored beads and shells, forming beautiful patterns. Wear earrings on your head, down to the bottom of your robe, and the length of your head depends on your height.

Against the sunshine, Yugur women's hats are particularly gorgeous and solemn, full of national sentiment. When they walked, pearls, silver medals and other headdresses collided with each other, making a crisp, harmonious and rhythmic jingle, which was very nice.

Yugur diet

Milk and tea play a very important role in the daily life of Yugur people. People have the habit of having three teas and one meal or two teas and one meal a day. After getting up every morning, they usually sprinkle a spoonful of water or freshly brewed tea around the tent to show that a new day has begun, and then they can drink it after repeatedly stirring with ghee, salt and fresh milk. If you add ghee, milk skin, Qula (milk pimple), fried noodles, red dates or Elaeagnus angustifolia, you can have breakfast. Have tea at noon, and in the evening, after all the work is over, begin to eat formally. In the evening, it is mainly rice noodles, including rice, noodles and noodles.

Yugur people usually like to eat beef and mutton. Generally, they will make beef and mutton into hand-grabbed meat, whole sheep, beef, sheep back (that is, the bones on the bottom of the whole cow and sheep are cooked), braised mutton strips, air-dried mutton, beef and sheep offal soup, etc. Besides beef and mutton, we also eat pork, camel meat, chicken or stir-fried dishes. Eating cattle and sheep is often accompanied by garlic, soy sauce and balsamic vinegar.

Due to the limitation of natural conditions, herders seldom eat fresh vegetables, and can only collect some wild vegetables such as wild onion, Allium mongolicum Regel, wild garlic, wild leek and ground roll skin (similar to fungus). There are fresh mushrooms everywhere on the grassland in autumn, so they are often eaten after autumn.

What are the main uses of Yugur milk food? It mainly produces cattle, yellow cattle and goat milk, including sweet milk, yogurt, milk skin, ghee and distiller's yeast. Yugur people also like to add some bracken, raisins and red dates to rice and porridge, mix with white sugar and ghee, or add some diced mutton and yogurt to millet and yellow rice as staple food.

Yugur people usually like to make flour into noodles, fried cakes, steamed bread and so on. And the best thing is to eat jiaozi. In winter, everyone cooks a lot of jiaozi, then freezes it and eats it now. Some people can even save it until spring is busy.

Typical food: Yugur people use mutton to cook various dishes, among which sausages and dried fruits are more representative.

Yugur architecture

They live in tents. This tent is made of felt woven from cow hair. Generally, it is about 5 meters long, 3 meters wide and 2 meters high, and it is tightened and fixed around with cow hair ropes. Sitting in a tent seems to be able to see the stars and dots of the sky, but it doesn't leak rain and can shelter from the wind. On the left side of the tent is a floor bed made of logs, about the size of a tent, covered with thick felt. At this time, the place where the whole family sleeps, chats and eats is also the living room. On the right side of the tent is the kitchen. They burn dried cow dung, which is quite powerful. There is nothing strange, and there is no such choking smoke.

Yugur custom

Yugur taboo

There are some customs and habits that must be understood when visiting the home of Yugur herdsmen. If you ride a horse, you must dismount far away from the tent so as not to disturb the cattle. Whips, no matter how long or short, should be placed outside the tent. Don't bring them in. When you leave, don't get on the horse when you go out. Take the horse for a while and get on the horse when the master comes back. If you bring guns, ammunition, hides and raw meat, don't bring them into the tent. People wearing red clothes and riding red horses are allowed to enter the tent. This is because the Yugur people believe in Buddhism. It is said that the "Mao God" they believe in is riding a red horse in red, so there is such a taboo.

Marriage between people with the same surname is strictly prohibited.

Yugur religion

Yugur people mainly believe in the Gelug Sect of Lamaism (Yellow Sect).