What was the totem worshipped by the Ancient Qiang?

The totem worshipped by the ancient Qiang people was the sheep.

The Qiang people believed in the creation of nomadic civilization that everything has a spirit, and this concept ultimately formed the concept of totem worship with the "sheep" as the idol. As one of the twelve Chinese zodiac signs, the sheep is one of the earliest hunting and domesticated animals in mankind, and is gentle and kind in nature. As early as 150,000 years ago, living in the vast grasslands of the Northwest, with the Qiang people from the northwest to the Minjiang River along the migration and settlement, sheep and Qiang people's lives are closely related.

Sheep are called "and" or "Jizi" in Qiang. The Chinese word for "jizi" is "white ram". The ancient Qiang people believed that white rams had supernatural spirits and extraordinary reproductive ability, and in the process of reproduction, they chose the creatures that were closest to their survival, the closest to them, the most important, and the ones that had the biggest images - the sheep.

Putting it in a special position and adopting special ceremonies to worship it frequently, in the process of worshipping the sheep, the Qiang ancestors gradually injected the sheep into the alienation of human unique concepts and spirits, and the sheep began to show that it had never been sacred and had great magic power.

Today's Qiang people's favorite livestock is sheep, wearing coats made of raw sheepskin, spinning clothes with wool, using sheep as sacrificial offerings for rituals, and using sheep's bones and wool for divination, and the hat of the spiritual leader of Qiang culture, "Shibi," is also made of sheepskin in the shape of a sheep's horn. The hat of the spiritual leader of the Qiang culture, "Shibi", was also made of sheepskin in the shape of a horn, decorated with sheep's teeth and sheep's bones.

"In the annual Qiang calendar year, the highest sacrificial ceremony - "scrape Barr" ceremony, but also to award the straight sealing of the sheep, this program, the Qiang language known as the "worthy of the state la", to give the five sheep to the sacred rope. Five sheep to award the sacred rope, the Qiang language known as "Deer", meaning that these sheep belong to each of the five gods." p>The culture and art of the ancient Qiang people have a unique national style. Folk songs and folk tales have a wide range of contents and vivid language. Folk songs are divided into bitter songs, ode songs, love songs, mountain songs, wine songs, celebration songs and other kinds of songs. Legendary stories such as <The Opening of Heaven and Earth>, The Great Battle of Qianggo, <Day and Night Thinking of the Red Army> etc. are all precious literary and historical materials. Dance to the Qiang pot Zhuang "jump Shalang" is the most popular, the traditional rituals and customs dance "jump armor" is very rich in folklore style.

The songs and dances are often accompanied by the Qiang flute, an ancient six-tone Cham double-barreled vertical flute, as well as small gongs, hand bells, suona, sheepskin drums and other instruments. Qiang people are also known for their unique and exquisite architectural art, these buildings include towers (ancient name Qiongcang), rope bridge, trestle, and digging wells, weirs and so on. Folk arts and crafts are best known for flower picking, embroidery, and the weaving of wedges and carpets.

As early as the Ming and Qing Dynasties, embroidery was already popular in the Qiang area, and the peach blossom technique was also favored by Qiang women. In addition to picking flowers, its needlework also includes nahua, fiber flower, chain and flat embroidery. The subject matter of the patterns mostly depends on natural objects. The contents of the pick embroidery patterns are mostly auspicious and favorable.

Baidu Encyclopedia - Ancient Qiang

Baidu Encyclopedia - Qiang