Dai customs and habits information to be shorter

The distinctive feature of the Dai family and marriage throughout history is hierarchical endogamy. Strict hierarchical endogamy was practiced among the Tusi, and polygamy was prevalent. The majority of peasants practiced patriarchal monogamous small families, with parents and unmarried children as family members.

Young men and women were quite free to socialize before marriage and were free to fall in love. The custom of inviting family members to their homes is popular. Dai wedding, there is a grand "tethering" ceremony, by the old man with white cotton thread tethered to the bride and groom's wrists, symbolizing the two souls tethered together, and bless the newlyweds respect each other as guests, and grow old together. Passage of earth burial, but with obvious class differences, the nobles and the poor burial site is strictly separate.

The Dai clothing, men with collarless lapel or lapel small-sleeved shirts, under the long tube pants, cold days Phi felt, more white cloth or green cloth head. Men's tattoo custom is very common, both to show bravery, but also can drive away evil protection, decorative body. Boys are invited to get tattoos when they are about 11 years old. Women traditionally wear narrow-sleeved short clothes and tube skirts. Dai women in Xishuangbanna wear white or scarlet undergarments with a small waist, wide hemlines and tube skirts of various colors.

The staple food of the Dai is mainly rice. The Dehong area eats round-grained rice, and Xishuangbanna and other places love glutinous rice, which is usually pounded and eaten now. The Dai's famous fragrant bamboo rice, also known as bamboo tube rice, that is, glutinous rice in a fragrant bamboo tube, soaked in water for 15 minutes, then baked with fire and become.

The Dai also eat insects. The Dai region is humid and hot, and there are many kinds of insects. Frequently eaten insects include cicadas, bamboo worms, large spiders, field turtles, ant eggs and so on. To moss into the dish, is the unique flavor of the Dai dishes. The moss consumed by the Dai people is selected from the moss on the rocks in the river water in the spring, with dark green color as the best, and then torn into thin slices and dried in the sun, and worn with bamboo gimlets to be used.

The Dai people have the custom of eating flowers. Often eat wildflowers are climbing flowers, pear flowers, white azalea, yellow rice flowers, beet flowers, banana flowers, bitter flowers, acanthopanax flowers, goldfinch flowers, egg flowers, bitter thorns flowers, bent root flowers, panicle flowers and a kind of Dai language known as the "Mocai" flowers, about 30 kinds of flowers. Raw, fresh, sour, spicy and wild are the characteristics of Dai cuisine. Wine is loved by the Dai people, and is usually home-brewed with a low degree and sweet flavor. Tea is a local specialty, but the Dai people only drink large-leaf tea without spices.

Dry-fence architecture is the characteristic of Dai residence. The Dai bamboo house is divided into two halves by a fence, the inner room is smaller and is a bedroom, forbidding outsiders to enter; the outer room is more spacious, and the inward part is a hall, a place for receiving guests, and the outward part has a fire pit, a place for heating and cooking.

The festivals of the Dai people are mostly related to religious activities. The main festivals include the Gate Festival, the Open Door Festival and the Water Festival. Door Festival, the Dai language, "Hauwasa", the time fixed in the Dai calendar on September 15 (mid-July). Open Door Festival, the Dai language called "Ongwasa", time fixed in the Dai calendar on December 15 (mid-October). The Dai Festival is a traditional festival of the Dai people, which is called "Sangkan Bimai" or "Lenghe Sangkan" in Dai language, meaning the New Year in June. Time in the Dai calendar in late June or early July (mid-April in the Gregorian calendar), about ten days after the lunar Qingming Festival, which symbolizes the "best days", the festival period is generally three days.

The Dai literature is mainly narrative poetry. The Dai have about 500 long narrative poems. The Dai have traditional Dai theater. There are many kinds of Dai dances. The Dai of Xishuangbanna call the dance "Fan". The folk musical instruments of the Dai people include the garasa, ding, wicker, dolo, elephant foot drum, point of sword, row of points of sword and Dai cymbals, etc. The characteristic instrument of the Dai people is the hulusi. The characteristic instrument of the Dai is the hulusi, which is a reed instrument. Martial arts are called "Fen Zheng" in Dai language in Xishuangbanna and "Jar Quan" in Dehong area. In the past, the Dai men to the age of fourteen, five years old, generally have to learn a few sets of martial arts action, as self-defense, enemy protection, anti-beast use.

The Dai brocade is mostly monochromatic, with weft threads starting flowers, the organization of the pattern is very strict. The Dai are the ethnic group that makes and uses the most black pottery. Xishuangbanna, Pu'er Zhenyuan and other places are the main production areas of black pottery. The paper cuttings of the Dai in Yunnan are generally used for embroidery samples and for decorating lintels, lanterns, flags and offerings. The themes are mostly geometric patterns and flowers, plants, birds and animals. The Dai paper method is a kind of line art with the Dai script as the apparent content and the initial charcoal pen, white clay pen, and the later "Lezhan" (iron cone pen), fern pen, steel pen and brush as the expressive tools.

The medicine of the Dai people is also very developed. According to the theory of Dai medicine, there are four towers of wind, earth, water and fire in the natural world, and the human body is also composed of four towers of wind (gas), water (blood), fire and earth.

Religion-wise, the frontier Dai people generally believe in Southern Theravada Buddhism, which belongs to Hinayana Buddhism, and at the same time retains the remnants of primitive ghost worship. Mainland Dai worship "Dragon God", "Dragon Tree", there are religious professionals "Bo Meng" and "Shi Maiden", on behalf of people 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 faith in Theravada Buddhism.

In addition, the Dai also enshrined their own village community God, Dai said "Throwing Raman", also known as "Phi Man", is the God of protection, to be sacrificed twice a year, before planting rice seedlings to pray for a bumper harvest, after the fall harvest for the thank you, to collectively kill a cow or pig, each family to prepare Tributes are sent to the room where the god of the community is enshrined, and after reciting the words of sacrifice, everyone **** food.

Expanded Information

In order to abolish the feudal system of the Dai society, the Party and the government, according to the specific situation of the Dai area, led the Dai people to carry out democratic reform movement, while the implementation of regional ethnic autonomy in the Dai area. So far **** has established two autonomous states and seven autonomous counties, as follows:

Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture and Dehong Dai Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture.

Menglian Dai Lahu Wa Autonomous Prefecture, Gengma Dai Wa Autonomous Prefecture, Yuanjiang Hani and Yi Dai Autonomous Prefecture, Xinping Yi and Dai Autonomous Prefecture, Jinping Miao and Yao Dai Autonomous Prefecture, Jinggu Dai and Yi Autonomous Prefecture, and Shuangjiang Lahu, Wa and Brown Dai Autonomous Prefecture.

A number of ethnic townships have also been established, including Wanma Dai Township and Yongxing Dai Township in Yongren County, Chuxiong Prefecture; Dongpo Dai Township in Wuding County; Lujiang Dai Township and Mangkuan Yi Dai Township in Longyang District, Baoshan City; Wandian Dai Township in Changning County; Menglong Dai Township in Honghe County, Honghe Prefecture; Nuoshan Yi Dai Township in Yun County, Lincang City; and Longtan Yi Dai Township in Cuiyun District, Puer City.

State Ethnic Affairs Commission - Dai Customs and Habits

China.gov.cn - Dai