Which ethnic minority women show their diligence by wearing "Dai Yue Dai Xing" costumes?

Naxi people live in the northwest of Yunnan Province and the southwest of Sichuan Province. Lijiang Naxi Autonomous County and Lugu Lake area at the junction of Sichuan and Yunnan are the two main settlements of Naxi people, and the rest are scattered in Zhongdian, Weixi, Yongsheng, Yanbian, Yanyuan, Muli and Mangkang counties in Tibet. It belongs to the Hengduan Mountains, backed by the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and facing the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau. It has magnificent mountains and rivers, beautiful scenery, simple folk customs and profound cultural heritage, and is known as the beautiful, mysterious and rich "Shangri-La". Today, Old Town of Lijiang, where Naxi people live in compact communities, has been listed as a world cultural heritage, which has attracted attention at home and abroad.

The quaint Naxi costume is a wonderful flower in its traditional culture. In ancient Naxi people, men wore shorts and women wore long skirts. In Weixi, men's trousers do not exceed their knees, and women's skirts cover their knees. Most of them, men and women, don't wear shoes and socks, while women wear flower belts and a piece of sheepskin or felt. Before the Qing Dynasty, the colors of Naxi folk costumes were mainly black and white, young adults wore white, and the elderly wore black, because black meant dignity. Toastmasters have luxurious official uniforms and hats presented by the imperial court, which are worn when meeting officials, welcoming guests and visiting guests. I seldom wear it at ordinary times. At home, they wear robes and jackets made of black brocade and melon-skin hats. The toaster's wife and daughter wear skirts that reach the instep to show their nobility.

From the early years of Yongzheng, under the influence of the policy of "changing the soil to the flow", successive officials of the Qing Dynasty ordered the Naxi people to change their customs many times, so great changes have taken place in their costumes. On the eve of the founding of the People's Republic of China, Lijiang men's clothing was basically the same as that of the neighboring Han nationality, wearing robes and jackets or double-breasted tops and trousers. Women's clothing, except for the custom of wearing skirts in some places, has been replaced by trousers, but the overall clothing still has distinctive national characteristics.

Lijiang women wear wide-waisted robes, vests, trousers, pleated waist and boat-shaped embroidered shoes. The clothes are mostly blue, white and black, and the collar, sleeves and lapels are embroidered with lace, which is simple and generous. Married women wear a bun and a round gauze hat on their heads, while unmarried women wear a cloth headscarf or a black velvet hat with their hair braided at the back of their heads. Naxi girls in Zhongdian are all married with red cloth and silver ornaments. The headdress of Naxi girls in Weixi is almost the same as that of Lijiang, but unmarried girls like to decorate their braids and heads with round silver pieces and patterned colored wool, which is unique. The traditional headdress of Naxi women in Ninglang is quite distinctive. The girls wear pigtails and colorful beads. When they reach the age of thirteen, they will change into adult clothes. Adult women have long hair. Yak tail hair mixed in their hair, combed into a thick fake braid, worn on the top of the head, very beautiful. In addition, there is a big circle of blue and black velvet wrapped around the fake braid, and the silk thread hangs down to the waist. When some women go out, they cover their noses and jaws with a headband from left to right, leaving only two eyes to look around, which can not only keep out the cold, but also highlight women's shyness and beauty.

The sheepskin back decoration of Naxi women is the most distinctive part of their costumes, which contains rich cultural connotations. This kind of back decoration is made of sheepskin and put on the back, so it is commonly called "sheepskin shawl". Sheepskin shawls are made of black and white sheep or goatskin, which are repeatedly rubbed and cut. The sheepskin shawls in different regions have different shapes, and Naxi women's sheepskin shawls in Zhongdian and Weixi are not decorated much. The sheepskin shawl of Naxi women in Lijiang area is best to be pure black. The upper part of the sheepskin shawl is horizontally inlaid with a piece of black (woolen cloth) or black woolen cloth lined with sky blue cotton cloth, and the lower part is sewn with seven pairs of thongs and seven parallel circular colored embroidered cloth discs. The shoulders of traditional sheepskin shawls are also embroidered with two circular colored embroidered cloth discs. When wearing it, the front two embroidered strips are tied to the chest, with patterns such as conch, water wave, potted flower, lantern, bee and butterfly embroidered at both ends, and some people dance hand in hand, which is said to symbolize the hustle and bustle of Naxi people like bees and butterflies, and it is a sweet and passionate feeling to exchange their hard work for life.

The sheepskin shawl of Naxi nationality is mainly worn by women, which used to be worn by men. This shawl originated from the nomadic life of Naxi ancestors, and its development has gone through three stages. In ancient times, sheepskin shawl was the main tool for Naxi ancestors to keep out the cold. At that time, Naxi people were nomadic tribes in the mountains, mainly grazing. They peeled off the sheepskin and hung it on their shoulders to keep out the cold. Because labor needs to carry heavy objects, sheepskin shawls also have a load-bearing function. With the further development of social culture and the improvement of people's aesthetic consciousness, sheepskin shawls began to develop in the direction of applicability and beauty, and their decorative functions became increasingly prominent, becoming the unique clothing of Naxi women today.

There are many speculations and explanations about the sheepskin shawl of Naxi people in the folk and academic circles, and there are also many myths and legends about it. According to legend, a long time ago, Naxi people lived on the mountain near the lake and lived a quiet life. Unexpectedly, one year, a fierce drought demon appeared. He released eight suns to scorch the earth in turn with Taiyang Yuan. There is no night on the earth, and it is brown everywhere. There is a Naxi girl named Ying Gu who is determined to invite the Dragon King to the East China Sea. She knitted a colorful "coat" with bird hair, carried it on her back and ran east. When Ying Gu arrived in the East China Sea, she happened to meet Prince dragon three, and they fell in love. The Dragon King sent Prince dragon three to accompany her back to her hometown to alleviate the drought. Shi Ji, the hateful drought demon, threw Wang Zilong III into the deep pool, leaving elephants and lions guarding the pool mouth. Poor Yinggu struggled with the drought demon for nine days in a row, and finally fell to the ground because of exhaustion of qi. Since then, this place has been called "Yinggudun" (Lijiang). Wang Zilong III rushed out of the deep pool in desperation, calling for pouncing on the place where Ying Gu fell and becoming the spring water of Lijiang Bazi. Seeing this, the three gods of Baisha built a snow dragon, swallowed seven suns in a row, and spit the cooled sun on the ground, leaving only one sun and turning it into the moon. The three gods turned seven cold suns into seven shining stars, which were embedded in Ying Gu's coat to show their approval. In memory of Ying Gu, Naxi girls made exquisite sheepskin shawls based on Ying Gu's coat, symbolizing hard work and courage, which has been passed down from generation to generation and has been passed down to this day. Therefore, the sheepskin shawl means "Dai Yue Dai Xing", which means that Naxi people are hardworking.

In fact, Naxi people have always admired frogs and regarded them as intelligent creatures second only to human beings. They are not allowed to hurt or prey, and offenders are regarded as crimes. Dongba Sutra not only describes the golden frog, but also records the origin of frog sheepskin shawl. It is said that those circular patterns also represent frog eyes, so they also bear the historical traces of totem worship.