What is the most distinctive ethnic group in Hainan?

The Li people call themselves "Sai", and there are different dialects such as "Chi", "Leap", "Mei Fu" and so on. The name is different. At the end of the 9th century A.D., in the Chinese books appeared on the Hainan Li records. The name "Li" is a translation of their pronunciation of the word "Shanling".

Population distribution

As of 1990, there were 1,110,990,000 people.

Mainly in the Li and Miao Autonomous Prefecture in the south-central part of Hainan Province, the rest live in Wanning, Tunchang, Qionghai, Chengmai, Yura County, Ding'an and other counties with a mixed Han Chinese population.

History

The Li originated from one of the ancient Baiyue, and have close relations with the Zhuang, Buyi, Dong, Shui and Dai ethnic groups. As far back as before the Qin and Han Dynasties, a group of "Luo Yue" crossed the sea from the mainland to Hainan Island, and the Sui Dynasty called the inhabitants of Hainan Island "Slang Bureaucrats", i.e. the ancestors of the Li people. "Li" as a special name for the Li, about the Song Dynasty, generally believed that "Li" for the "slang" transformation. The Li are indigenous to Hainan Island. They have been on Hainan Island for more than 3,000 years.

Before the founding of New China, basically in the feudal landlord economic development stage, living in Baoting, Ledong, Baisha three counties bordering the Wuzhishan hinterland of more than 10,000 Li still retains the remnants of the primitive family communes, "the system". Li people have anti-imperialist and anti-feudal glorious revolutionary tradition, especially from the first period of the Revolutionary War, with the Han, Miao people together in the revolutionary struggle, the Li people live in the Wuzhishan District is the main revolutionary base on Hainan Island.

Language and writing

The Li language is spoken, belonging to the Li branch of the Zhuang-Dong language family of the Sino-Tibetan language family, with different dialects in different areas. As a result of long-term contact with the Han Chinese, many Li people are also fluent in Chinese. Using the Chinese language, a program of the Li language in the form of the Latin alphabet was devised in 1957.

Religion and Culture

Religious culture

Ancestor worship and nature worship are practiced. There is a strong superstition of "animism". Areas close to the Han Chinese are influenced by Taoism, and Christianity has been introduced in some areas. In the Ledong Fanyang area, there is a church in the village.

The Li are an ethnic group that can sing and dance well, with rich oral literature, many folk stories and ballads, and folk musical instruments such as the mouth bow (mouth strings), nose Xiao, and "bai" (row of Xiao).

Customs and Society

The Li live under the same family name, and it used to be their custom not to leave their husband's house after marriage. Li women wear button-down blouses and tube skirts, some places to wear head-dress blouses, bundled hair behind the head, buttoned with a bone tube, wearing embroidered headscarves, wearing earrings, collars and hand tin. Women's tattoos, generally tattooed face, back of the hand and bare feet. Women born after the 1940s are no longer tattooed. Men wear their hair knotted in front of their foreheads or behind their heads, and their tops are collarless and button-down.

After a person's death, he or she will be buried in the village cemetery in a single wooden coffin.

Wuzhishan center in the old days to live in the traditional boat-shaped house, mountain Li housing, from the side of the Jin Zigzag, thatched roofs, bamboo as a frame, with bamboo or tree branches woven into the fence above and then paste mud for the wall. The eaves of this house are very short, only one meter from the ground.

The Li people are mainly engaged in agriculture, but also handicrafts, animal husbandry and commerce. Where the Li live, in the subtropics, rice can be cooked three times a year, and is also the main source of tropical cash crops in China. As it is surrounded by the sea on all sides, it is rich in fisheries and salt resources, suitable for the development of aquaculture and forestry. Historically, the textile industry is more developed, the weaving "Li brocade" is famous in the Central Plains. After the founding of New China, Hainan Li-Miao Autonomous Prefecture was established jointly with the Miao in 1952.

Festivals

The Li celebrate the Spring Festival, the New Year's Eve (Lantern Festival), the Qingming Festival, the Duanyang Festival (the fifth day of the fifth month of the year), the Ghost Festival (the fourteenth day of the seventh month, or the fifteenth day of the seventh month in some areas), and the third day of the third month of the year.

Li folk Spring Festival is called the old year, from New Year's Eve to the fourth day. Chickens and pigs are killed, wrapped in glutinous rice dumplings, and family members gather around for a reunion dinner. The day of sacrifice to the ancestors, is the night in front of the ancestors at home in front of the gods burning lamps all night long. Before liberation, there is no watch, by the village elders in the evening of New Year's Eve, in the vegetable field of the end of the melon vines to do mark, the night everyone to go to the melon shed to see, if you find the end of the melon vines beyond the original mark, that is, said the new year has come, we fired a cannon to welcome the spring, living in the bride's home of the bridegroom to go back to her husband's home to celebrate the New Year. On the first day of the New Year, kill chickens wrapped in rice dumplings, sacrifices to ancestors, the day the village men collectively hunting in the mountains, women collectively fishing in the river. Before the hunt, please "Tao Gong" for a chicken divination, regardless of good or bad luck, just a ritual. Caught prey before and after the leg meat each 1, the remaining leg meat to the owner of the hunting dog, the rest of the average distribution. The first to the third day of the Lunar New Year, it is taboo to break into other people's homes and over neighboring villages, men and women can not be in the same bed. On the fourth day of the year, relatives and friends began to visit each other.

Nianzai (Lantern Festival)

New Year's Day 15 is not for production, families kill chickens to buy meat and put firecrackers, and wrapped in rice dumplings to worship ancestors, the Kamo region is divided into the Han Nianzai Festival and the Lai Nianzai Festival two kinds of Han Nianzai Festival that is the Lantern Festival, the Lai Nianzai Festival to be held twice, the first time is the first New Year's Eve 12 days after the date of the (according to the Chinese zodiac genera day calculations, such as New Year's Eve for the bull day, 12 days after the day of the day that is the second time! New Year's Eve), the day to wrap glutinous rice dumplings, do not go out to produce, men hunting in the mountains, women fishing in the river. The night lights burned all night long. The second year child and the first 12 days apart, wrapped glutinous rice dumplings, but can go out to produce, stop hunting and fishing.

Ching Ming Festival

It is rumored that there is a Qingming Festival in Baoting after 1927, which is a day to kill chickens and buy wine, and offer sacrifices to ancestors and gods at home. They bring wine, rice and vegetables to their ancestors' graves to clean them, remove grass and repair their graves, and add new soil. Li Qingming tomb sweeping is usually a new tomb sacrifice 3 years no longer sweep the tomb, known as the "closed mountain", now some and the same as the Han people every Qingming are sweeping the tomb; some still "closed mountain".

Ghost Festival (July 14, some areas fifteen)

It is the day to kill chickens and buy meat to worship ancestors, and at night to insert the road incense, inserted by the children in front of the home, every family is so, has been inserted into the incense into an incense fire to the village outside, and burn paper money to sacrifice the orphaned souls.

March 3

Originally, the Oriental, Changjiang, Ledong and other counties Li people celebrate the newborn, the pursuit of love, the traditional festival. From 1984 onwards, Baoting County Li Miao people also over the "March 3" festival, every year on the lunar calendar "March 3" this day, unmarried men and women are wearing brightly colored national costumes, in the drums and flutes in the dance with the joy of the song to pass on love. Reform and opening up has given this traditional festival newer connotations and vitality. Nowadays, "March 3" is "Valentine's Day" and "Cultural Performance" and "Material Exchange". The "March 3" is the "Valentine's Day" and the "Cultural Festival" and the "Material Exchange Fair".

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Customs

The Li custom is that when a child reaches the age of thirteen or four, he or she must move to the "Lung Boudoir" and not live with his or her parents. The word "Longwu" is a Li word meaning "a house without a stove". The men themselves go up the mountain to prepare materials to build the "Long Boudoir", while the women are helped by their parents to build it, and most of them build it near their parents' houses or in a more remote place at the edge of the village. The "Long Boudoir" is divided into male and female, big and small, and the one where men live is called "Brothers' Long Boudoir" and the one where women live is called "Sisters' Long Boudoir", with the big one having three or five people living in it and the small one having only one person living in it, which is a place for young Li people to live. It is a small house for young Li men and women to get to know each other and settle down. The style of the "Long Boudoir" is similar to that of a house, but it is much smaller, and the interior is usually not spaced out. "There is only one very small door, which can be entered by stooping down.

Taboos: It is usually taboo to mention the names of one's ancestors in front of others; in some areas it is forbidden to kill or eat cats.

Marriage customs

"Night tour" is a unique form of love between young men and women of the Li ethnic group, which is closely related to the "Long Boudoir". Whenever the sun sets, young men will dress up and trek to the "sisterhood of Lung Boudoir" in other villages far away from the mountains to look for their lovers by singing songs and playing mouth bows and nose pipes. It can be said to be a true free love affair. It takes a lot of talent to enter the "Sisters' Longhouse," and first of all, a man has to knock on the door with a song. First, the man has to knock on the door with a song, and if the woman agrees to let him in, she responds with a song; if she doesn't, she throws away a song about not opening the door, and the man has to find another branch. When the man came in the door, but not just sit down, to sing a song to meet the song and please sit down. After sitting down, the man will have to open the door to indicate the purpose of the visit, stating whether it is to find a couple or to propose marriage, the woman responded to whether she already has a lover. If there are a lot of girls in the "Long Boudoir" and you don't know which one is willing to commit, the man and the woman will sing a love song, and the one who is willing to do so will naturally respond to him. Next, the love songs, mouth bows and nose pipes will be sung one after another until the love match is made. After the love affair, the man will send the woman silver dollars, coins, needles, cloth shirts, waist basket, bamboo hats and other items, as a gift to spend the night with the bed. Mutual invitations to the future, the night often come and go. This relationship, some up to January half a year, some up to two or three years. Of course, there are also flowers, then sing each other to break love separation song. The first thing you need to do is to find a new lover for each one of you.

If a pair of Lijia lovers have a hard time breaking their love and need to conclude a marriage, they will tell their parents about the marriage. Then, the parents and brothers of the man's family will choose an auspicious day, bring the bride price, which must be carefully picked betel nut, and go to the woman's family to propose marriage. The betel nut should be sent from house to house, so that everyone can give their good wishes, because the betel nut symbolizes the evergreen and ever-new nature of marriage, and foretells that the man and the woman will love each other and have a harmonious and happy relationship. The Li people call it "putting betel nut" or "putting clothes".

Food

Li people used to eat three meals a day, the main food is rice, and sometimes also eat some grains. One way to make rice is to cook it in a clay pot or an iron pot, which is roughly the same as the Han method of stewing rice. Another is quite a characteristic method of picnic, that is, take down a section of the tube, loaded with the right amount of rice and water, put in the fire roasted, meal time to cut open the bamboo tube to take out the rice, which is the famous "bamboo tube rice". If the hunted game, lean meat mixed with glutinous rice and a small amount of salt, put into the bamboo tube burned into glutinous rice, but also the aroma of the nose, is to entertain the guests of the rare and beautiful food. Xiangnuo rice is a specialty of the Li ethnic area, with Xiangnuo rice stewed rice has "a fragrant rice cooked, a hundred smell" praise.

"Leigong root" is a kind of wild vegetable often eaten by Li compatriots, with small fish and shrimp in the river or meat and bones cooked together, it is an extremely delicious delicacy; "Leigong root" can also be used for medicinal purposes, it can reduce inflammation and detoxification. "South to kill" is the Li compatriots used to eat small dishes, but "South to kill" production of hygiene is not easy to grasp, is now rarely made and eaten.

"Xiang" is the flavor of the Li delicacies, only in festivals or guests to eat when the door, there are "fish tea" and "meat tea" two.

Rat-eating is also a custom of the Li people, whether it is mountain rats, voles, house mice, squirrels can be eaten. When eating rats, first put the rat into the fire for a while, then scrape off the hair, remove the viscera, and then roast or burn it.

Most Li compatriots are addicted to wine, and most of the wine they drink is home-brewed low-grade rice wine, sweet potato wine and cassava wine. The wine brewed with Shanlan rice is a famous wine, often used as a valuable gift.

Li compatriots usually like to chew betel nut, eating betel nut is cut into petals, wrapped with leaves, with lime paste and tobacco, into the mouth to chew, can make people like drinking wine, red face, spirit. Eating betel nut also has the effect of preventing and curing diseases and beauty, so the Li compatriots regard betel nut as a healthy and long-life food.

Typical food: bamboo rice is the traditional flavor of the Li people. In addition, there is "Xiang", Li flavor dishes, there are two kinds of Chinese called "fish tea" and "meat tea"; glutinous rice cakes.