Customs in Alashan, Inner Mongolia

The wedding of Alashan Mongolians has the following procedures:

Matchmaker: In the past, parents had the final say in the lifelong events of young men and women. Nowadays, men and women can fall in love freely, but marriage must be approved by their parents. Generally, the man's family invites the matchmaker to discuss with the woman's family. If it is decided by the matchmaker, the man's parents will discuss it in person after the date is set. Four to eight people from the man's family go to the woman's house to propose marriage, and they should bring Hada, wine and gifts. Give a gift to the woman's parents, relatives, brothers and sisters. The future son-in-law will also respectfully respect the elders among relatives and propose a toast. The woman's family hosted a banquet to entertain the "sheep back". If the two families negotiate successfully, they can decide to get married on another day. Wedding: The team to pick up the bride (called "Shagaitu" in Alashan Mongolian) consists of 8 to 12 people. The groom wears new clothes, brings enough food, and so on. The person who greets the bride must arrive at the bride's house at sunset the day before the appointed date, neither early nor late, and the sun will set. If you are late, the bride's house will pretend to be closed, and the groom will recite the words and present Hada, and the bride's house will open the door to welcome everyone into the bag. After being seated, the bride presents the bride-to-be with milk tea (with red dates). After drinking tea, the wedding representative took out the snuff bottle to show his respect, and made a toast to the guests and friends of the bride's family, each giving a gift. After singing three songs and drinking tea, the two sides began to sing. They are quick-witted and won't repeat themselves after singing all night. Farewell: The bride will prepare the dowry tonight. In Rosty Yi, the bride is dressed up and veiled. The groom visited his parents-in-law. After the bride and groom taste the "back of the sheep", their parents-in-law give gifts to the couple. The bride began to say goodbye to her parents and sang "Farewell Bitter". When singing the farewell song, the bride's sister-in-law sang "The Song of Marrying a Woman" for the bride's mother. As soon as the song fell, a clever and tenacious young man in the wedding team quickly snatched the bride out and put it on the horse. Get on the horse at the farewell party composed of the bride's sisters and relatives. They first bypassed the yurt with their accompanying livestock, and then galloped on horseback. At this point, the groom and others hurried out, mounted their horses and chased them to the groom's house.

Greeting the bride: When the bride arrives, a rider of the groom's family runs to the bride's farewell party with a sheep stick wrapped in red silk in his hand, and then walks around the bride's farewell party. At this time, the rider of the bride's family came to grab the sheep stick, and the rider of the groom's family flew to the door of the new house and threw the sheep stick into the new house from under the horse's neck, which meant good luck. The groom's parents put a felt mat in front of the new house, and asked the couple to put the two ends of the sheep stick on the felt mat and worship the heavens and the earth three times. Bridal ceremony: In front of the bride's bridal chamber, someone pulls colorful tents and pretends to close the door. Two boys prevented the bride from entering. At this time, people from both families should come out eloquently, and after repeated questions and answers, open the door to welcome the new mother into the house. After entering the room, the couple will worship their parents and elders first, and then toast Hada. The couple will sing three songs. The bride and groom read aloud, lift the veil, enter the bridal chamber, and then the groom's house holds a banquet for the whole sheep. Tea in the new house: The next morning, as soon as the sun rose, the bride's sister-in-law invited two families to the new house for tea. Parents, relatives, friends and guests of the groom will bring gifts to the new house. The bride and groom greet relatives and friends, propose a toast, and guests present gifts to the couple. Then a banquet was held to entertain everyone, drinking and singing, and the atmosphere was harmonious.

After the guests left, the wedding was finished.

Roast Whole Lamb

"Roast whole lamb" is one of the unique traditional cuisines in Alashan region, and it is also the biggest dish. It was originally brought to Alashan by King Zasak and Li Luo, the first flag bearer in Alashan during the reign of Kangxi in the Qing Dynasty, when they moved from Xinjiang to Alashan. Later, the third-generation Wang Qi Luobu Zangduozi was awarded the title of Xu of the imperial court because of his outstanding military exploits, and his palace was built in Beijing. On the basis of the original technology, he absorbed the cooking characteristics of Beijing roast duck and formed the unique local flavor of Alashan roast whole sheep, which has a history of nearly 300 years. Roasting whole sheep must use special oven and Haloxylon ammodendron unique to Alashan as fuel, and carefully select Alashan local variety Mianjie sheep. The tail of this kind of sheep is big and fat, and the meat is delicious and odorless. The production process consists of 18 processes, such as slaughter, blanching, batching and then baking. Roasted whole sheep is dark red in color and attractive and fragrant. It tastes crisp and refreshing, and the taste is rich but not greasy. The way to eat roast whole sheep is also very unique: put the sheep in a big plate and show it to the guests at the front to arouse their appetite, then taste it one by one from the outside to the inside in the order of skin, meat and bone, and then serve it with lotus leaf cake, shallots, noodle sauce and rolls. Finally, eat the wicker noodles cooked with roasted sheep seasoning soup.

Hospitality custom

Alashan Mongolians are famous for their hospitality. When the guests arrived, the whole family came out to meet them and greeted them in turn. The man bends his right knee and his right hand droops along the knee, commonly known as "playing a single thousand"; Women hold hands, bend their knees and stretch up and down, commonly known as "double thousand". Nowadays, people usually shake hands and say hello. The greeting is "Tasai Yinbainu" (how are you? ), answer with "Sai Yin, Ta Sai Yin" (OK! Hello? )。 When guests enter the yurt, they should open the left side of the curtain and don't step on the threshold. Sit on the left (that is, the west) after entering the bag. The first place is the north, and most of them are taken by elders. After the two sides sat down, they took out the snuff bottle and bowed, raised it to the nose and returned it, then exchanged greetings. "How are you? What about the livestock? How about aquatic plants this year? " Salute. If you meet your parents and elders and celebrate the occasion, you will present Hada to show your respect. These traditional manners still remain.

The host offered milk tea, and the guest picked it up in his right hand. After drinking, you can ask for it again. If you don't drink it, you will not drink it. Guests can't help but drink the tea served by the host, and they can't shirk their dedication to the host. When the host gives a toast to the guest, the guest should take it with both hands and drink it off in return. During the dinner, songs praising friendship are often used to persuade wine and propose a toast.

Welcome the distinguished guests from afar, put koumiss on Hada, hold it in both hands, and the recipient should also hold it in both hands. Alashan Mongolians generally have "Abugailahu" (honorific title) and "Zhulalahu" (nickname). People prefer people to call you by your respectful name rather than your original name.

Mongolian yurt

As the most typical national building in grassland area, Mongolian yurts have experienced a long historical era with their bold and flexible unique charm. In historical books, Han books and other ancient books, Mongolian yurts are called vaults. According to the biography of Wu Huan in the later Han Dynasty, grassland people "feed on aquatic plants, live in impermanence, take the vault as their home and open Dongyang". The vault mentioned here is today's yurt. In ancient times, the vault was round and pointed, usually covered with one or more layers of wool felt. In ancient books, Lu is a shed built in a field, which is called Mongolian Legge in Mongolian. This ancient building is not only constantly improving in function, but also completely retaining the structural form of the original building, which is rare in the evolutionary history of any kind of building. The structural form of Mongolian yurt architecture embodies the traditional aesthetic consciousness of Mongolian people. The unique and lively style makes yurts both practical and beautiful. It can be said that the construction of yurts is an expressive creation with the simplest technique and the most material-saving technology, which realizes a high degree of unity between architectural technology and architectural art. Those "Hana" nets woven with fine wooden poles are flexible and simple, and contain wisdom; The dozens of "black mud" poles and skylights on the dome, together with "Hana", complete the overall skeleton modeling of the yurt. Then tie a knot with leather rope or bristle rope, and then cover it with wool felt to seal it, and a yurt is built. In winter, when the snowstorm came, the yurt did not move, and there was no snow on the top. People are drinking milk wine in their bags and singing toast song. In summer, heavy rain hits the yurt, and there is no water on the top of the yurt, let alone rain. People pull up Ma Touqin leisurely in yurts, let the wind roar and rain beat, and never get drunk. Mongolian yurts are simple and light, easy to disassemble when moving, very suitable for nomadic life, and reflect the perfect unity of function and aesthetics in architecture. There are two kinds of yurts: one is the transfer type, which lives on aquatic plants, and is called "Wolger" in Mongolian; One is fixed and suitable for agricultural and pastoral economic zones. In Mongolian, it is called "Tojiri Kaerger". In Xilingol grassland and Hulunbeier grassland, there are many yurts for transshipment. Fixed yurts are more common in Horqin grassland of Zhelimu League and Zhaowuda League. When yurts move to new camps, people often choose mountain bends or depressions in winter, where the cold is not easy to invade; The summer camp is located in a ventilated place on a high slope. Even on a windless day, as long as you lift the felt feet in the private room, a cool breeze will blow gently in the private room immediately. Bold and flexible yurts are dotted on the endless prairie, and blue sky, white clouds and green grass constitute a high degree of harmonious beauty. It is not difficult for people to understand why the beauty of Mongolian yurts has been applied to urban architecture by later generations.