Pumi CustomsPumi Traditional Customs and Habits

According to an old Pumi custom, Pumi children wear a linen robe with a right lapel until the age of 13, regardless of gender. Girls wear a braid in front of their hairpiece, tied with red and green beads. Boys wear debate clothes on the right and left sides in front of their heads, but do not wear Buddha beads. after the age of 13, Lee switches to just wearing pajamas and short skirts like an adult. The hairstyle of adult Pumi men s is basically the same everywhere, with linen shorts on top, wide pants underneath, a robe on the outside, and a belt around the waist.

Pumi women usually wear their hair long. The wonderful thing about thick braids is that they like to braid yak tails and silk threads, wrap them around their heads and wrap them in black cloth. Pumi women in Nyingchi often wear long skirts with pleats at the waist. A red thread is usually embroidered across the center of the skirt. They say that this is the route of their ancestors' migration, and that people must follow this route to find their homes after they die, or else they will not be able to return to their hometowns. Men and women wear sheepskin undershirts or shawls, regardless of clothing style.

Dietary Practices

The common people eat corn as their staple food, with occasional rice, wheat, barley, buckwheat, and potatoes. Corn is eaten by grinding it into flour with a stone mill, shelling it with a sieve, and dividing it into three kinds of food. The shells are usually used as livestock feed. Coarse corn flakes can be mixed with rice and cooked together, or thin rice can be cooked in a pot and then mixed with fine flour in a pot. Cornmeal can also be used to cook sweet wine and steam rice cakes. Corn is also used to make crispy lima wine and cooked foods such as bazan fritters.

Pumi people usually eat three meals during the eclipse. Breakfast is usually pasta and snacks, ghee tea or salt tea, and for lunch and dinner, the staple food is corn. Boiled, steamed, roasted and baked methods are usually used to make rice, baked cakes, dough and noodles.

The Pumi people have a wide variety of daily vegetables, including pumpkins, eggplants, tomatoes, chili peppers, leeks, radishes, turnips, bok choy, green vegetables and scallions. In addition, edible fungi, mushrooms, ferns, cauliflower and chili peppers are often collected.

The Pu people usually use the livestock and poultry they raise as their source of meat. Commonly, pork, beef, and lamb are used to make butter, custard, and other dairy products. The meat is boiled and roasted, not fried. The Pumi specialize in curing pork in the wind to make pork or bacon. The pipa pork is the most famous. The preparation method includes the following steps: remove the internal organs and bones from the slaughtered pig, sprinkle salt and pepper on the belly of the pig.

Seamed and cured in the wind, it becomes a complete pig. It looks like a pipa, so it is also called pipa pork, and it is a great treat for guests.

Usually, after hunting, people can often eat some wild game, such as black bear, wild boar, roe deer, rock sheep and pheasant. This kind of meat is easy to boil and roast, not suitable for frying. Tableware is unique spoons, wooden bowls and pots. Since 1949, the living standard of the Pumi people has been increasing. Their contact with the mainland has become more and more frequent. A large number of daily necessities have been shipped from the mainland to the Pumi region. Porcelain and pottery are widely used by the Pumi people.

There are many kinds of walnut trees in Phu Zu Li, except for ordinary raw walnuts, most of which are pressed for oil and then fried and lit. Also, green peppers are picked in April and May, dried in the sun, ground into pieces, steamed and pressed in an oil press.

Lard, butter, suet, etc. are widely consumed. Cow and sheep oil are used to cook sweet wine or offerings. The Phu people slaughter one to five fat pigs every year for consumption and usually slaughter poultry such as cows, sheep, chickens and ducks during festivals.