Customs and habits of the Tus

The Turkish people pay attention to etiquette and are good guests. All guests who come to visit and visit are warmly received. The Turkish people often say: "When guests come, blessings come! "To entertain guests with high tea and expensive rice, and invite them to drink, the host first toasts the guests three cups, which is called" Auspicious Ruyi Three Cups of Wine." When the guests set out, the host drank three more glasses of wine to the guests at the gate, called "Three glasses of wine on the horse." Guests who cannot drink should dip in three drops with their middle finger and hit blank bullets three times. The Turkish people are loyal and trustworthy to their friends and have a good tradition of respecting their elders.

Dresses of the Tu people

The costumes of the Tu people have a unique national style. Young and middle-aged men wear felt hats with cotton rims, and some wear felt hats with "eagle beak pecking food". They wear long robes with colored patterns with small collars and black rims on the chest. They also wear white short jackets with embroidered high collars, black or purple-red vests, embroidered long belts at the waist, large crotch pants, embroidered trouser straps at both ends and flower bellies, and tied calves with "Black Tiger Down the Mountain"(black and white). Wear flower cloud shoes. Elderly people generally wear a black curled felt hat, a small collar, a slanting robe, a black waistcoat, a black waist belt, and white socks and black shoes. According to the "Datong County Annals":"Women wear hats, braid their hair with red cotton ropes tied through bronze coins, hanging down behind their heads, have large rings of different silver and copper in their ears, and wear waist socks. Their clothes, whether silk or cloth, are mixed with colorful colors, are tied together. Big belt. "Wear a long robe with a small collar and a slanting sleeve made of colorful cloth rings of red, yellow, blue, purple and black. It is bright and eye-catching. Beautiful and generous, full of national characteristics. The robe is covered with black, purple-red or trimmed blue vests, and a ribbon is tied around the waist; there are patterns of flowers, birds, bees, butterflies, and colorful clouds embroidery or coiled thread at both ends of the ribbon. Wear a red pleated skirt with rims and a trouser tube under the knees. The local dialect is called "tie bend" and you can wear embroidered shoes. Elderly women do not wear colorful sleeves or embroidered ribbons. An unmarried girl wears small braids on both bristles, a large braid in the middle, and the three braids are tied together at the back. They are tied tightly with a scarlet head rope, tied to a conch round, and put a red "tie bend" under the knees of her trousers. The difference in hair style and "tie bend" color is a sign that distinguishes married women from girls. Women of the Tu nationality in the Erchuan area of Minhe wear a phoenix crown decorated with beads, green jacket, a red pleated skirt around the waist, flowers around the belly, and wing-pointed embroidered celery shoes on their feet. Turkish women call the headdress "Nuoda." In the past, the Tu people had eight or nine kinds such as "Tuhun Nuoda", also known as Banban Qiuoda, which is shaped like a round cake),"Naren Nuoda", also known as a trident head, which is shaped like a three-limb arrow),"Shige Nuoda", which is called a dustpan head, which is shaped like a dustpan),"Jiamu Nuoda", and "Suobu Douuoda", etc., which are worn differently from place to place. Among these nuoda, Tuhun nuoda is said to be the oldest and most noble. The Turkish women grabbed high hair bristles behind their heads, called them "Shangtu" in local language, and wore headdresses on the "Shangtu". After 1938, this headdress was lost due to Ma Bufang, the Qinghai warlord, forcibly changing the costumes of the Tu people. From then on, mutual aid Turkish women often combed their hair into two long braids, with the ends connected at the back. Wear a felt hat or top hat decorated with silk brocade.

Residence of the Tu people

The Turkish people often live as ethnic groups and form their own villages. Most of the Tu villages are at the foot of the mountain, surrounded by mountains and rivers. Generally, each family has a courtyard. The local dialect is called "rima" or Zhuangkuo). There are rooms built on two or three sides of the wall. There is a room in between, a room in the middle, a bedroom on one side, and a Buddhist hall or warehouse on the other. Wealthy families have built "internal branch" courtyards. The inner corner of "Rima" is the kitchen, straw house, livestock pen, toilet, etc. Most of them are bungalows with a civil structure. The facade is engraved with various patterns. There is a round di in the middle of the courtyard for tying livestock. There is a Mani flagpole in the middle of the round di. The families with close blood connections of the Tu people generally live in the same area. When the brothers separated, the old house belonged to the eldest son, and his son moved to a new house. The parents usually lived with the youngest son.

Marriage customs of the Tu nationality

According to folk legends of the Minhe Tu people, in ancient times, girls of the Tu people did not marry, and men "lived from their wives." Later, it evolved into men marrying women. The "Dora" of the Minhe Tu people means singing.) Marry children first and then marry daughters. Marry children and daughters are full of people, which refers to this situation, but this has not been reflected in other Tu areas. Before liberation, feudal arranged marriages were held in the Turkish areas. Young men and women of the Tu nationality are bound by the "orders of their parents and the words of the matchmaker", and marriage is not free. However, the betrothal gift is heavy, making it very difficult for poor people to marry a wife. Some women do not accept betrothal gifts, but they require the man to work for the woman's family for several years before they can get married or hire a son-in-law to marry eight wives, or the two families want to marry each other, which is called "changing relatives." In the past, the Tu people also had the custom of stealing marriages. It is said in Minhe area that when there is a solar or lunar eclipse, young men who are already engaged can usually go to the girl's house to marry and snatch the marriage. This custom still remains until the eve of liberation. The Turkish working people were polygamy. Before liberation, only Tusi and landlords took concubines. The wedding ceremony of the Tu people is divided into wedding, sending off, wedding ceremony, and thank you banquet. The ceremony is complicated and is carried out throughout with singing and dancing. On the first night of the wedding, the man's family sent two people who were good at singing and dancing. quot; Nashkin "wedding person), bring the wedding gifts of wine, sheep, meat cavity, steamed buns, etc.) and the clothes worn by the bride when she got on the horse, jewelry and black hand ornaments, red head head, red head rope, horse robe, etc.), pull a white ewe to the woman's house to get married. When "Nashkin" was approaching the woman's house, the girl was asked to run up happily to accept the gift. While singing and dancing, they retreated, and when they reached the door, the men also warmly welcomed "Nashkin." At this time, the aunts ran into the house, closed the door, sang "Kandegma", and waited for "Nashkin" to finish their song, then opened the door and invited them in. When Nashkin entered the door, he asked a girl to splash water at them from the top of the door? quot; Nashkin "had just gone to the kang to drink tea. While eating, the girl sang" Nashkin Fruit "again. After the aunts finished singing, the two "Nashkin" and "Nashkin" also sang and danced until the rooster crowed for the first time. When the rooster crows twice, the bride begins to change her hair and wear the clothes of a newly married woman. Then, a horse riding ceremony is held in the main room. When girls from the people and the Tu nationality mount the horse, the girls are asked to sing the horse riding song. After the horse and departure ceremony, more than ten people, including the bride's brother, brother, brother-in-law, sister, and uncle, escorted the bride to her in-law's house. In the villages along the way where "Hongrenche" passed, all married women in the same village as the bride were waiting by the roadside with wine glasses in hand to toast the "Hongrenche". The girl's family would repay them with a foot of red cloth. After eating "Hongrenche", when they were two or three miles away from the man's home, the man sent two people to toast and offer hada. There is a receiving table in front of the door, with crispy oil flowers "Ximairi" and a bowl of milk with cypress branches. Next to the table, there is a wooden square bucket containing wine bran, an arrow with hada tied to it, and a porcelain bottle wrapped in red cloth: To show good luck, the "Jingren Team" dipped cypress branches in milk and sprinkled them to the west, and scattered bran around the square bucket while dancing and singing. When the bride entered the gate, two women were pulling red and white felt in front of them. The bride stepped on the felt, the male on the left and the female on the right. Both sides held a porcelain bottle wrapped in red cloth and walked slowly into the courtyard side by side. Then, a ceremony of worshiping the world was held to thank the matchmaker. People gathered around the matchmaker, singing, toasting to the matchmaker, feeding fried noodles into his mouth, and pasting butter on his face. In the middle of the yard, spread grass and set up wooden boards to entertain "Hongrencai". During the banquet, five meat cubes are given to the "Red Kern-Cut", and the man and woman's family point each other to deliver hada, clothes, etc. After that,"Hongrencai" finally ate long noodles called "Qifa Noodles"). As soon as the "Hongrencai" served their rice bowls, the young men of the man's family held wine bowls and sang "Hejie" at the gate."Qifa Jubilee Song), toasted to his family's family to bid farewell, and the wedding ended.

Taboos of the Tu people

The Tu people are forbidden to eat round-hoofed livestock (horses, mules, and donkeys); they are forbidden to defecate and defecate in livestock pens, believing that this will affect the development of the herd. People who have been to dark rooms (moonhouses) and people who have mourned their dutiful sons) and women are not allowed to enter the temple halls or family temples of the Turkish people. Women do not wear hats or long gowns, and are not allowed to come and go among their elders. The Turkish people avoid pouring tea into cracked bowls for guests, and also avoid quarrelling in front of guests or beating children. When the Turkish people walked long distances or held weddings, and encountered empty buckets, empty buckets and unclean things when they went out in the morning, they thought that there was a bad chance for them, so they came back and left another day. The Turkish people have the habit of avoiding doors, such as giving birth to children, installing new doors, discovering infectious diseases, etc., others are not allowed to enter the courtyard. The sign of avoiding doors is to paste a piece of red paper next to the door, insert pine and cypress branches, or simmer a pile of fire next to the door.

The funeral customs of the Tu people

The funeral customs of the Tu people vary from place to place. Most of the Tu people in mutual assistance practice cremation. Except for the normal death and cremation of children who died prematurely, the Tu people practice burial. Some of the Datong Tu people are also buried in the earth. When a person dies in a Turkish family, they usually pay for a funeral within three to seven days. To hold a funeral, the lama must be asked to recite scriptures for three days, and the elderly in the village must be asked to recite mani. On the last day of the funeral, relatives and friends come to the memorial of the deceased to express condolences and offer hada and steamed buns. After a person dies, first take off his clothes and make it into a squatting shape, with his hands folded together, two thumbs on his chin and shoulders, tie it with a five-inch-wide long white cloth strip, and wear a bamboo hat or cloth on it. quot; represents the clothes of the deceased), with a cloth skirt under it made of yellow cloth for the elderly and white cloth for the young), and then buried in a wooden spirit sedan chair. The spiritual sedan chair for the elderly is made more finely, and the size should be just right for one person to squat. It is shaped like a "temple with three turns in one room." It has carefully carved "hanging beams and hanging columns, flower patterns, and a model of the sun and the moon engraved on the top of the sedan chair and painted on it. On the day of the cremation, the spiritual sedan chair was sent to the cremation site, the deceased was faced west, put into the stove, lit the fire with cypress branches, smashed the spiritual sedan chair, and put it into the stove and burned at the same time. Generally, on the third day of cremation, the ashes are put into a foot-long wooden box or porcelain jar and temporarily buried in a temporary place. After the Qingming Festival of the next year, they are buried in the ancestral cemetery. After the deceased are buried, the descendants mourn, which generally lasts for forty-nine days. The Tu people did not have special mourning clothes, and they did not wear colored clothes during their mourning periods. Spring couplets were not posted for three years, and they did not visit relatives and friends back then.