Tibetan Festival Culture in Aba

The Tibetans in Aba can be divided into grassland Tibetans and Jiarong Tibetans. The Tibetans in these two places are the most typical of their New Year celebrations. Grassland Tibetan People's Day Grassland Tibetan People's Day, also known locally as Tibetan Calendar, is a traditional New Year's festival for Tibetans in the Aba Grassland. It is held at the beginning of the first month of the lunar calendar every year and lasts for about a week. Before the festival, every household must be cleaned, and in accordance with local customs, when the sun is about to set, all sewage and dirt will be poured out to the west, which means that everything that is unlucky and harmful to people's health will disappear with sunset. Then each family brewed highland barley, made oil cakes, milk cakes, and prepared festive foods such as blood sausage, meat sausage, fresh milk and hand-grabbed meat. On New Year's Day, the hostess of every household must get up at dawn, take buckets to the river and wells to carry water, put some fresh milk in the water carried back, and use this water to wash and wash the whole family. After washing up, everyone enthusiastically played with the "dragon lantern" and burned cypress incense. They wished that the water and grass would be abundant and the livestock would be fat. Then, the whole family had dinner together. Before meals, everyone must eat some tsamba noodles first to show that they are people who eat tsamba and do not forget their ancestors. In the first three or three days of the New Year here, people in the village fortress generally do not go out. Everyone gathers together to watch the "Dance God". "Diving God" is a dance with a strong religious color. Participants wear masks and vestments. Accompanied by instruments such as cymbal, cymbal drum, gongs, sea screws, etc., they dance for a while and rest for a while until the various plots of gods and ghosts are completed. In addition, young men and women happily danced and danced to the beat of gongs, drums, flutes, erhu and other musical instruments. Three days later, people helped the old and the young, walked through villages, and visited each other to pay New Year greetings. According to local traditions and customs, during festivals, girls and sister-in-law often "rob" men's food, and men are not allowed to express any dissatisfaction or resistance. Young and middle-aged people in some villages also carry out "ox-running" activities. During the competition, two people are about two meters apart and carry a yak rope; a mark is made in the middle, and whoever pulls the other party across the marking line wins. At night, most men and women in the village gather outside the village to sing and dance happily. Jiarong Tibetan New Year Festival Jiarong Tibetans are mainly distributed in the large and small Jinchuan basins, calling themselves Jiarongwa. They are also called differently according to different regions. For example, the Jiarong Tibetan people belonging to the original Wasi Tusi in Wenchuan call themselves Debuli, the people from Situ call themselves "Longba" or "Longbabu", and the people from Wutun in Li County call themselves Xikabu, etc. Therefore, among the Jiarong Tibetan people, the New Year culture also shines brightly. In the Tusi area where Jiarong Tibetans live, the Year of Tsamba is celebrated every year on October 13th and winter 13th. Eat tsampa tea and meat in the morning and rest for the day. The next day, use buckwheat noodles to wrap tsampa meat buns. On the third day, we also eat tsampa (usually not eaten); when making tea, there is generally no butter. And also eat cold steamed wheat flour cakes. On the fourth and fifth day, sheep were sent and smoke smoked to sacrifice to the tomb. Dangba also celebrates the New Year on November 13th and worships the god "Ameirge". It is said that this god is a man and a woman. On the evening of the 13th, long buns were made, and the number was based on the number of men in the family. The top of the buns was made with double horns. On the morning of the 13th, the statues of "Ameigi" were painted on the wall of the kitchen with bran flour, and the long-horned buns were placed on the plate to worship God. Set up wine and noodles, build a pot of fire, set up cypress branches, place steamed buns on the branches, and sprinkle some flour and a little pig fat. The family members kneel in front of the statue and pray for the safety of the family, the livestock are healthy, and the crops are bumper. Then drink wine for four days, eat pig fat, steamed buns, and sip wine. If you don't leave Bian, you don't treat you. Xiaojin Tibetans also celebrate the New Year on the 13th of the winter month. It is said that in ancient times, evil spirits (Qilunbu) ate people. There was an old woman who gave birth to a son and could eat and talk three days later. Later, when he ate too much and couldn't afford it, he was sent to the mountains and forests to hunt wild beasts. When this child grew up, he was extremely strong and killed the evil ghost. The people wanted to choose him as king, and the king gave way to him. He refused, so he still obediently became his own civilian and eliminated the evil and benefited the people. Therefore, on the evening of the 12th and 23rd of every month, every family uses flour to make sheep's heads, and as few people in the family can make a few. On the evening of the 12th, the kitchen is cleaned and served in the kitchen. On the other hand, the surface is printed with the sun, moon and stars and placed in the wine. When the sun rose the next morning, families smoked cigarettes on their roofs to pay homage to the hero. In Jiarong's Zhailong, Hanniu, Danba and other places, they celebrate the New Year on the 13th of the Winter Moon to commemorate him. In addition, a special scripture was recited during the commemoration. The Baima Shanzhai Torch Festival is a traditional festival among ethnic minorities in southwest China, especially among the Yi people. The Torch Festival is not only a grand occasion for home, but also regarded as the beginning of the New Year. The Baima Tibetan people live in one place with the Yi, Qiang and other ethnic groups. Therefore, the Torch Festival in their festival culture is unique and regarded as an important branch of the Tibetan New Year Festival. On the evening of the 15th day of the first month of every year, men, women and children in the Baima Stronghold line up long queues of torches and shout all the way, winding through the village and walking around the fields and corners. They want to use torches to drive away evil spirits and pray for luck and happiness. In Baima Village, lighting the first torch is very particular. According to the lunar year's zodiac, the oldest Ani (grandfather-Baima Tibetan) is elected to bear the responsibility. At that time, Lao Ni was the first to light the torch and followed closely. As everyone ran, they shouted: "Wow!" If the two villages are adjacent to each other, the two teams of torches will often move closer to the middle, knead them in parallel, and then spin into a circle. People will sing and dance in the middle, cheering and jumping. Mianning Tibetan Torch Festival The Torch Festival is an annual traditional festival among Tibetans in Mianning, Sichuan. It is held every year in the middle of June of the lunar calendar. It is said that their first month does not fall before the New Year, but the real New Year's Day is the Torch Festival in June. Regarding the origin of the Torch Festival, according to local legends, there was a person who turned into an anti-dragon in mid-June and wanted to turn the land surrounded by four mountains into a sea. In order to protect the land, everyone started chasing Nilong from the morning and chased Nilong with torches when it was dark. Finally, they drove Nilong to Guanxian County and tied it under the Erwang Temple. Afraid that it would do trouble again, they decided to chase it once a year, and they must kill the animals and see blood. Year after year, this has evolved into today's Torch Festival. During the Torch Festival, cattle and sheep are killed in villages to worship the Fire God. At night, everyone in the village lit the torches they had prepared and threw them on the drying ground in the center of the village. In an instant, the flames soared into the sky, which was very spectacular. Young people sprinkled the rotten wood powder collected and screened before the festival on the pile of torches and played the game of "playing with torches". Young men and women sang, danced, and had fun all night long on the night of Torch Festival. It is said that the earliest Torch Festival was a time when people lit fires and drove the crops around, burning pests in the crops, so that agriculture could have a good harvest in the coming year. With the passage of time, the ancient Torch Festival has become a traditional festival for people's fire god to pray for a good harvest. Until now, lighting a fire to kill insects and mosquitoes is still an effective method for Mianning Tibetans to control agricultural pests and diseases and prevent diseases.