Achang customs and taboos

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Achang, one of the ethnic minorities in China. It is mainly distributed in Yunnan Province and Guizhou Province of China. There are three Achang townships in Husa, Longchuan County, Jiubao and Nangsong, Lianghe County, Dehong Prefecture. There are a small number of people living in Gaogentian, Jiangdong Township, Luxi County, Yingjiang and Ruili. In addition, in Guiyang City, Caojian, Jiuzhou and other places in Yunlong County of Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture, there are also departments living in Tengchong County and Longling County in the Baoshan region.

The Achang language is used, which belongs to the Burmese branch of the Sino-Tibetan family and is divided into three dialects: Lianghe, Longchuan and Luxi. Because they have lived together with the Han and Dai for a long time, most Achang people speak both Chinese and Dai languages, and are accustomed to Chinese and Dai languages. There is rich oral literature. Historically, it has close relations with the Jingpo, Han, Dai, Bai, etc.

The Achang people in the Hurasa region widely believe in Hinayana Buddhism. Every year, they hold religious festivals and activities such as "Entering Wa" and "Leaving Wa" and "Burning White Firewood". The Achang people in the Lianghe area have believed in ghosts and gods in the past. They sacrificed three times a year before spring plowing and autumn harvest to the "local masters"(earth ghosts). The entire village people go to the fields to sprinkle chicken blood and insert chicken feathers to pray for the ghost spirits to protect the crops. In addition, due to the influence of the Han people, they also respected their ancestors.

The Achang people are one of the earliest indigenous peoples in Yunnan, China. The words "Echang","Echang","Echang" or "Achang" and "Echang" in ancient Chinese historical books are all names for the Achang people in different periods. After the founding of New China, in accordance with the wishes of the nation, they were collectively called the Achang people. They live in the hills, mountains and valleys and flat dams in the remaining Gaoligong Mountains. The land here is fertile, the weather is warm, and the rainfall is abundant, which provides good conditions for the growth of Achang agricultural production. The Achang people have been famous for growing rice since ancient times. The Achang people are mainly engaged in agriculture. The handicraft industry is also very developed, especially famous for being good at making long knives.

The clothes and decorations of the Achang people are simple, simple, elegant, and the colors are extremely gorgeous. Men mostly wear blue, white or black double-plucked tops and black trousers with short and wide trouser legs. The young man likes to wrap his white head around, but after marriage, he exchanges it for black head. Some people in their middle and old age also like to wear felt hats.

When young and middle-aged people pack their heads, they should always leave about 40 cm long ears hanging behind their heads. When men go out to fairs, guests or holiday parties, they like to carry a "tube handkerchief"(satchel) and an Achang sword obliquely, making them look handsome and free and easy. Women's clothing varies according to age and marriage status. Unmarried girls usually wear colorful large or double-pleated blouses, black trousers, waist around the outside, and black head heads. Girls in the Lianghe area also like to wear tube skirts. Married women usually wear blue-black double-plopped tops and tube skirts, and their calves are wrapped in leggings. They like to use black cloth to wrap the same pointed hat-shaped high head. Four or five colorful small hydrangea hangs on the top of the head, which is quite distinctive. Whenever they go out to a market, be guests or celebrate festivals, women have to dress up wholeheartedly. They took out all kinds of fine soft materials they had collected, put on large earrings, flower bracelets, hung silver collars, and hung long silver chains on the buttons on their chests and waists... At this time, the Achang women were covered in silver light and had a myriad of demeanor. When you walk into the Achang theft dens, you will also find that young Achang men and women like to decorate their heads with flowers. These flowers are not only elegant, but they also regard them as symbols of integrity and purity of soul.

The Achang people mainly live in Yunnan Province in the south of China. The Achang people are mainly engaged in agriculture and are famous for cultivating rice. The Achang people living in the border areas mainly eat rice mixed with potatoes and corn.

The Achang people eat rice as their staple food, and they also often use rice flour to make rice dumplings and rice noodles as their staple food. The shredded bait is easy to eat. When eating, just blanch it slightly in boiling water, remove it and serve with seasonings. If you cover the braised meat,(fire + ba) meat, shredded chicken and other ingredients can be made into various different rice dumplings; in addition to being eaten hot as the shredded rice dumplings, you can also be mixed cold, or add a spoonful of hot thin soy flour (pea flour and hydrated boiled) to the rice noodles, and add pepper, garlic and ginger paste, monosodium glutamate and other seasonings to make thin soy flour sauce rice noodles. It is spicy, smooth and tender. It is a snack that the Achang people often eat after entering summer.

The Achang people like to eat taro. It is said that during the harvest in ancient times, dogs were killed and taro eaten. Achang women make tofu and bean flour in large cities, and often use peas to make jelly for food. Meat mainly comes from raised pigs and cattle. Pork is preferred to make roasted pork rice noodles. After the pig is slaughtered, the pig's skin is brown with wheat straw or straw, scraped and washed, and then chopped and mixed with vinegar, garlic, peppers and other seasonings to eat the rice noodles all the way. Fish farming in rice fields is the primary source of fish consumption. When eating, fresh fish are fried or fried in oil, then added water and sour peppers, cooked or steamed to serve. Hot and sour grain-flower fish (When planting seedlings, put the fry into the field and take the fish after the grain is cooked, called grain-flower fish.) The most distinctive. Pickled pickles, marinated pork, and fermented soybeans are must-have all year round, and there are many for every meal. Liquor is a perennial beverage for the Bai people. Women often drink sweet wine made of glutinous rice, which has strong aroma and sweetness; adult men and people in their later years drink more white wine. Dadu Achang cities use distillation to build liquor and hide it in urns for drinking during festivals and hospitality.

Meat mainly comes from raised pigs and cattle. Pork likes to be used to make roasted pork rice noodles. After the pig is slaughtered, the pig's skin is browned with wheat straw and straw, scraped and washed, and then chopped and mixed with vinegar, garlic, peppers and other seasonings and eaten along the way.

Raising fish in rice fields is the primary source of eating fish. When eating, fresh fish are often fried or fried in oil, then added water and sour peppers, cooked or steamed before serving. The most distinctive is the sour and spicy grain-flower fish (the fry are put into the field when planting seedlings and the fish are taken out after the grain is cooked). Marinated pickles, marinated pork, and fermented soybeans are all must-have all year round, and there are many for every meal.

Handou rice noodle wine is a beverage that the Achang people drink all year round. Women often drink sweet wine made of glutinous rice, which is accompanied by strong aroma and sweetness; adults and elderly people drink more white wine. Most of the Achang people already know how to use distillation to build liquor.

The Achang people like to eat sour food, mainly sour bamboo shoots, pickled cabbage, and sour pork. This is a major feature of the Achang food culture.

Sour food is a must-have dish of the Achang nationality every day. The most common sour foods are sour bamboo shoots and sour pickles. The season for pickled and sour bamboo shoots is in the spring and autumn. When the bamboo shoots give out tender buds and grow to a height of about 30 centimeters, they can be cut down even by the roots, peeled off the bamboo shoots, cut into shredded bamboo shoots or slices, place them in earthen pots, sprinkle with salt, place them next to the fire pond, bake for several days, and the sour taste will emerge, so you can take them as you eat. Sour bamboo shoots can be eaten alone or cooked with other fish and vegetables. Their delicious taste is praised by all eaters.

Hand-made rice noodles from the Achang nationality. Instant roast pork rice noodles. The method is to roast the pork on fire until semi-cooked, chop it into fine pieces, mix it with sour vinegar, and add various seasonings such as chopped peanuts, pig liver, pig brain, and vermicelli, such as garlic, pepper, coriander, bean flour, ginger, etc. When eating, pinch the rice noodles in the palm of your hand, then add meat filling, and mix them all the way to eat, hence the name "Handed Rice Noodles".

The rice noodles are soft, smooth, non-agglomerated or non-sticky. The meat filling will not sink to the bottom or float on the head when mixed. They are evenly distributed in the rice noodles. They taste delicious, taste sour and spicy, and have a unique flavor.

The Achang people enjoy three meals per day and like to eat acidic food. In the past, young men and women had the custom of chewing tobacco and betel nut, and their teeth were often dyed black, so there was the old custom of "black teeth for beauty."

Typical foods include: cold celery grits, frozen, sour (fire + ba) vegetables, and hands-on rice noodles.

Glutinous rice cake glutinous rice cake and hand-over rice noodles are two flavors of the Achang people. Glutinous rice cake is made by washing the glutinous rice, soaking it in clean water for half a day, fishing it, placing it in a steamer, steaming it into glutinous rice, placing it in a wooden pestle, and threshing it until it can be eaten. The glutinous rice cake is soft and tender, and has an excellent taste. The excess cake is spread on the banana leaves and eaten while cooling, fried or roasted, boiled or roasted. It is crispy and palatable, making it unforgettable. "Hands-on rice noodles" is a flavor food of the Achang ethnic group in the Husa area of Longchuan. Users sprinkle high-quality rice from the origin and squeeze it into rice noodles. They use fire to burn pork, liver, pig brain, powdered sausage, peanut rice noodles, sesame, garlic, pepper, coriander, salt, monosodium glutamate, etc., and add soy flour and sour vinegar to stir evenly to make seasoning. When eating, wash your hands, first hold the rice noodles in your hands, then pour on the seasoning, stir with chopsticks, deliver them to your mouth, and inhale it. Hand-made rice noodles are delicious, nutritious, easy to digest, and have endless aftertaste.

Achang, Wa, Dai, Jingpo, Bulong, De 'ang and other ethnic groups all have the custom of chewing tobacco. According to Achang folk legends, in the past, there was a mother and daughter who lived alone. Unexpectedly, her daughter had just reached adulthood, and her mother unfortunately passed away. Her daughter cried loudly and was in pain. She did not want to eat or drink and cried on her mother's grave for three days and three nights. On the third day, a watery smoke tree grew on the grave. My daughter's throat was thirsty, so she picked up a tender leaf and put it in her mouth. It was sweet and delicious when chewing it. The wonder dissipated, and the fatigue dissipated. After that, whenever her daughter saw tobacco leaves and thought about forgetting her mother, she would pinch some and chew them. Seeing that she was chewing with gusto, her partners also chewed along. Since then, more and more people chewed, and chewing cigarettes became a good way for them to get rid of fatigue, relax and relieve boredom, and even became a hobby and a way to entertain guests.

The Achang people in Lianghe County, Dehong Prefecture have a custom of bride theft. The Achang people are hospitable, respect the elderly and love the young, and have many excellent traditional etiquette. When guests come to the house to take a nap, the host should entertain them with good wine and tea, and be humble when eating. If guests are young and of small age, they should not sit on the side seat or below. When drinking tea, they should not take over if they are not humble. The Achang people have the custom of persuading guests to eat meals. No matter whether they drink wine or drink tea, they conceal that the guests will not take over. When encountering persuading meals, they should stretch out their pairs and hold bowls to meet each other regardless of whether they are full or not. Accepting them with both hands or standing up to salute is regarded as respectful. Usually, persuasion is symbolic. It expresses feelings through persuasion, and even sings folk songs to express feelings, implying that receiving guests is the real reason. The Achang people are generally a small monogamous family with free love before marriage."String women" is popular, but marriage is concluded by their parents. In the past, it was common for people to not marry with the same surname, but for a long time there have been widespread marriages with Han, Dai and other ethnic groups. The transfer system of husband and brother marriage is popular. The surviving person can marry again, but cannot take away his husband's property, and his children will also be raised by his husband's family.

At the wedding banquet for young Achang people, the bride's uncle was invited to sit at the head of the banquet and put on a plate of cold dishes mixed with pig brains. After the banquet, the uncle would present the bride with a 4.5-kilogram leg with a pig's tail. It was called the meat of the foreign family, implying that the bride should never forget the kindness of the foreign family for raising her.

Achang people are prohibited from killing livestock and injuring animals on the first day of the first lunar month; women conceal men from other families entering the hospital before they have given birth to a child for seven days.

The bedrooms of the Achang people are on both sides of the main hall, with the elderly on the left and the others on the right. Male elders are forbidden to enter the dormitory of married younger generation. Unmarried men can live in the wing or upstairs of the wing. Women should not live upstairs; men should not live downstairs, and women should not go upstairs. Women should not step on farm implements and equipment.

When the Achang people cancel their marriage oath, they must return the photo and hair of the oath. Avoid destroying photos and hair, otherwise you will think that after the photos and head become hot, people will become seriously ill and go crazy.

Achang people with the same surname are forbidden to mate. There is a custom of recruiting a son-in-law, and a man who comes to the door must change his name to follow the wife's surname. The Achang wedding lasted for three days. During the wedding, the bride and groom go table by table to toast sugar tea. After drinking it, the guests put a little currency in the cup.

People are generally buried in the earth after death. Those who die abnormally must be cremated. A few people who suffer from severe diseases or die of dystocia must be cremated first and then buried in a coffin. Those who died outside the camp should be taken back into the camp. People, cats, dogs and other animals should not exceed the body when the coffin is buried behind people. The deceased can bring what he liked to be buried, but metal objects are forbidden, so the deceased's dental prostheses must be knocked out during his lifetime. Most of the Achang people's funerals are presided over by "living robes". Tonight, they recite scriptures, beat gongs, play sorrows, and sing "filial piety songs". After the funeral, it is forbidden to use gongs, carry funeral sticks, etc., otherwise you will think that another person will die in the village.