Bulang customs and taboos
The ancestors of the Bulang nationality were once called "Puzi Man" and "Pu Man", and their distribution is even broader. Later, some Pu people who originally lived in southern Yunnan developed into the current Bulang people. They are also one of the ethnic minorities in China. They are mainly distributed in Baoshan, Lincang, Pu 'er, Xishuangbanna and other places, with a total population of 91,891 (2000 census). There are more than 8500 Bulang people in Baoshan City, mainly distributed in Shidian County and Changning County.
The Bulang people also have their own language: Bulang, which belongs to the Wa Banlong branch of the Mon-Khmer language family of the South Asian family, is divided into two dialects: Bulang and Arwa. Some people speak Dai, Wa or Chinese. There is no national script, and some people can speak Chinese and Dai. Most Bulang people believe in Theravada Buddhism, which was passed down in the south, and worship their ancestors. There are many Buddhist activities during the festival. In addition to holding ceremonies to welcome the sun, people also go to Buddhist temples collectively to hold activities such as "Opening Festival","Closing Festival","Gathering Buddha","Building Sand","Bathing Buddha", and "Splashing Water".
The Bulang people living on the Bulang Mountains before liberation still retain varying degrees of remnants of primitive communes; the Bulang people living in the Pingba area have entered the economic development of feudal landlords due to the influence of the Han and Dai people who have developed relatively rapidly in economy and culture. stage. The Bulang people live in an area with a mild climate and rich products. They are mainly engaged in agricultural production and are good at growing tea trees. They are the famous origin of Pu 'er tea.
Bulang people's housing building is a dry railing type bamboo building, which is divided into two floors. Livestock is kept downstairs and people are accommodated upstairs. Bulang villages are usually inhabited by three to five to dozens of families of the same blood. They live in two-story tiled houses with dry railing style bamboo and wood structures. The upper floor has a main hall, bedroom, sundeck, etc., and the lower floor is generally used as warehouses and places for raising livestock. A fire pond is set up in the center of the house. Next to the fire pond is a place for family meals and guests. At night, beds are placed around the fire pond.
The Bulang people wear simple clothes, and the clothing of the Bulang people is similar everywhere. Men wear a collarless short jacket with double-prung and large black trousers, with black cloth or white cloth wrapped around their heads. Women's clothing is similar to that of the Dai people. They wear tight collarless short clothes, red, green or black tube skirts, and their heads are tied in a bun and wrapped around a large head. The clothes of the Bulang women in Jingdong are basically the same as those of the local Han people. In the past, Bulang men had the custom of tattooing, with various patterns on their limbs, chest and abdomen. Women like to wear large earrings, silver bracelets and other decorations. The girl loves wild flowers or self-made colorful flowers that dye her cheeks red. Men generally wear black or blue loose trousers and a collarless top with a turban.
The Bulang people's diet has unique national characteristics and is an important part of the Bulang people's material culture. Rice is also used as the staple food, supplemented by miscellaneous grains such as corn, wheat, soybeans, and peas. The diet likes hot and sour, and he likes alcohol and tobacco. Women have the habit of chewing betel nut and their teeth are dyed black for beauty. I like to use a gong pot or an earthen pot to stew rice. He is especially good at cooking bamboo rice. When cooking, select a piece of fresh bamboo, fill it with rice and a proper amount of water, cook it over fire, cut open the bamboo tube and serve half of it for each person, and use the bamboo tube as a bowl. The rice is stained with bamboo flesh, and it has the fragrance of Xinzhu and the aroma of baking over charcoal fire. It is very delicious. The most common meats are cattle, sheep, pigs, and chicken, and they also often prey on game and insects. Most of the cooking techniques of dishes are clear cooking and cold dressing. Many game, fish, shrimp, crabs, cicadas, insects and other foods are generally cooked by pounding, frying, steaming and other methods. Such as: pound crabs, fried flower spiders, cicada sauce, etc. The Bulang people also particularly like to eat acidic food and often pickle sour food, such as sour bamboo shoots, sour meat, sour fish, etc. The production method is roughly the same as other local ethnic groups such as the Dai people. However, the Bulang people often put a layer of rice on top of the pickled cabbage.
The Bulang people like to drink alcohol, and most of them brew it at home. Among them, emerald wine is the most famous. This wine is filtered through the leaves of a plant called "raspberry" and turned green, much like the color of emerald, hence the name. Because of their straightforward nature, the Bulang people also have the custom of "drinking alcohol and getting drunk when drinking alcohol" among friends.
The Bulang people are good at growing tea and making tea, and they also like to drink tea. After the girls picked the spring tea, they made it into loose tea, also known as "big leaf tea". They can also make a "bamboo tube tea" with their own ethnic characteristics. That is, first cut the thick bamboo into bamboo barrels, stir-fry the newly picked tea leaves, put them into the bamboo tube while they are hot, plug them tightly, seal them with reed leaves, tighten them with rattan, place them on the edge of the fire pond to bake, remove its moisture, wait until the skin of the bamboo joints is scorched, and the bamboo tea will be made, which will not change flavor after storage for several years. Tea leaves are made into sour tea according to the method of pickled cabbage. Put them in your mouth, chew them and swallow them, which can help digestion. People often use sour tea as gifts to relatives and friends.
Brown people also have a habit of chewing tobacco. The method of chewing tobacco is to wrap betel nut leaves with a little tobacco tobacco, add sand base, reed seed, betel nut, red lime, etc., and put them into the mouth to chew slowly. Each time, it can be chewed for more than 20 minutes. The smoke residue is purplish-red. The Brown people chew tobacco for a long time, and even their teeth are dyed black.
The Bulang people also have the habit of eating rats and ant eggs. Brown people like to eat rats, whether voles, rats, bamboo rats are eaten delicacies. The captured mice are singed, skinned and entrails washed and cooked. Brown Mountain has a black ant, each nest has an ant king, can lay thousands of eggs, Brown people often dig ant eggs. The Blang people living in Blang Mountain in Xishuangbanna also like to eat raw meat. Its women, especially pregnant women, crave local red soil, which is said to have anti-emetic, fishy smell and refreshing effects.
Marriage among the Bulang people is out-of-clan marriage and monogamy. In most areas, the Bulang people prohibit intra-clan marriage and intermarriage with the same surname. According to traditional customs, it is not allowed to take concubines, and sexual intercourse before and outside marriage is not allowed. Any violation will be punished.
Pure boys and girls are relatively free to fall in love and marry, but they are also interfered by their parents. "String girls" is the traditional way of love among the Bulang people. Bulang youth are very free in love and marriage and are supported by their families and society. Whenever the moon rises, the young men change into new clothes, embrace Sanxian, and come to the bottom of the girl's bamboo building together, competing to impress the heart of the girl with witty words and passionate singing. The girls who were dressing up also lit the fire early, opened the door, invited the young men in, and expressed their love for their sweetheart in clever ways such as singing songs, passing cigarettes, and serving tea. Girls in the Brown Mountains can be visited in groups or alone at night. It is a common form for young men and women to exchange ideas, culture and emotions.
When a man and a woman are in deep love, a man will propose to a woman. In many places in the Brown Mountains, flowers are used as matchmaker when proposing marriage. The young man presented the flowers he had picked from the mountain to the girl. When the girl confirmed that the young man truly loved her, she chose the most beautiful one from the bouquet and put it on her head to express her consent to the marriage.
Brown weddings are also unusual, with a couple's wedding ceremony held twice to three times. For the first time, after the engagement, the girl was given a tethering ceremony at the man's house. After that, the groom and bride returned to their homes. Although the groom had to stay at his father-in-law's house every night, he still returned to his home to work and live during the day. It was not until the second wedding was held that the bride officially married to her husband's house and became her daughter-in-law. The third wedding ceremony is often held after the birth of the baby. This time, we must kill pigs and cattle and drink wedding wine to entertain relatives and friends in the whole village.
The Bulang people in Bulang Mountain implement a mother-child joint name system. The child is named three days after birth, and the mother's name is connected after the child's name. When boys and girls of the Bulang nationality reach the age of 14 or 15, they will hold a coming-of-age ceremony of "painting their teeth". At that time, boys and girls will get together, use iron pot slices to burn red hair tree black smoke, and dye each other's teeth for the opposite sex. Dying teeth means entering adulthood and being able to openly participate in social activities in the village.
The taboothe: The Bulang people believe that the fire pond is a place of peace for the family. Neither family members nor guests can use their feet on the fire pond and tripod, nor can they support the iron tripod used by others on the fire pond in their own home, otherwise it will bring misfortune to the owner; guests cannot lean on the pillar of the house that the master serves as a "family god", otherwise they will blaspheme the gods and bring disaster to the master. All trees that have been struck by lightning, have broken tips, are riddled with rattan, and have been used by gods cannot be used as building materials; trees made as "middle pillars" cannot produce pulp when they are cut down. Those who produce pulp think it is not auspicious and must be cut down otherwise. The trees on the mountains cannot be used to make house pillars and beams.
The Bulang people have particularly prominent prohibitions on women. In daily life, when men go out, women are not allowed to keep male guests in accommodation; they are not allowed to cross in front of men; their dresses cannot be placed on the sacred pillars of the house; and men's bows and crossbows are prohibited, otherwise they are considered unlucky.
During pregnancy, women cannot fill pits, fill loopholes, let others step on them, eat food sacrificed to gods, build stoves, or enter the bride's bedroom. You can't bring green leaves or wild animal meat into your home, and pregnant women should not visit your house until they are full of months.
When offering sacrifices to the "Village God", participation is limited to men, and women are not allowed to enter the altar; when encountering people on the way, they must respectfully give way to the lower part. Outsiders are also prohibited from entering the camp. If outsiders break in, a pig will be sacrificed. Members of our village are not allowed to sharpen knives, carry water, enter or exit the village, or make loud noises during these three days; they are not allowed to break soil or build houses during the sacrifice period.