The living customs of the De 'ang people

The Deang ethnicity, also known as the "Beng Dragon", is a mountainous minority in the border area between China and Myanmar. The De 'ang people are also one of the oldest ethnic groups in Yunnan. Their ancestors first lived in the Baoshan area on the east bank of the Nujiang River and the west bank of the Lancang River. Due to their refusal to obey the rule of the Ailao people (Dai ancestors), they gradually migrated to the southwest of Myanmar and settled in the deep mountains in the northwest of Myanmar and the border with China. On the Chinese side, in Yunnan, Dehong, Baoshan, Lincang and other places, and on the Myanmar side, they live in places such as Shan State, Kachin State, etc., and are mixed with the Dai, Jingpo, Wa ethnic groups.

Historically, the De 'ang people were once known as "Puzi","Mangren","Pu Ren" and other names. Since the Qing Dynasty, historical records Qianlong's "Donghua Lu" and Guangxu's "Yongchang Mansion Annals" were based on their treatment by the Dai people. The local Han people also called the "Bielie" branch "Hongbenlong", the "Rumai" branch "Black Benlong", and the "Rubo" branch "Huabenheng Long". After liberation, the name "Bulong" was used during ethnic identification. Later, according to the will of the ethnic group and reported to the State Council for approval, it was officially called the "De 'ang nationality" from September 21, 1985.

The De 'ang tribe has many branches such as Ruwang, Ruguo, Rue, Rujin, Ruben, Rupo, Rubieya, Rumaia, Ruang, Rula, Ruwang, Ruke, Rubelie, Gandebelie, Rubue, Rubue, Rubudong, Rumengding, Rumengdeding, Rugeruo, etc. The De 'ang people in Dehong in China call themselves "De' ang", and the De 'ang people in Lincang call themselves "Niang" or "Na' ang." "Ang" is the name of the nation, which means "rock" or "cave". "De","Ni" and "Na" are appendixes of honorific terms.

There are about 16,000 (1990) De 'ang ethnic groups in China; there are about 300,000 De' ang ethnic groups in Myanmar, and there are about 3000-strong armed forces "De 'ang National Liberation Army." The De 'ang people have their own language and writing. The language belongs to the Wa Deang branch of the Mon-Khmer language family of the South Asian family family. Written writing is not widely circulated and is mainly used to record the history, morality, laws and regulations of the nation and to write Buddhist scriptures. The older generation of De 'ang people are all familiar with Dai language, and the younger generation can speak Chinese.

Most of the De 'ang people believe in Hinayana Buddhism, and their religious beliefs and living customs are greatly influenced by the Dai people. In most villages, there are their own Buddhist temples, worshipers, and young monks. All the young monks 'vegetarian meals were given by the whole village in turn. Among some De 'ang people, in the past, there has always been a habit of not eating when they are killed or when they hear it. Every festival, it becomes customary to entertain each other. No matter how many dishes are served at the banquet, there must be a bowl of vegetarian dishes boiled with fresh vegetables. When eating, they must be dipped in chili water to have a unique flavor.

Like many ethnic groups in the south, the De 'ang people like to live in ganlan-style bamboo buildings. This kind of bamboo building mostly uses wood as the frame. Other parts, such as rafters, floors, sundries, enclosures, doors, stairs, etc., are made of bamboo, and the roof is covered with thatched grass. Most of the bamboo buildings of the De 'ang people are built against the mountains, facing west and east. They are mainly square and rectangular. More typical and common ones are the square bamboo buildings with one household and one courtyard represented by Dehong area. This bamboo building is divided into two parts: the main building and the annex. The main building is square in shape, with people living upstairs for the whole family to live, receive guests and store food and sundries; livestock are housed downstairs. Most of the auxiliary houses are built on one side of the main building and used as pestle for stacking firewood and rice. This kind of bamboo building has a unique appearance and is beautiful and generous. Regarding its source, there is still such a moving story among the people of the De 'ang people: Zhuge Liang led his troops to the south and came to the De' ang Stronghold. One day, he was suddenly attacked and was injured and in danger. Fortunately, the brave and kind De 'ang girl Nuo rescued him. Only then did he turn danger into safety. During a brief contact, the two developed feelings. When Zhuge Liang, who had a heavy responsibility on his shoulders, had to bid farewell to his beloved, he left his hat to Arnold as a token. The infatuated Arnold had been waiting for 18 years, but what he had been waiting for was the news of his sweetheart's death. From then on, Arnold, with a broken liver and broken heart, did not eat or sleep. He stood at the head of the village every day, looking at the way his sweetheart was heading east. On the 33rd day, there was sudden thunder and lightning and heavy rain poured down. After the rain passed, Arnold disappeared. But where she stood, a house exactly like Zhuge Liang's hat appeared. This was the bamboo building where the De 'ang people later lived.

The costumes of the De 'ang people have a strong national color. Men mostly wear blue and black ploppers and wide and short trousers, wrapped in black and white cloth headscarves, and the ends of the towel are decorated with colorful pompoms. Most women wear navy blue or black double-plucked jackets and long skirts, with black cloth head, two red strips of cloth on the upper skirt, four or five pairs of large silver medals as buttons, and the long skirt is woven with colorful horizontal strips. Young people, regardless of men and women, like to wear silver collars, earrings, earrings and other jewelry.

Among the costumes of the De 'ang people, the most eye-catching thing is the waist band on women. According to the custom of De 'ang people, when girls grow up, they must wear several or even dozens of waist bands around the waist of their skirts. Most waist bands are woven from rattan strips, and some are made of rattan strips in the front part and spiral silver wires in the back part. The rattan rings vary in width and thickness, and are mostly painted red, black, green and other colors. Some are also engraved with various patterns or wrapped in silver or aluminum skin. This unique custom is a continuation of the custom of "winding rattan strips around the waist" in the Mangren tribe, the ancestors of the De 'ang tribe in the Tang Dynasty. The De 'ang people believe that the more waist bands a girl wears and the more exquisite they are made, the more intelligent, capable and skillful she is. Therefore, adult women wear waist bands and are proud of their abundance. When young men and women are in love, in order to win the love of the girl, young men often go to great lengths to carefully make rattan strips waist bands engraved with animal and plant patterns and give them to their beloved girl. So the waist band became a token of their love again.

In addition, among the ornaments of the De 'ang people, colorful pompoms are also quite distinctive. The ends and chests of men's turbans, the hem and collars of women's clothes, the earrings of young men and women and the surrounding of the tube handkerchief are decorated with colorful pompoms. These pompoms bloom like flowers on their chests and necks, bright and unique.

De 'ang people have a small population and a small village, but they all attach great importance to their relationship and do not want to have disputes with each other. Especially the De' ang people in Zhenkang area, there are often several small economically independent families living in a bamboo building. They can be families of brothers and sisters, or friends with non-relatives and similar personalities. The De 'ang people here still retain the idea in their consciousness, that is, many individual families live in a big house to help each other and live in harmony. It is a virtue not to make a fuss, which is also something that every De' ang people cherish very much. Because the De 'ang people believe in Buddhism, and the Buddhist teachings strictly prohibit killing, the De' ang people used to eat less meat. The De 'ang people respect the elderly. In Zhenkang County in Lincang Prefecture, there is still a custom of serving meals to the elderly. Whenever the Water Festival comes, every household sends a portion of each prepared first-class meal to the oldest elderly in the village to express the wish of young people to respect the elderly. For the lonely elderly people in the village who have lost the ability to work, when they are unable to cultivate the fields, relatives have to plant and harvest for them at no cost.

The families of the De 'ang nationality vary somewhat due to different regions and social and economic conditions, but there are basically two types. One is the type of small families living in the area of Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture; the other is the type living in Zhenkang, Gengma and other counties in Lincang Prefecture with the transitional characteristics of large families to small families. In the small patrilineal family in Dehong Prefecture, the father is the head of the family and handles family affairs, and the women are in a subordinate position. The small family here is the basic unit of social and economic life. It consists of three generations of parents, couples, and children. Generally, after the eldest son gets married, he chooses a suitable place around his hometown to build a new house and establish a small family. For the eldest and second sons who have established separate families, their parents give part of their pigs, cattle and other property as production premiums based on the family's financial situation. They do not have the habit of evenly distributing the family property, and mainly rely on small families to operate independently. The youngest son stayed in his hometown, supported his parents, and inherited property. The transitional type of family from large family to small family is in a state where small patrilineal families and large patrilineal families (also called families, communes) coexist. That is, small families that are economically independent do not immediately leave the parent family to build single-family houses. They still live together in a large house, maintaining mutual assistance and cooperation.

The De 'ang people are accustomed to naming their children according to their zodiac signs and rank. They also use the twelve Chinese zodiac signs: Cha (mouse), Bao (ox), Yi (tiger), Mao (rabbit), Guang (dragon), Sha (snake), Ya (horse), Ma (sheep), Xin (monkey), Shou (chicken), Mie (dog), Jiao (pig). Whatever the zodiac sign of a birthday is, it is named after it. The boy's zodiac sign is preceded by "A", and the girl's zodiac sign is preceded by "Li". For example, Niu Risheng's birthday boy is called "Abao", and Niu Risheng's girl is called "Libao". If you are named according to the rank, you will be called Lasuo (eldest brother), Lasuo (second brother), and Layue (third brother) regardless of gender. After the De 'ang people got married and gave birth to children, they had the habit of concealing their names. All young couples who have had children and have been named, including their elders, no matter who they are, can no longer call them by their names. If the eldest son or eldest daughter died early in the De 'ang family, the second son or second daughter would be called instead of their parents. Some have not yet had children, but they can also take out their children's names in advance and call them by this name. The De 'ang people believe that it is impolite to call people who have children or who have died but are older by names such as "He Adai" and "Li Laweng".

The marriage of the De 'ang ethnic group is monogamous. They do not marry with the same surname and rarely marry with other people. Young men and women are free to fall in love, and women have certain autonomy in choosing objects. There is no strict hierarchical marriage within this nation. As long as the other party is willing, rich and poor families can marry into marriage. When young men were fourteen or fourteen years old, they began to string girls. At night, they went to play Lusheng outside the young women's homes to lure the girls into falling in love. After the two sides established a relationship, they gave each other bracelets, waist bands, collars, bamboo baskets, brocade bags and other daily necessities, and then invited the elderly in the village to meet the woman's house. As long as the woman agrees, the parents generally do not object. They think that the girl is in love with others. It is not good to disagree. As for whether the son-in-law is satisfied, that is the daughter's destiny. The parents can do nothing about it. If the woman's parents object, the girl can decide her own life.

At the engagement ceremony of young men and women of the De 'ang ethnic group, the chicken's head must be beheaded. If the chicken's head and body are divided into two parts, neither party can go back on its word; if the woman disagrees with the marriage, no chicken is allowed. The wedding usually lasts for three days. Within three days, men, women and children in the village will go to the home of the groom and bride to congratulate them. The parents of both parties will entertain them, accompanied by a chorus, singing and laughing all night long.

Deang people have their own customs in funerals. Except for the Buddha (monk) who performs cremation, the general public is buried in the ground. There are public cemeteries in each village, where normal deaths in the same village can be buried. There are no family names boundaries, and there are no separate divisions between people and people. However, their graves are different from other ethnic groups. They are buried not along the mountains, but across the mountains. According to the custom of the De 'ang people, when a person dies, he must put a silver coin prepared beforehand into his mouth, which means giving the deceased's soul a ferry fee to cross the river in the underworld. Once a person died, his family members fired three shots into the air outside the door to announce the funeral to relatives, friends and neighbors.

At this time, after hearing the news, close relatives, families, and village neighbors rushed to the deceased's home to help with the funeral. At the same time, relatives and friends each brought some rice, vegetables and the like, and some even carried meat, dried rice and the like. The women first helped carry water and cook, while the men were busy preparing coffins for the deceased. Coffins are generally decided according to the financial situation of the deceased's family. If the financial situation is better, a Han or ethnic woodworker will be asked to make a Han-style coffin. If the financial situation is worse, relatives and friends will help cut down a big tree and remove a section of the root and make it into large and small halves, with the middle pivoted to make a simple coffin. There is also a simpler way to cut a few big dragon bamboos and cut them into bamboo strips to make a bamboo coffin. While preparing the coffin, some people washed the body with a specific leaf dipped in water, put on clothes, and then put it into the coffin. After putting the coffin in, the Buddha (monk) is asked to choose an auspicious day for burial. The corpse is usually no more than three days. During this period, the Buddha must be asked to recite sutras every day and pray that the soul of the deceased will enter the Western Paradise.

At the funeral, the coffin has its small head facing forward and its big head facing backward (that is, the dead's feet are forward and its head facing backward), which means that the dead soul is required to move forward and cannot fall back. The funeral procession set out from the stockade to the public cemetery on the mountain, firing shots continuously along the way, which means to inform the earth god. The spirit of the dead is coming. After the burial is over, the elders will recite the prayer, stating that the dead and the living will walk two paths. The dead will go to the underworld to find a home, and the living will go home well. After the elders finish the prayer, each person will take a branch and brush his body, indicating that he will remove the evil energy on his body. Then he can turn around and return to the stockade. When he returns, he cannot turn his head and look back. Seven days after the burial, the family of the deceased asked the Buddha to recite the scriptures again. They believed that this could save the deceased from being reincarnated as soon as possible, and told him to change into a person in the next life.

The De 'ang people like to eat hot and sour food, drink strong tea, and are also good at growing tea. Almost every household grows tea trees and is known as the "ancient tea farmer". He is good at weaving bamboo utensils and straw rafts (processed from wild thatch into roofing materials). Making silverware is a traditional craft of the De 'ang people and is very famous among neighboring ethnic groups. The De 'ang people are a cross-border ethnic group and are also distributed in Myanmar, a neighboring country of China.

Tea is the most important beverage of the De 'ang people. In particular, adult men and middle-aged and elderly women have almost every day without tea, and they like to drink strong tea. When they drink tea, they often put a large handful of tea leaves into a small tea jar and add a little water to boil them. When the tea turns dark coffee color, they pour the tea into the small tea cup and drink it. Because this tea is very strong, most people are extremely excited after drinking it and will have trouble sleeping all night. However, people in De 'ang often drink it, but they become addicted to it. As long as they don't drink it for a day, their hands and feet will become weak and their limbs will become weak. On the contrary, if you boil a can of strong tea when you are tired and drink a few sips, you will immediately feel refreshed and your spirit will double.

Tea is not only an important drink in De 'ang people's daily life, but also plays a very important role in their social life. They cannot live without tea almost all the time and everything. De 'ang people pay attention to "tea is what you want". When guests arrive at the door, they must first simmer tea to treat each other. When visiting relatives and friends or asking a mediator to propose marriage, tea must be used as a meeting gift; if there is a happy event and relatives need to be invited, a small package of tea leaves with a Red Cross line becomes an "invitation"; for example, when two people have a conflict, the party at fault only needs to send a packet of tea to gain the other party's understanding. It can be seen that the role of tea is irreplaceable by other money and goods.

Due to this special status and role of tea, tea consumption is very large. Therefore, every household in De 'ang people is accustomed to planting some tea trees in front of and behind the houses and at the head of the village. De 'ang people like to drink strong tea and are good at growing tea, so they are called "ancient tea farmers" by the surrounding ethnic groups.

The De 'ang people like to drink strong tea and are famous for being good at growing tea trees, so they are called "ancient tea farmers". Tea has extensive uses in the social life of this ethnic group, and they also have special feelings for tea. Adult men and middle-aged and elderly women of the De 'ang nationality all drink strong tea. Legend has it that this has been happening since ancient times. Speaking of the strong tea drunk by the De 'ang people, it is really a well-deserved reputation. They put a handful of tea leaves into a jar that can hold 100 milliliters of water and boiled them with water. When the tea turns dark coffee color, they pour the tea into what people often call it "Ox Eye Cup"(not much larger than Buffalo Eye) and drink it immediately. Outsiders often have to soak in several times as much boiled water to drink this tea.Because the De 'ang people often drink strong tea, they have developed a tea addiction over time. When tea addiction occurs, it will make people feel weak in their limbs, especially when walking long distances. However, as long as they cook a can of tea and drink a few cups, they will feel refreshed.

网站图片位People often say that the De 'ang people cannot do things without tea. They often use tea as a gift, which shows that "tea is what it means." If you go to visit relatives and friends who have been separated for a long time, the first gift is a package of tea leaves. When a guest comes, the host's house will always boil water to simmer the tea first. When a young man proposes and asks a matchmaker to talk about the marriage, the first thing he takes to the woman's house is also a package of tea leaves weighing two or three kilograms. If there is a festive event, invite relatives and friends to visit, send a small package of tea leaves with red cross lines as a token. If there is a dispute between the masses, and one party is at fault and demands the other party's understanding, it will also send a packet of tea leaves to the other party first. When the party at fault takes the initiative to send tea leaves, the other party must forgive it no matter how reasonable it is. This is the etiquette of the De 'ang people. If you don't send tea leaves but money and goods, you will be regarded as not understanding the "etiquette" of the De' ang people, will not be understood, and may even mess up the matter. If the dispute between each other cannot be resolved by themselves and needs to be settled by the leader, you must also wrap a small piece of tea leaves and a small elephant grass cigarette and cross it into a "X" shape and hand it to the leader, and then explain their respective reasons.

Because tea has special significance and extensive uses in the social life of the De 'ang people, every household is accustomed to cultivating some tea trees around their houses or on the slopes attached to the village for their own picking, kneading and drying. In addition to dried tea, the De 'ang people also made a kind of wet tea (sour tea), which is called "Gu (Gu) tea" in historical books. They put fresh tea leaves picked from vegetables into a large bamboo tube and pressed them tightly to make them saccharify and eat them. There is no need to boil wet tea. It can be taken out of the cylinder and put into your mouth for chewing. The tea tastes slightly sour and bitter, with a slight sweetness. This kind of tea can relieve heat and clear heat. In hot climates, people like to chew sour tea.