The customs and habits of the Menba people

"Menba" means the person living in the corner of the door. The Menba people have their own language-Menba, but they do not have their own written language and use Tibetan. The Menba people mainly believe in Bon (a primitive form of witchcraft) and Lamaism. The Menba people are rich in folk literature, and their folk songs are beautiful and have been passed down for a long time. Among them, the "Sama" wine song and the "Jialu" love song are the most unrestrained and moving. The Menba people are mainly engaged in agriculture, growing rice, and also engaged in animal husbandry and hunting. They are good at weaving bamboo and rattan utensils and making various wooden bowls.

The National History of the Menba People

The places where the Menba people live are all in the border areas of Xizang. In the 17th century, the Menba society entered a feudal serfdom society and became an integral part of the entire Xizang under the rule of the Xizang local government. The land ownership system of feudal serf owners in Xizang is the basic form of the social land system of the Menba people. The land, forests, grasslands and other means of production in the Menba area are owned by the local government of Xizang. The local government of Xizang dispatched officials to the Menba area, set up administrative agencies, and granted land and serfs to monasteries and secular aristocrats. This resulted in the absolute possession of the means of production in the Menba area by the three major lords of officials, monasteries and aristocrats and the incomplete possession of the personal lives of the Menba serfs.

Take Menyu area as an example. Since the mid-19th century, the local government of Xizang has granted jurisdiction over Menyu to the Cuonazong government. Lebu 4Cuo in the north of Menyu is closest to the Menyu government and has become the area most closely governed and managed by government officials.

The three lords, led by the Zong government, divided the land they occupied into several plots of land and distributed them to Menba serfs with labor force for cultivation. At the same time, they collected land rent mainly in kind and corvee from the Menba serfs. In the Menba society, feudal serfdom owners used the primitive village community organization form to promote feudal serfdom. The combination of feudal serfdom and the primitive village community of the Menba people formed a compound form of social formation. This is the basic feature of the Menba social form.

Due to people's different positions in land ownership relations, in Menba society, there are two types of people: serf owners and serfs. Most of the serf owners were Tibetans, and all of the serf families were Menba. The serf owners included Zongben,"Cuba", upper-class lamas and secular aristocrats. They were very small in number, but they had great power and controlled most of the society's means of production. They had various feudal privileges and were the rulers of Menba society.

Like the vast number of Tibetan serfs, the Menba serfs can be divided into three equal poles according to their economic status: "Chapa","Duiqiong" and Yuebu ". "Chaba" is in the Medog area, which means the person who pays taxes. They accounted for a large proportion of serfs and received their share of land from the breeder lords according to rules. To support the heavy Wula officers of the lord, he also had to pay butter, wood, dye, charcoal and other physical objects and Tibetan coins to the lord. There are fewer people in "poor people" than in "poor people". With a status lower than that of Chaba, they rent a small piece of land in Chaba, or work as a helper and do odd jobs, and engage in sideline and handicraft production. "Jobu", or domestic servants, has a small number of people and only exists in the Medog area. They do not have an independent economy. Most of them are single and work alone in their master's home and are attached to their master.

The Menba people are mainly engaged in agriculture and also engaged in animal husbandry. Until the democratic reform, agricultural farming methods still remained in the stage of slash-and-burn cultivation, hoeing, and wooden plowing. The production tools are made of iron and wood, mainly wooden tools. Wood plows are the main agricultural tools, and their shapes vary from place to place.

The Menba people's management of farmland is extensive. Crops are planted, tilled and weeded generally once or twice, and most crops are allowed to grow. There are no water conservancy irrigation facilities and less fertilization. Because the soil fertility recovers slowly, coupled with insect disasters, animal disasters, and floods, the output of agricultural products is generally low.

Animal husbandry and collecting wild plants are important means to make up for food shortages. The livestock grazed and raised are mainly yaks, galleys and cattle, while the number of horses and sheep is small. Yaks and galleys are indispensable livestock in life. They provide the Menba people with milk, butter, milk residue, meat, and cow hair. They are used for textiles and materials for cattle exchange with foreign ethnic groups, while male galleys and male yaks are the main tools for transportation.

Hunting activities take place all year round. Men often carry bows, arrows and long swords with them when they go out. The Menba used methods such as bows and arrows, bows and hoops to capture wild animals. The animal skins, horns, and bones obtained were exchanged with foreign peoples and paid to the lords. The meat will be cut into strips and roasted and distributed among participating hunters and friends and neighbors in the same village.

The Menba people have been a nation with agriculture as the main body for generations. Handicraft is only a sideline of agricultural production. Although exchange and trade relations have been established with neighboring ethnic groups, the self-sufficient economy still dominates. The feudal serfdom state has always been a shackle that hinders the development of social productivity, causing the backward production level of the Menba people to repeat on the original basis year after year and remain in a state of stagnation for a long time. It was not until democratic reforms ended the feudal serfdom that social production was liberated.

Marriage customs of the Menba people

The Menba people have freedom in marriage and love, and are mostly monogamy. The wedding ceremony is quite dramatic and interesting. On the wedding day, the bride was dressed in the early morning and was escorted to her husband's house by her parents, brothers and sisters, uncles and other relatives. Before leaving, the bride confessed to her parents reluctantly that the two parents raised me but wanted to leave my parents. I am really sorry. The mother's family usually gives her daughter bracelets, rings, headdresses, belts, etc. as a dowry, and sometimes brings one or two labor tools. The groom's side had already asked the matchmaker to bring a few clever and eloquent people to wait on the road to welcome the bride. They held bamboo wine and invited the bride to drink it three times on the way. Arriving at the groom's house, he entered the house and sat down, and served wine, meat, and oil cakes to entertain the guests warmly. The bride's uncle was the most respected. He spoke on behalf of the father. At this time, he stirred up problems. The wine was not brewed well, the meat was thin and uneven, and asked: Is it because my daughter is not good-looking... Every time she spoke, she hit the table with her fist hard, pretending to be angry. So the groom's family repeatedly accompanied him, quickly served hada, and re-added wine and vegetables until the bride's uncle nodded in satisfaction. In fact, the purpose of this dramatic criticism is to test the sincerity of the man. Half-drunk, everyone sang and danced impromptu, and enjoyed themselves all night long. Weddings in wealthier families often last three or four days. This is also a good opportunity for young guys and girls to interact and fall in love with each other.

Festival of the Menba people

There are two main types of Menba festivals, one is religious festivals, and the other is annual festivals. Religious festivals are mainly held during the Quke Festival, the Sagadawa Festival, the Zhuba Grand Fa Festival, and the Tawang Grand Fa Festival. The New Year Festival mainly includes the Menba New Year.

Quke Festival: held every June when the crops are ripe. During the festival, people gathered together and held a grand pilgrimage ceremony. Then, under the leadership of the Lama and Zaba, they carried scriptures and raised prayer flags, and walked around the village and farmland for a week, praying for the gods to bless the people, prosper the people and harvest the crops. The masses brought their own wine and rice, sang and danced in the fields, and the entire activity lasted for 2 - 3 days.

Sagadawa Festival: It is said that the birth and death of Sajiamuni, the Buddha of Tibetan Buddhism, is on the 15th of the Tibetan calendar. In order to commemorate this day, all temples in the Menba area recite scriptures and pray and hold various religious activities. At that time, each family would take out a certain amount of Tsamba, butter and highland barley wine and hand it over to the temple. The lama in the temple would then make the Tsamba into "measures" and distribute it to everyone to eat. Everyone would toast each other and eat. At night, butter lamps would also be lit in front and behind each house to celebrate, and this day would be used as a sign of the beginning of the farming season. From this day on, people would start doing farm work.

Zhuba Dharma Conference: It is a full-fledged Dharma Conference of the Medog Sect. It is held from November to December in the bumper harvest year and lasts for 3 - 18 days. It is not held in poor harvest years. The main activities include chanting scriptures, dancing gods, and performing religious dramas. People bring their own wine, meat, and food, and gather together happily. During the day, they drink and watch the dancing god performance, and at night they light bonfires in the wild, sing and dance to celebrate the festival.

Tawang Dharma Conference: It is held on November 29 of the Tibetan calendar every year and lasts for three days. During the festival, in addition to watching the dancing god performance, the traditional drama "Zhuo Wa Sang", the yak dance, etc., people also hold some self-entertainment activities, such as horse racing, tug-of-war, archery, etc. New Year: New Year's Day in the Tibetan calendar is the most important festival of the Menba people. It is called "Losa" in the Menba language. The Cuona Menba people celebrate the New Year from January 1st of the Tibetan calendar and ends on January 15th. It is basically no different from the Tibetan New Year. However, the New Year of the Menba people in Medog area is different. They have two New Year in a year, one is January New Year, which starts on January 1st of the Tibetan calendar and lasts for 2 - 3 days; the other is December New Year. December New Year is the most distinctive annual festival of the Metuomenba people. It starts from December 1st of the Tibetan calendar and lasts for 10 - 15 days. Before the festival, every household has to clean the house, kill cattle and sheep, buy rich wine and vegetables, and entertain guests. During the festival, people dressed in costumes, visited each other to celebrate, sang and danced, and drank alcohol. In addition, various recreational activities will be held, such as tug-of-war, wrestling, rock holding, archery, etc.

Food customs of the Menba people

The Himalayas, the summit of the world, were once called the third pole of the world. The entire mountain system is high and steep, with numerous peaks, stretching for more than 2400 kilometers. It spans the southern edge of Xizang and becomes a natural barrier to the snowy plateau. At the eastern end of the southern slope of the Himalayas is the Luoyu area, bordering Menyu to the west. Tens of thousands of Menba people live in this vast area.

The Luoyu area has narrow ditches and deep valleys, abundant rainfall, and a hot climate. Slash-and-burn farmland is suitable for growing corn. Therefore, corn and Jizhao Valley have become the staple food of the Metuomenba people. Corn and rice are usually mixed and boiled to form a mixed rice, and corn flour is boiled to form dough. Corn is also the main raw material for brewing liquor, plus some corn residue and chicken claw grain.

Website photo location Chicken Claw Valley is a tropical crop cultivated in Hainan Province of my country. Its size and color are similar to rapeseed. It is the main raw material for brewing "Bangqiang"(sweet wine). People also like to eat dough made from Chicken Claw Valley flour. In places with many paddy fields, rice is the most popular choice.

Western Menbaduo uses buckwheat cakes and highland barley as the main food. Common vegetables include fungus, shiitake mushrooms, bamboo shoots, eggplants, melons, peppers, beans, and radishes. The stove is mainly soap stone pots, iron pots, etc. People like to use stone pots to cook rice and vegetables. The stone pots heat and dissipate heat slowly, and the cooked food is delicious and delicious, which cannot be compared with metal pots.

The Menba people in Menyu area eat buckwheat cakes. The cakes are made of a round thin stone slab and placed on a fire pond tripod. Then the buckwheat flour is mixed into a paste, spread on the stone slab, and baked. The way to eat is to spread milk residue, salt, and chili paste on the baked wheat cakes, and roll them hot. Menba's unique pickles. Bean paste is an indispensable main seasoning in the Menba diet. Sauce is made by processing and fermentation cooked soybeans. When the beans are cooled until they are not hot, at about 25 degrees Celsius, evenly mix salt, paprika powder, pepper powder, mashed garlic, fennel and other condiments, and then put them into a bamboo barrel with a diameter of 30 cm and a length of about 50 cm. Stuff a handful of banana leaves at the top, top with the paste, place them at the back of the stove, maintain a certain temperature, and generally eat it for a month. However, the longer they are placed, the color will be bright and slightly purple-black, and the ones that are more than a year will turn black.

This sauce tastes spicy and has a strong taste. Taste it carefully. It is neither salty nor light. It is spicy and palatable. It can especially enhance appetite. The spicy flavor exudes a strong fragrance. The green pepper is dipped in it, and the fragrance is delicious. It has a unique flavor. It is really the more I want to eat, and I can eat an extra bowl of rice. Every household has several buckets of bean paste to spare.

Menba people have simple cooking. Soup is the main course. Soup and water are matched with monotonous rice. It is convenient and delicious to eat, and is very popular among people. The main seasoning in soups is bean paste. Generally, about 80 grams of bean paste are put in half a pot of soup for a family of five. The fermented bean paste becomes a paste, which decomposes itself after being put into the pot. It is no exaggeration to say that Menba cooking skills are far from being separated from bean paste.

Butter tea is a must every day, and a homemade yogurt is also drunk in summer. Men, women and children generally prefer drinking. Home-made highland barley and rice wine are often put into large gourds and large bamboo tubes. When guests arrive, the men will cook and accompany the guests, and the women will respect the guests. When the guests take a sip, the hostess will add it at any time. When the guests are drunk, they are regarded as having high regard for the master. Only then will the master be happy.