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The Baoan Nationality |
The Baoan nationality, with a population of about 12,000, lives mainly in the Jishishan Baoan, Dongxiang and Salar Autonomous County in Gansu Province. They are Muslims.The Baoans have their own language, belonging to the Mongolian branch of the Altaic language family. Chinese is popularly spoken as well. The main occupations of the Baoans are in agriculture, animal husbandry, handicraft sidelines and trade. Baoan knives, a production of the Baoans' fine ironware, are very attractive.
In the southwest of Gansu Province, there is a grand and towering mountain, Jishishan.The Yellow River rolls around the foot of the mountain and irrigates the large, beautiful valley farm. For hundreds of years, the Baoan have lived, gradually increasing in their numbers and creating an indigenous culture with its own unique character.
Baoan farmers plant barley, millet, maize, buckwheat, and yam. They also have small business in handicraft. They engage in trade as peddlers or traveling merchants throughout Northwest China, and even India.
The Baoans live at the foot of Jishishan mountain and on both banks of the Yellow River. Usually, they choose places halfway up the mountain or in the river valley for building houses and establishing villages and they should be smooth and exposed to the sun. The Baoans live together with the Hui, the Dongxiang, and the Salar nationalities in many villages.
Every Baoan family has a single-story house built of clay brick and enclosed with a clay wall. The house together with a yard is called Zhuangkuo. The Zhuangkuo consists of a living room, kitchen, sitting room, a clean pen, which is roomy yet compactly laid out. A lot of living facilities are available in the house.
The Baoans and the Mongolians are closely related in origin. The Baoan maintain the custom of wrapping their head with cloth and other personal adornments. However, their style of dress has changed since they became Muslim. Today, Baoan males like to wear a small white hat a Chinese-style shirt with a black sleeveless jacket. Baoan women like to wear a wrap around their heads, dark colored garments with long sleeves to the knee, similar to other Muslim women.
Weddings here are very lively. Before the ceremony begins, a group of people chosen from the bridegroom's family-usually two men and two women--go to the bride's home and escort her back for the wedding. The brides' relatives stop at the matchmakers home to ask for money to buy mutton for the groups. If the matchmaker refuses to give the money or slips away, she or he will be caught and her(his)face will be smeared with black dye, making everybody laugh. As the entourage carries the bride away from her village, they will be followed, beaten and kicked by the village boys. It is said that this unique ceremony is conducted so that the sons and daughters of the bridegroom remember their uncles. If the bridegroom and bride live in the same village, the bride's brother and sisters should go to the bridegroom's home along with the escorting entourage. The young people will smear the faces of the bridegroom's father, uncles, brothers and sister-in-law with black dye. On the third day after the wedding banquet, the newly-married wife goes back to her home village accompanied by her husband and his sisters, where they first send greetings to her uncles' and have meals with the uncles families. Then another wedding banquet is held at her own home.
The Baoan people also sing songs for the banquet during the wedding ceremony. On the wedding night, regardless of their ages, everyone goes to the bridegroom's home to listen to songs at the party and share the great joy and happiness with the host. The banquet songs come in several forms: antiphonal singing, chorus, chiming singing, and many other forms.
The Baoans traditional holidays are similar to major Islamic festivals, including the lesser Bairam (Festival for Fast-Breaking), the Corban (Feast of Sacrifice ), the Prophet Mohammed's Anniversary. The lesser Bairm is also called Erde Festival. On this day, every one dresses in his or her newest and best clothes. Every family fires the fragrant and sweet wheat dishes such as Youxiang, Sanzi and Guoguo. Men bathe and then go to the Mosque for collective religious service. Men and women, old and young say 'Salam' to each other, wishing a happy life, health of each family and a good holiday.
The Baoans have rich and colorful folk arts, of which the Huaer song is most popular. Huaer, based on the Hui-han Huaer, mainly uses a Baoan melody mixed with more artistic forms of Mongolian and Tibetan folk songs. The song is loud and has bold and pure characteristics. It has beautiful melodies and its tune proceeds from low to high with a trill. No matter whether in the hills and fields or during farm work, the Baoan people love to sing Huaer to express their feelings.
Not only does every Baoan man make the Wawuo, but also everyone is a good player of the instrument. A rising and falling melody, and a strongly distinctive quality of it always leads the Baoan people to the memory of their family members and home town.
The Baoan people are Muslim believing in the Islamic religion. Besides abiding by basic religious belief, piously following the Koran and holy tennents, exercising the obligatory daily rituals, the Baoans are influenced by the religion in many aspects. In dress and personal adorn- ment, for example, Baoan men wear a little white cap and white jacket to express their purity and cleanliness. Pork and other meat are strictly prohibited, just as in the Hui diet.
Baoan men always sing work songs, which are very popular in Gansu, Qinghai and Ningxia region. A long time ago, sheepskin rafts and wooden boats were used as means of transporation in the Yellow River. Sailors sung work songs to synchronize movements of the rafts and the boats when they pushed the boats down the River or swapped over rapids and shallows. The work song melodies feature rhythm of the northwestern China plateau. The tunes feature double melodies echoing each other in the same song: the first stressing a high tone; the second emphasizing the song's story. The melodies have lively rhythms and strong tunes, always energizing the working people. |
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