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The Blang Nationality |
With a population of 80,000, the Blangs live mainly in the Blang, Xiding and Bada mountainous area in Menghui County of Xishuangbanna in Yunnan. Their main occupations are inagriculture, planting upland rice, cotton and tea. The Blang Mountain is the native home of world-famous Puer tea. The Blangs enjoy the "sword dance" and "circle dance." The women like to chew betel nut and are proud of their black teeth stained by the juice. The Blangs have their own language but no writing system. Their oral literature features folktales and narrative lyrics. Some Blangs believe in Shangzuobu Buddhism.
The Blangs' houses, usually two-storied buildings, are similar to the Dais'. People live on the second floor, and keep their livestock downstairs. There is a porch at the entrance where women often sit together chatting while spinning. A hearth is set up in the center of the main room, where the whole family often stays. Most furniture is made of bamboo. March and April is the house building period for the Blangs. When one family builds a house, many people come to help. The house is thus quickly completed, and all the villagers come to celebrate.
The Blangs' have special diet. They love raw and sour food. They chop raw beef, fish and red deer into sauce, put in fragrant tea, garlic and salt especially for guests. Sour bamboo shoot, sour fish and sour pork they preserve are all very aromatic and tasty.
Sometimes, the Blangs dig a hole in the sandy beach, spread several layers of palm leaves and pour in fresh water and live fish. They then throw in red-hot pebbles, which turn the water into a boiling soup. The fish soup cooked in this way is very delicious, giving out a special flavor of heated pebble and palm leaf -- and, it is real "green food."
The Blangs make clothes with homespun cloth. Blue and black are two prevailing colors.Men wear short collarless jackets and long black broad trousers. They wrap their heads with black or white cloth. Old men like to coil their braids on top of the head. Men also wear bracelets.
Blang women often wear short close-fitting collarless garments and black or patterned close-fitting skirts. They tie a belt around the waist and wear gaiters. They wear their hair in a bun under large turbans. They like to wear big silver earrings decorated with red or yellow flowers which hang down to the shoulders. Young women attach bright tassels to the earrings as well.
Every Blang woman is a tea-making expert. Every April to May, they fry the tender shoots until they get dry, and put them into capped bamboo tubes while they are still hot. Then, they roast the tubes by the hearth. When the bamboo skin gets scorched, the fine fragrant bamboo tube tea is made. They produce many other types of tea such as roast tea, sour tea and powder tea.
The Blangs are particular about drinking tea, especially with roast tea. They put tea leaves into a special tea caddy and roast it by the hearth. When the smell of the tea comes out, they pour in boiling water and the fragrant roast tea is ready to serve -- it is considered premium tea for entertaining guests.
A Blang courtship begins from a visit of several young men to a girl' s home. Each man brings a three-stringed instrument and sits by the hearth. They chat with the girl while playing the instrument and humming love songs. After rounds of singing, the man who has stopped singing leaves quietly. The last one who stays is the girl's potential lover. After they fall in love, the boy invites two friends to visit the girl's home to propose for marriage. If the girl's parents give him consent, they'll go on for some more time. Then, the boy's father asks an old man to be the matchmaker, and pay a visit to the girl's home with a tin of tea, 500 grams of salt, a parcel of food and some money. On the wedding day, both families kill a pig to fete the villagers. In the end, the newlyweds get baptized in a temple and listen to some Buddhist scriptures chanted by an elder.
The mild climate and abundant rainfall are favorable for the growth of plants. Most Blangs work on dry lands. When they hear cuckoos chirping in spring, men begin to cut off branches. While the branches get dry, they circle a piece of land and burn the grass and bush inside.During the sowing time, men walk ahead with the previously made sticks and women follow behind with seeds, one digging holes while the other sowing seeds. Then they just let it sprout and grow. It seems such a simple farming method, but on the fertile land on the Blang Mountain and with the thick plant ash they prepare, they always get a bumper harvest in the autumn. This form of cultivation has not changed over the years. The Blangs have found ways to maintain the fertility of the land by rotation cultivation, which also contributes to their good harvest every year.
From childhood, Blang youths learn to play all sorts of instruments and practice songs of various tunes. There is frequent competition in singing Zhuidiao, a major tune in Blang songs at grand dancing parties. According to the Blangs, boys who can't sing can not win girls' favor.
"Tiaoge" means singing while dancing. When a village holds a "Tiaoge' meeting, they often invite great singers and dancers from other villages. They also carry out singing contests after the "Tiaoge" performances. At that time, the whole mountain is echoing their melodious folk songs.
The Circle Dance is the most popular group dance among the young people. The dance is first lead by an ace of singing and dancing. Following the rhythm of the gongs and elephant-foot drums, the girls form a circle, dancing gracefully while making anti-clockwise movements. A group of boys jump like tigers in the circle. Sometimes, they scatter to the rim and compete singing with the girls;sometimes, they stay together and imitate animals' movements. They perform singing and dancing alternatively, eulogizing the heroes in their history and their ever-changing new life.
Sword and stick dancing is also popular along the Blang Mountain area. There are three types of sword dancing including long sword, dagger and sword end dancing. Stick dancing includes dancing with a single stick, short stick or sword against stick. Elephant-foot drums and cymbals are played to the accompaniment, which adds more excitement to the dance. |
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