|
| |
|
|
The Hani Nationality |
The Hanis, with a population of 1.25 million, live mainly in the broad mountain area between the Red River and the Langcang River in Yunnan province. They have their own spoken language, while a phonetic script using the Roman alphabet was created in the 1950s.The Hani language belongs to the Yi branch of the Tibeto-Burman group of the Sino-Tibetan language family, and it can be subdivided into "Hani, " "Bika" and "Suobai." The Hanis are mainly involved in farming, and are particularly skillful at opening up new terraced land.They believe in polytheism and practice ancestor-worship.
Between the Red River and the Langcang River in the southern part of Yunnan, China,two mountain ranges extend unbrokenly--the Ailao and the Wuxin. Here, Layer upon layer of terraced fields, and mushroom-shaped houses spread along the base and the sides of the mountains. This is where the Hanis'stockaded villages are found.
They are usually situated on the south slopes of the mountains, with a view of green forests above and clear streams winding around at the foot. Each stockaded village, fairly small in area and surrounded by far-stretching terraces, is made up of several families related by blood ties.
Traditional Hani houses have frame of bamboo poles, walls made of sun-dried mud bricks and a thatched roof. The building consists of a top floor, a ground floor and an attic. The ground floor contains animal sheds and a storage area. The top floor is partitioned off by wooden boards into three separate rooms, and the attic serves as a granary. The shape of the whole structure resembles a mushroom, hence the name "mushroom house." Viewed from a distance, the stockaded villages with their terraced fields, bamboo forests, and "mushroom houses," make a tranquil rural scene.
Costumes vary among different clans of the Hani nationality. This is especially so for women's clothes. Hani women in Xishuangbanna and the Lancang area wear short skirts, leggings and caps inlaid with silver ornaments. In Mojiang, Yuanjiang and Jiangcheng, some women wear tube- shaped or long pleated skirts, embroidered waistbelts and girdles. Girls of the Yeche clan prefer clothing made of home-spun indigo-blue cloth and usually put on several layers of jackets, more or less the same number of blouses, together with underwear, a girdle,tight-fitting shouts and white pointed headgear.
Yeche women like to wear white pointed caps and short-sleeved, collarless jackets opening at the front with no buttons, but tightened instead by a wide colorful waistband. They usually dress in many layers of garments, anything from seven or eight to as many as ten or more.
The most distinctive feature of their costumes is their tight-fitting shorts which are trimmed with a band of tucks at the hem matching the number of layers in their upper garments. The shorts set off the Yeche girls' strong slender leggs.
The Hanis' staple food is rice, corn and a locally produced purple rice which is either steamed or made into sticky rice cakes as a special treat on their New Year's Day and at other festivals.
The Hanis prefer to eat fish they have produced themselves. One such fish is the Guhua which is unique to Hani-inhabited areas. The fish has a tiny head but a plump body of tender flesh with soft thorns. It tastes very fresh and delicious when served with ginger, and peppermint.
Deep-fried locusts and cooked chicken heads are the dishes the Hanis consider the best to offer important guests.
The strongest impression of the Hanis region is of terraced fields. Once amongst these villages in the mountains and hills, you find yoursesf in a world of terraced fields that stretch from the foot right to the top of the mountains.
The Hanis match their cultivation perfectly to the topography of the region. The result is sometimes a patchwork of terraced fields, sometimes a continuous stretch. Layer upon layer of interlocking fields rise steadily upward to the mountain tops, sixty to a hundred of them, like a flight of giant living steps. According to the official statistics, terraced fields in the Hani mountain areas amount to over 120,000 Mu(about 19,769 acres). The exquisite layout of the terraced fields and the corresponding efficient irrigation network demonstrate a perfect match of human beings to their environment.
The Hani people take the first day of the tenth lunar month as New Year's Day, when every stockaded village holds a big banquet in the center of the main street. It is a family-like gathering for all the villagers where they drink a toast in turns and wish each other good luck and happiness. The banquet is so large in scale that many tables piled high with different dishes are laid end to end along the street like a colorful dragon. The Hanis call it the "Street-Center Banquet."
In order to prepare for it, people get up early in the morning and set the tables along the street.They each bring various dishes they are best at cooking in bamboo baskets and put them on the long banquet table. A spread of delicious food such as pheasants, carp, bamboo-shoots, edible fungus and dried meat, form a colorful display that shows the splendour of the Hanis' New Yea banquet.
After the banquet and when twilight falls, young men and women sing love songs to the accompaniment of the Sanxian, a three-stringed plucked instrument, and head for a world of their own deep in the bamboo forests¡
In spite of ups and downs over the long course of human history, the Ailao Moutain, as a symbol of the Hani nationality, looms in the misty twilight like a timeless monument. The Hanis' cherished terraced fields, vital to their livelihood, are carved upon the earth like immortal verses. |
|
|
