The Bai Nationality

The Bai nationality has a population of 1,590,000, most of them live in the Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture in Yunnan province. They have a long history and an outstanding ancient culture. The Bai language is a branch of the Tibeto-Burman group of the Sino-Tibetan language family. The Bais are mainly involved in agriculture and fishing and have achieved high levels of production. The people believe in "Benzhu" and Buddhism. The three pagodas in the Chongsheng Temple in Dali, the rock cave in Jianchuan, and the Mingzhu Mountain are all Buddhist holy places famous at home and abroad.

Dali, an ancient city, is one of the best-known historical and cultural cities of China. It has long enjoyed the reputation of "a famous city of archives." This ancient city built in the Ming Dynasty is now more than 600 years old. In March, the Dali City is very beautiful and the Butterfly Spring is ever so delightful. In fact, spring in March is beautiful everywhere around the Cangshan Mountain and Erhai Lake area in Yunnan Province. And it is here that lives the ancient Bai nationality.

The Bai houses are very distinctive. The main architectural styles are represented by the severe and symmetrical "quadrangle with five skylights" and the beautifully proportioned "three rooms with a screen wall"; there is also a design called "six rooms linked by two courtyards." The joints where the beams and pillars meet are thick and heavy, and the eaves of the houses are upturned. Their doors and windows are hollowed out with engravings of figures, birds and flowers, while most of the doors are capped with a decorative pavilion. Decorated with wash paintings, the walls and screen walls are delicate and beautiful. In the Dali area, the walls are built of locally produced greenish stone slabs. Unadorned as these green walls and green tiles are, they give an attractive effect.

The Bais like the tastes of cold, sour and hot in their food. People living on the plains eat mainly rice and wheat, while those in the mountainous areas live on corn and buckwheat. The Bais living by the shore of the Erhai Lake usually eat fish. Most Bais like pork, chicken, duck, fish and mutton. They are very hospitable: they treat their guests to baked tea whenever they come to visit. Colloquially called "three courses of tea," the tea is bitter in the first course, sweet in the second and most memorable after the third. In some places, they add honey and a Chinese spice into the baked tea, which leaves a lingering and refreshing mellow after taste.

The Bais' costumes and ornaments are eye-catching and exquisite. The men usually wear a white or blue turban, along with a white upper jacket buttoned at the front, or a short black collared gown with a pair of white or blue trousers. A hanging bag and a long knife are worn as matching ornaments.

Women usually coil their hair. Covering it with a silk net, they do up their hair with a hairpin or a black head cover. They wear a little red velvet vest over a snow-white shirt and a pair of broad blue trousers with an embroidered belt at the waist. On their feet are a pair of embroidered "Baijie" shoes. All these help to show off the Bai women's beautiful figure and graceful posture.

The Bais are a nationality with a long refined artistic tradition. Historically, they have created a large number of works of literature. Amongst these are the ancient epic The Creation of the World and hundreds of Fuzhou legends such as The Butterfly Spring and The Husband-Expecting Cloud. The two famous drawings of the Bai nationality, The Picture Scroll of Nanzhao State and The Picture Scroll of the Dali State, are of a high artistic level, and are called the "gems of the southern country." The famed Shibaoshan Caves in Jianchuan display incredible skill, and the carvings there are among the artistic masterpieces of the Bais.

Their great gathering called "Circling the Three Spirits" is a festival of singing and dancing among the Bai folks in Dali. It is held during the last ten-day period of April. "Circling the Three Spirits" is claimed to be a rite performed to pray for a good year-on behalf of "Benjie," peasants of the 71 villages in Dali area pay religious homage to "Shendu" (holy capital). The festival has a very long history. During this time, tens of thousands of Dali people in their holiday bests all play their instruments while singing and dancing. Lining up along the foot of the Cangshan Mountain, they come to gather at the "Shendu" beside the Shengyuan Temple in Xizhou, where they stay to enjoy themselves. Young men and women exchanging love songs in a series of answering calls. In holiday spirits, they pour their hearts out to their loved ones.

The March Street in Dali is famous with a long history. It used to be called "Guanyin Bazaar" in ancient time. It was held at the foot of the Diancangshan Mountain in the west of the old city from March 15 to March 20. Now it has developed into an important event where peoples of various nationalities in western Yunnan come to buy and sell, display their traditions and hold their different sports and games. Every year, between March 15 to March 22 by the lunar calendar, spring comes to the shores of the Erhai Lake in all its freshness and color with flowers everywhere in full bloom. On the racecourses, energetic riders of different nationalities try to overtake each other in friendly competition, while men and women of different nationalities dance lively. One of the most famous dances is Bawang Whip Dance. The whip pole, wrapped with colored strings, is over one meter long with holes in it for copper coins. With whips in hand, a dozen to a hundred Bai women perform the dance hitting the joints of their palms, elbows, shoulders, heads and legs with both ends of the whip. With 30 movements or more, the rhythms of the dance are vigorous and distinctive. With such a colorful spread of goods and merchandise from all around and with such huge crowds of people singing and dancing in holiday mood, the March Street is an extremely lively and noisy place.

Exploiting their rich cultural and tourist resources, the Bai people living around the Erhai Lake are attracting large numbers of tourists from China and abroad. At the same time, they are promoting cultural exchanges between different nationalities. The 1.59 million Bai people are working hard to develop their beautiful homeland.