The Ewenki Nationality

Compared with other ethnic minority groups in northern China, the Ewenkis have a small population: only about 26,000. With a language of their own, the Ewenki people believe in Shamanism. Most of them live in the Ewenki Autonomous County of the Hulunber region, Inner Mongolia, and some others in Heilongjiang province.
"Ewenki" is a self-given name meaning "people living in big mountain forests." At different times in history, the people were called "Suolun," "Tongus," or "Yakut." "Ewenki" came into use when the People's Republic of China was founded.
Due to the different areas where they live, the Ewenkis' occupations and life-style vary a great deal. Some are engaged in animal husbandry, some in agriculture and others live solely or partly by hunting.

The Ewenkis have long been inhabiting a tract of hilly land that branches off from the Bigger Xingan Mountain Ranges. It is covered with dense primeval forests and numerous rivers run across it, with lakes and swamps scattered all over.

The Ewenkis who live in the Erguna virgin forest make a living by hunting. Long before settling down there, they tracked wild animals by their footprints and roved the primeval forests all yearª²round with their reindeer herds. They did not have a fixed dwelling place. Their traditional houses are called Cuoluozi or Xierenzhu in the Ewenki language. Three meters high and four meters in diameter, the conic structure resembles very much the Orenqis' Xierenzhu. It is simply framed with larch logs and covered with birch bark in summer and deer hides in winter.

Although the Ewenkis rarely live permanently in one place, they do have fixed shelters: their warehouses in the vast forests. They are built in a unique way. First, at roughly the same height, the tops of several trees are chopped off. These trees should be apart from each other at about the same distance. Then heavy logs are laid onto the trunks left of the chopped trees to make a warehouse suspended from above the ground. Another big log with cut steps serves as a ladder.In the houses are usually stored some food, hunted games, clothes, working tools and cooking utensils, etc. The door always remains open so that the stores in the house are easily available to other hunters in time of need. Nevertheless, the warehouse is kept for public use in the hope that the user may return the borrowed things duly.

Reindeer plays an essential part in the Ewenkis' daily lives-especially in their hunting work-and the Ewenkis have a long history of keeping them. The animal, originally wild, looks like the horse in the head, with horns like the deer's, while its trunks take the shape of the donkey's and hoofs the bull's. It is mild intemper, docile and adept in walking across dense mountain forests, swamps, as well as in deep snow. The Ewenkis have tamed the animal and made it an enormously helpful instrument to hunt and live with. After the Orenqis took to horses as their main aide, the Ewenkis have become the only people in North China to keep and use reindeer. Almost every part of the animal yields treasures: its meat is edible, milk drinkable, and the skin useable for leather; its antlers and genitals make precious medicine. Reindeer are the main source of the Ewenkis' economic income. Due to the convenience they have brought to the daily lives of the Ewenki people, reindeer are widely loved and honored with the title of the "lifeª²boat in the sea of forests."

Characteristic of the clothes worn by the hunting people, the Ewenkis' national costumes, especially their winter garments, seem inseparable from animal hair and skin. In winter, they wear jackets and pants made of longª²haired, thick rawhide, together with boots, hats and gloves all made from animal skin. Men's hats are conic, with red tassels on the top, and the surface sewn with blue cloth. Women's headdress is made by stringing together two black-cloth tubes decorated with silver laces. Ornaments like earrings, fingerings and bracelets are also part of the Ewenkis' traditional dress.

The Ewenkis worship fire as they would a god. They never eat meat and drink without throwing a piece of meat into the fire and then sprinkling a cup of liquor over it. At the wedding ceremony, the newlyweds must pay obeisance to the god of fire. The Ewenkis have many taboos with respect to fire, particularly about the use of a pointed poking stick to poke into the fire, extinguishing it with water, throwing unclean objects into it, and women's stepping over or stamping on it.

Mikuolu, a traditional Ewenki festival, is observed in Zhenbaer District in Inner Mongolian. On the 22nd of May, the day of the jubilant celebration, people are finely dressed in their ethnic costumes. Men join the horse racing to lasso a two-year-old sport pony. When the pony is trapped, all the participants dash towards it in order to cut off either some of its mane, or the tip of its tail, or some pieces of its ears, or to brand the horse on the right side of its legs. The intensely exhilarating race provides a good opportunity for Ewenki herdsmen to display their horsemanship. At a special ceremony for cutting sheep's ears, elder people give their children and grandchildren female lambs as gifts and wish them a happy prosperous life blessed with a property of abundant sheep. Afterwards, each family hosts a banquet to entertain their relatives and friends, where they declare the number of young domestic animals born during the year. When one banquet is over, the next begins in another household. So a new round of feast starts afresh. When night falls, a bonfire is set up and young men and women gather round it singing and dancing joyfully.

Ewenki's folk dance, called "Swan Dance," originated from a fascinating legend. Long long ago the Mongolian Wailarte tribesmen, trapped by their enemies, had run out of food and ammunition. One day at the twilight, a big flock of swans flew past. Their penetrating wails echoed loud in the sky and wakened the enemies from their sound sleep. They took the noise for the coming of the Wailartes' aid troops and all fled in a frenzy of panic. The Wailarte tribesmen at last won the battle. Ever since then, swans have been regarded by the Ewenkis as birds of good luck. The Ewenki people love white color as they love the pure, white swan of which they make their totem. Women worship the bird so much that they often imitate its flight in their improvised dance on the grass. Sometimes, men join the dancing. Their footsteps and parade vary in accordance with the vigorous rhythm of the chanting "Girgoo, girgoo, girgoo¡­"