Listen to this articleBulang nationality is a minority nationality with a long history. The national language is Bulang language, belonging to the Bulang branch of the South Asian language family, which can be divided into Bulang and Awa dialects. There is no national character.
Bulang Nationality has a very rich oral culture, and still retains the most distinctive national language, costumes, songs and dances, customs, and habits. The Bulang Nationality is mainly distributed in the western and southwestern border areas of Yunnan Province.
Faith
In addition to the belief in Theravada Buddhism, the Bulang Nationality also retains many traditional beliefs of primitive religions.
People generally believe in ghosts and gods and worship their ancestors. The Bulang people believe that the reason why they worship countless ghosts and gods is that all ghosts and gods have their own special functions, different sizes, and positions, different benefits or harms, different good and evil. Nevertheless, the Bulang people all worship and worship them. Because they think that all things have spirits, and their spirits have desires. Once the desires are not satisfied, the evil will become worse, and the goodwill not do good. Therefore, the worship of all ghosts and spirits is not only to cater to and please the ghosts and gods but also in exchange for ghosts and gods to meet the various needs of worshippers in material life or spiritual life. Therefore, in the four seasons of the year, the Blang people worship ghosts and gods very frequently. Because ghosts and gods are mostly attached to the forest, the Bulang people are extremely awed of the forest and have designated and maintained Longshan Forest and tension forest with an ecological protection function for a long time. In Xishuangbanna, Kula, who is in charge of water, is the most worshipped ghost of the Bulang people. It is said that it is a monster with a snake body. It will appear in case of a flood or a landslide. If people see it, they will die. Therefore, people must worship Kula every year on the closing day and the opening day to turn evil into good.
All over the country, the Bulang people have designated a forest near the village as the Dragon forest. Looking from afar, the lush forest of Longshan forms a green barrier. Every plant and tree in the forest area of Longshan is regarded as sacred, and no one is allowed to cut down or climb. In addition to offering sacrifices to gods in the forest of Longshan, no one is allowed to enter the holy land for other activities, or he will suffer bad luck. As gods dominate the life and fortune of all the people in the village, sacrifices are held every year. By offering sacrifices to gods, people beg for good fortune in addition to disasters. People are prosperous and grain is abundant.
Another important part of the folk belief of Bulang Nationality is ancestor worship. They believe that the development of clans and families and the change and continuation of the family life cycle are linked by blood lineage, which makes the concept of ancestors and soul firmly combined. From generation to generation, the deceased ancestors ascended to the throne with the spirit of their ancestors and became the most reliable protector of the clan and family. Most of the tombs are in dense forests. The ancestral gods or undead who sleep in the forest are inviolable. When the dead are buried, the tomb is not marked. After a few years, trees grow around the tomb and the original forest vegetation is restored. The Bulang people strictly protect the forest of the cemetery as they protect the forest of Longshan. Except for burying the dead, they are forbidden to carry knives, axes, and hoes into the forest of the cemetery on weekdays.
Clothes & Accessories
The dress culture of Bulang Nationality is unique. The Bulang people, who live in the mountains and forests, dress themselves up in a unique way and pay attention to their personality. Due to their preference for black, their clothing colors are usually black and cyan.
Judging from the dress of Bulang men in different places, there is little difference. The man’s upper body is black or cyan collarless or round collar long sleeve cardigan, and the lower body is black wide crotch pants. The legs are short and fat, and the head is wrapped with a black or white cloth. Men have the habit of wearing bracelets. Young men’s heads are wrapped with black or cyan turbans, while old men like to have long hair. They braid their hair on their heads and wrap their heads with white turbans. Nowadays, in addition to the old people wearing big crotch pants, young and middle-aged men generally wear Chinese clothes.
The clothing of Bulang women retains more traditional characteristics. The women of Bulang Nationality in Xishuangbanna and other places wear collarless, narrow sleeve blouses with left and right lapels, black, white, or blue, with a tight waist and wide swing. Their double lapels are crossed and overlapped in front of their chest. There is a ribbon on both sides of the corner of their clothes, and the ribbon is tied on the left side instead of the button. The hem and cuffs of the jacket are decorated with various color rolling strips and lace. Inside the coat, there is a small sleeveless vest with a round neck and a pair of lapels. The neckline and chest are decorated with various colored lace. A row of small buttons is nailed on the chest. The vest is mostly made of bright pure color cloth. When it’s hot, if you wear such a close-fitting vest alone, the curvilinear beauty of Bulang women is fully displayed. Wear a double-layer skirt, the skirt is black, above the knee woven with red, yellow, black, and other color stripes. Black, blue or green cloth is stitched below the knee, and the skirt is tied with a silver belt. The inner skirt is white, slightly longer than the outer skirt, and the hem of the skirt is decorated with colored cloth piping and lace.
Bulang women all wear a bun on the top, where there is a “three tail snail” hairpin. At weddings, there are polygonal silver medals on the bun and silver chains under the bun. The head is wrapped with black and cyan bandages. Bulang women have been wearing ears since childhood. They like to wear silver earplugs and earrings. Large earrings fall on their shoulders and are decorated with red and yellow flowers. Young girls often use bright silk or wool to weave colorful spikes or colorful pommel flowers to decorate their earplugs. Some of them hang down to the shoulder and are charming. With the swing of the head, earrings ripple together, full of dynamic and youthful vitality, giving people light and elegant feeling. There are several rings of silver bracelets around the arm, silver bracelets about 3cm wide on the wrist, silver necklaces, and colored glass beads on the chest. Young girls like to wear flowers on their heads, while middle-aged and old women like to wrap their legs with leggings.
Diet
Brown people mainly eat rice, supplemented by corn and beans. The food of Bulang people is mainly sour, spicy, fragrant, cool, and raw. The cooking methods include cooking, frying, steaming, frying, roasting, salting, and raw food. Although the cooking technology is simple, it still has its own unique flavor.
Bulang people not only like to eat sour fish, pickled vegetables, and sour bamboo shoots but also like to drink a kind of drink with unique national and regional characteristics sour tea. The method of making sour tea is as follows: first, boil the fresh tea and put it in a cool place. When the tea becomes sour, put it in a bamboo tube and plug it tightly. Then, wrap the bamboo tube with bamboo shoots and leaves and bury it in the soil. Take it out three or four months later to make sour tea.
Tea making and tea drinking are also the characteristics of Bulang Nationality. The Bulang people are good at tea making. They have accumulated rich tea-making experience through long-term tea planting practice. All the Bulang women are good at tea making. In April and May every year, they put the collected tender Maojian into a pot to fry it dry, put it into a bamboo tube with a cover when it is hot, and bake it by the fire pool. When the skin of the bamboo tube is scorched, the delicious bamboo tube tea is made. The Bulang people living in the tea town are very particular about their tea, and their roasted tea is even more distinctive: they put the tea in a special teapot and bake it by the fire pond. When the pungent aroma comes out, they pour boiling water into it, and then they make the roasted tea with a rich fragrance. This is the top grade of the Bulang people’s hospitality.
There are many ways of using tea among the Bulang people. Besides drinking, they also keep the old custom of using tea as medicine and food. Tea plays an important role in the life of the Bulang people.
