Listen to this articleJinuo nationality is one of the seven unique ethnic groups with a small population in Yunnan Province. Its ethnic language is Jinuo language, belonging to the Yi branch of Tibeto Burmese language family of Sino Tibetan language family. It has no characters. In the past, it used to carve wood and bamboo, count and record events, and use Chinese in general.
The Jinuo People mainly live in the Jinuo ethnic township in Jinghong City, Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture (hereinafter referred to as Xishuangbanna prefecture), Mengwang, Mengyang and Menghan, and Menglun and Xiangming in Mengla County. In 1979, the Jino nationality was officially recognized as a single nation.
Handicraft industry
The traditional handicraft industry of Jinuo Nationality is small in scale and has not yet formed commodity production. It is basically a supplement to the self-sufficient economy and has not been completely separated from agriculture.
Weaving and embroidery is a basic skill of Kino women. In Mount Kino, women can be seen at any time holding spinning wheels to twist thread or needlework. Spinning skills can only be mastered through long-term training. Weaving is the work of adult women, especially married women. They use a kind of primitive waist weaving machine to tie one end of the warp to their waist and the other end to the opposite wooden post. They sit on the ground, hold shuttles in both hands to pull the weft back and forth, and then use chopper-like boards to make thick and durable “chopper cloth”. After the autumn harvest every year, women are busy removing cottonseed, playing, spinning, and dyeing. Embroidery is mainly used for clothing. Junior women have to learn the skills of embroidery and sewing since childhood. When they grow up, they have to hand embroider handkerchiefs, satchels, flower belts, and other keepsakes to their lovers. After the engagement, they have to weave and embroider several quilts as dowries.
Junior men’s traditional handicraft is made of bamboo strips. They live in bamboo houses and eat bamboo shoots; tables, chairs, boards, benches, beds, and boxes are made of bamboo; steamers, bowls, ladles, basins, and chopsticks are made of bamboo; bamboo boards and pieces are used to carve wood and record events; bamboo is indispensable for playing; chopping shovels are used for farming, bows and jumping sticks are used for hunting From the small cigarette case to the big basket, all of them is the performance of Keno men’s skills. They use two lifts and two presses, three lifts, and three presses, and two lifts and two presses to make all kinds of production and daily necessities, which are beautiful and elegant.
The folk handicraft of Jinuo People also includes carving, that is, using wood, bamboo, and ox horn to carve shrines, coffins, earrings, drums, pipes, rice steamers, bowls, spoons, and other daily utensils. They are good at clay sculpture, mainly for people, horses, pigs, cattle, sheep, snakes, crabs, chickens, etc.
Almost every Jino village has blacksmiths, who can produce axes, sickles, hoes, plows, and other production tools, as well as knives, shovels, pots, and other household appliances. Blacksmiths are said to have learned their skills from the Han people. They do not have the ability to smelt iron. Most of the raw materials used for making iron come from the horse gang or foreign businessmen.
Faith
Besides ancestor worship and respect for Zhuge and Kongming, the most distinctive and dominant religious view of Jinuo People is the idea of animism.
Jinuo people believe that the mountain god, the earth god, the village god, and the valley God exist in mountains, villages, and valleys. There are many sacrificial activities every year, such as traditional festivals, happy harvest, birth, and child-rearing, natural and man-made disasters.
The biggest sacrificial activity of the year is the sun drum at Temaoke Festival. Taiyanggu is the most sacred sacrificial instrument and musical instrument of Jinuo Nationality. It generally has two sides, including gongfu and Mugu. They regard the sun drum as the embodiment of the gods and the symbol of the village. The purpose of offering sacrifices to the sun drum is to pray that it can protect the whole village’s population and grain. There are also “Manolo” sacrifices to the creator God Amuyaobo and the “Haoxizao” festival Sacrifices to ancestors. There are also more than ten kinds, such as Gu Hun, Ji Da Long, and Ji Xiao Long.
There are specific rules in sacrificial activities, generally killing pigs and dogs. Hunting sacrifice can be divided into three levels according to the size and ferocity of the prey. The scale of sacrifice varies according to different levels. All prey can only be eaten after sacrifice. The major religious activities were hosted by “zhu ba” and “Zhuoser”, and the whole village took part in them.
Jinuo witches have a unique set of divination, and they can use herbs to cure diseases. Witches are not only familiar with customary law and historical anecdotes, but also famous singers. At the same time, they are oral successors of long epics. In fact, they are the inheritors of national culture.
Festival
The traditional festival of Jinuo Nationality is the grandest and grand one. “Temaoke”, meaning “Da tie”, is a festival held by Jinuo People to commemorate the creation and use of ironware. In the past, festival activities were held in villages, and there was no unified time. It was generally decided by “zhu ba” during the lunar month. Once “zhu ba” sounded the drum, it meant that the festival began. In 1988, according to the wishes of the Jino people, the Standing Committee of Xishuangbanna people’s Congress designated February 6-8 of the Gregorian calendar as the “smoke” festival of the Jino people. During the festival, most villages will collect money to buy cattle and organize grand cattle plagiarism activities. At that time, under the command of zhu ba, a group of men holding javelin throws the javelin at the tied cattle in turn. After the cattle are stabbed to death, several young men hold knives to cut off the feet of the cattle first, and then cut off a piece of meat from the buttocks of the cattle for sacrifice. The rest of the cattle are shared; We also need to use lean beef, skin, blood, gall, garlic, hot pepper, sour bamboo shoots, betel nuts, green leaves, and wine to make a cold dish known as “klesha”. Together with three birds and dried flying mice, it will be a gift to the hometown of the neighboring village and praise it. After plagiarizing cattle, parents of all families will go to Zhuoba’s house to hold a drum sacrifice ceremony. Elders will have a banquet and entertain them and dance “great encouragement”. Villagers also send some bamboo and mice to the blacksmith and make iron sacrifice.
The traditional festival of Jino people also has “good Xi Zao”, namely, Xinmi Festival, also known as “Xinmi”. In July and August of the lunar calendar, when the grain is about to mature, the keno people collect new millet, vegetables, and melon beans from the fields, kill chickens, invite relatives and friends to share the new rice, old wine, fresh meat, and green vegetables at home, and hold various sacrificial ceremonies. People eat and sing, and happy songs are often all night long.
Diet
Jinuo People are used to eating three meals a day, with rice as their daily staple food and corn, melons, and beans as their miscellaneous food. Jinuo People are very particular about rice. They should eat good rice and new rice. Cheng rice is mostly used to feed livestock or make wine. I like green corn. For breakfast, glutinous rice is usually eaten by hand. For lunch, the rice is usually wrapped with banana leaves and taken to the ground to add salt and pepper at any time. Some people also directly take the rice up the mountain, cut bamboo tubes on the spot, collect wild vegetables, and roast the rice and vegetables in bamboo tubes. In addition to rice, there are also some dishes for dinner, including melons, beans, and a game of mountain vegetables collected and hunted at any time. Livestock and poultry raised by families can only be slaughtered at weddings and funerals, and meat usually comes from hunting.
Jinuo People like sour, spicy, and salty taste, especially acid. Sour bamboo shoots are the main home dishes. Mash the fruit and add pepper and salt to make it a necessary seasoning for every meal. The cooking methods of Jinuo Nationality are roasting, boiling, and frying. The Jinuo ethnic group’s most distinctive delicacies include bamboo tube roasted rice, dog meat with sour bamboo shoots, beef with bitter thorn fruit, flying ants with fire, roasted spider, porridge with bamboo rat, banana leaf roasted meat, and golden bar meat. Jinuo People generally like to drink, and there is a saying that people can’t live without alcohol for a day. Most of the wine is brewed with rice or corn. In the brewing process, it is usually necessary to add some plants such as plum leaves. The wine is light green, with a natural fragrance of plants, and has the effect of invigorating the spleen and strengthening the body. Jinuo People like to drink old leaf tea. When drinking tea, they usually stir fry the old leaf and put it into the teapot, then add water and boil it until the soup is thick.
Among some Jinuo women in Maoer and cinema villages, there is also a habit of eating local clay. Some old women have become addicted to eating earth, and they will feel uncomfortable if they don’t eat for a day. The results show that the clay contains a small amount of copper, iron, calcium, zinc, and other elements necessary for the human body.
Clothes & Accessories
Keno men usually wear black-and-white Plaid linen and cloth jacket without collar and button, with a square red cloth sewn in the middle of the back of the jacket, a beautiful sunflower embroidered on it (which is called Kongming’s eight trigrams), white or blue trousers or shorts, and a wide cloth belt. Before the founding of new China, most men had three tufts of hair on their heads: to commemorate Marquis Wu and to be pregnant with their parents. Some say that the left is reserved for parents and the right for themselves.
Women’s upper body wear a collarless embroidered multicolored jacket, with red edge and black front opening and closing skirt. Now there are also long skirts. Kino women are used to wrapping leggings and hair in a high bun. They also wear white thick linen on their heads and Cape pointed the cap with long wings and shoulders at the back, which makes them look dignified, square, and lively. In the past, both men and women were barefoot and liked to chew betel nut or dye their teeth with black juice of rosewood. Both male and female ears are perforated, with bamboo tubes and wooden plug inside. The big ear hole is beautiful.
