Listen to this articleLi nationality is the earliest inhabitant of Hainan Island. Li language belongs to the Li branch of the Zhuang Dong language family of Sino Tibetan language family. Most of the Li people can speak Chinese at the same time. In the past, the Li people did not have their own language. They used to use Chinese. In 1957, with the help of the party and the government, they created the Li language based on the Latin alphabet. Their belief is still in the primitive religious stage.
Li people mainly live in Lingshui, Baoting, Sanya, Ledong, Dongfang, Changjiang, Baisha, Qiongzhong, Wuzhishan, and other counties and cities in Hainan Province, while the rest live in Wanning, Danzhou, Tunchang, Qionghai, and other counties and cities in Hainan Province and Guizhou Province.
Faith
The traditional society of Li nationality has not yet formed a complete religious system and is in the stage of primitive religion.
Li people believe in animism, and they are popular in totem worship, nature worship, and ancestor worship. The witches engaged in religious activities are called “Daogong” and “Langmuiru”. Generally, they are not separated from production, and only when they need to take charge of ghost sending, divination, and other activities. In addition to Taoism, Buddhism, Christianity, and other foreign religions have limited influence.
Li people generally believe that witchcraft can make people sick and die. The men who are falsely accused of practicing this kind of witchcraft are called “ban Gong” and the women are called “ban Mu”. Before the founding of new China, “forbidding the public” and “forbidding the mother” were often discriminated against and feared by others.
There are many traditional taboos of Li nationality, involving life, production, childbirth, festivals, funerals, marriage, religion, hunting, and so on. After the founding of the new China, great changes have taken place in this aspect.
Clothes & Accessories
The traditional costume culture of Li nationality is rich in connotation, and there are obvious differences among different dialects (especially women’s costumes). In history, it used to be an important symbol to distinguish different blood groups and tribal groups.
In traditional costumes, Li women often wear the straight collar, collarless, and buttonless Dui top. In some places, they wear through the head top, different length skirts under them, tie their hair behind their heads, insert bone hairpin or silver hairpin, wear an embroidered headscarf, and wear earrings, collars, and bracelets.
Men’s traditional dress is usually tied in front of the forehead or behind the head. The coat has no collar, is open to the chest, and has a waistcloth (hanging cloth). Some men’s coats of Mobil Li are no different from those of women.
In Harbin, Qi, Meifu, and Runli, the traditional tattoo custom has been maintained.
Diet
Li people usually eat three meals a day, mainly rice. Scanlan fragrant rice is a specialty of Li District. The meat tea and fish tea, which are made by mixing raw fish and meat with fried rice flour, adding a little salt, and sealed up in a pottery pot, is the special flavor food of the Li family. Li men like tobacco and wine. Betel nut is a woman’s favorite. When eating, it is wrapped with shell ash and eaten with a kind of green color leaf. After eating, the lips are red.
