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Chinese Name: 景颇族
English Name: The Jingpo people
Languages: Jingpo language 景颇语, Chinese 汉语
Total population: 1.48*105 (China mainland 2022)
Distribution: Mainly distributed in Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province
Brief introduction
The Jingpo people 景颇族 is one of the ethnic minorities in China. They have their own language and characters. Their language belongs to the Sino-Tibetan language family 汉藏语系. Nowadays, most Jingpo people mainly live in the mountainous areas of Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture 德宏傣族景颇族自治州 in Yunnan Province.
The history of the Jingpo people
According to historical legends and Chinese historical records, from ancient times, the ancestors of the Jingpo people lived in the mountainous areas in the southern part of the Kang-Tibet Plateau 康藏高原(The southeastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau 青藏高原 and part of the Hengduan Mountains 横断山脉), and moved south along the Hengduan Mountains to the area in the northwest of Yunnan 云南 and the west of the Nu River 怒江 from about the Tang Dynasty 唐朝.
The religion of the Jingpo people
Two types of beliefs coexist in Jingpo society: the traditional supernatural belief, and the foreign Christian and Catholic beliefs. Supernatural belief is the traditional religious belief of the Jingpo people, and it is still the religious belief of most Jingpo people today. The essence of Jingpo’s supernatural belief is to believe that human beings and all things have dual nature, that is, the existence of nature and spirits.
Jingpo people believe that not only human beings are living entities with souls, but animals, plants, and natural objects such as the sun, moon, mountains, rivers, wind, thunder, land, boulders, and valleys also have souls. They believe that when the human soul is attached to the body, it will not cause harm to others except for the power to control the life of the attached body.
The Cultures of the Jingpo people
Jingpo traditional architecture 景颇族传统建筑
Most of the Jingpo people live in the middle of the mountain or on the small flat land between the mountains at an altitude of about 1,500 meters, and a few live on the edge of the dam area. Traditional dwellings are mostly bamboo and wood-structured thatched houses. In the past, only a few local officials and chieftains had tile houses.
The houses are all rectangular, with upper and lower floors. The lower floor is 1 to 2 meters above the ground. It is used for stacking firewood, farm tools and raising pigs and chickens. The upper floors live in several rooms separated by bamboo, each with a fire pit.
Except for the fire pit for cooking, the fire pit is surrounded by the resting place of the family. Except for the pillars, the frame of the house is basically made of bamboo, tied with rattan, the roof is covered with thatch, and the walls and floors are woven or cut with bamboo. This kind of thatched cottage usually needs to be rebuilt every seven or eight years. Today, with the development of the economy, the traditional bamboo and wood structure straw-roofed houses are rare.
Jingpo diets 景颇族饮食
The staple food of the Jingpo people is mainly rice. Bamboo tube rice and chicken porridge are the favourite staple food of the Jingpo people. The dishes are famous for their spiciness. In addition to the melons, beans, taro, and green cabbage grown in the garden, wild vegetables and wild fruits collected from the mountains and forests are also home-cooked dishes on the dining table. Cooking methods include pounding, roasting, roasting, boiling, steaming, mixing, kneading, etc. Pounding vegetables is the most characteristic of Jingpo dishes, with a delicious and unique taste.
Jingpo clothing 景颇族服饰
The Jingpo people have a unique style of clothing. The main colours of men’s clothing are black and white. The old men’s clothing is the same in each branch. Women’s clothing is divided into casual and dressy. If wearing casual clothes, the upper body should be a black or various-coloured pair of right-front tights, and the lower body should be a long cotton skirt of solid colour or woven with the characteristic patterns of the Jingpo people.
Dress is the attire for festivals or weddings. The top is a black short-breasted shirt with narrow sleeves and no collar. The chest, shoulders and back are decorated with silver bubbles, silver medals and silver tassels. The waist is tied with a red belt, the headdress is a red jacquard toe woven from wool, the calf is wrapped with a leg wrap of the same texture and colour as the tube skirt, and several strings of red necklaces, earrings and bracelets are worn.
Jingpo manners 景颇族礼仪
The Jingpo people are warm and hospitable. When guests enter the house, whether they know each other or not, the host will entertain them with food and lodging. Jingpo people like to drink shochu and homemade water wine.
Jingpo people pay great attention to etiquette when they drink. The host hands over the wine barrel and the guests should hold the bottom of the barrel with both hands, not only the upper part with one hand. When going out, Pali often carries a small bamboo wine bottle on his back. When acquaintances meet each other and toast each other, they don’t just drink it but pour it back into each other’s wine bottles before drinking.
