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Chinese Name: 土家族
English Name: The Tujia People
Languages: Tujia language 土家语, Chinese 汉语
Total population: 8.35*106 (China mainland 2022)
Distribution: Mainly distributed in Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, Enshi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture
Brief introduction
The Tujia People 土家族 are a nation with a long history, and their national language belongs to the Sino-Tibetan languages 汉藏语系. In daily life, the Tujia nationality uses Chinese. The Tujia people are mainly distributed in the Wuling Mountains at the junction of Hunan, Hubei, Chongqing and Guizhou. In October 1956, the National Ethnic Affairs Commission identified the Tujia as a single ethnic group through ethnic identification.
The history of the Tujia People
There are different opinions about the origin of the Tujia nationality. In recent years, the theory of multiple origins of the Tujia people has been recognized by most people. The Tujia ethnic group are mainly derived from the ancient Ba people 古代巴人 and is composed of the local indigenous people and the Han, Chu 楚 and other ethnic groups who entered the area. It can be concluded that since the end of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period 五代十国, the Tujia ethnic group, a stable community of people, began to gradually form a single ethnic group.
The religion of the Tujia People
In the past, the Tujia nationality believed in multiple gods, such as nature worship, totem worship, ancestor worship, etc. The successive introduction of Taoism, Buddhism and Christianity also had a certain impact on the beliefs of the Tujia people. The white tiger has a pivotal position in the hearts of the Tujia people. They regard the white tiger as their ancestor god, and they never forget to worship it everywhere.
The Cultures of the Tujia People
The diet of the Tujia People 土家族饮食
The daily staple food of the Tujia nationality is corn and rice, supplemented by sweet potatoes. The main characteristics of the dishes are sour and spicy. They like to grind the soybeans finely, without distinguishing the pulp and slag, boil them to clarify, add vegetable leaves and cook them to make a mixed slag. Other distinctive foods include Baba, bacon, and oil tea.
The costumes of the Tujia People 土家族服饰
Speaking of clothing, Tujia ethnic group are frugal and loose. Traditional clothing is mostly self-woven and self-spun blue-blue home cloth or linen. Women’s blouses with short collar and right ruffle, three lace borders on the collar, and three small lace borders on the lace and cuffs. With the development of the times, the Tujia nationality in many places has been dressed similarly to the Han nationality. Only in grand gatherings and festivals, or in remote mountain villages, can you see the traditional Tujia nationality costumes.
The architecture of the Tujia People 土家族建筑
The traditional dwellings of the Tujia nationality mainly include thatched houses and adobe houses. The Tujia people live in a multi-ethnic group, and the dwellings form a community. The stilted buildings of the Tujia ethnic group in western Hubei are called corner stilted buildings because they have balconies in front and corridors on both sides, forming a corner from each other. Diaojiaolou integrates architecture, painting and sculpture art, and is an outstanding representative of Tujia architectural sculpture art.
The manner of the Tujia People 土家族礼仪
Tujia nationality attaches great importance to etiquette. In the past, when a woman became pregnant, she had to ask a master to perform a ritual to exorcise the miscarriage. After the baby was born, the father went to the mother-in-law’s house with a chicken in his arms to announce the good news. The boy used the rooster and the girl used the hen. Three days later, the mother-in-law’s family and relatives and friends came to congratulate him on gifts.
The dance of the Tujia People 土家族舞蹈
The hand-waving dance is a relatively popular ancient dance of the Tujia people. This dance has a clear rhythm, beautiful image and simple dance posture. It has obvious national characteristics and a strong atmosphere of life and is deeply loved by the Tujia nationality. Hand-waving dance can be divided into big hand-waving and small hand-waving according to the scale. Up to now, the hand-waving dance has gradually faded away from the ritual procedure and has developed into a purely entertaining song and dance.
The music of the Tujia People 土家族音乐
The hand-waving song produced by the hand-waving dance is the creation epic of the Tujia people, which consists of two parts: sacrificial song and accompanying dance song. The waving song describes the origin of human beings, traces the origin of the nation and the history of migration, praises the achievements and heroic deeds of ancestors, and expresses the love of life and the pursuit of ideals by the Tujia nationality. The waving song is voluminous, magnificent, with moving verses, free and lively, full of drama, and has been widely recited among the people for a long time.
