Among the 56 nationalities in China, there's an ethnic minority with a long history and a rich oral culture, which still retains the most distinctive features of the ethnic language, costumes, singing and dancing customs. It is Blang Nationality. Now, let's learn about Blang Nationality from different aspects, origin, population and the geographical location. Blang, descendants of the ancient Baipu Race is one of the ethnic groups in Yunnan Province and its total population within the area is 119,639 in 2010. The majority of Blang people live in the mountainous region along the middle and the lower reaches of the Lancang River in western Yunnan namely: Bulang mountain, Xiding, Bada, Daluo, Menghai County. Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture; in shuangiang, Yongde, Yunxian, and Gengma, Lincang city; and in a mountainous region in Langcang, Mojiang, Simao city. They live either in compact communities or together with local Han and Dai people. Some Blang people also live along the borders between Yunnan and it's neighboring countries. Blang as well as Wu, or Wenggong are the terms that blang people in Xishuangbanna call themselves. Other people call them Man,Arbel or Kapo, and those who live outside China are called La nationality. The Blang language belongs to the Wa- de'ang branch of the Mon -Khmer language group of the South Asian language family. Wa- de'ang has two major dialects, Blang and Arwa. The former is mostly spoken by Blang up people living in the Blang mountain, Menghai, Xishuangbanna; the latter by those Lingcang and Simao cities. Blang people have no written language, so they use Dai and Chinese as their written languages. Traditional housing of the Blang people is bamboo and wood structure, which is not only ventilated and moisture-proof, but also protect them from wild animals. It is suitable for that geographical environment and the climatic characteristics of mountainous areas. A good time for building houses is from February to April or in October. When their family builds a bamboo house, almost all the adults in the village come to help, and to the house can be completed in two or three days. Generally, bamboo buildings can last for 20 years. Blang people thatch the roof every two years. They believe that housing dominates the piece of the whole family, so in the process of building a house, a series of sacrificial activities are held. Traditional house of Blang people have two floors with livestock, firewood, farm tools, and the looms downstairs. The people live upstairs with a fire in the center for cooking, heating, and lighting. The floors upstairs are made of dragon and bamboo and the white bamboo panels. The bathroom and living place are covered with thin bamboo mats. People need to take off their shoes when entering. Almost all the furniture in the house is made of bamboo. There are no windows in the room and the light is very deem. The building is divided into three parts; living room, fireplace room, and bathroom. Bamboo sheets are woven into four oars and the laid into the floor, with large gaps but good ventilation. There's no petition in the room and the three parts are connected. The fireplace is square and set in the center of the room. An iron tripod is placed over the fireplace for boiling water and the cooking. The fire never extinguishes. Since the reform and opening up, the housing conditions of the Blang people have been improved accordingly. People began to use wooden planks to separate the living room from the bed room. The building is covered with tiles and the roof is innate with glass and bright tiles. Sturdy wooden planks replaced the original bamboo hedge rows and the fences, but to the architectural style remained basically unchanged. Some rich people began to build steel mixed structures. Blang people's dress culture is unique. Blang, who live in mountains and the forests dress themselves in their own unique ways, paying attention to their distinctive personalities. Because of their preference for black, the colors of clothes are usually black and cyan. The costume of Blang people is different from those of other ethnic groups in Yunnan. A man wears a black rounded-collared jacket with buttoned down the front, long sleeves, black loose pants down to their shanks, and a black or white turban. A woman is just in black short tight-collarless blouse and a black tight skirt with red, white, and the black stripes. Besides, she coils her hair up and wraps it with a cloth. Dyes her teeth black, wears, a belt around the waist, and the leggings, earrings, and the bracelets. Blang women comp their hair on top of their heads with three-tailed spiral hairpins. They also wear silver medals in polygons and the silver chains at the bottom of their hair for happy events. The head is wrapped in black or cyan headscarf. Blang women wear ear piercing since childhood. They like to wear silver earplugs and earrings. Large earrings hang down to their shoulders and are decorated with red and the yellow flowers. Young girls often use colorful silk or wool braid or a colorful velvet ball to decorate their earplugs, some of which hang down to the shoulders and are charming. Their earrings dangle with the swing of their heads, very dynamic and a youthful giving a feeling of lightness and flow. They wear several silver bracelets on their arms. A silver bracelet about three centimeters wide on the wrist, a silver necklace and colored glass beads on their chests. Young girls like to where flower in your hair, and the middle aged and old women like to wrap their legs with leg warmers. Blang people took rice as their main food, with corn and beans as a supplement. The Blang people's diet is sour, hot, cool, and raw, and the cooking methods, many include boiling, steaming, frying, barbecuing, burning, roasting, marinating, and eating raw. Although the cooking technique is simple, it still has its own unique flavor. The Blang people not only like to eat sour fish, pickled cabbage, and bamboo shoots, but also like to drink sour tee, a drink with unique ethic and regional characteristics. Sour tea is a typical drink of Blang people, and are good gift for relatives and friends. It is made by boiling fresh tea, fermenting it in a cool place, then putting the tea in a bamboo tube, and burying it in earth. After a month or so, this sour tea is ready. Making and drinking tea is also a major feature of the Blang ethnic group. Blang people are good at making tea. They have long cultivated tea trees, and accumulated rich experience in tea making. Blang women are experts in tea making. Every April or May, they fry tender tip of the tea a pot, keep it warm in a covered bamboo tube, and then bake it over the fireplace until the skin of the tube burns and that delicious bamboo tube tea is ready. Blang people who live in a tea growing area are very particular about the tea they drink, and their baked tea is even more distinctive. They put the tea in a special pot and bake it by the fireplace. When the aroma comes out, they pour boiling water into it to make a rich and a fragrant baked tea, which is the good choice for the Blang people when they receive guests. Blang people use tea in a variety of ways. In addition to drinking tea, the ancient custom of taking tea as medicine, and eating tea is still preserved. Tea plays an important role in the life of Blang people.
