[MUSIC] Hi everyone, I'm Spring. Welcome to my lecture. We're going to talk a lot about the Deang Nationality. Through this video, you will get a general idea of this fantastic ethnic group. We will introduce Deang Nationality in eight aspects namely general introduction, languages, costumes, diet, festivals, religion, literature and art, and conclusion. First, we will get a general idea of Deang Nationality. Deang a word in the local language. Ang means rock or rock cave. And de used to show respect. It is said that the ancestor of Deang people once lived in caves. So, it is possible that the group called themselves Deang in commemoration of the ancestors and the history of living in caves. Deang is one of the oldest tribes in the south western frontier of china. According to historical records, Deang Nationality dates back to Pu people, the earliest residents living in the mountainous regions along Lancang River and Nujiang River in the second century. During the Han dynasty and Jing dynasty, a tribe named by Baipu lived in Yongchang prefecture, which cover the present Baoshan, Dehong, Lincang, Simao and Xishuangbanna prefectures. In Nanjing Kingdom, these people were called Puziman. Puzi means barbarian. In Yuan dynasty, they were called Pu people or Puman. Man also means barbarian in Chinese. In Qing Dynasty, Deang group developed from Pu people and became an ethnic group also called Benglong in Qing historic records. They lived in Yongchang Prefecture, the present Dehong prefecture and Zhenkang Gengma and Mengding counties. After the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, it was named Benglong and officially renamed Deang Nationality. In September 1985,Deang, typical ethnic groups that live in separate areas, large scale and in compact communities on a small scale, has a relatively small population. With a population of 20,556, Deang ethnic group mainly lives in the mountainous area of Gaoligong and Nushan ranges in Western Yunnan province. It has a subtropical climate, fertile soil, abundant rainfall, rich mineral resources and dense forests. The dragon bamboo here grows very long and has a stem with a diameter of 20cm to 30cm. The Zhenkang area has been known for this kind of bamboo for the past 2,000 years. It is used to build houses, make household utensils and farm implements. Bamboo shoots are famous delicacy. [MUSIC] Every ethnic group has its own language. Deang language belongs to the South Asian family of languages. Deang people have their own languages, which includes three local dialect, Bulei, Ruojin, and Rumai. They have no written script of their own and many have learned to speak Dai, Han or Jingpo languages. And some can read and write in the Dai language. An increasing number of them have picked up Chinese in the years after the mid 20th century. [MUSIC] Women's costume. Deang women's dress various at different ages. Their dresses are very simple before they are 30. They wear children's dress from 1 to 6, and girl's dressed from 7 to 12. Young women's dress is elegant and colorful. They were short indigo or blue garment with white lapels, narrow sleeves and buttons at the front. The color with a right inner layer and integral outer layer is edged with colorful pompoms. The two shoulders of the blouse are set with three pieces of red cloth and also edged with pompoms. The wristbands are rimmed with two thin pieces of red cloth and the red region of the lower ham of the dress is rimmed with thin red line, decorated with various flowers, beautiful designs and colorful pom poms. Young Deang women wear bright colored and beautiful straight skirts. The major difference in Deang woman's dress before and after the marriage is that, a married woman wraps her head in a double layered, indigo clothes that reached to her waist. What's more, they do not tie red pompoms to the ear ornament, ertong in chinese, nor do they wear neck ring. Old women like to wear black garment with loose sleeves, round colors and no red lace or pompomps. They wear fewer waist girdles, which are usually black. Old Deang women do not wear any ear drops, bracelets or finger rings. Woman's girdles. Do you guys want to keep your girlfriend forever? Sure, you do, right? You can use a girdle. The most distinctive part of their own dresses and ornaments is the girdles that Deang women wear. A grown woman often wears several girdles, Which are often made of rattan or bamboo. Their girdles are often painted red, black, or green, and are usually beautifully decorated. Legend goes that Deang women didn't wear girdles long time ago and girls can fly in the sky. They worked together with men during the day, but flying up into the sky at night. Men felt lonely and hoped to stay with them all the time, so they begged the God to help them. The God told them that the only way to keep a woman on the ground was to weave hoops with rattan and put them around their waist. So men made rattan hoops and loop them over the girls' waists when they are asleep. The girls could not fly anymore and had to live with men. The hoops gradually developed into today's girdles, the beautiful ornament. Deang on women's girdles vary in material, color, and ornament. Hua Deangs use grass and rattan to weave the girdle, and they like the natural color. Young girls dye the girdle bright color. Red and black Deangs use rattan strips to weave their girdles, which are then painted red or black. The strips of the girdle are very thin, so women often wear 20 to 30 girdles. Some women use bamboo strips to weave their one-finger breath-wide girdle, on which are carved various beautiful decorative patterns and floral designs. They wear three to five girdles. Some women wear bamboo strips girdles, the front part of which are coated with silver and white tin pieces. Their girdles are very shiny and delicate. Black Deangs make girdle with thin rattan strips. They bind several strips into one girdle, paint it black, and wrap the front part of the girdle with silver or white tin threads. They also wear on their waist a piece of aluminum, from which some colorful threads are hung. Seen from the front, the waist glitters brightly. Deang people believe that the more girdles a woman wears, the more delicate her girdles are, the more diligent and intelligent she is. Mothers usually pass their girdles to their daughters instead of their daughters-in-law. Girdles are usually seen as a love token when young men and women date. So the young men often tries his best to make elegant girdles and present them to his sweetheart. Men's costume. Deang men usually wrap their heads with black or white scarves. They like to wear silver ornaments on their ears, neck, and hands. They were ear ornament on the left ear and silver earbob on the right ear. They wear several silver rings on their necks. Deang men generally wear a short black or blue jacket buttoned to the left side short and loose trousers. They wear cloth bags edged with many red pompoms on their shoulders. [MUSIC] After getting familiar with costumes, we are going to talk about Deang food. Most Deang people take rice, but also corn, wheat, or potato as their staple food. They steam or stew food. They are adept at making various snacks, such as bean curd, tofu, rice noodles, rice cake, tangyuan, a kind of stuffed dumpling made of glutinous rice flour served in soup. They grow many vegetables, of which bamboo shoot is available all year around. They not only eat fresh bamboo shoot, but also make it into pickles and dry it for future use. Deang people like to add some pickled bamboo shoot into the stewed food, even when they stew chicken, fry meat, or cook fish. Influenced by Han's cooking habit, they also eat pickles of Han flavor and preserved bean curd. The most popular Deang dish is stewed chicken with sour bamboo shoots. Sour bamboo shoots are widely used, even when stewing chicken, frying meat, or cooking fish. Affected by the local Han people, many Han-flavored pickles and rotten brine are also common dishes on the tables of Deang people. Deang's stewed chicken with sour bamboo shoots is a delicacy. Deang people like strong tea. They are also famous for growing tea trees. In the Deang Ruins located in Yingjiang and Luxi counties of Dehong Prefecture, some old tea trees are about two or 300 years old and are one-third meter in diameter. People say, ancient Deang people left behind these old trees. Because Deang people are skillful at growing tea trees and have a long history of growing them, they are called ancient tea farmers. Tea has played an important role in Deang people's life. People use tea as a gift to meet old friends, or when they propose marriage. When they plan to host a dinner, they use tea as the invitation card. They apologize with tea. If they want the tribal headman to mediate in their disputes with others, they always wrap a roll of tea and tobacco to present them to the headman before the beginning to appeal. [MUSIC] 25 ethnic groups have their special festivals. As for Deang nationality, we are going to focus on two important ones, the Flower Watering Festival, the New Produce Tasting festival. The video can help you know them clearly. The Flower Watering Festival. [MUSIC] The Flower Watering Festival is on the 7th day after the Tomb Sweeping Festival each year. It is a commemorative event that combines the three dates of Buddha birth, enlightenment, and Nirvana. It is the most important festival of Deang people in the year, and also an activity that reflects the traditional culture of them. Donggua Village Flower Watering Festival in San Tai Shan De Ang Ethnic Township, Luxi City, Yunnan Province, is a relatively complete festival to maintain its original characteristics, generally lasting three or five days. It is an event that best reflects the traditional culture of the Deang people, and it is also a celebration of the New Year. According to tradition, on the day before the festival, men, women, and children of the village flock to the mountains to prepare for the up Coming Flower Watering Festival, the auspicious flower, which looks like a star and has a faint fragrance, symbolizes auspiciousness and purity. In the arrival of the Flower Watering Festival in Deang, of course, flower picking is also one of the most important traditional activities of the Festival. After descending the mountain, men, women and children of Deang ethnic group will go home and put on the most beautiful and handsome costumes. The highly respected men in the village would carry the Buddha statue to the health where it is washed. All the way, the Deang women would chant auspicious blessings and throw white rice balls at the Buddha statues and men. When the Flower Watering Festival arrived, people in the village wake up early and dressed beautifully. At nine o'clock, the first woman to appear at the temple swept the ground clean with brooms. At 9:30 the makeshift temple was flanked by a few round tables on which various offerings were placed. When it was almost 10:00, there was sudden increase in the number of people. The welcoming ceremony was hold at the Buddhist Temple on time. Some representatives of the elderly in the village were in charge of the reception. The elderly men brought down about two dozen gilded statues of Buddha in various shapes, placed them in front of the large statue of Buddha in the main hall of the Buddhist temple and they begun chanting in front of them. The women were still kneeling at the back of the hall, after ceremony, the women retreated outside of the hall to meet the Buddha. Men carried the Buddha statues to a temporary temple in the village. Along the way, women stood by the roadside throwing grains of rice at the team carrying the Buddha statues to wish them good luck. The team that followed the Buddha into the temple carefully place the Buddha statues to ensure they were washed clean. The whole process of welcoming Buddha is orderly and somewhat mysterious. [MUSIC] The New Produce Tasting Festival, the New Produce Tasting Festival of the Deang people is a festival to celebrate harvest which can be celebrated by several families on the same day, or by a single family. At the beginning of the autumn festival, the roster crows twice in the morning. The owner slaughters the chickens and pigs, he had to cook a big meal, mixing the new rice with the old to indicate that before the old rice was eaten, there would be new rice. After cooking, the rice is wrapped with banana leaves and vegetables and tea are put on it. Then, the rice is made into a bag and placed on the roof of the house to worship the Goddess of Rice. While the rice is being served, they chant to the soul of the grain. The main purpose is to thank the Goddess of Rice for giving us a good harvest this year and hope that she will bless us with a good harvest every year. Afterwards, the owner wrap some rice and salt in banana leaves for buffalo to eat. The Deang people believe that food is the first necessity of people. Buffalo is the hardest and most rewarding in the process of planting crops, the first bite of the crops should be eaten by the buffalo. Rice offering is generally held on Dai Festival, ten days after the Qingming Festival of Lunar Calendar. The specific process includes reminding the housewife to cook a high-quality meal and paying tribute to the old in the village. On the day of the festival, the housewives will happily gather around for a reunion dinner. So they scoop a portion of each of this excellent meal in a bamboo food container. And the young girl or daughter-in-law invited the young people to participate in the tribute meal to the village and went to the home of the oldest man in the village. When the old people receiving the tribute learned that the youth are coming, they must warmly greet the young people who came to offer the meal on the balcony outside the entrance of the bamboo building. Except for the sick and disabled, the young people who came to offer the meal must line up one by one. At the same time, they must say something to bless health and longevity and then kneel down and kowtow. At this moment, the old man holds up the young people who are kowtowing in the devout attitude and expresses his gratitude to the tribute. When the guests come to the host's house, one after another, the host will put the food on the table and give a bowl to the Buddha and the monk first. When there is no Buddha and monk, the host will first give a bowl to the Anzhang and the Sixth Pagoda. The Buddha and the monk or the most prestigious performer in Sixth Pagoda will hold the ball with both hands, saying some auspicious words, which means they will collect more food year by year and their life will be better. The others squatted and listened with folded hands, they can have a ,meal after watching. When the meal is over, the old man in the village says a few words of blessing to the owner before leaving, which means the new rice is delicious. So the future generations will be healthy and enjoy longevity. After the New Produce Tasting day, the industrious Deang people are ready for the next year's crops. [MUSIC] All ethnic groups have their religions, beliefs, their own people believe in Hinayana, a southern branch of Buddhism that is quite popular among the nationalities of the Deang, Dai and Achang in southwestern Yunnan, they regard Sakyamuni as the only Buddha. No matter how many statues they put on the niches, they are always Sakyamuni. The never worship other Buddhas. Most villages have temples. The monk leave on offerings from their followers. They're doing, these are provided by the villagers in turn, in the old days, the Deangs did not raise pigs or chickens. A rooster was kept in each village for the break of the day. Today, this old custom no longer exists and chickens are raised. People do not work during religious holidays on sacrificial days. Thin Buddhists, the Deangs in some localities do not kill living creatures. This has minus side, wild boars that come to develop, the crops are left unmolested at times, resulting the quite serious crop loss. Each nationality is rich in folklore, fairy tales, music and dance. Deang literature mainly takes the form of folklore, including folk storms, fairytales, legend and so on. Young people communicate through songs. So love songs account for a large part of the on folk songs. There are also some long more folks melody such as the legend of Lusheng tune. The Melody of history which was about the migration history of the ethnic group and the melody of life in Burma. About the life of the on people who left home town to work in Burma. The legend of Lusheng Tune. The legend goes that a pretty and clever girl named Yu Nan fell in love with a brave hunter Yan Wa. But Yu Nan's father oppose their love strongly because Yan Wa was poor. To stop the two young people from meeting, Yu Nan's father forced her to leave home and live in a small house in the wild mountain. Yan Wa, went to meet his beloved girl immediately after he knew where Yu Nan lived, only to find that she has been eaten by a leopard. The grieved and angry Yan Wa killed the leopard and cut off his head and tail. He collected Yu Nan's clothes and went to her parents' home there he started to play the loosen, a reed pipe wind instrument. The sad tune sounded like sweeping and condemnation at dawn when Brennan's mother came downstairs and saw Brennan's clothes placed together with the head and the tail of the leopard, she realized what had happened to her daughter. The tragedy shocked all Deang people from then on, no parents interfere in the children's marriage. The story, known as the legend of lusheng tune, is sung at Deang people's wedding ceremonies nowadays, fairy tales the Deang fairy tales are interesting. There are several tales about origin of human beings. For example the gourd and human tells the story of how humans emerged from the gourd, the heavily king and the mother god of the land is another story. It was said that 102 leaves were blown off a tea tree in heaven and turned into 51 brothers and 51 sisters on Earth. They fought against the devils on the land and finally won. They all return to heaven except Daleng and Yeleng who stayed on earth and were the ancestor of intelligent and brave Deang nationality, music and dance. Deang people are good at singing and dancing whenever they celebrate a festival, hold a wedding party or build a house. They invite folk singers to sing poems. The musical instrument include lusheng a reed pipe, wind instrument, flute, sanxian a three strange plunked instrument, kousian a stringed instrument played by plucking the string and blowing drum and mangluo. A percussion instrument popular with minority nationalities in Yunnan province. A unique on musical instrument is the water drum, which is called gelengdang in the local languages. The water drum with no longer exist in other nationalities is made by hollowing out a piece of round wood, which is 30 centimeters in diameter and 70 centimeter in length and covering the two ends with cowhide. People put some water into the drum before they use it. During important festivals, the leading dancer hand water drum in front of his chest. He dances while beating the bigger drum and with a drum hammer hold in his right hand, the smaller drum end with his left hand. Them people follow his steps form a circle and dance happily Deang people also do a lot of folk dances, mainly including the following drum dance on people play drums or small symbols musical instrument in the form of a round metal plate. It is hit with a stick or two cymbals are hit against each other whenever they dance, drum is the soul of the Deang. Folk dances, bamboo pole dance. It is a funeral dance planes only at the funeral ceremony of old people who died at the age of 70 or above the dancer with cluster or bells around the waist. They beat the ground with the 4 thin and two thick bamboo poles and dance the bamboo pole is a symbol of horse and the sound of the building is a symbol of clubs. The Dance three times a day in the morning, at noon in the evening, during three days while people keep vigil beside the coffin. The dance is both extol of the dead person's married and the hope for the soul of the disease to go to heaven easily by writing the force right. With a population of 20,556 the Deang ethnic minority lives exclusively in Yunnan province, along with Dai, Jingpo and Wa ethnic minorities. Deang ethnic minority are known as ancient tea farmers. The Deang people are skilled craftsmen with the silversmith casting bracelets, fasteners, necklace and tobacco pipes, women's spinning, dyeing and weaving cloth with distinctive Deang characteristics simple but delicate.
