Most Yi villages are surrounded by mountains and rivers with beautiful environment. Villagers generally choose a flat hillside with sunny, leeward, pumping water and convenient transportation to build houses according to the direction of water flow and mountain situation.
Yi houses in flat areas are generally tile houses with civil structures. Residential layout is mostly three main rooms, which are used as hall, bedroom and warehouse respectively, and the left and right wing rooms are used as kitchen and utility room, commonly known as three rooms and two ears. In the middle of the main room is the hall, and there is a big pond, commonly known as the pot village, on which there is an iron tripod or three pot stones. The fireplace is a place for cooking, and it is also a place for the whole family to eat, chat, rest and entertain guests around the fire.
Among the traditional houses of the Yi people, the most distinctive one is the earthen barrier house. It takes stone as the wall foundation, brick as the wall or rammed with local sticky and tough red soil, erecting beams on the wall, covering it with bamboo, branches, thatch or straw, covering it with a layer of mud, covering it with fine soil, sprinkling water, compacting and flattening it to make the platform roof. The earth account office is made of local materials, easy to build, warm in winter and cool in summer, comfortable and pleasant. The traditional residence of Yi people living in the forest area is a log cabin. This is a section of broken wood, cross-piled into a wall, the roof is paved with split boards, and then flattened with stones, commonly known as tile board house.
Second, eating habits.
In Pingba Yi area, rice, corn, wheat and potato are the staple foods on weekdays, while corn, buckwheat and potato are the staple foods in alpine areas. Non-staple food is vegetables, beans, melons and fruits, and meat such as sheep, pigs and chickens.
On holidays, or when guests visit, the host will kill chickens, sheep and even pigs to entertain the guests. At the same time, they kill animals without knives, kill chickens and ducks with their hands, and kill sheep and pigs with wooden sticks, so they are commonly called beating animals or beating sheep and pigs. Interestingly, before the slaughter, the owner should invite the guests to look at the livestock in advance to show the owner's urban intention and respect for the guests. When cooking, the master cooks minced meat into fist-sized pieces. It tastes fresh and delicious. Because the meat looks like a mound and is eaten by hand, it is called a mound.
Yi people are addicted to alcohol. Men, women and children can drink it. When they drink, they often pour the wine into a big bowl first. You pass me a sip and I'll pass it to him. Everyone takes turns drinking this bowl of wine. Therefore, it is called the drinking style of Yi people.
The Yi people are hospitable. When they entertain guests, they are often accompanied by the male host, or let the guests eat first, and the female host waits for the guests to finish eating. Therefore, when you visit the Yi family, you must not eat all the food and wine. At the same time, when guests leave after dinner, they should send some gifts or leave some money to show their gratitude.
Third, clothing customs.
Yi people are a smart and intelligent people. They adorned themselves with dexterous hands. In addition, there are many branches of Yi people, and their costumes are famous and distinctive all over the country. Therefore, among all ethnic groups in China, Yi costumes are very colorful.
In Xiaoliangshan area near Jinsha River, the clothing styles of Yi men and women are simple. Men usually leave a three-inch square hair on their foreheads, which the Yi people call a son, and regard it as the place where the gods who can grasp bad luck and good luck are located. It is sacred and inviolable, and no one can touch it. Otherwise, it is the greatest insult to him and will bring disaster. So the Han people call it Tianzun. They also wrapped their heads in black cloth three or four meters long, and rolled one end of the head handkerchief into a long vertebral shape the thickness of a thumb, which is called purple iron in Yi language. Because the left side of the forehead is high, it looks heroic, and the Han people call it a hero bun. The man still wears a string of red and yellow big ear beads on his left ear, and the red silk thread is decorated under the beads. Usually wearing a black jacket with narrow sleeves and lace, trousers with wide pleats that look like skirts, and felt with long tassels at the lower end. Yi people call this blanket Chaerwa, which is made of black and wool. It has many uses: wind and sand prevention, sun protection in sunny days, waterproof in rainy days, and can be used as bedding when wrapped in the body at night, so people prepare it all year round and are indispensable.
The clothes of Yi women in Liangshan area are quite elegant. Take young and middle-aged women for example. They covered their heads with an embroidered square handkerchief, folded the front end of the handkerchief into a tile shape, covered it on their foreheads, and wrapped it with wool and braids. Both ears are generally wearing silver earrings and earrings, and the neckline is decorated with silver rows of flowers. They wore embroidered right-breasted blouses, which were wide and short, reaching only the abdomen. The lower body is surrounded by black, yellow, blue and white in a pleated skirt, which is long and graceful, and swings from side to side when walking. When they go out, they often wear a black Sherva.
The clothes of Yi men in other areas of Chuxiong are different from those of Liangshan Yi people. They usually wrap their heads in black cloth, but they don't leave Buddha, tie hero's bun or wear ear beads. They usually wear blue or black double-breasted narrow-sleeved shirts, which reach the abdomen, and the two rows of cloth buttons on the skirt are chic and interesting. Some are still decorated with flowers in Youbaotou Township. Pants are fat and short, which is convenient for working in the mountains and fields. Their holiday clothes are brightly colored. For example, during the Torch Festival, many young people wear white hats with red and green fluffy balls on the brim and beautiful fur pheasant tails on top. It is said that this is the relic of their animal worship concept on the headdress.
The most beautiful clothes are for girls and young women. Although they wear blue trousers instead of colorful long skirts, most of their right-hand shirts are embroidered with various flowers, cloud pictures or geometric patterns, and their waistlines are also inlaid with beautiful lace. They pay special attention to their headdresses. In some villages, women wear hats that look like Marek Huaying or golden pheasant, and some wear fish-shaped hats and cockscomb hats, which can be described as a hundred flowers blossom.
Fourth, marriage customs.
Marriage and love of Yi people are strange and interesting. The most interesting thing is that a girl who has changed her skirt can have sex with her sweetheart on the playground. The matchmaker says intimacy, makes the bride hungry and cry all night, throws water at the guests attending the wedding, grabs the bride, fights in the bridal chamber and other traditional wedding customs.
(1) Bride-changing ceremony for girls: When Yi girls reach adulthood (usually 15 years old), a grand dress-changing ceremony is held according to the custom. At the ceremony of changing skirts, the girl asked her sisters to change her original single braid into double braids and put them on her head. It is also necessary to tear off the original white pendant or old earring line and replace it with coral beads or silver earrings such as red agate to show good luck. Finally, the girl took off the original red and white children's skirt and put on a blouse embroidered with lace and a colorful pleated mop-up dress in black, blue, yellow and white. After putting on new clothes, the girl can go dancing and singing, participate in social activities and start looking for her sweetheart.
(2) Holding the bride: According to Yi custom, when the bride comes out, her feet must not touch the ground, otherwise there is a danger that her children will not be rich. Young people who take care of the bride must carry the bride on their backs and help her get on the horse. There are also various rules on the way home: if the mountain is too high and the road is too narrow to ride a horse, the young man who takes care of the bride must take turns carrying the bride; Crossing the river and wading, it is even more necessary for people to carry water across the river. The bride's embroidered shoes must not get wet.
(3) bridal chamber brawling: According to Yi custom, if the bride doesn't fight in the bridal chamber night, she will be laughed at: this is a woman who won't fight! It is said that the children they will give birth to in the future will not be recognized by their ancestors and will not enter the underworld after death! So the banquet guests dispersed, and a couple in the bridal chamber still fought. They were banging, tearing their clothes and scratching their faces, and the banging from the bridal chamber shocked the neighbors.
Verb (abbreviation for verb) religious custom
Yi people are a people who worship fire. They believe that fire can bring light, warmth and cooked food to human beings and get rid of the attack of wild animals. The fire pit of Yi people's hall plays an extremely important role in people's life. It is precisely because they can't live without it all their lives that they worship it. Yi people regard fire as a sacred thing to ward off evil spirits and bring good luck and happiness. In festivals, people light bonfires, play the piano and sing around them, dance for fun, worship the fire, and let the fire stay with them when they leave people. During cremation, the soul returns to the birthplace of its ancestors, and the family's spirit tablet for the deceased is placed on the front wall next to the fireplace.
(2) Yi people also worship Hei Hu's religious belief and regard black as their totem and ancestor. The Yi people's worship of Hei Hu has also expanded to the custom of advocating black, believing that the ancestors' souls like black, so after building a new house, they must smoke it with fireworks before moving in. Cremation custom: Yi people's burial methods are novel and diverse, including tree burial, pottery burial, stone burial, cremation and coffin burial. Especially cremation and coffin burial are more common.
6. The traditional festival "Torch Festival" is the most common and grand traditional festival in Yi area, usually on June 24th or 25th in the summer calendar. Different regions have different legends about the origin of this ancient festival. A more common legend is that there was a Hercules Sjelabi in the ancient sky. He heard that there was a strongman, Attila Ba, so he went to earth to wrestle with Attila Ba. As a result, Srirabi lost. After calling back to the gods, the gods were furious and sent pests to the world to destroy crops. On June 24th, Attila called on people to light the Song Ming to drive away insects. As a result, the pests were driven away and God was defeated. In order to commemorate the victory over the gods, from now on, every year to today, we must raise a fire to celebrate. On the Torch Festival, the Yi people, men, women and children, should wear festive costumes, play with livestock, offer spiritual cards, dance, sing, race horses and wrestle. In the evening, we walked around the house and fields with torches, and then got together to light a bonfire and dance.
The Year of the Yi Nationality (called "Winter Moon Year" in Guizhou and some Yi areas in northeast Yunnan, and "October Year" in Liangshan) is also an important traditional ethnic festival of the Yi nationality. A long time ago, the Yi calendar lasted for ten months, and the traditional Chinese New Year date in this area was different from that of the Han nationality. Later, due to the influence of the Han nationality, most Yi people use the lunar calendar (summer calendar) to calculate the year, and celebrate the Spring Festival in the first month of the summer calendar every year. However, some Yi people in Sichuan, Yunnan, Liangshan, Guizhou and northeastern Yunnan still retain their own traditional Spring Festival festivals.
In addition, there are some festivals, such as "Worship the Lord" of the Yi people in Dali, Yunnan, "Mizhi Festival" in Lunan and Maitreya, "Yangmei Festival", "Dance Song Festival", "Harvest Festival" and "Tangniu Festival" in other areas.
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