The Tujia people’s customs include living customs, wedding customs and funeral customs.

1. Living customs and living styles: Traditionally, the Tujia people live in mountainous areas and mainly build wooden houses. Most of the houses are independent wooden structures, which are strong and durable.

Clothing habits: The traditional costumes of the Tujia people are mostly blue, black, and white. Men often wear blue or black robes, and women often wear blue skirts.

Men wear round hats and women wear blue or white headscarves.

Eating habits: The Tujia people’s diet is based on rice, and glutinous rice is often used to make food.

Traditional Tujia delicacies include fish in sour soup, hot and sour potato shreds, etc. The food tastes more sour and spicy.

Social etiquette: Tujia people attach great importance to friendly exchanges and pay attention to etiquette.

When visiting others, they often bring gifts, such as glutinous rice wine, dried tofu, etc.

During festivals or celebrations, gifts are given to each other to express blessings and joy.

2. Marriage customs and marriage forms: Traditional marriages of the Tujia people are mostly free love marriages, but there are still some areas where the custom of arranged marriages is retained. Marriage attaches great importance to family alliances and blood relationships.

Wedding ceremony: Tujia weddings are usually divided into three stages: getting married, welcoming the bride and returning home.

During the wedding, there are rich folk activities and rituals, such as worshiping heaven and earth, serving tea, holding banquets, singing folk songs, etc.

Dowry customs: Tujia people’s dowries are mostly physical property, such as clothing, furniture, daily necessities, etc., and they are also accompanied by some items that symbolize good luck and wealth, such as gold and silver jewelry, red cloth, etc.

Wedding customs: After the wedding, Tujia couples will hold a wedding banquet according to custom, and relatives and friends will gather together to bless the newlyweds.

3. Funeral customs and funeral forms: Traditional funerals of the Tujia people are mostly buried in the ground. They believe that burial can return to nature and the earth.

During the funeral, there will be corresponding rituals and sacrificial activities.

Sacrifice customs: Tujia people respect their ancestors and attach great importance to sacrificial rituals.

During the funeral, a sacrificial ceremony is held to honor the ancestors and pray to the ancestral spirits to protect future generations.

Introduction to Tujia The Tujia are one of the ethnic minorities in China, mainly distributed in the Wuling Mountain area adjacent to Hunan, Hubei, Sichuan and Guizhou.

That is, Yongshun, Longshan, Baojing, Sangzhi, Guzhang and other counties in western Hunan Province; Laifeng, Hefeng, Xianfeng, Xuanen, Lichuan, Enshi, Badong, Jianshi, Wufeng, Changyang and other cities in western Hubei Province

County; Youyang, Xiushan, Qianjiang, Shizhu, Pengshui and other counties in Sichuan Province.

According to the fifth national census in 2000, the Tujia population was 8,028,133.

It uses Tujia language, which is an independent language in the Tibeto-Burman language family of the Sino-Tibetan language family.

There is no native language, and Chinese is generally used.

The vast majority of people now speak Chinese; about 200,000 people along the Youshui River Basin still speak Tujia, and some are also fluent in Chinese.

The Tujia people in Hunan Province are mainly distributed in Longshan, Yongshun, Baojing, Guzhang, Sangzhi, Yongding, Wulingyuan, Cili, Shimen and other counties (districts).