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Drumming up glorious traditions
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DRUMS play an important role in the Jinuo ethnic group as they serve as both a sacrificial item and musical instrument.
Legend goes that an ancestor of the Jinuo people made a big drum during a flood. A man and a woman were saved when they used the drum to float to a safe place and started a family.
To commemorate this great ancestor, Jinuo people beat big drums and perform a special dance every year at festivals.
The wooden sticks around the drum symbolize the sunshine, hence the drum is also called Sun Drum, while Sun Drum Dance is popular at almost every festival.
With a population of 23,143, the Jinuo ethnic group mainly lives in Jinghong City of the Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture in Yunnan Province and the mountainous regions nearby.
Jinuo is the name they call themselves, which means an ethnic group that “follows or respects the uncle.” They were often referred to as the “you le” ethnic group in the past.
The Jinuo language belongs to the Tibetan-Burmese group of the Chinese-Tibetan language family and resembles the Yi language in both pronunciation and vocabulary.
The Jinuo people had no written language until 1983, when the government helped design one for them. But it is not commonly used. The tropical region they inhabit features many mountains, rivers and dense forests.
Rice is a staple food and they also eat vegetables and meat. The Jinuo people rarely grow vegetables. Instead, they collect wild vegetables like yams, bamboo shoots and mushrooms during the rainy season from May to September.
Jinuos prefer sour and spicy foods. Meat is usually baked or boiled. Duo sheng, or chopped raw meat, is essential at festivals. The chopped meat will be mixed with diced peppers, ginger, mint, spinach and salt. Ant eggs are popular from March to May. They can be boiled, fried, steamed and baked into a variety of tasty dishes.
Wine and pu’er tea are the most popular drinks among the Jinuo. Most of the wines they drink are made from either fermented rice or corn and are homemade. They add herbs to give the wine a light green color and special fragrance. The wine is said to be good for the spleen.
It is impolite gesture for a host to fill a guest’s bowl according to the Jinuo tradition as it might indicate there is no more food left. Emptying the rice steamer is another taboo as the Jinuo believe that the spirit of rice will leave if the steamer is empty and the family will go hungry.
Most Jinuo people wear traditional clothes made from tough and durable homemade cotton cloth. The cloth is called kandaobu, literally cloth which can chop the knife.
Jinuo men usually wear a collarless jacket with buttons down the front and big blue trousers or shorts with white puttees. There are many red and blue strips in the chest of the jacket. A beautiful “sun-flower” is often embroidered on the back.
Jinuo women wear triangle prints on their apron, collarless colorful jackets and blue puttees. The jackets are decorated with strips of white, black, red, yellow, green and purple. Colorful patterns can also be found on the front chest and arm parts.
Jinuo women wear their hair in a coil above the forehead, and sling across their shoulders sharp-pointed flax hats.
The Jinuo people enjoy great freedom in choosing their spouses.
Boys at 16 are officially grown up and girls at 14. There is a special ceremony. When boys come of age it’s known as raokao and with girls it’s called mikao. Coming of age means a boy or girl is ready to date.
A Jinuo marriage has three steps — bapiao, babo and bale.
The first stage is bapiao, which means that “love starts with tender eye contact.” If the young love each other, the girl will give the boy arecas flowers, while the boy will send back some gifts like arecas and cigarettes.
Babo, the second stage, indicates the couple are passionately in love. They can now kiss each other and send gifts like bags and sugarcane, which represent sweet love.
The last stage is bale, or “asking to live together.” With the girl’s permission, the boy can stay in her room at night but leave before dawn. If they both feel good about getting married after the cohabitation, the boy will sweep the floor and carry water for the girl’s family in the morning, as a declaration. If both sets of parents agree, they will get married.
Most Jinuo people are animists who worship nature, their ancestors and Zhuge Liang, who was a well-known counselor of Liu Bei who set up the Shu State in the Three Kingdoms (AD 220-280).
Temaoke, also called the Festival of Forging Iron, is one of the biggest festivals for Jinuo people. It is usually held from February 6 to 8.
A cow is butchered on the first day. After that, Jinuo people will beat the cow skin drums, perform the Sun Drum dance, and offer sacrifices to pray for a good harvest.
The following morning, Jinuo people will all participate in the ceremony of forging iron and various entertaining programs will take place.
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