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Pillar dance a festival highlight
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DANCING around the pillars according to set orders is one of the most important activities for Jingpo people during their big festivals.
The Munao pillars with patterns of the sun, mountain and winding roads tell the story of the offspring of the sun making their journey to the present habitat after a difficult migration. This is the legend of the Jingpo people’s history.
With a population of 147,828, people in the Jingpo ethnic group mostly live in the Dehong Dai-Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture of Yunnan Province. Others reside in the Nujiang Lisu Autonomous Prefecture and other areas nearby.
The Jingpo ethnic group is said to be originated from the ancient Di and Qiang groups. Legends suggest that the ancestors of Jingpo used to live in the Nojoi Shingra bum in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau that means “natural mesa” in the Jingpo language.
Snow accumulated on the ground all year around, making it hard to grow corn. To search for a better environment, the ancestors migrated south down the Lancang (Mekong) and Jinsha rivers about 1,500 to 2,000 years ago. Some reached the river valley named Jiangxinpo, between the Daenmeika and Mailikai rivers. After the 16th century, many moved to Dehong regions, living with other ethnic groups there.
There were five branch clans of the Jingpos: Jingpo, Zaiwa, Leqi, Lang’e and Bola. Their common languages belong to the Tibetan-Myanames family. Yet only the Jingpo and Zaiwa clans have written languages based on Latin letters.
The Jingpo people mainly inhabit tree-covered mountain areas with a warm and rainy climate. They enjoy land suitable for growing rice, corn, some rare woods and subtropical fruits.
Rice is usually taken as the staple food for Jingpo people, with typical courses like bamboo rice and sticky rice baba. They also grow vegetables in the garden, and collect wild herbs and fruit as supplementary food.
Chicken and pork are popular among the Jingpo, who also eat wild animals after hunting. Insects such as cicadas and ant eggs, and spiders are also part of the diet.
The Jingpo people like watery wine and “sha zhi” (a kind of chewing tobacco made of cigarette, reed and slaked lime). Offering “sha zhi” as gifts is a traditional courtesy of the people.
Sharing is highly valued in Jingpo culture. It is impolite to drink all the wine offered. Instead, people should pour a bit of wine back to the host’s canister before drinking. And the elderly should always be served first.
Jingpo women usually wear red scarves on their heads and black short jackets with buttons. A colorful knitted skirt and a woolen leg-guard are common adornments for the jacket. Silver ornaments such as big bubbles and chains are widely worn.
Jingpo men usually wear black short jackets with buttons down the front and short and loose trousers. Elderly people tend to cover their heads with black turbans, while the young prefer white turbans. Most of them will keep elaborately embroidered bags with them, containing areca and tobacco.
Young Jingpo people enjoy freedom in marriage by a traditional activity named “gan tuo zong,” which means visiting girls in Jingpo dialect. It’s an organized activity providing chances for boys and girls to know each other.
With night falling, groups of girls and boys will go to a bamboo forest or the public house, expressing their love through folk songs. If they fall in love through the activities, they may exchange tokens. By informing the organizers of their love, they can invite their family and friends to the public house to get their relationship approved. Then, they will get permission to date outside the public house, and probably get married afterwards.
Most Jingpo people believe in primitive polytheism. They believed in the spirit of the sun, the moon, birds and many other creatures in the universe.
Dongsa, the Jingpo wizard, used to play an important role in people’s lives. When old people died, Jingpos offered sacrifices to take souls home. But the traditions gradually faded with promotion of science and technology.
The most important traditional Jingpo festival is “Munao Zongge” (singing around the Munao pillars) from the 15th to the 17th day of the first month in the lunar calendar. It is said to be originated from the celebration of a Jingpo man killing a child-eating monster.
Four Munao pillars with totem are set at the center of the ground. The pillars are decorated with patterns of sun, mountains and winding roads.
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