Lahu Costume

Lahu Costume

Lahu is a unique ethnic group in Yunnan, mainly distributed in Lancang, Menglian, Shuangjiang, Menghai, Ximeng and other counties in the south of Yunnan Province, with a population of about 434000. The ancestors of Lahu belong to the ancient Qiang system.

Introduction to ethnic groups

Lahu people believe in Mahayana Buddhism and Christianity. The language belongs to the Yi branch of the Tibeto Burmese language family of the Sino Tibetan language family. Because of the close contact with Han and Dai people, most of them can use both Chinese and Dai. In the past, some Lahu people used the Latin alphabet created by Western missionaries. In 1957, Pinyin was created on the original basis. Lahu area belongs to Subtropical Mountainous Areas, mainly agriculture, in addition to planting grain, but also vigorously planting sugarcane, tea, coffee, rubber.

The traditional festivals of the Lahu people include the year of Lahu, as well as the extended pagoda Festival (Spring Festival), Torch Festival, Moon Festival and try new festival. One of the most solemn festivals is the year of Lahu. On the new year's eve of the year of Lahu, the big Baba symbolizes the sun and the moon, the small Baba symbolizes the stars and the bumper harvest of grain, and some Baba should be put on the farm tools to let them share the happiness of the festival with their owners. In the early morning of the first day of the new year, all the young people in the village have to carry gourds or bamboo tubes to grab new water in the spring. Then they begin to celebrate the new year formally, drink and sing. Generally, new year's Day is from the first day to the fifth day; the ninth to the eleventh day is the first year. The content of the activities in Xiaonian is basically the same as that in Danian. During the festival, men and women choose some full-fledged and early maturing rice ears and grains from paddy fields and Baogu fields to make new rice, and invite their uncles, uncles, relatives and friends to have dinner together with fresh vegetables, melons and fruits, pig slaughtering and wine cooking. Kucong people of Lahu nationality, when hunting, are used to giving the first shot of the animal head prize to the person who catches the first shot, and the front leg prize to the person who finds the prey. Each person has a share of the rest of the meat.

The young men and women of Lahu nationality are relatively free in marriage, love and social intercourse. On the day of marriage, both men and women should kill pigs. The man should send the pig's head to the woman's home, and then break it into two parts. Half of the pig's head still needs to be brought back. The same is true of the pig's head of the woman's home, to show that they are close relatives and "newly married". The marriage of Lahu nationality is monogamous. There is a custom of living with his wife for three years. If the couple are not harmonious, they can ask someone to give a certificate, burn the silk thread and divorce.