Bulang Nationality

There are many kinds of Braun people who call themselves Braun. Braun people living in Xishuangbanna call themselves "Braun" or "balang", those in Lincang and Baoshan call themselves "Wu", those in Mojiang, Shuangjiang, Yun county and Gengma call themselves "AVA" or "WA", those in Simao call themselves "their own family", those in Wendong Township, Lancang County call themselves "Weng Gong", and those in zhenkang and Jingdong call themselves "Wu" or "Wu people".

In the past, the Bulang Nationality was called by other nationalities differently: the Dai people in Shuangjiang called it "La", the Lahu people called it "Kapa" and "Kapu", the Dai people in Xishuangbanna called it "stuffy", the Hani people called it "ABO" or "abie", and the local Han and Yi people called it "Pu man" or "Pu man".

After the founding of new China, according to the wishes of the nation, it was uniformly called "Bulang Nationality".

Historians generally believe that the Bulang Nationality originates from the ancient "Baipu" ethnic group. Ancient Chinese books have long recorded Baipu. In Shangshu · pastoral oath, it is mentioned that there were Pu people among the southwest tribes who participated in King Wu's attack on Zhou. According to the records in the annals of Huayang, historians believe that "Ailao" has a close relationship with PU people. Yongchang (where the government is located in the south of Baoshan) is the area where the ancient "Pu people" lived; The "Pu people" have many tribes and are widely distributed. They have been active in the Lancang River and Nujiang river basins for a long time. One of them who speaks mon Khmer may be the ancestors of today's Brown people. Pu people have many names in China's historical records. They were called "Baoman" and "Minpu" in the Qin and Han Dynasties, "Minpu" in the Wei, Jin and Northern and Southern Dynasties, "Pu Ziman" or "Puzi", "Puzi", "Pu", "Pu man" and "Pu people" in the Sui, Tang, Five Dynasties and Song Dynasties, and "Pu man" or "Pu people" in the yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties.

Since the Western Han Dynasty set up Yizhou County in Yunnan, under the jurisdiction of Yitang (Baoshan), Buwei (south of Baoshan) and other counties, Puren area has been included in the scope of counties of the Western Han Dynasty. During the Western Jin Dynasty, part of the Pu people in Yongchang moved south to zhenkang, Fengqing and Lincang. During the Tang and Song Dynasties, "pouren" was ruled by Nanzhao and Dali regimes, mainly engaged in the economic life of gathering and hunting. Since then, it has gradually transitioned to agricultural production. In the early Yuan Dynasty, Pu people in western Yunnan had used iron hoes. Their leaders took a certain number of iron hoes as tribute every year and handed them over to the Yuan government. According to the Ming Dynasty classics, "Pu people... Plough and hoe,... Know Chinese and trade.". When the shunning mansion (today's Fengqing area) was set up in the Ming Dynasty, the nobles of Pu people served as the local magistrate. After long-term national migration and the differentiation and integration of tribes and tribes, part of the Pu people who originally lived in the middle and lower reaches of the Lancang River and Nujiang River developed into today's Bulang Nationality.

Bulang Nationality is a nation rich in struggle tradition. In order to resist the feudal rulers of previous dynasties, Bulang Nationality has held many uprisings with other nationalities. Among them, in the 11th year of Xianfeng in the Qing Dynasty (1861), the uprising of Hani, Bulang and other ethnic groups in Mojiang was the largest. The uprising was led by Tian Silang (Hani nationality, also known as Zheng). The uprising crowd reached thousands. At one time, it occupied most areas of Zhenyuan and Mojiang. The struggle lasted for seven or eight years.

During the period of the Republic of China, the Braun people also continued to resist. Around 1940, the Braun people in Xiding, Xishuangbanna rose up against the brutal rule of the Kuomintang army and defeated the repressive army sent by the Kuomintang government with the support of the Lahu, Hani and other ethnic people. The Bulang people also continued to resist the rule of Dai chieftains and their own leaders in power. In 1943, the Braun people of manding manwa village in Xiding fought against the grain collection of the leaders. The masses refused to pay the grain, and finally overthrew all the reactionary rule of 18 leaders.

After the mid-19th century, the Bulang people took part in the patriotic struggle of the people of all ethnic groups against the British and French imperialist aggression against China's Yunnan border. During the war of resistance against Japan, the Bulang people in Bulang mountain and Xiding of Xishuangbanna, together with the people of Han, Dai, Hani, Lahu and other nationalities, fought against the aggression of Japanese and Siamese troops against Xishuangbanna and made contributions to the struggle to defend the frontier of the motherland.

Before the founding of new China, the social development of Bulang Nationality was very unbalanced, which can be divided into two types of regions. One is represented by the Bulang Nationality living in Lincang and Simao. Because they have been mixed with the Han nationality and its rapidly developing nationalities for a long time, they are deeply influenced by their economy and culture. Their socio-economic development is rapid, and the Baojia system has spread all over these areas. In addition to the cemetery and forest, which are still public in the village, the rest of the land has been completely private, and the landlord economy has long been established. Landlords and rich peasants seized fertile land through usury, pawn, trading, mortgage and by virtue of political privileges. Under this system, the possession of means of production by all levels has shown a great imbalance. For example, in a Bulang village in bangtuo Township, Shuangjiang County, the landlords account for 6% of the total number of households and more than 30% of the total number of paddy fields in the village. The vast number of poor peasants were not only squeezed by their own landlords and rich peasants, but also exploited and plundered by the landlords and rich peasants of the Han and other nationalities. The Kuomintang government colluded with the local landlords and bullies to collect money and distribute money, which deepened the suffering of the Braun people.

The other is represented by the Bulang Nationality living in Bulang mountain, Xiding and Bada in Xishuangbanna. They were ruled by the Dai feudal lords for a long time. The Bulang people must pay a certain amount of money or goods as tribute to the Dai lords every year. The Dai lords canonized some hereditary leaders within the Bulang Nationality, called "Ba". Each "Ba" governs several stockaded villages. This kind of jurisdiction is the unit that pays tribute to the Dai feudal lords. The Dai chieftain also directly controlled each "Ba" by enfewing his family ministers and relatives as "Bolang" (official name), so as to strengthen the rule over the Braun people, which greatly affected the social and economic structure, political organization and ideology of the Braun people. However, the Dai ruling class can not completely impose its own national mode of production on the Bulang Nationality, but maintain the original mode of production to a certain extent and be satisfied with levying gongna. This rule left a deep mark in the process of the transformation of the brown society from family commune to class society.

Before the founding of new China, the land ownership in the brown society in Xishuangbanna also retained three types of land ownership, including family public ownership, village community public ownership and private ownership. The Bulang minority village also retains a rural commune called "jiagung", which is composed of several families from the same ancestor. Each family includes five or six to twenty or thirty small families. The land, forest and pastoral land within the family belong to "Cannes roll", that is, all members are public. Before spring ploughing every year, the head of the family presides over the distribution of land by household. All the harvest belongs to each household. This kind of land cannot be bought or sold by individuals, and families or individuals only have the right to use it. However, with the development of society, family public ownership gradually declined.

In the Bulang Nationality of Xishuangbanna, there exists the ownership of village community public land. Each village is composed of several to more than ten families of different blood ties ("cann roll"), generally about 100 households. Production tools, houses and livestock are privately owned by individual families; Land, mountains, forests and water sources are owned by the village community. Each family implements the long-term possession and use system for the public land of the village community, realizes single household production through the regular distribution of land within the family every year, and its harvest is owned by each household. "Ba", the leader above the village, was completely canonized by the Dai chieftain. After receiving the iron chain, silver knife and gold umbrella given by the Dai chieftain, they acted as the agent of the Dai Chieftain to rule the Bulang people, regularly collected taxes and tribute, apportioned labor and collected soldiers for the Dai chieftain.

At that time, private ownership of land had emerged in the land owned by families and village communities. The private ownership of land in some villages is deep, and most of cultivated land, homestead and tea garden have been transformed into private ownership of leaders and wealthy households through frequent trading or disguised plundering. Many village members lost their land and became tenants of wealthy households. This kind of land is completely private, which can be freely sold, pawned and leased to anyone. The village leaders and family leaders produced by family democracy often occupy and use a large number of good quality land for a long time, and some also have certain privileges. Due to the imbalance of land occupation, the emergence and development of private ownership and the cruel plundering of Dai chieftains and the Kuomintang, the exploitative relations such as usury, employment and tenancy have developed. With the emergence and development of class differentiation in each village, the primitive public ownership gradually disintegrated.

In the early 1950s, after the establishment of the people's political power in Bulang mountain area, the higher-level government formulated the policy of "direct transition" to socialism in accordance with the guiding principle of "prudent and stable progress" in the work of frontier ethnic minority areas of the Party Central Committee and in combination with the reality of backward ethnic minority areas in frontier areas. Starting from the reality of the Braun area and distinguishing different situations, we selected the Braun mountain as a "direct transition" area for pilot work. On the basis of relieving the ideological concerns of the upper class of the nation and stabilizing the people's emotions, we promoted the Braun people to gradually embark on the road of mutual assistance and cooperation, carried out land reform in the Braun area step by step, and promoted the development of productive forces. In other areas where the Braun people live in compact communities, the people's government has also implemented the land reform through peaceful consultation in Simao and Lincang Braun areas according to the characteristics of unbalanced social development of the Braun people everywhere, which has promoted the stable social and economic development of the Braun people. By the end of 1958, through democratic reform, all Braun areas had abolished the ownership of land and mountains and forests by feudal lords and chieftains, abolished feudal privileges, exempted the national people from labor and tribute, as well as the debt and tenancy exploitation of usurers. Braun people began to embark on the road of mutual assistance and cooperation and realized the reform of production relations.

On December 30, 1985, Yunnan Province established Shuangjiang Lahu wa Bulang Dai Autonomous County, an autonomous region jointly established by multiple ethnic minority inhabited areas. Bulang became one of the autonomous nationalities in the Autonomous County. In addition, ethnic townships jointly formed with other ethnic groups have been established in Bada, Mengman and menggang, Menghai County, where Bulang Ethnic groups are more concentrated, Yun County, Gengma in Lincang area and Shidian in Baoshan area. The Bulang Nationality not only independently manages its own national and local affairs, but also participates in the management of national affairs and local affairs at all levels with an equal status. The Bulang people also elect their own representatives to participate in the National People's Congress, the Yunnan Provincial People's Congress and local people's congresses at all levels. At the same time, the party and the government vigorously train and select Braun cadres, which provides a strong guarantee for the system of regional national autonomy. According to statistics, in 2005, there were about 1700 Braun cadres in Yunnan Province, accounting for about 0.2% of the total number of cadres in Yunnan Province.

Bulang Nationality lives in mountainous areas with mild climate and abundant rainfall, which is very conducive to plant growth. Therefore, "relying on the mountain to eat the mountain" is a major feature of the survival of Mountainous Nationalities. Like other mountain nationalities, the unique geographical environment and rich natural resources, especially the vast forest resources, make the Bulang Nationality adapt to nature and obtain survival from nature. The main ways of survival are collection, fishing, hunting, slash and burn farming. This way of life forms a stable production custom culture. Until today, although modern agriculture is gradually established, slash and burn farming was still popular in some areas before the 1970s, and gathering, fishing and hunting are still supplementary means for people to maintain their daily life. In the past, the Blang people's slash and burn farming created the rotation farming method that people walk with the land and the land turns with the mountains. Generally, the village's land is divided into several pieces. Under strict planning, orderly rotation reclamation is implemented to rest the soil power and avoid cutting trees and burning mountains without restraint, so as to ensure the normal progress of slash and fire farming.

Since the founding of new China, with the establishment of the rural economic cooperation organization, the people's government has made efforts to promote the Braun people to change the traditional slash and burn production mode, learn to cultivate fixed cultivated land, and gradually reduce the land area of slash and burn cultivation. By the middle and late 1970s, the traditional farming method of slash and burn farming was basically bid farewell to, and a stable food source was obtained on the fixed cultivated land. Since the reform and opening up, the Bulang Nationality area has gradually implemented the contract responsibility system with linked output. Party committees and governments at all levels have organized scientific and technological personnel to go up the mountain, vigorously promoted the use of agricultural science and technology to develop production, used chemical fertilizers and carried out pest control, and grain output has generally increased. Taking Bulang mountain Bulang township (the only single Bulang Township in China) in Menghai County, Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province as an example: by the end of 2000, the township had a total of 52336 mu of fixed cultivated land, an increase of 12668 Mu over 1996, with a growth rate of 31.94%. With the increase of cultivated land area, it also brought about the increase of grain output, enabling the Braun people to achieve self-sufficiency in grain. In 2004, the planting area of crops in Bulangshan township was 47590 mu, the planting area of grain and beans was 29829 mu, and the total output was 5.3558 million kg. Great development has been made in agricultural production. The per capita net income of farmers is 953 yuan. On the basis of developing grain production, farmers of Bulang Nationality in various places also vigorously develop cash crops such as tea, sugarcane, rubber, LAC, coffee, fir pine, mango, peach and plum, honey pineapple, banana, citrus, rattan strip and southern medicine. For example, the busy Bulang village in Shuangjiang County planted 30000 lac and 198 mu of rubber in 1995. The village also built a rubber factory, making it an important way to drive the development of local rubber planting. At the same time, the commercial trade in Bulang Nationality area has developed rapidly. National trading companies have been established in all regions, and some villages have established purchase and sales stores, and the total sales value of goods has increased year by year.

Bulang people mainly grow upland rice (upland rice), rice, corn and wheat, followed by beans and miscellaneous grains (buckwheat, potato, taro, etc.); Cash crops include tea, cotton, sugarcane, tobacco, hemp and various vegetables. Since ancient times, tea has been a famous product cultivated by the ancestors of the Bulang Nationality. Most of the Bulang Nationality live in Yunnan, which is rich in tea today. It is the main production area of big leaf tea in Yunnan. The famous Pu'er tea was a precious tribute from Yunnan as early as the Qing Dynasty. It was a precious drink in China at that time. By the late Qing Dynasty, Pu'er tea had been widely consumed by scholars and ordinary people. Up to now, Bulang area is still one of the main raw material producing areas of "Pu'er tea" and "Mengku tea".

In 2000, the total population of Bulang Nationality was 91882, mainly distributed in the western and southwest border areas of Yunnan Province.

Among them, more than 30000 people are concentrated in Bulangshan, Xiding, Bada, Daluo, Mengman, menggang and other towns in Menghai County, Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture, and more than 50000 people are scattered in Shuangjiang, Baoshan, Shidian, Changning, Yun County, zhenkang, Yongde, Gengma, Lancang, Mojiang and other cities and counties. Bulangshan Bulang township is the largest inhabited area of Bulang Nationality, About 65% of the Braun population. In addition, a small amount is also distributed in the mountainous areas of Nanjian, Jingdong, Jinggu, Simao, Jinghong, Mengla and other cities and counties.

The Bulang Nationality in the main inhabited areas has long been adjacent to Hani, Lahu and wa nationalities. The scattered Bulang Nationality is close to the people of Han, Dai, Hani and Lahu nationalities.

faith

In addition to believing in Theravada Buddhism, the Bulang Nationality also retains the traditional beliefs of many primitive religions.

People generally believe in ghosts and gods and worship their ancestors. The Braun people believe that they worship countless ghosts and gods because all ghosts and gods have their own different functions, different sizes and positions, different benefits or harm, good and evil. Nevertheless, the Bulang people are all worshipped and worshipped. Because they believe that all things have spirits, and all spirits have desires. Once desires are not satisfied, the evil becomes worse, and the good is unwilling to do good; Therefore, the worship of all ghosts is not only to cater to and please ghosts and gods, but also to exchange ghosts and gods to meet the various needs of worshippers in material life or spiritual life. Therefore, in the four seasons of the year, Bulang people offer sacrifices to ghosts and gods very frequently. Because most ghosts and gods are attached to the forest, the Bulang Nationality is extremely awed by the forest and has long delimited and maintained Longshan Forest and funshan forest with ecological protection function. The ghosts and gods worshipped by the Braun nationality in Xishuangbanna are the "Kula" who manages water. It is said that it is a monster with a snake body. It will appear when the flood rises sharply or the landslide collapses. If people see it, they will die. Therefore, people must sacrifice Kula on the annual closed door Festival and open door festival to turn evil into good.

The Bulang people all over the country have designated a forest near the village as the Dragon forest. Looking from a distance, the Longshan Forest is lush, forming a green barrier. Every plant and tree in Longshan Forest is regarded as sacred and no one is allowed to cut down or break it. In addition to offering sacrifices to gods in Longshan Forest, no one is allowed to enter the holy land for other activities, otherwise they will be doomed. Since the gods dominate the fortunes of men, women, old and young in the whole village, sacrifices are made every year. By offering sacrifices to gods, people beg for blessings, prosperity and bumper grain.

Another important content of the Blang folk belief is ancestor worship. They believe that the development of clan and family and the change and continuation of family life cycle are linked by blood lineage, which firmly combines the concept of ancestor with the concept of soul. The deceased ancestors have been promoted to the throne by their ancestors from generation to generation, and have become the most reliable protector of clan and family continuity. Most of the tombs are in the dense forest. These ancestors, gods or dead who sleep in the forest are inviolable. When the dead were buried, the graves were not marked. After a few years, trees grew around them and the original forest vegetation was restored. The Bulang people strictly protect the forest of funshan like the forest of Longshan. Except for burying the dead, it is forbidden to bring knives, axes and hoes into the forest of funshan on weekdays.

The animals in the forest are big or small. Elephants, bison, toads, bamboo mice and so on are the objects of worship. Some of them are even considered to be the relatives of their clan ancestors, representing the souls of their ancestors. They can neither invade nor harm them. Even though the Bulang people were good at hunting in the past, they never killed elephants and bison as animal gods, which is very beneficial to the survival and reproduction of rare wild animals.

Tea plays an important role in the life of Bulang people. People regard tea as a sacred treasure, which is used for sacrifice, weddings and funerals, or as a gift to relatives and friends. Because people need, cherish and appreciate tea, the tea tree is finally sublimated into a God. Therefore, before picking spring tea, brown people should sacrifice the "tea king" and worship it. The sanctification of tea plays an important role in the preservation of tea species. Religious taboos avoid the artificial destruction of tea trees and tea forests.

Clothes & Accessories

clothing

The clothing culture of Bulang Nationality is unique. Braun people, who live in mountains and forests, dress up themselves in a unique way and pay attention to their personality. Due to their preference for black, their clothes are often dominated by black and cyan.

There is little difference in the clothes of brown men everywhere. The man is wearing a black or cyan collarless or round neck long sleeved short shirt, and a black wide crotch pants. His trouser legs are short and fat, and his head is wrapped in black or white cloth. Men have the habit of wearing bracelets. Young men's heads are wrapped with black or cyan headscarves. Old men like to keep long hair, coil their braids on their heads and wrap their heads with white headscarves. Nowadays, except that the elderly wear crotch pants, young and middle-aged men generally wear Chinese clothes.

The clothing of Bulang women retains more traditional characteristics. Brown women in Xishuangbanna and other places have collarless short sleeved blouses with two laps on the left and right, either black or white or blue, tight waist and wide swing. The double lapels are crossed and overlapped in front of the chest. There is a ribbon on both sides of the corner, which is tied on the left with a cloth belt instead of a button. The hem and cuffs of the coat are decorated with colored rolling strips and lace. Inside the coat, there is also a pair of round neck sleeveless close fitting vest. The neckline and chest are decorated with various colored lace. A row of small buttons are nailed on the chest. Most of the vests are sewn by colorful clean cloth. When it is hot, wearing such a close fitting vest alone, the curvaceous beauty of brown women has been fully displayed. Wear a double-layer tube skirt, the outer skirt is black, and there are red, yellow, black and other color horizontal patterns above the knee. Splice black, blue or green cloth below the knee and tie the skirt with a silver belt. The inner skirt is white, slightly longer than the outer skirt, and the skirt foot is decorated with colored cloth piping and lace, which can be described as five colors.

Bulang women wear a bun at the top. There is a "three tailed snail" hairpin inserted in the bun. In every wedding event, there are polygonal silver medals on the bun, and silver chains and other decorations are tied under the bun. The head is wrapped with a black and cyan scarf. Bulang women wear ears since childhood. They like to wear silver earplugs and earrings. Large earrings fall on their shoulders and are decorated with red and yellow flowers. Young girls often use bright silk or wool to weave colorful ears or colorful POM POM flowers to decorate earplugs, and some droop to the shoulder, charming and moving. With the swing of the head, the earrings ripple together, full of dynamic and youthful vitality, giving people a feeling of lightness and elegance. There are several circles of silver bracelets around the arm, about 3cm wide silver bracelets on the wrist, silver necklaces and various glass beads on the chest. Young girls like to wear flowers on their heads, while middle-aged and elderly women love to wrap their legs with leg protection cloth.

tattoo

Tattoo is an ancient custom left over by the ancestors of Bulang Nationality. Braun men have to tattoo when they are 14 or 15 years old. They tattoo all kinds of patterns on their limbs, chest, waist, abdomen and back. There are many tattoo patterns, which can be roughly divided into scale thorn, character thorn, shape thorn and fern thorn. Scales and spines are shaped like fish scales, but not all like fish scales; The character thorn is to arrange the Dai letters into a table according to the needs of the so-called "spell" or witchcraft and stab them on the body; Most of them are animal figures, such as dragons, tigers, lions and elephants; The fern thorn is shaped like the tip of a tender fern. No matter what kind of thorn, it is composed according to the needs of "spell" and witchcraft. After the founding of new China, with the popularization of scientific and cultural knowledge, tattoo customs have gradually changed.

diet

Brown people take rice as their main food, supplemented by corn and beans. The Bulang people's diet is characterized by acid, spicy, fragrant, cool and raw. The cooking methods mainly include cooking, frying, steaming, frying, burning, roasting, pickling and raw food. Although the cooking technology is simple, it still has its own unique flavor.

Bulang people not only like sour fish, pickled vegetables and pickled bamboo shoots, but also like to drink sour tea, a beverage with unique national and regional characteristics. The preparation method of sour tea is: first boil the fresh tea and put it in a cool place. After the tea turns sour, put it in the bamboo tube, plug it tightly, then wrap the bamboo tube with bamboo shoots and leaves, bury it in the soil, and take it out after three or four months to form sour tea.

Making and drinking tea is also a major feature of the brown nationality. The Bulang Nationality is good at making tea. Their long-term practice of growing tea has accumulated rich experience in making tea. All Bulang women are experts in making tea. In April and may every year, they put the collected tender hair tips into the pot and fry them dry. When they are hot, they put them into a covered bamboo tube and bake them by the fire pond. When the skin of the bamboo tube is scorched, the fragrant and delicious bamboo tube tea is made. The Braun people living in the tea town pay great attention to the quality of tea, and their roasted tea is unique: put the tea into a special tea pot and bake it by the fire pond. When the pungent aroma comes out, it is injected with boiling water. The rich and mellow roasted tea is made, which is the top grade of Braun people's hospitality.

The Bulang people use tea in a variety of ways. In addition to drinking, they also retain the ancient food customs of using tea as medicine and food. Tea plays an important role in the life of the Bulang people.

Architecture

The traditional houses of Bulang Nationality are dry fence bamboo buildings and bamboo wood structures, which can not only ventilate and damp proof, but also avoid the intrusion of wild animals. They are more suitable for the geographical environment and climate characteristics of mountainous areas. The Bulang people usually choose to build houses from February to April or October. When a family builds a bamboo building, almost all the adults in the village come to help, and it can be completed on February 3. Generally, the bamboo building can live for 20 years, and the thatch is used to cover the roof every two years. The brown people believe that housing dominates the safety of the whole family, so in the process of building a house, a series of sacrificial activities should be held from soil, broken wood, vertical columns to the final move in.

The traditional houses of the Bulang Nationality are divided into two floors. Downstairs, livestock are closed, firewood and farm tools are stacked, and foot pestles and looms are installed; People live upstairs. A fire pond is set in the middle of the room for cooking, heating and lighting. The downstairs floor is made of dragon bamboo cut and pressed into a wide bamboo board; The bedrooms and reception areas are covered with bamboo mats. You must take off your shoes when entering the house. Almost all the furniture in the house is made of bamboo. There are no windows on the four walls of the room, and the light is very dim. The building is divided into three parts: lobby, fire pond and living room. The four walls are woven with bamboo pieces and the floor slab is laid. The gap is large, but the ventilation is very good. There is no partition in the room, and the main room, fire pond and living room are connected. The fire pond is square and set in the center of the room. An iron tripod is placed on it for cooking. The fire is never extinguished.

Since the reform and opening up, the housing conditions of Bulang Nationality have also been improved accordingly. People began to use wooden boards to pave the building and separate the main room from the living room. The roof is covered with tiles, and the tile roof is inlaid with glass shingles. The solid wooden wall and wooden building replace the former bamboo fence wall and bamboo fence building, but the architectural style is basically unchanged. A few rich experts began to build steel-concrete buildings.

education

Before the founding of new China, it was difficult to find a formal school in Bulang areas, and culture and education were very backward.

After the founding of new China, especially since the reform and opening up, with political stability and economic development, the education of Bulang Nationality has been further implemented. In 2002, there were 44 schools in Bulangshan Township, including 1 primary school, 22 schools with one school and one division, and 21 schools with two divisions. There are 111 teaching staff, 77 teaching classes and 1857 students. According to the statistics of Yunnan Provincial Ethnic Affairs Commission, in 2004, there were 11898 primary school students, 4942 junior high school students, 426 senior high school students, 161 vocational high school students, 203 technical secondary school students, 180 junior college students and 3 graduate students.

literature

There are many beautiful and moving oral literary works among the Blang people in a variety of genres, including folk stories, myths, legends, ballads, epics, narrative poems, proverbs, riddles and so on.

Among them, the pioneering myth "aislu mengkun", the totem and ancestral myth "cutting wood into adults" and "Hulu living people", the myth of cultural origin "fire and stone", the national migration epic "people from mengmao" and "three blacks from Hongle south", etc. directly or indirectly reflect the historical situation of the Bulang Nationality; Daogaolang, a long narrative poem popular in Xishuangbanna, tells the story of the tragic love between young brown and miss Dai, which is sad and moving and full of national characteristics.

These literary works have a wide range of themes, beautiful and moving, and truly show the life track of the Braun people in various historical periods.

full name

The Bulang people in Bulang mountain generally implement the mother child joint name system. There is no surname but only first name. The child is named after three days of birth, and the mother's name is connected after the child's name.

All men add a word "Yan" before their names, and all women add a word "Yi" before their names.

taboo

Traditional taboos regulate and restrict people's behavior to a certain extent, such as:

You can't chase the prey that escaped into Longshan Forest; All the trees that have been worshipped, struck by lightning, broken ends, tangled with vines, honeycombs on trees and ant piles at the foot of trees can not be used as building materials; The Burmese and bodhi trees with many ghosts are not used as building materials; Do not use materials illuminated by solar and lunar eclipses as building materials; Do not use trees that can see the shadow of trees by the pond as building materials; Do not cut down the trees of the cemetery; Do not destroy the vegetation in the Dragon forest; Trees on the Longshan mountain around the village cannot be cut down to make house columns and beams; If too many trees are cut down, the whole village will suffer.

All these protect animals and plants to a certain extent.

festival

The festival of Bulang Nationality is closely related to agricultural production and religious activities. The Bulang Nationality in Xishuangbanna, Lancang, Shuangjiang and other areas, influenced by the Dai nationality, believes in Mahayana Buddhism. There are many religious festivals, such as "kawasha" (closing door Festival), "owasha" (opening door Festival), sangcanbimai (New Year), new taste Festival and various festival activities centered on "赕". The Bulang Nationality in Shidian lives together with the Han and Yi Nationalities. The festivals are mostly influenced by the Han and Yi Nationalities. Most of the festivals are the same as the Han nationality. Only a few festivals still retain the inherent characteristics of the nationality. The main festivals include the Spring Festival, Qingming Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, Torch Festival, Mid Autumn Festival, etc.

Among many festivals, the new year's festival of the Bulang Nationality - "sang canbi Mai" is the most grand and grand. The time of "sang canbi Mai" is mostly in the middle of June of the Dai calendar and the middle of April of the Gregorian calendar. "Sang canbi Mai" means new year in June. The main activities of the Bulang Nationality in Xishuangbanna include bathing Buddha, baptizing the family leader, splashing water, etc., so it is also called water splashing Festival; The activities of the Bulang New Year Festival in Lincang area are mainly sand piling and flower arrangement, so the New Year Festival is also called "sand piling Festival" or "flower arrangement Festival". The time of the Chinese New Year is generally three days: on the first day, the activities are mainly to clean the home, residence and village, wash clothes, bedding, cooking utensils and tableware, take a bath and dress up; The next day, I killed pigs and cattle, prepared banquet, made glutinous rice Baba and glutinous rice yellow flower rice, prepared wine and other food for the new year, and spent the new year with my relatives and friends; On the third day, the brown people in Xishuangbanna are called "maipaya Wanma", which means the day when the king of days comes and the beginning of the new year. This morning, the villagers used bamboo tubes to carry clean water for the monks to bathe the Buddha and wash the dust on the Buddha statue. Every "gagun" member should kneel down to the family leader "songma", which is a rule handed down by the brown nationality from ancient times. Each household should prepare two glutinous rice cakes, each with a pair of wax strips and two flowers to the head of the family. One is placed in the "tire GA roll" above the family chief sleeper for sacrificing the family gods; Another bag is dedicated to the head of the family. Each family first kneels down to the family leader, and then the male parents of each family baptize the family leader, that is, wash their hair and feet symbolically with a little water. While washing, I wish the family good health and longevity. After the blessing, the family leader led the "gagun" members to offer sacrifices and prayers in front of the "fetal gagun" dedicated to the ancestors, and then went to the stockade to drop water and offer sacrifices in the unit of "gagun". After noon, people dressed in brand-new clothes set off Gaosheng, beating gongs and drums, singing and dancing, and improvised knife dance, wax bar dance, circle dance and other national dances to welcome the arrival of the king of the day.

marriage and love

The marriage of Bulang Nationality is monogamy. Young men and women are more free from love to marriage, but they are also interfered by their parents.

funeral

Funeral customs are roughly the same everywhere. After a person dies, ask the Buddha or wizard to recite scriptures to drive away ghosts, and a funeral will be held within 3 days. Generally, villages have public cemeteries, which are divided by families or surnames. Burial is common, but the dead are cremated in some places.

spin

The traditional textile technology of Bulang Nationality is very superb and enjoys a high reputation in history. Most of the clothes of the Bulang Nationality are made of self-made earth cloth, mainly in blue and black. Its textile raw materials are self grown cotton, ramie and kudzu. Cotton and ramie can be woven into native cloth, and ramie and pueraria can be sewn into sacks or hanging bags. The textile technology of Bulang Nationality originated very early. It was recorded that Pu people woven kapok in Chinese historical records thousands of years ago. Guang Zhi said: "kapok Pu, the soil has kapok." "Black Pu Pu, out of Tongwab." "Huayang Guo Zhi Nan Zhong Zhi" Yongchang County article said: "there are Wutong wood, its flowers are soft as silk, the people think that the cloth is five feet wide, clean and unpolluted." It was a high-class textile at that time, which was favored by the world, so that its exchange price was stipulated, indicating that the development level of Pu people's textile handicraft industry was very high at that time. In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Volume 1 of the annals of Chu Xiong's residence by Kangxi said, "Pu man lives in the mountains, and women weave hemp cloth for a living." Volume 3 of the annals of Jingdong Zhili hall by Qianlong said: "Pu man and women weave cotton cloth." according to Volume 18 of the annals of Pu'er's residence by Daoguang, "Black PU and Ning'er have... Quite familiar with weaving." these historical materials illustrate the long textile history of the ancestors of the brown nationality, Once had outstanding textile technology. Today, in the Bulang area, some women can still follow the ancestral textile technology and carefully make fabrics and handicrafts.

There are two kinds of textile machines of Braun Nationality: waist loom and horizontal loom. The waist loom is self-made and simple in structure. It is composed of weaving strips, shuttle barrels, belts, wood machetes (i.e. yarn blocking plates), bamboo barrels, bamboo sticks, etc. The weaving method is also easy to master. In the front, a bamboo tube of moderate thickness and about 1.6m is tied horizontally to two columns. The yarn is folded into two layers and slides on this tube as warp. There is also a thin bamboo tube at one end near the weaver, which tightens and ties the yarn at the waist, and a small bamboo tube and bamboo stick are arranged in the central interlayer of the warp for yarn splitting up and down. The woman sits on the small stool, pedals her feet to the front, and then uses her left and right hands to thread the fine bamboo stick lead back and forth. At the same time, she also uses both hands to manipulate the yarn blocking plate to keep the weft tight. If a skilled woman keeps weaving, she can weave white cloth 30 cm wide and 2.5 meters long every day. The woven cloth can be used to sew tops, skirts, headscarves, straps for carrying children, foot wrapping cloth, etc. Textile varieties include twill cloth, plain cloth and colorful brocade. If the cotton thread is dyed into red thread, black thread and blue thread, it can be woven into all kinds of striped cloth. It is beautiful and generous. It is deeply loved by the masses. It is also a good material for sewing tube skirts. In modern times, Bulang women learned to use horizontal looms from Dai, and textile technology has further developed. Up to now, in the village of Bulang Nationality in Shuangjiang, every family has old-fashioned cotton presses, spinning machines and looms. They still grow cotton, weave cloth and make clothes themselves. In particular, Shuangjiang Bulang women are famous for weaving "Ge bu" and "AVA blanket".

Astronomy

After years of production struggle, the ancestors of the Bulang Nationality accumulated a lot of knowledge of astronomy, calendar and weather change law, and summarized the original methods of distinguishing orientation, season and climate.

The brown people have their own names for the sun, moon and stars, and know the orientation according to the rise and fall of the sun, moon and stars and the back of the trees. Generally, the direction and time are distinguished by the position of the Big Dipper at night. During the day, identify the direction by the direction of sunlight. On cloudy days, the direction is determined by the plant growth status. For example, the smooth side of the bark with direct sunlight is the East, the trunk with sunshine is light green, and the side with some fresh moss is the West. What is more interesting is that the Bulang Nationality still retains some original methods to distinguish seasons and climate change. For example, the agricultural proverb says, "it will rain if the moon takes an umbrella, and it will dry if the sun takes an umbrella"; "Long sunny muntjac calls, rainy days will come, long rainy muntjac calls, it will clear up"; "Frogs cackle in the river stream. It's going to rain"; "Flying ants fly into the sky, it will rain heavily" and so on. There is a kind of bird in the mountains, which is called "Yue" in brown. It lives in seclusion in the forest on rainy days. If you see this bird flying and jumping out of the forest on cloudy days, it indicates that it will clear up.

music

In the daily life of Bulang Nationality, folk songs are indispensable spiritual food. Braun folk songs are rich in content and many tunes. Young people love singing to each other when they get married, move to a new house, celebrate the new year's day or after work. According to its tone, the folk songs of the Bulang Nationality can be divided into "Suo", "Sheng", "Zai", "drag", "Tuoma" and so on. These tunes also have their own characteristics due to regional differences. The Bulang Nationality is a nation capable of singing and dancing. All festivals and weddings are inseparable from singing and dancing.

The music of Bulang Nationality is colorful and beautiful. Although there are slight differences in music tunes, each has strong characteristics. The brown tune of the brown nationality in Xishuangbanna is divided into four basic tunes: Suo, Sen, Zhui and Zai. Cable tune is the most important and representative tune in the brown folk songs of Xishuangbanna. The melody is euphemistic and lyrical, the rhythm is light and lively, accompanied by small three strings, and is mostly used to sing love, new people and new things. Mori tune is gentle and melodious, accompanied by a four stringed piano. It is mostly used to sing customs, epics, long stories and legends, and quote scriptures to educate future generations or talk about family customs. The tone is simple and elegant, easy-going and free. It can be high pitched and low pitched. It is generally sung during festive celebrations. Singers often use this mode when they celebrate their new house and their wedding. Lyrics close to chanting often appear in the singing process. Zadiao is cheerful and lively. It is a kind of antithetical tune. It has a wide range of antithetical songs, mainly involving love, production and education of future generations. When singing, various tunes are fixed, and the content of the song can be improvised according to different occasions to express different thoughts and feelings.

There are two kinds of musical instruments of the Braun Nationality: percussion instruments and orchestral instruments. Percussion instruments include drums, gongs, cymbals and cymbals. There are many kinds of drums, including big drum, long drum, elephant foot drum, hand drum, wooden drum and bee barrel drum, which are mostly used in religious activities. Orchestral instruments include suona, Yangjiao horn, horn lute, bamboo flute, Dongxiao, three string, four string piano, hulusheng, Xiangmei (mouth string), ye flute, etc. they are mainly used in weddings, singing venues or festive festivals.

Today, after long-term development, the music culture of each Braun inhabited area and scattered area has formed four regional types of music culture style: the original music culture style area represented by the Braun inhabited areas such as Bada, Xiding, Daluo, guanshuang in Menghai County, Xishuangbanna and Manjing in Lancang County, Simao Area; The Dai music culture style area represented by Bulang mountain in Menghai county; The Dai and Chinese music culture style area represented by the Bulang scattered areas in all counties of Lincang area; It is a Chinese music culture style area represented by the Bulang Nationality in Shidian County, Baoshan and Mojiang County, Simao.

dance

Braun nationality has rich and colorful dance art. Song and dance often go hand in hand and are inseparable. Folk dance is divided into song and dance, drum dance and martial arts dance.

Braun people in the Braun mountain area of Xishuangbanna like to dance "knife dance", which is vigorous and powerful. Young men and women like to dance "circle dance" together; "Dancing songs" are popular among the Braun nationality in Mojiang during the Spring Festival or wedding season; Circle dance and two row dance are popular in the Bulang area of Shidian.

Among the traditional songs and dances of the Bulang Nationality, drum dance is the most characteristic, and the drum dance of the Bulang Nationality in Shuangjiang is the most famous. Bee barrel drum is called "Keguang" (jumping drum) in brown, which is named because it looks like a bee barrel. It is a mass dance with an unlimited number of participants. The dance is divided into three-step dance and five step dance. It is composed of two teams of men and women, accompanied by elephant foot drums, plutonium and cymbals. The movement is generous, rough, natural and unrestrained, the dance steps are vigorous and powerful, the rhythm is lively and warm, the scene is spectacular and moving, and has strong appeal and shock. The Bulang Nationality, who believes in Buddhism, incorporated the bee barrel encouragement into major Buddhist activities. The dance posture and steps remained unchanged. It gradually became a special dance for the flower arrangement Festival and has been handed down to this day. In addition, except that the bee barrel drum can be sounded at flower arrangement Festival, door opening Festival and door closing Festival, it can not be knocked casually at ordinary times, because the usual drum sound is to send a funeral signal to the village.

Influenced by Dai nationality, Bulang Nationality in Xishuangbanna generally believes in Theravada Buddhism. Buddhist temples and all systems are similar to Dai nationality, and there are also frequent activities such as "Buddha worship".