The Bai people celebrate a myriad of indigenous festivals, from the Folk Song Festival on Mount Shibao to the Rao San Ling Festival, but the three most important festivals are the Sanyue Festival, Torch Festival, and Benzhu Festivals.

The Sanyue Festival

The Sanyue or “March” Festival is the grandest in the Bai calendar and is held annually at the foot of Mount Cangshan near Dali from the 15^th to the 20^th day of the 3^rd lunar month. Although it is called the March Festival, it actually falls sometime in April. Originally it began as a religious festival to pay homage to Guanyin, the Buddhist Goddess of Mercy. According to legend, Guanyin once rescued the residents of the Erhai region from certain death by defeating a band of man-eating Raksa demons. Thank goodness she got rid of all of them, or else Yunnan’s tourist trade would have definitely suffered!

From then on, the people held an annual Guanyin Market in her honour and this slowly became a fully-fledged festival. These occasions were particularly important in ancient China since they offered merchants from Tibet, Sichuan, Guangdong, and Hunan the chance to peddle their wares and buy goods that they rarely had access to. It is thought this type of market dates all the way back to the Tang Dynasty (618-907)! Over time the Sanyue Festival has evolved into a fair where sports competitions, dance performances, and the trading of goods have become the focal attraction. After all, we’re pretty sure the Goddess of Mercy wouldn’t mind people having a little fun!

The Torch Festival

The Torch Festival is celebrated by numerous ethnic minorities throughout southwest China, but is celebrated by the Bai people on the 25^th day of the 6^th lunar month, meaning it falls sometime in July. On the day of the festival, villagers light torches and carry them around the fields to drive away insects. They believe this will usher in a bumper harvest and bless the locals with good health and fortune. Doorways and village gates will be decorated with streamers bearing auspicious words that are also flanked by torches. The words must be particularly lucky, as miraculously these paper streamers never catch fire! In some villages, the locals will gather around large bonfires in nearby fields.

The origin of the Torch Festival is recounted in a Bai folk song known as “The Burning of the Torches in the Hall”. This song recounts how Piluoge, the founder and king of the Nanzhao Kingdom (738-902), invited the leaders of the other five warring tribes to a sumptuous banquet in Songming Tower. When they arrived, he betrayed them and burned them all to death. Talk about a warm welcome! Many other ethnic groups in southwest China celebrate this festival to commemorate their ancient kings, who were murdered by Piluoge. However, nowadays the festival is barely connected to the original legend and has become a standardised way of worshipping for ample crops and prosperity in the coming year.

The Benzhu Festivals

In the villages around Dali, the Benzhu Festival takes place twice every year but the largest and most magnificent one comes directly after Spring Festival. On the morning of the festival, all of the villagers will don their festive clothes and gather in the Benzhu Temple. The benzhu shrines are taken from the temple, placed on a colourfully decorated sedan chair, and paraded through the village. The shrines must pass through every street of the village with people burning incense and chanting scriptures in their wake. Finally they are deposited in a specified location, where they will remain for a number of days.

During the festival, the villagers must follow the gods and worship the shrines in their new location by burning incense and offering them food and money. In some villages, a temporary temple is built around the shrines just for the purposes of the festival! Throughout the festival, families will host feasts and invite their friends and relatives to join them. Some communities will even have a public feast, which takes place in a large open space in the village.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Bai people’s unique style of traditional dress was established during the Nanzhao Kingdom (738-902), which was a separate empire that ruled over Yunnan during the Tang Dynasty (618-907). The colour white signifies dignity and high social status to the Bai people and so they have a marked preference for white clothes, making laundry day nothing short of a nightmare! Generally speaking the men wear white shirts with white trousers, a white turban, and colourfully embroidered gaiters and belts, although nowadays most young men prefer to wear modern clothes and only don their traditional dress on special occasions.

The women have much more of a penchant for colour and, while the younger women predominantly wear white clothes, the older women mainly dress in blue and black. Young women will normally wear a white or powder-blue dress under a sleeveless pink, purple, red, blue or black jacket. Their clothes are embroidered with rich, colourful patterns, making laundry all the more difficult when it comes to separating the whites and darks! Under the dress they will wear a pair of loose fitting white trousers and embroidered shoes made of white cloth.

They embellish their outfits with a myriad of jewellery, including silver earrings, hairpins, necklaces, and jade bracelets. Elderly women wear far more muted attire and tend to opt for blue dresses and trousers covered by sleeveless black jackets and aprons. In Dali, many of the women wear a white coat trimmed with a black or purple collar that is complemented by loose fitting blue trousers and embroidered shoes. A bouncy ponytail secured at the tip by a red string usually indicates the woman is unmarried, while hair or braids clasped in a bun means you should take your amorous intentions elsewhere!

Most Bai women will wrap a sash around their waist, although the appearance of these waistcloths differs depending on age. Those worn by young girls are normally intricately embroidered and only reach down to their knees, while those worn by middle-aged women are purely blue or black in colour and are much longer. Their embroidery features many patterns and images, the most common of which is the camellia flower.

To the Bai people, the camellia is a symbol of beauty and their characteristic headscarves are designed to look like camellias in bloom. These headscarves are red with a white outer layer and are shaped like a crescent moon. The lower half or “tail” is embroidered with flowers and is meant to be draped over the shoulder so it sways in the wind. The unusual appearance of these headscarves has earned them the name “the flower in the wind and the moon on a snowy night”, although they could just as easily be called “the big hat on the head and the poor girl struggling underneath”!

In the past, arranged marriages were commonplace among the Bai people but fortunately nowadays Bai youths have the freedom to choose who they want to marry. That being said, the customs and procedures of their wedding ceremony are still largely adhered to, so they haven’t entirely escaped tradition. Once a young man and woman have announced their engagement, the groom will hire workers to begin building a stage in his home, because apparently weddings aren’t expensive enough without turning your house into a theatre!

In a display worthy of a British stag-do, the groom arranges for local singers and actors to perform on this stage on the eve of the wedding and invites his relatives and friends to celebrate his last night as a single man. Providing the wedding stage doesn’t get completely trashed, on the wedding day itself the groom will get up early and prepare a banquet for the guests. This sumptuous feast is punctuated by live music, which is a shame because the bride isn’t there to see it! At this point, in some areas the groom will travel to the bride’s home accompanied by his best man and a bridesmaid, while in other areas he is forbidden to see the bride before the wedding so sends his entourage in his place.

On arrival at the bride’s house, the welcoming party is received with the playing of lively music. This is where one of the strangest customs comes in, as the party are greeted by the bride’s elder relatives with series of odd questions, such as “where are you from?” and “what did you see on the way here?” Their responses must be quick and humorous, or else they will be playfully mocked by the bride’s family. As if getting married wasn’t stressful enough! The bride’s family then hosts the famous Bai tea ceremony known as San Dao Cha or Three Courses of Tea. Four to six men from the bride’s family will make toasts to the groom and his entourage, followed by the groom making toasts to the bride’s family.

According to custom rather than feeling, the bride then has to cry intentionally and sorrowfully in front of her family. As she cries, she should express her gratitude to her parents for having raised her. The bride will then leave her family home and go to the groom’s house, accompanied by more joyous music. That is, if all the mocking and fake crying hasn’t given them cold feet! Once the bride has arrived, she is taken to have her make-up done. While this takes place, children at the wedding are given fire torches and are free to play until the wedding ceremony begins. After all, what could be more fun than giving a bunch of children flaming torches?

When the bride is ready, the children accompany her into the bridal room, which will have been decorated with auspicious symbols. Horse saddles imply diligence, a mirror symbolises bravery, and three arrows indicate happiness. The bride then pays respect to the gods and the groom’s parents. The couple must then rush to compete for a space on a large pillow in the bridal room. It is said that whoever sits on this pillow first will be master of the house, although this is commonly regarded as a joke.

The couple then eats a bowl of incredibly spicy noodles together, which leaves them tearful and is designed primarily to make the guests laugh! From mockery to forced crying to burnt tongues, Bai weddings seem to be pretty sadistic affairs! Finally the couple will cross their arms together and drink wine, which symbolises that they will respect and love each other forever.

In the evening, an intimate dinner will take place between the bride, the bridesmaid, and the elderly women from the groom’s family. After the meal, the bride pays respect to the groom’s elder relatives and gives each of them a pair of embroidered shoes that she has made. In turn, they reward her with monetary gifts. The bride’s younger relatives and neighbouring children will then gather and pay respect to her, and are rewarded with candies and fruit.

The Bai people believe in a mixture of Buddhism, Confucianism, and an indigenous religion known as Benzhuism. In fact, their religious beliefs are so diverse that it is not unusual to find a Buddhist, Taoist, Confucian, and Benzhu temple within a single Bai village. After all, when it comes to the afterlife, you’ve got to have your bases covered! They adopted Buddhism sometime during the 7^th century and Guanyin, the Buddhist deity of mercy, features prominently in some of their oldest myths.

However, by far the most fascinating are the beliefs surrounding their native religion of Benzhuism. This religion revolves around the worship of what they call ngel zex and what the Chinese call benzhu (本主), which roughly translates to mean “local lord” or “local ancestor”. Though its popularity has waned throughout the years, it has recently made a comeback and, according to a census done in 1990, there were approximately 986 Benzhu shrines in Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture alone!

The Bai are polytheistic and their beliefs incorporate aspects of animism[1] and traditional Chinese religion. In fact, they worship pretty much anything, including natural objects, such as stones and trees; ancient deities, such as the God of the Mountain and the God of the Sun; historical heroes from various ethnic groups; legendary characters from folklore; and kings, princes, generals or ministers of the Nanzhao (738-902) and Dali (937-1253) Kingdoms. However, all of these deities act as subsidiaries to the local lord or benzhu.

Generally speaking each village will have its own benzhu, which is the main subject of worship for the villagers, although several villages will sometimes share the same benzhu. Other gods, such as the Dragon King who controls rainfall, the Mother God who distributes children to parents, and the God of Fortune who allocates wealth, all continue to function but are subordinate to the benzhu.

The villagers believe that the benzhu protects their village and passes on their wishes to the heavens, effectively acting as an intermediary between heaven and earth. These gods are always historical heroes, warriors, sages, leaders, or ancestors that have some sort of link to the village they protect and have been deified. For example, according to legend, the royal Duan family came from Qingdong village near Xizhou and thus their local benzhu is Duan Siping, the founder of the Dali Kingdom.

The mythology surrounding each benzhu is wonderfully rich, as every one of them will have a magnificent story to justify their position as a god. They have considerable power and are able to protect crops and livestock, dispel illness, and bring prosperity to the villagers. Whenever a member of the community is born, is sick, dies, or gets married, the villagers will perform certain ceremonies at the Benzhu Temple.

Some scholars believe that Benzhuism was the Bai people’s way of reinforcing their entitlement to certain territories. By worshipping a historical figure who first settled the area or who saved it during some kind of catastrophe, they emphasised their right as the historical figure’s descendants to inhabit that area.

The Nama branch of Bai people, who live near the Lancang River, have preserved the cult of the white stones, which they are believed to have inherited from the ancient Qiang people. However, the origins of these beliefs aren’t entirely clear. Some believe these stones are the sacred bones of their ancestors, while others think they are demons’ bones that are too dangerous to be moved, and still others feel they are symbolic of the Fire God, a deity worshipped throughout China.

They also believe in the cult of the celestial ox, which is a godlike animal that has the power to protect the village, prevent disasters, and benefit the growth of crops and livestock. They believe that this ox, like the benzhu, can act as an intermediary between gods and men. The Nama perform a ritual sacrifice during the 6^th lunar month of each year whereby they transform a regular ox into a celestial one, “help” the ox reach the heavens by sacrificing it and beseech it to present their entreaties to the gods. That being said, I can’t imagine the ox is too keen to help them after they’ve just killed it!

Sometime during the 18^th century, Benzhuism was introduced to the Nama and intermingled with their religious beliefs, which is evidenced by the images of the celestial ox that can still be found in their Benzhu Temples. The term “nama” means “tiger” in their language, as the Nama people believe that they are descended from tigers and so worship the Mother Tigress as their ancestral benzhu.

 

[1] Animism: The belief that all non-human entities, including animals, plants, and even inanimate objects, possess a spiritual essence or soul.