The Lisu people (LiSu) are an ethnic group formed by the fusion of the ancient Qiang people and the ancient Qi people in the south of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and some of the indigenous people of the Yunnan Plateau, and are also one of the ethnic minorities unique to Yunnan in China. They are mainly concentrated in Nujiang Lisu Autonomous Prefecture and Weixi Lisu Autonomous County in Yunnan Province, while the rest are scattered in Kunming, Lijiang, Baoshan, Diqing, Dehong, Dali, Chuxiong and other prefectures and counties in Yunnan, such as Xichang, Yanyuan, Muli, Dechang and Panzhihua in Sichuan, and also live in Myanmar and a few in Thailand. The Lisu also have their own language and script, and the Lisu language belongs to the Sino-Tibetan language family. Lisu is commonly spoken in the Nujiang Lisu Autonomous Prefecture, and due to the dispersion of residence, the language is also divided into several dialect areas.
The economy of the Lisu people is dominated by agriculture. Staple food corn, buckwheat and so on. She likes to drink tea, drink wine, and eat pork. Most of the houses are two-storey houses with dry-column bamboo and wood structures, but there are also bungalow-style wooden or plank houses. Costumes vary from place to place. Men often wear sackcloth robes and knee-length black pants. Wear a black, white or blue headband. Women often wear cardigans on the top and pleated skirts on the bottom. Wear a beaded hat "Ore" or various colored buns made of shells and coral beads.
According to the traditional custom of the Lisu people, the construction of houses must be built within one day, otherwise it is considered unlucky. In order to ensure that the house is built within a day, the owner must rely on the cooperation of family relatives and neighbors, which is called "tile claw" in the Language. A few days before the construction of the house, the owner of the house will notify the relatives and friends. The various building materials were gathered beforehand, and then the wizard was asked to choose an auspicious day, when all the invited relatives, friends and neighbors worked together, and it was completed within one day. Depending on the economic conditions, the owner of the house treats relatives and friends who help each other. In some places, the building of the house is relatively simple, basically a small bamboo building. Upstairs residents, generally with bamboo fences divided into two compartments, the center of the two houses are set up a fire pit, prepared tripod, as cooking rice for fire. At night, the whole family sleeps around the fire, which is lit all year round. When a guest comes, the host gives the fire to the guest. The bamboo building is generally used for raising cattle, pigs and other livestock, and the bamboo building is surrounded by gardens, planted with melons, fruits, vegetables and the like.
This kind of bamboo building of the Lisu people is simple and practical, it can not only prevent moisture, animals, but also facilitate relocation and construction. A Hsinchu building is also to be built in a day, otherwise it is considered unlucky. When it was built, the materials were used on the spot, and the whole village helped each other. Once the Hsinchu Building was completed. The men, women and children in the village came to congratulate, and the host also treated everyone attentively, put on a variety of food, poured water and wine to thank everyone, and the men, women and children of the whole village drank freely and sang and danced. By the Lisu people in Lijiang and other places, the buildings are mostly all-wood buildings, and the chimneys are made of square wood about one or two cubic meters long; they are covered with wooden planks. At the same time, due to the influence of other ethnic groups, a small number of Lisu families also built civil and brick houses.
The Lisu people generally eat two meals a day. Still accustomed to the cooking method of cooking meals in one pot, that is, when cooking, first put the rice into the pot and boil, change the water twice in the middle, and when the rice is almost cooked, put in the greens and cabbage until the dish is rotten. Usually, dishes are rarely cooked, and after the porridge with the same meal is cooked, the whole family eats around the fire. Rice used as a porridge usually has corn and buckwheat. Due to the low cultivation of rice, rice is only used to make porridge during festivals or when receiving guests. The Lisu people living in Lijiang like to eat yin corn rice, the so-called yin corn refers to the corn bun that has just ripened in autumn, and after wrapping the leaves, it is boiled in boiling water, and then stored in the shade. When eating, rub the corn kernels off, peel them with a wooden basket, and cook them over low heat with beans, pork heads or pork chops as a good meal. Most of the Lisu people like to eat corn flowers made of corn.
The lisu people's meat sources include domestic pigs, cattle, sheep, chickens and hunted chamois, rock sheep, mountain donkeys, bison, hares, pheasants and fish in the river, and most of the meat is eaten by salting the meat and grilling it in a fire pit. Grilled meat is a traditional way of eating lisu people. Pork, beef, chicken, and fish can be eaten. This way of eating is delicious and crispy. This is due to the dietary characteristics of this ethnic group that have long been based on hunting and mining. But the Lisu people do not eat buffalo, dogs, cats, or horse meat. Common vegetables are greens, cabbage, turnips, taro and various melons, potatoes, supplemented by oranges, peaches, pears, and other fruits. Due to the abundant local lacquer oil, all dishes are prepared with lacquer oil. Such as lacquer oil fried chicken, lacquer oil stewed chicken, lacquer oil boiled sweet wine eggs and so on. Lacquered liqueur is considered to be the best food for maternity deficiency.
Lisu families are beekeeping, as few as 4, 5 groups, more than a dozen groups, every autumn, every family brews wine, the raw materials used in addition to corn, sorghum, but also like to use weeds, and weed wine is the best. When brewing wine, the raw materials are first mashed, steamed and then put in the altar of wine and medicine, and after 10 days, they can be opened and drunk, the degree is not high, light and mellow, and has the effect of quenching thirst and refreshing. The Lisu also like to drink a kind of hemp seed tea. When making hemp seed tea, first put the hemp seeds into the pot and roast them over low heat, then mash them into boiling water and boil them for 6-7 minutes, remove the drainage residue, and the soup is still put into the pot and put salt or sugar to boil to drink. Hemp seed tea is white, and drinking more can be as intoxicating as drinking alcohol. The Lisu people in the Gongshan area, influenced by the local Tibetan way of life, also have the habit of drinking butter tea.
Both men and women of the Lisu ethnic group have the custom of chewing cigarettes and drinking alcohol. When guests come, they are to give tobacco; men and women seeking a partner are to throw cigarette boxes as souvenirs. It can be seen that the position of tobacco in the life of the Lisu people. When chewing a cigarette, put the tobacco in your mouth, then slowly chew the black gelatinous substance and slaked lime made of betel nut root, plum bark, chestnut leaves, and chestnut leaves. Soon, the lips were like coconut red. Nowadays, some women believe that chewing tobacco is indecent, and quitting smoking has gradually become a conscious behavior.
In the past, the lisu folk practiced animistic nature worship, and all traditional festivals were closely related to religious ritual activities. The Lisu determine solar terms by observing phenological changes. The largest folk festival is the annual Koshi Festival (New Year Festival). In order to pray for the abundance of grains, each family must take out a part of the indica rice or glutinous corn rice or glutinous corn dumplings for the first time to be hung on the tree as a sacrifice, and also divide a small bowl to feed the dogs, because folklore says that dogs bring the grains to the human world; in some places, they also feed the first scooped rice to the cattle to thank the cattle for helping humans cultivate the land. On the first day of the Festival, the whole family gathers for dinner and drinks "veneer wine" together.
"Veneer wine", also known as double-glass wine and concentric wine, is a playful way for Lisu men and women to socialize. They often store their high concentrations of wine at home and keep it for guests. As for the occasions when the banquet song and dance are larger, they often drink temporary brewed water wine to avoid getting drunk. The lisu people's drinking utensils are more primitive bamboo tubes, and now sometimes use ceramic utensils. When drinking, the host takes a bamboo tube of wine, and drinks it with the guest face to face, and there must be no wine spilling on the ground, otherwise it will start from the beginning. Drinking "veneer wine" is absolutely not to avoid the suspicion of men and women, husbands and wives feast together, husbands and other women to drink face-to-face, wives also with other men to have a "double cup", this is a normal phenomenon. Newcomers to the outside world are often flooded with hot faces and bloated by the locals, while the owner is indifferent. It turns out that when the host and guest drink "veneer wine", the host is afraid of wine overflowing, the barrel mouth is slightly deflected in the direction of the guest, the guest is afraid of the wine overflow, and the natural "grunt" open mouth welcomes the wine, but the host drinks less wine. However, this kind of drinking scene is really strange and rare, and often leaves a good impression on guests.
"Buried Lovers in Jiangsha" is the most distinctive traditional festival and courtship activity of Lisu youth in Fugong County, Nujiang Lisu Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province. It is held every year around the fourth and fifth day of the first lunar month. At that time, young men and women gathered on the banks of the Nu River, singing and dancing. With the help of his companions, he also dug a bunker on the beach, carried the crush into the "burial", and pretended to be very sad and weeping, singing mourning songs and dancing mourning dances. After the fight, the person in mind is pulled out. They believe that through this activity, one is to express the sincerity and depth of the feelings between lovers, and the other is to bury the "god of death" attached to the person in mind, so that the person in mind can live a long and healthy life.
Lisu folk weddings and funerals are to slaughter sheep (or cattle) and slaughter pigs for feasts. When young men and women are married, both men and women are required to set up banquets. When the woman arrives at the door of the man's house, the man also sets up a table at the door and invites the accompanying guests to drink. After the wedding, the groom and the bride should exchange dishes and chopsticks, indicating that they will respect and love each other in the future. When treating guests, both pork and lamb (or beef) are willing to be boiled in one pot. If there is a VIP, it is also necessary to cook suckling pigs to entertain, and it is best to have a piglet that has just been weaned for two months. Guests should eat a unique dish, and when they eat, the host and guests sit on the ground, eat the meat separately, and the rest can be taken away. Some Lisu people in Fugong, when there is a light of guests, the host often uses walnut kernels, ginger peppers, garlic, etc. into bamboo tubes to mash, put into wooden bowls and add salt to guests.
The Lisu people in the Nu river area have a special custom of spring bathing, when most young men and women bring their own luggage, food and tableware to bathe in the hot springs. The Xiulan River in the Lijiang area will become muddy three days before or three days after the summer, it is said that it contains a lot of minerals, drinking has the function of curing stomach diseases, cooking with the water of the Xiulan River, the rice is red, fragrant and delicious. At that time, a steam bath will also be carried out, which can cure rheumatism after bathing. During the bathing period, everyone has a picnic together, which is a large-scale suburban hunting picnic activity of the Lisu people, and the Lisu people also celebrate the harvest festival, which is mostly held between the ninth and tenth months of the lunar calendar every year. The biggest event of the harvest festival is that everyone makes wine and tastes new, and some people even go directly to the field to cook wine while harvesting, accompanied by song and dance, often all night long, and have fun.