Since ancient times, the Evenk people have used the cloud scroll pattern as a modification pattern, embroidered on clothing, embedded in living utensils and production tools, not only as an aesthetic need, but also related to the Evenk people's animistic religious beliefs.
Clouds, floating in the blue sky, are a natural phenomenon that people are commonplace. But in the minds of the ancient Evenk people, any natural phenomenon was possessed by gods, who worshipped not only their ancestors, but also nature. Because nature has endowed them with the environment and conditions in which they live. At the same time, it will bring about various natural disasters. Such as floods, lightning strikes, etc., so all kinds of natural phenomena, so that they have a sense of awe, that is, desperate to worship. They believed that the gods in heaven used clouds as a means of transportation for ascension and descent, and that clouds, when gathered, rained and nourished all things, enabling living beings to survive. The undead of the late ancestors, if they can become immortals, will also step on the auspicious clouds and go to the places they should go. Therefore, many elderly people embroidered a cloud scroll pattern on the sole of their shoes before they died, to show that they could ascend to heaven after death, and the Evenk people did not say: "Dead" to the death of the elderly, but said: "Baorihan Ao Sha" (into immortals). In ordinary life, when you encounter a black cloud, you feel afraid and think that there will be demons entangled. If it is a good weather with blue skies and white clouds floating, it is considered auspicious and auspicious, and perhaps there is a "Endu Day" (God) swimming in the clouds.
Whenever in the summer, young women in Evenk, after swimming or tired of picking wild vegetables, lie on the grass, or on the pebble beach of the river, looking up at the clouds, and have infinite imagination, then the old people will pick them up and not let them stare at the clouds. It is believed that the clouds are sacred, possessed by gods, and fear that disasters will come or offend the gods. So don't point to the clouds, and don't look endless.
It can be said that the cloud curl is inseparable from the life of the Evenk people. Various cloud patterns can be seen everywhere on their clothing and production tools. Evenk women, who are known for their ingenuity, cut out a variety of cloud patterns, and in the middle there are "Daorun" Yilega (that is, flowers) and swastika-shaped Yilega, which symbolize wealth, embroidered on boots and shoes, and also embroidered cloud patterns on clothing, tobacco bags, and even shoulder and horse mats. On birch bark utensils, it is inseparable from the cloud pattern, painted or pricked with needles, and then dyed with color.
Nature, giving inspiration to the Evenk people, the morning glow, the sunset, the sunny day, the white clouds, the hideous clouds and the rainbow after the rain, the clouds are constantly changing, transforming into a variety of images, some like pegasus galloping, some like Qionglou Yuyu, some like bears, deer, etc., which provide aesthetic objects for the original aesthetic consciousness of the Evenk people. It makes them have the feeling of loving nature and loving life, so that they can smile and face the changes brought about by the harsh nature, overcome nature, and survive tenaciously.
thank
This article is written by Ms. He Xiuzhi
Excerpt from: Evenk Studies, January 2, 2002
The manuscript is from: Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Evenk Nationality Research Association
Source: Evenk History and Culture