When it comes to the Dai people, many people think of the Thai people of Xishuangbanna and Thailand, and today we talk about the unknown things and history of the Dai people.
1. It is not only Xishuangbanna that has Dai.
In fact, there are many Dai inhabited places in China, most of which are in Yunnan, and the most representative are two Dai autonomous prefectures, one of which is xishuangbanna prefecture as we know it, and the other is Dehong prefecture. The Dai are mainly divided into three categories: water Dai, dry Dai and flower waist Dai, of which most of Xishuangbanna are water Dai and most of Dehong Prefecture are dry Dai.
2. The Dai have also produced kings in China.
When it comes to Dai kings, many people will think of Thai kings, in fact, this is also true, in a broad sense, the Dai and Tai are the same ethnic group known as the Dai people, and the Thais are only later migrated out for historical reasons and wars and other reasons. Generally speaking, the Dai Tai people are believed to have originated from the Ailao people during the Han Dynasty in Chinese history, and during that period there was a kingdom called the Ailao State, so not only the Tai people had kings, but also the Dai people.
3. The Dai people have their own complete culture.
The Dai have their own script, their own independent language, and their own New Year. You may know all this, but you may not know what the Dai faith is? Before Buddhism came, the Dai people believed in wizards, each small tribe had its own wizards, they were not the gods that people thought, the wizards at that time would not only observe the heavens and know when it rained, but also had a complete understanding of the drugs in the jungle and knew what medicines were curing and what diseases were cured. What drugs are toxic and how toxic they are. This was relatively advanced among the ethnic minorities at that time, there was a wizard, it was equivalent to having a meteorological observer and a doctor, so the status of wizards in the tribe at that time was very high, but due to various factors such as historical migration wars, there was very little wizarding inheritance now, after all, it was not used in modern times. After the introduction of Buddhism, the beliefs of the Dai people gradually turned into Buddhism, Buddhism prevailed among the Dai people, basically every village will have a temple, the village where I lived when I was a child and there are many Buddhist disciples, many Dai people are willing to send their children to be Buddhists when they are young, and if they don't want to be secular when they grow up, they can return to the world. However, the Buddhism of the Dai people is the Hinayana Buddhism, which first saves oneself and then saves others. It belongs to the combination of realism and idealism. Therefore, the belief of the Dai people was changed from shamans to Buddhism. And here to say a dehong prefecture Dai primary school when there is a Dai language this course, specializing in learning the Dai language and language, and is within nine years of compulsory education, this is very good, I have been to go before but I don't know if there is now.
3. Special physique of Dai girls
The physique of Dai girls is very special, a bit like Xinjiang Uyghur girls and Russian girls, here to state a point is about physique! In the eyes of Dai boys, Dai girls have only two stages, Dai girls and Dai old mothers. Because dai girls are indeed very thin and very slim when they are young, but as long as they get married and have children for a long time, they will become very fat and blessed and obvious, at this time they will enter the Dai old mother mode, but the Dai girls are very industrious, most of the stalls selling things are Dai old mothers, saying that the old mother is actually just a common name, some of the real age is actually only more than twenty-nine or thirty, of course, most of them are more than 40 to 60 is the majority. In fact, no matter what ethnic group most people will be blessed after marriage, but Dai girls will be very different after they are blessed because they are too slim before they are blessed.
4. The Dai eat insects but not only insects
As a Dai, a friend of mine once asked me if you Dai people love to eat insects and eat insects as food. Of course we eat, but the insects we eat are generally bamboo worms, sand worms, bee pupae, grasshoppers, and these non-toxic insects are known. Of course, it is impossible to eat bugs as rice, not because you are too tired, but because there are not so many for you to eat. These things are usually eaten when entertaining guests or in high season, because this thing is difficult to find and expensive. Among them, the sand worm is the most expensive, it is a large crustacean worm, in 2005 it was sold to a piece of five, the next five dollars are difficult to buy, now you want to buy can not buy, because a large number of river sand collection so that the sand worm has no breeding ground, now almost extinct, anyway I have not seen more than ten years. It is often said that the Dai people live in basins close to rivers and rivers and mountain forests, so most of the food is native chicken, native pig (breed of wild boar and domestic pig hybrid is now rare) and fish These are important meats, the staple food is still rice, and most southerners eat rice, compared to the bridge rice noodles they prefer to eat sassam and Pauluda. Of course, there are many delicacies, the most famous of which is the plantain feast, which will have the Dai ethnic group's unique hand-torn beef, bamboo tube rice, ghost chicken, pineapple rice, fried bamboo worms, grilled fish, grilled meat and special dipping pickle paste. If you have the chance, you can try it.
5. The big banyan tree, the symbol of the Dai people
Basically every Dai village will have a big banyan tree, in the anti-Japanese period, the Dai will also bury the corpses and heads of the Japanese army under the roots of the big banyan tree and then wrap the big banyan tree with a white rope The legend is equivalent to imprisoning the soul of the criminal, of course, I have seen this big banyan tree and passed by because my grandmother's house is next to it and not far away, every time the festival is true, the people in the village will go to the big banyan tree to worship the banyan tree, and then send flowers and food and fruit, and then wrap it with a new white rope. So even if we Dai people don't want to go under the big banyan tree at night, our Side Dai people are in awe of the banyan tree, the big banyan tree can be said to be the guardian spirit of the Dai people, every village will have it, just like the Han people will have something in town, some are Buddha statues, some are big trees and the like anyway. Personal feeling is a reverence for the unknown world. (Personal advice to come to Yunnan to play do not run around in the strange big banyan tree you do not know, if there is an offering, there may be unpleasant contradictions and conflicts, of course, if it is a tourist attraction, then do not be afraid, if it is a very spooky place in the wild, the special ancient banyan tree that grows out of a very gloomy place do not go around after all, it is not good to scare yourself, and snakes and insects are often infested, so it is more important to play out to have a reverence for the world, after all, the world is very large, I am very small) Finally, I wish you all the best, happiness and peace.