Dai population 1.62 million, including Yunnan1.01.40 million, mainly living in Xishuangbanna and Dehong. Gengma and Mengding in Linxing, Menglian in Simao and Xinping in Yuxi are also distributed in more than 30 counties. The ancestors of the Dai nationality were one of the hundreds of ancient Yues, which were called "Dian Yue" and "Shan" in the Han Dynasty. After the Wei and Jin Dynasties, there were many nicknames such as "Golden Teeth", "White Dress" and "Vote for Foreigners", but all of them called themselves "Dai", meaning people who love freedom and peace. Dai people can be divided into Shui Dai, Han Dai and Huayao Dai.

Dai people have a long history, rich culture, their own calendar, language and writing, and are famous for their rich folk literature and art. Music, dance, folk songs, folk stories and other stories are full of national characteristics and have a wide influence. Dai people mainly live in Pingba area in tropical and subtropical areas, and many villages face rivers and lakes. At ordinary times, every household has a bamboo building, surrounded by bamboo fences, surrounded by fruit trees and bamboo, and the environment is very beautiful. The surrounding fields are fertile and rich in specialties. Dai people are gentle and love singing and dancing.

Some people say that Dai women's clothes are the most beautiful in the world, colorful and beautiful like a proud peacock. As long as people who know the situation feel that this statement is not exaggerated at all. Generally speaking, Dai women are slim, pure and beautiful, and graceful, so they are called "golden peacocks". They are not only beautiful, but also good at dressing up, dressing themselves up as beautiful as flowers and pure as jade with unique costumes. Dai women generally like to wear short sleeves and skirts to fully show their slim figure. Wearing a Baise or crimson underwear, it is a tight top with a round neck and narrow sleeves, with big breasts and double breasts, and there are many colors such as pink, light yellow, light green, white and sky blue. Nowadays, it is mostly sewn with materials such as georgette, silk and Zhenshuang. The narrow-sleeved jacket tightly wraps the arm and there are no gaps in several subjects. Many people also like to sew with flesh-colored materials. If you don't look carefully, you can't see the sleeves. The front and back skirts are just waist high, tightly wrapped around the body, and the short sleeves are tied together with the skirt with a silver belt, and the skirt grows to the instep. The waist is slim and small, and the hem is wide. This kind of dress of Dai women fully shows the beauty of women's chest, waist and buttocks. The fabrics used are soft, bright and bright, giving people a sense of elegance when walking or doing things.

Dai men generally wear collarless double-breasted or large-breasted small sleeve shirts and long-sleeved trousers, with white cloth, blue cloth or crimson cloth as the head, and some wear tweed brush caps, which looks chic. Dai people, both men and women, always like to carry a shoulder bag (handkerchief) made of brocade on their shoulders when they go out. The satchel is brightly colored, simple in style, and has strong life color and national characteristics. The patterns are rare birds and animals, flowers and trees or geometric figures, which are vivid and realistic. Each pattern contains specific contents, such as: red and green are to commemorate ancestors; Peacock pattern indicates good luck; The elephant pattern symbolizes a bumper harvest and a better life, which fully shows the Dai people's yearning for and pursuit of a better life.

Dai festivals mainly include opening and closing ceremonies, dragon sending festivals and so on. The biggest of which is the Water-splashing Festival. Songkran Festival is a traditional festival for Dai people to see off the old and welcome the new. People think that sprinkling water on each other can eliminate disasters and help each other. Young men and women not only bless each other, but also splash water on each other for fun. During the festival, there will be activities such as sand piling, packet loss, flying high and dragon boat racing. At that time, guests from all over the world gathered in Spain and Dehong, which was very lively.

Dai customs

Dai people are distributed throughout Simao, with Jinggu, Menglian, Lancang, Jiangcheng, Pu 'er, Mojiang and Simao as the majority. Jinggu and Menglian are Dai branches, Mangjing and Mangna in Lancang River are Dai branches, and Tuka River in Jiangcheng is Dai branches. Most Dai people in Jinggu live in bungalows, which are civil structures covered with thatch or tiles. The entrance is the central hall, with a fireplace for cooking, making tea and heating, and an iron tripod. The bed is made in the hall to entertain guests, and the small rooms on the left and right sides of the central hall are the master bedrooms. There are two kinds of building structures: floor-standing and dry railing. Dry railing palm building, upstairs occupied, downstairs closed with livestock, piled with firewood and production tools. Ganlan house is warm in winter and cool in summer, with bamboo and wood as building materials and miscellaneous wood as the main materials. Red-haired trees, Castanea henryi trees and black wattle trees are mostly used as columns, and bamboo chips or sawdust are used as rafters. The roof is covered with straw rafts or tiles, and the house is divided into upper and lower floors. The upper floor is surrounded by wooden boards or bamboo basketry, and there is a terrace behind the building. Dai people in Menglian, Lancang and Jiangdong live in Ganlan houses. People from the Miao branch of the Dai society in Tuka River in Jiangcheng live in a floor-standing chicken coop.

Dai people in Jinggu wear white headscarves, and they love felt hats, white double-breasted clothes and wide crotch during festivals. Women wear dresses and tops with wide sleeves and open collars, and the neckline is lined with white cloth. Most people like white, blue and black. Older people wear dark colors and girls like to wear light colors. Men, women and children like to wear silver earrings and jade bracelets. They have the custom of tattooing. They can get tattoos from limbs to chest and back. There are many tattoo patterns, including animal shapes and flower patterns, and more are Dai tattoos such as praying for blessings, or some influential famous sayings in Buddhist scriptures. Dai people wear tight clothes, while women like tight tops, long dark skirts, belts with silver buttons and small silver earrings with earrings. They like white baotou, and most of them use self-spun and self-woven banners with red stripes. In the early days of the People's Republic of China, some people made skirts with this pattern cloth, so they were called "Huayao Dai" by other ethnic groups. Dai men's wear tends to be China. Old people wear large crotch homespun pants, double-breasted homespun jackets, felt hats or white cloth buns. Women have long hair, don't braid it, just tie a knot in the back of the head and insert a silver needle, then cover it with a flower head. Dai people generally like black clothes. It's very popular that Daishehao men can't get tattoos or lose their teeth. The women wore two tight white clothes with 12 pairs of silver buttons pinned on them, and blue skirts, earrings and headscarves on their heads.

Young people of the Dai people describe love as "another girl", which means string girls. If you are invited, you will be lonely. Give each other tokens such as lace, earrings and jewelry after falling in love. Marriage does not require the consent of both parents, only the bride price can be completed according to the marriage customs, and the age of marriage is generally after 20 years old. There are many wedding gifts, and the Dai people in Jinggu Jiangdong have betrothal gifts before marriage. The man's family must give the woman's parents 2 pots of wine, 5 kg of meat, 4 noodles, more than 20 kg of brown sugar, 1500 kg of firewood, 1000 yuan of nursing expenses. In addition, we should give the matchmaker a pig's head, a pillow, a pair of shoes and a few kilograms of rice and meat. When you return to China after marriage, you should give your wife 2.40 yuan and a piece of cloth. The marriage of Dai people is relatively free. As long as the two sides love each other, they can tell their parents to let the media propose to them and use money as a dowry. The amount depends on their financial resources. Due to the restriction of marriage conditions, the Dai people are generally married by close relatives, and there is no restriction on unmarried surnames. Weddings are relatively simple. The poor prepare some bananas, sugar cane and other fruits, tobacco and alcohol, and invite relatives and friends to congratulate the ceremony. Rich people kill pigs to eat, don't build sheds, don't sit in sedan chairs, and don't play the piano and sing. When holding a wedding, the old man is tied to the soul line, teaching the truth of being a man and congratulating him. It is more common for a husband to live away from his wife.

The Dai people in Jinggu are all cremated and buried, and those who die normally are buried. Abnormal death should be cremated. After death, please ask the Buddha to recite the scriptures and turn over the dead. The host family will prepare a canteen for Buddhists and Monks, kill pigs and cows, drill wells, entertain relatives and friends, and help others. After turning over the dead, carry the body to the forest for burial, with head facing east and feet facing west. After wrapping the body in white cloth, use wooden boards or bamboo rafts for funeral. After burial, there will be no grave, no monument, and future generations will not visit the grave. In the festival of 2008, I went to the Buddhist temple to worship the Buddha and drop water, and the Buddha read the "Drip Sutra" to sacrifice the dead. After his death, a famous monk should erect a monument in the shape of a stupa. From the "Sadi" level, the higher the status, the more pagodas there are, and there are no words engraved on the tablet. After the death of the Dai people, they should ask the Buddha and the monk to recite the scriptures, and their families should do merits for the deceased, and then use wooden boards to make coffins for burial. Normal death is buried and abnormal death is cremated. After the death of the Dai people, they are buried; Funeral coffin, buried in peace, but there is no inscription, only the surrounding stones. After the death of an adult, a buffalo and a yellow cattle should be slaughtered as sacrifices, and the Hani people should be invited to "shelter" for a funeral.