Most Miao people live in mountainous areas, and a few live in mountainous areas. Xiangxi, western Hubei, eastern Sichuan, northeastern Guizhou, Chengbu, Hunan, Jingxian and Longsheng generally live in the foothills, rivers or fields.
Qiandongnan and Guangxi Rongxian. Most people live by rivers, fields or terraces on hillsides. Miao people from central and western Guizhou to Yunnan and southern Sichuan generally live on hillsides, and a few live on hilltops or in places like Pingkan and river valleys.
The form of housing varies from place to place. There are two kinds of Miao folk houses in Qiandongnan, Southwest Hunan, East Sichuan and North Guangxi: bungalows and buildings. On steep slopes, more diaojiao buildings should be built.
There are tile houses and straw houses in central and western Guizhou and western Guangxi. Anshun, Pingba and Zhenning are all built with thin slate. The walls of Miao family in Wenshan, Yunnan Province are mostly woven with bamboo strips and covered with soil and grass.
build
There are roughly the following types of Miao residential buildings: most of the buildings in eastern Guizhou are dry-column buildings and wood structures; In Xiangxi and Songtao areas of Guizhou, bungalows are mostly tile or brick. Most of the central areas of Guizhou are wooden houses; Most of the bungalows in northwest Guizhou and northeast Yunnan are built by civil or vegetation. These types are characterized by local conditions and local materials.
Miao public buildings have national characteristics. Such as Zhaimen, in southeastern Guizhou, many large Miao villages have built public Zhaimen. In Miao villages such as Xiangxi and Qiandongnan, there are public waterwheels and waterwheels. In some areas where Miao and Dong people live together in southeastern Guizhou, there are also wind and rain bridges and drum towers.
traffic
Traffic in Miao areas can be divided into land and water. Waterways are transported along natural rivers by ships of all sizes. The waterways in western Hunan mainly include Youshui, Wushui and Chenshui in the upper reaches of Yuanjiang River. The waterways in southeastern Guizhou mainly include Qingshui River, Duliujiang River and Manwuyang River. In addition, the south-north Panjiang River in southwest Guizhou, the Mengjiang River in south Guizhou and Rongjiang River in Rongshui, Guangxi are also important waterways in Miao areas. There are ferries in the depths of the river, which are divided into public ferry and private ferry.
Miao costumes have few characteristics. Miao costumes are divided into children's wear, Dahua Miao men's wear and women's wear. The color and decoration of Miao men's wear are monotonous, not as bright and rich as women's wear. Women's wear can be divided into casual wear and formal wear. Casual clothes are usually worn clothes, and the colors, patterns and decorations are not as bright as those worn at festivals and weddings.
If silver ornaments are the representative symbols of Miao women, then costumes represent the unique works of art of Miao people. According to Ci Hai, Miao Xiu's highest level is tied with Xiang embroidery, Su embroidery, Shu embroidery and Yue embroidery. Miao embroidery and costumes, as the famous artist Liu Haisu praised: Miao women's embroidery is exquisite, and Xiang embroidery and Su embroidery are even more difficult to avoid customs, which has great commercial development and prospects.
Dahua Miao costumes Miao costumes are famous for their dazzling colors, complex decorations and intriguing cultural connotations. Miao costume design bears the historical responsibility of inheriting national culture, so it has the expression function of text part. Because of the long history, the written function and the specific meaning conveyed by these patterns are also mysterious and cannot be fully interpreted, which is also the unique charm of Miao costume patterns.
Miao costume pattern is a decorative art developed with Miao costume, and it is still used in daily clothes and daily necessities of Balahe branch of Leishan. It has the characteristics of combining practical and aesthetic functions, and has been endowed with rich and colorful connotations and meanings such as inheriting national traditions, commemorating ancestors and inheriting ancestral teachings. The meaning and origin behind these patterns represent the Miao people's perceptual experience and interpretation of the objective world. Miao costumes have a long history. Due to historical reasons, there is no historical record of Miao costumes. However, judging from the cultural connotation represented by the symbols of Miao costumes, Miao costumes have a history of thousands of years. Although Miao people don't have their own literature, they just rely on a strong sense of identity and rely on oral transmission from generation to generation to integrate the stories handed down for thousands of years, the cities where their ancestors lived, and the routes of migration and drifting into the costume culture, and also embroider them into costumes one by one, which will never be forgotten from generation to generation. Therefore, Miao costumes are called wordless history books, which are worn on the body.
If all the well-dressed Miao girls get together, it will definitely become a beautiful silver world. It is the nature of Miao girls to like to wear silver ornaments. They put them in a bun, about 2 0 cm high, and made beautiful silver crowns. There are six jagged silver wings inserted in front of the crown, most of which are the patterns of Ssangyong playing beads. In some areas, in addition to silver pieces, silver horns with a height of about 1 m are inserted into the silver crown, and the tips of the horns float in color, which makes them more noble and rich. There is a silver ribbon at the lower edge of the silver crown, and a row of small silver pendants hang down. The silver collar worn around the neck has several layers, mostly made of silver pieces and small silver rings. Wearing a silver lock and a silver collar on his chest, wearing a silver cloak on his chest and back, and hanging many small silver bells. Earrings and bracelets are all made of silver. Only the two sleeves are embroidered with lux as the main tone, but the cuffs are also inlaid with a wide circle of silver ornaments. The costumes of Miao girls often weigh several kilograms, and some have been accumulated and passed down by generations. Known as "a fairy dressed in strange clothes and wrapped in white." The craftsmanship of Miao silver ornaments is gorgeous, exquisite and ingenious, which fully shows the wisdom and talent of Miao people. Miao girls' skirts are called pleated skirts, but in fact, there are more than five pleats on a skirt, and there are many layers, some as many as thirty or forty layers. These skirts, from weaving, dyeing, sewing to final drawing and embroidery, were all done by the girls themselves. Coupled with hand embroidered belt and flower chest pocket, it is really colorful and beautiful.
What are the characteristics of Miao costumes, diets and folk houses? Miao costume
Miao costumes reflect the characteristics of Miao people's long history, scattered residence and diverse customs. There are strict differences in costumes among branches, counties and villages of Miao nationality. The main colors of their clothes are also different. The so-called "White Miao", "Black Miao", "Flower Miao" and "Han Miao" are all called by their own names or nicknames according to their clothing colors or styles, and some are called "Long skirt Miao" and "Short skirt Miao" according to women's skirts. In fact, the same name is strict, and women's clothes in different regions are different.
2. Malipo people, who are also "white seedlings", wear narrow sleeves with blue cloth round neck and three black cloths lined with white clothes. The collar and chest are white, the forehead is wrapped in a white towel, and the white towel is wrapped in a black towel, which is black and white; The "white seedlings" around Zhenxiong and Weixin are dressed in blue-green long skirts and pleated skirts. All collars, cuffs and waists are embroidered with five-color silk thread, and black and blue cloth strips about five inches wide and more than ten feet long are wrapped around their heads. The outstanding white lies in white leggings.
3. Most Miao costumes are patterned. Embroidery, embroidery, batik, weaving and lining are used together, and the workmanship is very elegant and dazzling. Especially from embroidery patterns, we can often find the history and symbolic significance of Miao nationality, which can be described as "meaningful form". For example, Wenshan "Huamiao" has red, yellow, blue and white patterns embroidered on the collar and sleeves of its black round neck and narrow sleeves. The patterns are mostly flower-shaped and river-shaped. It is said that these patterns symbolize the place where Miao ancestors lived: red and green wavy patterns represent rivers, big flowers represent capitals, staggered patterns represent ridges, and mottled patterns represent ears of grain.
Second, the diet of the Miao people.
In most areas, Miao people have three meals a day, and rice is the staple food. Fried Baba is the most common fried food. If you add some fresh meat and sauerkraut as stuffing, the taste will be more delicious. Most of the meat comes from livestock and poultry, and a few Miao people in some places avoid eating dog meat. In addition to animal oil, Miao people's edible oils are mostly tea oil and vegetable oil. Pepper is the main condiment, and in some areas there is even a saying that it is inseparable from pepper. There are many kinds of Miao vegetables. Common vegetables are beans, melons, greens and radishes. Most Miao people are good at making bean products. Miao people everywhere generally like to eat sauerkraut, and sour soup is a must for every family. Sour soup is rice soup or tofu water, fermented in a crock for 3-5 days, and then used to cook fish and vegetables. The food preservation of Miao people generally adopts pickling method, and vegetables, chickens, ducks and fish like to be pickled into sour taste. Almost every Miao family has a jar for curing food, which is collectively called a sour jar. Miao nationality has a long history of brewing, and has a set of techniques from koji making, fermentation, distillation, blending and cellar storage. Camellia oleifera is the most common daily drink. Miao people in Xiangxi also specially made a kind of scented tea. Sour soup is also a common drink. Typical foods mainly include: blood soup, Chili bone, Miaoxiang Guifeng soup, cotton vegetable cake, insect tea, scented tea, fish paste, sour soup fish and so on. Sour soup fish is a unique food of Miao nationality. Sour and delicious, spicy and energetic, really appetizing.
The houses of three Miao people
1. The houses of Miao people are basically the same. The main house is usually three rooms, and the richer people are five rooms. The gate is concave between two pillars in the middle room. Inside the gate is a hall, which is separated into two rooms on the left and right. The small room on the right is the bedroom of the owner and his wife. There is a fire pond outside, and the room on the left is the children's house. The toilet, pigsty and cowshed are all on the side of the main house. Conditional families also set up leaning buildings on the left and right sides of the main house. People live above the mansion, a barn is installed below, and toilets and pigsty are installed. In southeastern Guizhou and Songtao areas, some landlords in the past also built large quadrangles surrounded by brick walls, commonly known as "houses of discovery". The doors and columns of the hall in the house are inlaid with gold-plated plaques, resplendent and magnificent.
2. Building materials vary from place to place. There are more wood and better economic conditions in Miao nationality areas in southeastern Guizhou, so there are more wooden houses and tile houses, and less straw houses with earth walls. There are wooden houses, tile houses, straw houses and earth-walled houses in central and southern Guizhou, and straw houses and earth-walled houses are the most commonly used. In addition, there are still many Miao people living in "fork houses" in northwest, central south and northern Guizhou. There is no room, no furniture and furnishings in the house. Trees are used as beds, mats are used as mats, and grass piers are used as stools. They are the poorest of the Miao people. In recent years, with the implementation of the reform and opening-up policy, life has improved, the number of thatched houses and forked houses in this area has gradually decreased, and many new brick houses have appeared.
3. In Leigongshan, Wuchuan, Daozhen in southeastern Guizhou and some areas in northern Guizhou, there is a special house form called "Diaojiaolou". A soil platform built on a slope with its foundation cut into the shape of a factory ... >>
Characteristics of Miao Nationality Miao nationality has a population of 7398035, mainly distributed in Guizhou, Hunan, Yunnan, Hubei, Hainan, Guangxi and other provinces (regions). Miaoling Mountain and Wuling Mountain, where Miao people live together, have mild climate, and are surrounded by mountains and waters, with large and small dams scattered all over the place. Mainly produces rice, corn, millet, wheat, cotton, flue-cured tobacco, rape, tung oil and so on. In addition, there are abundant timber resources and mineral resources. The ancestors of Miao people can be traced back to the Chiyou tribe, which was active in the Central Plains in primitive society. During the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, Miao ancestors began to establish "Three Miao Countries" in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River and engaged in agricultural rice cultivation. Miao people have migrated many times in history, and the general route is from the Yellow River valley to Hunan, Guizhou and Yunnan. Miao nationality has its own language, belonging to the Miao branch of Miao Yao language family of Sino-Tibetan language family. Originally, there were no national characters, but Latin pinyin characters were created in the late 1950s. Nowadays, most people use Chinese. Miao people have a long history of music and dance, and Lusheng dance, which is deeply loved by the masses, is highly skilled. Miao people's arts and crafts, such as flower picking, embroidery, brocade, batik and jewelry making, are colorful and enjoy a high reputation in the world. Miao people have many festivals, such as Miao Year, April 8th, Dragon Boat Festival.
What are Miao costumes like? The material of Miao costumes is mainly self-woven dyed cotton, with less silk and hemp. There are not only differences in gender and age, but also differences in formal clothes, medium clothes and paperbacks, as well as regional differences, especially women's clothes, which are extremely colorful, with more than 100. In the past, according to the costumes and headdresses of Miao women, some writings divided Miao into white seedlings, red seedlings, flower seedlings, big flower seedlings, long skirt seedlings, short skirt seedlings, crooked comb seedlings and so on. This division method is obviously unscientific, but it reflects the richness and diversity of Miao costumes due to different years, regions and branches.
In modern times, the basic dress of Miao nationality is that men wear shorts or long skirts. Young people are double-breasted or double-breasted tops and crotch pants. Wear a collarless, sleeveless, embroidered colorful "bird suit" or white robe on festivals. Some dresses have long sleeves, no buttons inside, and many rectangular wide belts hanging down with patterns embroidered on them. Some also wear colorful shawls full of patterns. The old man is wearing a blue robe. Miao people often wrap long cloth on their heads. Tie leggings on your calves. Women's clothing is similar to wearing a hat or cloth, embroidered shoes and silver ornaments. Others vary from place to place, and the styles are basically divided into the following five types: 1, and Qiandongnan wears a collared right shirt and a long-sleeved skirt; Or a jacket with no buttons, long sleeves and a big collar. Lapels and sleeves are inlaid with lace or the whole dress is covered with embroidery patterns. Wearing a pleated skirt has three lengths-from foot to foot; From the middle to the knee; Only as short as the middle of the thigh. Two objects and combination mode. More silver ornaments. 2. In northeastern Guizhou and western Hunan, people wear round necks, large lapels and wide-sleeved tops, and embroider wide lace on shoulders, lapels, sleeves and hem. Wear wide-leg pants (originally wearing a red skirt), which are heel-length and embroidered. Headgear. Flowers and birds with many branches. In the southeast of Guizhou, people wear large neckline double-breasted clothes with many accessories. Wearing a long pleated skirt, the upper part is decorated with many patterns by embroidery, patchwork and batik, and presents many circles from the inside out. 3. In Hainan, wear a single coat, round neck, right lapel and knee-length, black, with narrow edges of red cloth on the collar, sleeves and lapels. Wearing a batik skirt on the floor, there are fewer flowers. The red ribbon around the waist. 4. In Qianxi, southern Sichuan, northern Guangxi and Yunnan, put on a round neck, long sleeves, double-breasted coat or a right-handed big-breasted coat, with the lower part of the left lapel wrapped obliquely to the right and the cuffs inlaid with wide cloth. Wear batik or cyan pleated skirt. Tie the waist, hang a flower ribbon at the back of the waist, with embroidery. There is little silverware. In the south-central area of Guizhou, you are wearing a big-necked double-breasted coat with many accessories. Wearing a long pleated skirt, the upper part is decorated with many patterns by embroidery, patchwork and batik, and presents many circles from the inside out.
At present, in addition to wearing their own national costumes, Chinese tunic suits, suits and all kinds of fashionable clothes have also spread in Miao areas.