Chepu Village Hani Ethnic Culture Protection Area in Yangjie Town of Honghe County, Honghe

I. Geographical & Ethnic Overview: A Living Landscape of Mountain Civilization

Ecological Setting & Settlement Structure

Ethnic Heritage & Demographics

II. Cultural Heritage: A Living “Ethnic Gene Bank”

Dress Culture: A “Wordless History” Worn on the Body

• Female attire features the “Pacang” pointed white cotton hat, indigo-dyed collarless jacket (“Quepa”), and wide-crotch twisted-pant (“Laba”). Edges are embroidered with sun, terrace, and migration route patterns, while silver ornaments (necklaces, earrings) bear ancestral totems. Crafting a full set requires 12 manual steps over a month:
  • Symbolism: White hats represent ancestral snowy mountains, indigo fabrics symbolize forests/fields, and clinking silver wards off evil. Age-specific styles: young girls’ hats have colored embroidery, married women’s hats have tassels, and elders wear plain indigo, embodying “clothing as identity.”
• Male attire includes a dark blue collared long gown (“Pae”) with black headwrap embroidered with ox-horn motifs, paired with a bamboo waistband and symbolic scabbard, contrasting female elaboration with masculine simplicity.

Textile Techniques: From Nature to Needle

• Cotton & Hemp Production: Locally grown “Aza cotton” and hemp are spun into thread over 30 hours per jin (500g). Indigo dye is fermented from Polygonum tinctorium leaves, with dyers judging quality by “butterfly-shaped” foam on the vat, reflecting ecological wisdom.
• Embroidery & Silverwork:
  • Three stitches (flat, edge, seed) create motifs: 12-ray sun (farming cycle), zigzag migration lines, and parallel terrace waves. A skilled embroiderer takes 300–500 hours for a dress, 6 months for a wedding gown.
  • Silversmiths consecrate tools with mountain spring water, forging “Abo” necklaces (200g, ancestral portraits) and “Zale” earrings (triple-bell drops). Wearing rules – single earring for maidens, double for married women – act as a “body genealogy.”

Oral Traditions & Performing Arts

III. Traditional Festivals: Rituals in the Rhythm of Seasons

1. Zalete (Ten Moon Festival): A 7-Day Clan Reunion

• Day 1: Sacred Forest Initiation
  Before dawn, village god priest “Migu” collects 12 sacred oak leaves from “Mini” forest, walking backward to avoid offending spirits. At noon, a rooster is sacrificed to the moqiu post, with chants: “Ancestors of Noma Amei, our granaries are full – join our feast!”
• Day 3: Clan Feast & Genealogy Recital
  Families lay three-layer bamboo mats: top for ancestral tablets (“Apei”), middle for pig head and glutinous rice cakes, bottom for pine needles (earth). Elders distribute 12 pork pieces (12 generations), narrating lineages: “This is your great-great-grandfather, who saved a white snake in the terraces…” Youth must recite migration routes to join dances.
• Day 7: “Mocuo” Face-Smearing Carnival
  Children smear adults with soot paste, symbolizing Drive away the bane.
• . Legend recalls ancestors tricking mountain spirits with blackened faces; now, a noon “chaotic dance” on moqiu ground celebrates human-divine harmony.

2. Yang’ana Festival (Girls’ Street): 3 Days of Love & Fertility

• Dawn Rain Prayer
  Elderly women offer “Three Whites” (rice, cloth, cotton thread) at a terrace water gate, chanting: “Water god, let the seedlings thrive, let girls’ silver shine…” A white thread tied to the sluice predicts rain – a sign of harvest.
• Noon Moqiu Competition
  A 12m chestnut wood seesaw (12 months) tests male agility: winners receive embroidered hatbands from girls singing: “Seesaw hero soars like an eagle – let me tie your belt…” 2024 saw 67 couples matched via this ritual, 40% of eligible youth.
• Midnight Street Banquet Courtship
  Girls pack 18-section bamboo tubes (adulthood symbol): Pickled meat(love), pepper(courage test), honey (sweetness), and a hidden silver token. Successful suitors walk under the moon (“String the moons”); others apologize with three love songs.

3. Kuzhazha (Swing Festival): 5 Days of Sky- Earth Dialogue

• Erecting the Moqiu Pole
  A 9m chestnut wood (nine heavens) is chosen from sacred forest after praying to the tree god: “Borrow your body for joy – we’ll fertilize your roots next year.” Topped with 12 wildflowers (12 months), the pole is raised amid cheers of “He Bo!” (success), with falling dew seen as divine blessing.
• Nighttime “Aci” Dance & Star Divination
  Three concentric circles: elders chant epics inward, youth dance “Aci” (male “mountain steps,” female “water waist”), children circle with torches. Polyphonic singing speeds with rising sparks – Mopi interpret trajectories: straight to sacred forest means safety; leftward warns of terrace reinforce.

4. Angmatu (Village God Worship): 3 Days of Sacred Liminality

• Day 1: Meat-Prohibition & Sacred Branch Gathering
  A “bowel-cleansing” day with only rice porridge and wild vegetables. Nine pure men (unmarried, parents alive) collect southeast branches of a sacred oak (sunrise direction), covered in white cloth. Any 鸟兽 sound en route requires restarting – a sign of divine disfavor.
• Day 2: Long Street Banquet of Generations
  Hundred bamboo tables stretch from Migu’s home, each with 12 rice bowls (ancestors), 3 wine cups (heaven-earth-human), and sacred leaf salad. Migu sprinkles wine, chanting: “Ancestral spirits, sit at the first table – eat our food, protect our village…” Elders are fed first by juniors with “three-generation” carved spoons, embodying filial piety.
• Day 3: Ritual Return & Taboo Lifting
  Households bury festival utensils and hearth ash under the sacred tree (“return to nature”). Migu unties the village gate’s “taboo rope,” allowing outsiders in – marking the end of sacred time and the renewal of secular life.

IV. Conservation & Contemporary Revival

1. Policy & Infrastructure

• Designated a Yunnan Provincial Ethnic Culture Protection Area in 2018, receiving 140,000 RMB in 2022 for:
  • Restoring moqiu and swing grounds; building an 800㎡ Yiche Costume Museum (2023 completion) displaying 300+ artifacts, including a digital gallery screening The Yiche People documentary.
  • Establishing ICH workshops training villagers in dressmaking and bamboo weaving, with products sold on “Honghe ICH” e-commerce, hitting 500,000 RMB sales in 2024, benefiting 30 families.

2. Living Inheritance & Education

• “Yiche Culture Inheritance Troupe” pairs elders with apprentices, including provincial inheritor Li Dou’nu (costume) and prefectural inheritor Che Zhebo (Yang’ana dance). Village schools teach Yiche language and skills, with students learning chants and making mini-costumes.
• Collaboration with Yunnan Minzu University has created a digital archive: 300 hours of footage, 200,000 characters of text, integrated into the Hani Culture Annals.

3. Cultural Tourism & Sustainability

• Experiences include:
  • Folk Rituals: Dressing in Yiche attire, joining sacred forest worship, and long street banquets;
  • Farm Work: Transplanting rice (using “double-hand backward planting”), harvesting, and making glutinous rice cakes;
  • Eco-Hikes: Following the “Yiche Migration Trail” through terraces to the 300-year-old “Mini Sacred Oak” at 1,800m.
• Rules limit daily visitors to 200, ban photography in sacred forests, and require traditional rammed-earth homestay，balancing authenticity and income.

V. Cultural Significance: A Living Model of Mountain Ecology

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