What clothes do the Miao people wear?

Miao costumes

Miao costumes come in many styles and are colorful. There are five streams in "Book of the Later Han Dynasty". Wuxi: The junction of present-day Xiangxi and Guizhou, Sichuan, and Hubei. It is named after the five streams in the area.

The Miao people have records of "good clothes of five colors"; Du Fu, the great poet of the Tang Dynasty, also wrote a famous poem about "clothes of five streams and the sky". There are more than 100 styles of Miao women's clothing, which can be regarded as the most popular among Chinese national costumes. The more representative traditional "costumes" include dozens of headdresses inserted in the bun.

Miao women generally wear narrow-sleeved, large-collared, double-breasted shorts on the upper body and pleated skirts on the lower body. The dresses may be long enough to reach the foot, elegant and colorful, or short and graceful to the knees. When wearing casual clothes, they usually wear a kerchief on their head, a short jacket with a large skirt on the upper body, trousers on the lower body, embroidered lace, an embroidered apron, and some exquisite silver ornaments to set it off.

The attire of Miao men is relatively simple. The tops are mostly double-breasted shorts or right-sided long shirts, with wool felt woven with geometric patterns on their shoulders, cyan Baotou on their heads, and leggings on their calves.

Extended information:

Distribution in China

The Miao people in China have long lived in the Wuling Mountains at the junction of Hunan, Hubei, Guizhou and Chongqing and the adjacent Miao in southeastern Guizhou. Ridge and Moon Mountain, Da and Xiao Mashan in southern Guizhou, Damiao Mountain in Guangxi, Wumeng Mountain in Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan and Chongqing, etc. The provinces include Guizhou, Hunan, Yunnan, Chongqing, Guangxi, Hubei, Sichuan and Hainan. There are 8,653,417 Miao people living in these 8 provinces and regions, accounting for 96.73% of the Miao population.

There are three provinces with a Miao population of over one million. Among them, Guizhou has 4,299,954 Miao people, accounting for 48.07% of the Miao population, 32.24% of Guizhou’s ethnic minority population, and 12.2% of the province’s population. It is the only The second largest ethnic group after the Han.

Hunan is the province with the second largest Miao population. Hunan’s Miao account for 21.48% of the Miao population, 29.97% of Hunan’s ethnic minority population, and 3.04% of the province’s population. It is second only to the Han and Tujia people. The third largest population.

Yunnan is the province with the third largest Miao population. The Miao in Yunnan account for 11.67% of the Miao population, 7.37% of the ethnic minority population in Yunnan, and 2.46% of the province’s population, second only to Han, Yi, Bai, and The seventh largest population among Zhuang, Hani and Dai.

Chongqing is the fourth provincial-level administrative region with the largest Miao population. They are concentrated in the four counties of Xiushan, Qianjiang, Youyang, and Pengshui in the southeast. Most of the Miao people in Chongqing live together with the Tujia people, accounting for 10% of Chongqing’s ethnic minorities. 46%. With the migration caused by work and employment, there are 196,270 Miao people in Guangdong, Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces, accounting for 2.19% of the Miao people. This type of population mainly lives together.

The remaining 1.07% of the Miao people are scattered in the remaining 20 provinces (including active military personnel).

China has 135 counties and cities where the Miao population has exceeded 10,000. Among them, 58 have a Miao population of more than 50,000, 24 have a Miao population of more than 100,000, and 5 have a Miao population of more than 200,000. ( Kaili (Guizhou), Pengshui (Chongqing), and Mayang (Hunan) are the three counties and cities with the highest concentration of Miao people. Songtao, Yuanling, Huayuan, Fenghuang, and Suining counties all have more than 100 Miao people living in them. 2%.

Religion and Culture

The Miao people mostly believe in animistic primitive religion, and their belief system is extremely complex and different for each ethnic group. A characteristic of the Miao religion is its large and complex religious rituals, mysticism, secret rituals, secret orbits, legends, solar calendars, spells, and herbal medicines.

It can be said that all kinds of mysterious religious rituals that were practiced in the early days of mankind are basically included in the traditional customs of the Miao people. In the Miao culture, these religious rituals only serve simple life purposes such as respecting ancestors, exorcising ghosts, worshiping heaven, and getting married.

The customs of the Miao people are not only complex, but can also form their own system under difficult living conditions. The customary laws to maintain the order of life within the tribe are very complete. Solutions to various life conflicts can be found in the customary laws of the Miao people.

And it can be passed down orally without writing, maintaining the stability of a small-scale ethnic group for a long time. This is also the reason why they can maintain their customs by living in seclusion in the mountains and forests for a long time.

At the same time, in order to maintain these customs and pass them on from generation to generation, it takes a lot of money and time. For example, the cost of a Miao girl's clothing is quite expensive, not to mention the expensive religious ceremonies. There is not much help for tribes like the Miao who rely on primitive agricultural production as their main means of survival.

These characteristics have also made the Miao ethnic group one of the poorest ethnic minorities. However, it can survive without disintegration, and its population is still large. Similar situations are experienced by the Yao and She ethnic groups. Far inferior to the Miao people.

If it were not for the continuous external economic support, the custom system of the Miao people is very perfect. It is difficult to explain that they are formed naturally.

Countless Europeans entered the Miao territory in the 19th century and became extremely interested in the customs of the Miao people and conducted vigorous research on them.

In addition to good gods, there are also many evil spirits in the Miao beliefs. Many legends include plots of feuds and grievances, burying the power of fear and hatred in their hearts.

Although in the form of a beautiful legend, it works once there is a trigger.

At the same time, the spiritual control power of the Miao religious secret rituals has also been well preserved, including a large amount of herbal medicine.

So the protection of the traditional customs of the Miao people is of great significance, and it plays a role as a museum in revealing early religion.