Chinese Nation - Tu nationality

Tu people mainly live in Huzhu Tu Autonomous County of Qinghai Province. Mine and Datong counties in Qinghai and Tianzhu Tibetan Autonomous County in Gansu are also concentrated, while the rest are scattered in Ledu, Menyuan, Dulan, Wulan, guide, Gonghe, Xining in Qinghai and Zhuoni, Yongdeng, Sunan in Gansu.

Respect the traditional etiquette of the local people, especially the old people to get off the horse.

There is a saying among the Tu people that “when the guest comes, the blessing comes.”. When guests come to visit, they first invite them to sit down on the Kang covered with red wool felt, then offer them a cup of thick Fu tea with green salt, and then serve them with “Kong Guo Mo” the size of a watermelon. When entertaining distinguished guests, there is a “Ximaori” (fried noodles box with butter flowers) on the table, with a large wooden plate of fat meat, a five-inch knife, and a pinch of white wool tied on the wine pot to show good luck. The Tu people think that this is the most respected hospitality for distinguished guests. When drinking, the host first toasts three glasses to the guests, which is called “three glasses of wine on the horse”. For those who can’t drink, dip three drops with the middle finger, and take three drops with the empty bullet. When drinking, the Tu nationality has the habit of singing while drinking, and it is better to be drunk. Tu people use Gaiwan tea, which is popular in Northwest China, to entertain guests. They put the tea bowl in a small dish, put tea, medlar, jujube, Guiyuan, and rock sugar in the bowl, and then rinse them back cover them with boiling water. The tea made in this way is sweet, delicious, and nutritious.

There is a historical process of change in the eating habits of Tu nationality.

Before the Yuan Dynasty, the Tu nationality was mainly engaged in animal husbandry, with a relatively single food structure, mainly meat and dairy products, and also eating highland barley fried noodles. After the Ming Dynasty, the economy of highland barley and wheat was gradually shifted to that of highland barley and potato.

In general, highland barley is the main staple food of the Tu family, followed by wheat. There are fewer vegetables in Tu nationality, mainly including radish, cabbage, onion, garlic, lettuce, etc. They usually eat sauerkraut, supplemented by meat, like to drink milk tea, eat fried noodles with butter. At every festival, the Tu people will make all kinds of fried food, hand meat (pork), hand mutton. Tu people pay great attention to food hygiene, and each of them has a fixed bowl and chopsticks.

To people like to drink. Wine plays an important role in their diet and forms a unique wine culture. In history, almost all Tu people could brew “Moyu”, a kind of low alcohol highland barley wine. Winemaking has become one of the important industries in the Tu nationality area.

The traditional costumes of Tu nationality are bright in color and unique in style, with strong national characteristics.

In traditional men’s clothing, they wear a felt hat with a tapestry edge, an embroidered white jacket with a high collar and slanted skirt, a colorful embroidered pattern on the chest, a black, blue, or purple jacket, or a robe with a wide edge, embroidered belt on the waist, white stockings and cloud embroidered shoes on the feet. Besides, Tu Men are also used to inlaying four-inch red or black fringes on the neckline, lapel, cuff, and hem. Women’s clothes are more gorgeous. They wear colorful round brocade felt hats on their heads, long silver ornaments on their ears, and small collar slant Lapel robes. Outside the robes, they are covered with purplish-red scarves. On their waists, they are tied with wide and long colorful belts. The two ends of the colored belts are exquisitely embroidered. On them are decorated with colorful bags, needles, copper bells, and other decorations. Under them, they wear skirts And trousers, foot pedal colorful cloud embroidered shoes. The most characteristic of their dress is colorful sleeves, which are made of red, yellow, green, green, and purple fabrics. They are proud to say that it is by the color of the rainbow in the sky deployment, wearing particularly eye-catching.

Compared with young people, the clothes of old women are much simpler. They don’t wear colorful sleeves or embroidered ribbons.

Traditional Tu women’s headdress is very complex, wearing a variety of “twist Da” (twist DA) headdress). Because women in different places wear different headdresses, there are as many as 89 kinds of twists, including the twist, Shige twist, Gastwist, Xuegulang twist, Jiamu twist, Sobou twist, etc. Among them, Tuyuhun is said to be the oldest and most noble. It is said that the ancient Tu women were good at fighting and galloping on the battlefield. They were brave and tenacious. They were very beautiful in their war robes. Later, the Tu people gradually settled down and herded, and even converted to farming and animal husbandry. The Tu women put the images of war robes, helmets, and even weapons on their headdresses. Therefore, these headdresses are extremely gorgeous, like the headdresses of ancient palace maids. After women transferred to housework and agricultural production, the heavy agricultural production and housework were no longer suitable for wearing ancient clothes. Also, after 1938, Qinghai warlord Ma Bufang was forced to change the clothes of the Tu nationality. From then on, these various styles of twist were no longer popular and disappeared among the people. Since then, the Tu women often put their hair into two long braids, hanging behind their backs, with the ends connected, and wearing felt hats or top hats decorated with silk brocade.

The main festivals of Tu nationality include an official business meeting of Young temple on the 14th day of the first lunar month, challenge arena meeting in Weiyuan town on February 2nd, temple fair on March 3rd and April 8th, Danma opera meeting on June 11th, youth meeting in Songfan temple and the village on June 13th and 29th, Nadun (harvest celebration meeting) in Minhe Sanchuan area from July 23rd to September and so on. Among them, challenge arena meeting, Danma opera meeting, and Nadun have the most national characteristics Color. At that time, in addition to traditional entertainment activities such as horse racing, wrestling, martial arts, and singing “Hua’er”, material exchange meetings will also be held.

The annual “Nadun” is a festival for the Tu people in Minhe county to celebrate the harvest. Because the carnival of Nadun starts in July of the lunar calendar, it is also called the “July meeting”. “Nathan” is a group activity with each village as the main body. It lasts from the end of summer to autumn, lasting for nearly two months, so some people call it “the longest Carnival in the world”. “Nadun” can also be held by one village as a “host”, while “Nadun” can be held by one village as a “host”. When the male villagers of the two villages lined up, carrying colorful flags and beating gongs and drums to the wheat field, the prelude of “Nathan” was opened. The first thing to start is the hand dance, which is a large-scale dance attended by 40 or 50 people. The hands are arranged in the order of old and young. At the front of the dance are the old people in long clothes and holding fans. They are often the organizers and successors of the national dance. Young people with colorful flags and children with wickers followed in turn, and the procession was jubilant and spectacular. At the same time as dancing, the host kept toasting the participants with the sea bowl to boost the fun. The climax of festivity and joy was wave after wave.

Also, the Spring Festival and Dragon Boat Festival of Tu nationality are similar to those of Han nationality. However, some Tu people in the Huzhu area taboo the Mid Autumn Festival. On the night of the Mid Autumn Festival, they often throw a handful of ashes at the moon.