Dong Ethnic Minority（侗族）

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第二季《贵州的民族》

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Dong Ethnic Minority

The Ethnic Groups in Guizhou（3）

The Dong ethnic group are renowned for their musical ability and their skill as carpenters. From the Kam Grand Choirs to the looming Drum Towers, Dong villages are a place of harmony and wonder. The Dong people boast a population of nearly 3 million in China and the vast majority of them are concentrated in eastern Guizhou, western Hunan and northern Guangxi. Legends abound as to how the Dong people came to settle where they are now. Although all Dong people agree that their ancestors migrated from the east, southern Dong people believe their ancestors came from Guangdong and Guangxi, whilst northern Dong people believe their ancestors were forced to flee from Zhejiang and Fujian due to locust swarms. Their culture stretches back hundreds of years and this is evident in their daily life and local festivals.

The average Dong village consists of about 200 to 300 households, although the smallest ones will have only 10 to 20 and the largest can have upwards of 1,000. Villages are traditionally led by a council of elders, who are usually over the age of 60 and who utilise the village Drum Tower to hold meetings and discuss local affairs. There are certain features that are common throughout all Dong villages and these include wooden houses supported by stilts, Wind-Rain bridges, Drum Towers, sacred ancient trees, bullfighting arenas, wells surrounded by stone rims, communal fish-ponds, village gates, and altars to the deity Sa Sui.

The Dong language, known as Kam or Gam, is as complex as their culture. Kam is a tonal language but unlike Chinese, which has only 4 tones, there are a staggering 9 tones in Kam that are all used to denote meaning. Officially no written form of Kam exists, although there is now a Latin Romanisation of their language. The history, folktales and legends of the Dong people have all been passed down through song as part of their oral tradition.

The Dong people are polytheistic and most of their religious beliefs revolve around animism. Animism is the spiritual belief that non-human entities, such as animals, plants, inanimate objects and natural phenomena, possess a spiritual essence. The Dong people also worship their ancestors and a few mythical shared ancestor figures such as Song Sang, Song En, Zhang Liang, and Zhang Mei.

Dong deities tend to be based around buildings, natural elements or sacred natural phenomena, such as the two fire spirits, one of which is good and one of which is evil, the spirits of the sky and the earth, the bridge goddess, and the spirits of thunder and lightning. The most important deity in Dong mythology is known as Sa Sui and she is thought to be one of the original land goddesses. Other deities associated with more abstract concepts include the god who banishes evil, the love god, who consists of five male gods, and the family prosperity gods. Snakes are particularly important in Dong religion as they are believed to be the progenitors of their ancient ancestors.

Dong people believe in religious totems, usually in the form of turtles, dragons or snakes, and in divination, using rice grains, bamboo roots, snails, and chicken bones for this purpose. Other spiritual practices include: rituals, such as dragon dances and fire prevention ceremonies; sorcery, which is used to repel evil spirits, recover the soul of a disturbed child, exact revenge on enemies or induce someone to fall in love; and shamanism, which plays a predominantly holistic medicinal role.

There are also many cultural taboos in Dong culture, many of which relate to pregnant women. For example, pregnant women should not participate in marriage ceremonies or arrangements, visit sick acquaintances, sacrifice to gods, or watch new houses being built. Unmarried Dong men should not eat pigs’ feet, as they have cleft hooves, metal should not be placed in coffins, as departed souls fear metal objects, and the lusheng should not be played between the sowing and transplanting of rice seedlings, as it may attract a plague of insects. These are but a few of many taboos that the Dong people adhere to. 

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