Bai people
The Bai or Pai are an East Asian ethnic group native to the Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture of Yunnan Province, Bijie area of Guizhou Province, and Sangzhi area of Hunan Province. The Bai constitute one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by China, with a population of 2,091,543.
Names
The Bai people hold the colour white in high esteem and call themselves "Baipzix", "Bai'ho", "Bai yinl", or "Miep jiax", literally meaning "white people". Bai means "white" in Chinese. Because of their strong preference for white, in 1956 the Chinese authorities named this ethnic group the Bai nationality.The Bai were previously named the Minjia by the Chinese from the 14th century to 1949.
Modern identity
The Bai people are one of the most sinicized minorities in China. The Bai ruling family of the Dali Kingdom claimed to have Chinese ancestry and was recorded by the Yuan dynasty to have hailed from Wuwei, Gansu. Although the Bai are technically one of China's 56 official ethnic groups, it is difficult to qualify them as a distinct ethnic minority. As early as the 1940s, some rejected their non-Chinese origin and preferred to identify themselves solely as Chinese. The Bai ethnic label was not widely used or known until 1958. Today, the Bai people accept minority status for pragmatic reasons; however, they are culturally nearly indistinguishable from Han Chinese.Location
The Bai predominantly reside in Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province, as well as in Gucheng District and Yulong County of Lijiang City, Nanhua County of Chuxiong Prefecture, Xishan District, Wuhua District, and Anning City of Kunming City, Lushui County of Nujiang Lisu Autonomous Prefecture, Longyang District of Baoshan City, Fengqing County of Lincang City, and portions of Zhenxiong County of Zhaotong City.The Bai also constitute a hereditary ethnic group in Guizhou, Hunan, and Hubei Provinces, specifically in Bijie City, Liuzhi Special District, and Shucheng County within Liupanshui City in Guizhou; Sangzhi County in Zhangjiajie City in Hunan; and Hefeng County in Enshi Prefecture in Hubei.
History
The origin of the Bai people has been heavily debated over the past century, though those debates mainly focus on the groups of people who were assimilated. According to archaeological excavations around Lake Erhai, the Bai people may have originated in the area around the lake. The earliest human site, discovered in the early 20th century, was called the Paleolithic Malong relics of Mt. Cangshan, dated circa 4000 BP. The late sites include Haimenkou of Jianchuan, Baiyangcun of Binchuan, and Dabona of Xiangyun.The Bai are mentioned in Tang dynasty texts as the 'Bo People'. Assuming the Bo transcription is correct, the earliest mention of the Bai was in the third century BCE in a text called Lüshi Chunqiu. They were mentioned again in Sima Qian's Records of the Grand Historian in the first century BCE.
The Bai were one of the tribes that helped establish Nanzhao. In 937, the Dali Kingdom was founded by Duan Siping, a Bai man whose family had played a major role in the Nanzhao Kingdom, advocated for the "relief of corvée" and joined 37 tribes in eastern Yunnan to instigate a rebellion. The Dali Kingdom persisted for about 300 years, facilitating the Bai's establishment of internal cohesion centered around the Erhai Lake.
In 1253, the Mongols led by Kublai Khan conquered the Dali Kingdom. The Yuan dynasty established Yunnan Province, created administrative districts in the Erhai region, and retained the Duan Family, the former rulers of Dali, to oversee the region.
In 1381, the Ming dynasty army defeated the Yuan forces, deposed the former ruler of Dali, instituted Dali Prefecture, and subsequently Han Chinese soldiers and migrants entered the Dali region to cultivate the land.
Language
As of 2004, only Bai people who lived in the mountains spoke Bai as their only language, but some Han Chinese in Dali also spoke Bai due to local influence. Among modern Bai people, Chinese is usually used for popular media such as radio, television, and news, while Bai is relegated to folk-arts related activities. No book in the Bai language has been published as of 2005.The origins of the language have been obscured by many years of intensive Chinese influence. Several theories have been proposed, including categorizing it as a sister language of Chinese, a separate group within the Sino-Tibetan family, or in a category more related to the Austrasiatic language or Hmong language. Superficially, the Bai lexicon and grammar are closer to Chinese languages, but they also share common vocabulary items with the Lolo-Burmese languages.
According to the Manshu by Fan Chuo, the Baiman's pronunciation of Chinese was the most accurate out of all the tribes in the area. Scriptures from Nanzhao unearthed in 1950s show that they were written in the Bai language but it does not seem Nanzhao ever attempted to standardize or popularize the script. The same was true for its successor, the Dali Kingdom. During the Ming dynasty, the government began offering state examinations in Yunnan, which solidified Classical Chinese as the official language.
Religion
The habits of the Bai people in the Dali region closely resemble those of conventional Han Chinese culture. They are profoundly impacted by Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism.Buddhism
Most Bai people adhere to a form of Buddhism known as Azhaliism.Historically, the Dali Kingdom was the first Buddhist nation in Yunnan, excluding the Tibetan people in northwestern Yunnan. Buddhism was brought to the Bai people as early as the 8th century. The Bai people once practiced Mahayana Tantric Buddhism. After Wu Sangui's Three Clans Rebellion, it was decisively quelled by the Qing Dynasty. Subsequently, the Buddhist beliefs of the Bai people were coercively supplanted by Chinese Hinayana Buddhism. Furthermore, the Bai people exhibit a strong interest in transcribing Buddhist scriptures. Notable locations such as the Thousand Search Pagoda at Chongsheng Temple, Fengyi North Tangtian Fazang Temple, the Three Pagodas of Chongsheng Temple, and the Fotu Temple have yielded various Buddhist texts, including the Diamond Sutra, Lotus Sutra, and Large Prajñāpāramitā Sūtras, among others.
Benzhuism
Although most Bai people adhere to Azhaliism, a form of Buddhism that traces its history back to the Nanzhao Kingdom, they also practice a native religion called Benzhuism: the worship of ngel zex, local gods and ancestors. Ngel zex could be any hero in history—the prince of the Nanzhao regime, a hero of folklore or even a tiger.Christianity
George Clarke, who arrived in 1881, was the first Protestant missionary to the Bai population. Few Bai individuals adhere to the Christian faith; yet, Christian churches exist in Dali.Islam
There are a few villages in Yunnan where residents are Muslims, but speak Bai as their first language. These people are officially classified by Chinese authorities as belonging to the Hui nationality and call themselves Bai Hui. They usually say that their ancestors were Hui people, who came to Yunnan as followers of the Mongolian army in the 14th century.Culture
Gender
Gender roles were relatively equal in Bai society and women were not considered inferior to men. Having only daughters and no sons was not considered a tragedy.Agriculture
Most Bai are agriculturalists. They cultivate many crops like rice, wheat, rapeseed, sugar, millet, cotton, cane, corn, and tobacco. However, some Bai also engage in fishing and selling local handicrafts to tourists. Most Bai were subsistence rice farmers, but they also cultivated wheat, vegetables, and fruits. Unlike the Han and most other Chinese minority groups, the Bai ate cheese and made it from either cow or goat milk. The leftover whey from the process of cheese-making was fed to pigs. Those who lived around Erhai Lake fished.Bai fishermen have trained cormorants to fish since the 9th century. Lower water quality and high costs of cormorant training have resulted in recent disuse of the practice, though cormorant fishing is still done by local fishers today for tourists.
Cuisine
The Bai people enjoy sour, cold and spicy flavours and excel in preparing delicacies such as cured gammon, bowfish, river snails sauce, fried termite mushrooms and pork liver. The Bai people of Dali and surrounding regions enjoy a distinctive dish known as "raw meat" or "raw skin," which consists of pork that is roasted to a medium doneness, then sliced or shredded, and served with ginger, green onions, vinegar, and chilli peppers to entertain guests.Additionally, there are white wines produced from glutinous rice, "snow plums" crafted from stewed plums and sugar from Cang Mountain, as well as Dengchuan's distinctive "milk fan" and "milk cake", all of which are exceptionally flavourful.
Bai tie-dye
is extensively utilised in Bai apparel, everyday items, traditional folklore, religious ceremonies, and national celebrations. The primary stages of tie-dyeing consist of flower tying and dyeing, with the essential techniques being the twisting and tying approach along with the dyeing process. The essence of the technique is in the dying method and the proficiency in dyeing. The primary instruments for tie-dyeing include the dyeing jar, dyeing stick, sun rack, and stone mill.Zhoucheng, Dali offers a diverse array of tie-dye items, featuring over 1,000 distinct patterns characterised by a broad spectrum of themes and profound meanings.
Clothing
The Bai people, as their name would suggest, favor white clothes and decorations. Women generally wear white dresses, sleeveless jackets of red, blue, or black, embroidered belts, loose trousers, embroidered shoes of white cloth, and jewelry made of gold or silver. Women in Dali traditionally wear a white coat trimmed with a black or purple collar, loose blue trousers, embroidered shoes, silver bracelets, and earrings. Unmarried women wear a single pigtail on the top of their head, while married women roll their hair. The men wear white jackets, black-collared coats, and dark loose shorts. Their headwear and costume reflect the Bai symbols: the snow, the moon, the flower, and the wind.Many Bai women style their hair in a long braid wrapped in a headcloth. This style is called "the phoenix bows its head".