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Yunnan » Facts » Religion |
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| DESTINATION YUNNAN |
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| To help you plan a holiday in Yunnan, we provide the complete travel fact resource. Whether you are looking for geography, climate, government, economy, people , religion, language , literature, custom, festivals, costumes, music, handicrafts or architecture of Yunnan. You will get all and more by clicking the sections below. |
| YUNNAN FACT INDEX |
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The primitive religion emerged at a certain stage of primitive society. It is the earliest form of religion reflecting the contradiction between human beings and Nature and characterized by multi¡ªgod worship and witch craft dominance. The primitive religion of the ethnic groups in Yunnan is rich in its content and varied in its forms, gathering together almost all the content and forms of primitive religion. It embodies nature worship, animal and plant worship, totem worship, ghost and spirit worship, ancestor worship, and sexuality worship. Many mysterious rituals are still observed to this day. The unbalanced social, political, economical, and cultural development in Yunnan is the foundation for the primitive religion to survive. It has far¡ªreaching influences over the minority areas in Yunnan. The primitive religion exists even among the nationalities with Buddhist, Islamic and Christian beliefs.
The worship of nature is the fundamental form of primitive worship. The Lahu, Jingpo, Lisu, Nu and Dulong ethnic groups worship the heaven, the earth, the sun, the moon, thunder, lightening, fire, mountain, water, gigantic stones and big trees.
Totem worship is the worship of a certain animal, plant or non¡ªliving objects that are considered as the ancestors and kinship of the native people. The most popular totem worship by the Yunnan minority ethnic groups is the tiger. The vestiges of tiger worship are found among the Yi, Dai, Pumi, Hani, and the Lahu nationalities. The Bulang people take the bamboo rat as their totem. Some ethnic people have more than one totem. The Kemu people in Xishuangbanna have 25 totems. The totem for the Yi people in Funing County is bamboo and that for the Nus in Fugong County is the Tulang tree.
The essence of ancestor worship in Yunnan is the belief that the soul of people never dies; the soul of the dead ancestors lives in another world and keeps in touch with their families and protects their family members secretly. Ancestor worship is fully displayed at each stage of the funerals and relevant ceremonies in family worshiping and sacrificial ceremonies as well.
The feature of sextuality worship is the worship of a round and smooth stone, or a wooden club in the shape of the male genital organ, and caves, or stone fissures in the shape of the female genital organ. Generally speaking, the female sextuality worship takes a dominant position while the male sexuality worship also remains.
As a matter of fact, the primitive religions in Yunnan are complicated. Some of them are the incorporations and variations of several primitive beliefs. For example, The Native God Worship of the Bais is a result of combining the ancestor worship with nature worship and other concepts and beliefs. The formation of the Dongba religion of the Naxi ethnic group is also an outcome of integrating the Bon (Tibetan primitive religion) with the local primitive religion.
There are various priests sorcerers for various primitive religions. They take different responsibilities and have different names, such as, Bimo (chief wizard) and Suye of the Yi, Wu, Nanmusa of the Dulong, Zhuima of the Hani, Dongba of the Naxi, Loumiaweng and Namangong of the Yiao, and Niba and Biba of the Lisu minority groups.
Many festivals of Yunnan ethnic groups have a close relationship with primitive religions. Some of them have development from sacrificial activities for production while others started from ancestor worship. Influential festivals with primitive religious features are the Torch Festival, the Munao Zongge Festival (Song and Dance Festival) and the Caihuashan Festival (Flower Festival).
Primitive religion is a general phenomenon among minority nationalities. It can be attributed to people is dependence on nature and their powerlessness towards nature. With the liberation of the prouctive force, the development in science and technology and the progress in culture and education , the ideological understanding and civilization standard of the minority people are improving. The scope of primitive religion is either shrinking or being substituted by other religions.
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