Like many other cities in Yunnan, Zhaotong has a great number of ethnic minorities. Among the 520 thousand minority people, Yi and Miao ethnic minorities dominate. In addition to the traditional festival of Yi and Miao, unique local operas, music and dances are all common entertainments in the Zhaotong People’s daily life.

Zhaotong boasts a profound historical culture and is known as one of the three headstreams of Yunnan Culture (Dali, Zhaotong and Kunming).

As early as 10 thousand years ago, there were Zhaotong people living in the area. During the Western Han Dynasty, Zhaotong was officially designated as Zhuti Shire. The Han Culture has been dominant in Zhaotong since then.

There are lots of ethnic minorities in Honghe Prefecture, you can dance and sing with local ethnic people, especially during the festival, tourists will be lucky enugh to enjoy the local activities.

Festival of Hani People

Like the Han people, the Hanis celebrate the Spring Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival. Their traditional festivals include October Festival, June Festival and etc.

June Festival, called “Ku Zha Zha” festival in Hani language, is one of the three most important festivals of the Hani nation. It is held around June 24 of the Chinese lunar calendar and lasts for three to six days. During the festival, people sacrifice to the heaven and the cattle, and enjoy the festival by swinging, wrestling, singing and dancing. The main activities of the festival are those of killing an ox for sacrificing, preparing the green grass for the horse of God, playing the turn-swing, having the long street party, dancing and singing and wrestling.

The October Year, also known as Amutu Festival, is the most ceremonious traditional festival of the Hani people. It comes on the first dragon day in the tenth lunar month and is celebrated as the New Year’s Day by the Hani people. On the first day of the festival, every stockaded village holds a big banquet in the center of the main street. The banquet is so large in scale that many tables piled high with different dishes are laid end to end along the street like a colorful dragon, hence the name Long Dragon Banquet.

When preparing this kind of banquet, all the families get their tables line up along the street. The villagers then sit along the table with the priest and the head of the village sitting in the seats of honor. Food and drink offered by each family are presented and people eat and drink and wish each other good luck and happiness.

The New Year’s celebration lasts for five to fifteen days. All other activities break off. Any intruder will be kept in the village until the celebration is over.

There are some ethnic festivals you can enjoy in Qujing.Qujing’s and its surrounding areas are home to the Yi, Zhuang, Miao, Yao, and other ethnic minorities—all with their own unique clothing, customs, beliefs and festivals. On the 3rd day of the 3rd lunar month the Buyi people will gather to celebrate the Cutworm Festival where they will sing, dance and exchange tokens of love before disappearing into the forest on romantic adventures.

In another festival in early April, the Buyi celebrate the birth of the “Buffalo King” by adorning their buffalo with red ribbons. Locals will feed the honored beasts five-colored glutinous rice and allow them to drink tea and rice wine.

Other festivals of interest are the Flower Hill Show (early January) where the Miao people celebrate in festive regalia, and the Torch Festival (some time in late June—different minority groups celebrate it at different times), which is the local ethnic groups equivalent of the Han 

Torch Festival of Yi

The Torch Festival, which falls on June 24 – according to the Lunar Calendar of the Yi nationality — every year, is the most important traditional holiday of Yi people.

During the festival, people burn torches for three days and nights to drive away insects from eating crops.

Meanwhile, Yi villagers also sacrifice pigs and cows during memorial ceremonies for their ancestors. In the evening, they walk around their fields with torches, and gather around bonfires, singing, dancing and playing musical instruments. Similar to Valentine’s Day, the Torch Festival also provides the opportunity for young people to select their “Mr. and Mrs. Right”.

According to the tradition, the man will send sweets to the “lady of his heart”. If the subject of his wooing takes a shine to him, she will eat the sweets and buy him a bottle of alcohol. Then the two people will go and hide in the nearby cornfields after dancing and singing.

The Torch Festival falls on the 24th day of the sixth lunar month. On that day, Yi people from Shilin County gather at the Stone Forest and participate in various activities, such as shopping in the open market fair, bull fighting, dancing and a fireworks display. It is also a good opportunity for young men and women to meet their prospective spouses.

Yunnan Province is home to 25 ethnic minorities, each with its own culture and conventions, and, consequently, there is a plethora of folk festivals throughout the year. These exotic celebrations, together with the rich natural heritage the province’s flora and fauna, display a colorful Yunnan to the world. The Torch Festival, celebrated by the fire-worshipping Yi people, is one such joyful occasion.

For centuries Yi people have lived in what is now the Shilin Yi Autonomous County, located 82 kilometers east of Kunming, the capital city of Yunnan Province. Their tribes include 27 kindred branches, including the Sani, Axi, Heiyi, Baiyi, Yiqing and Ayizi. The Sani is the largest, and the Sani folk epic, “Ashima,” which is well known throughout China, has been translated into over 20 languages, including English, Russian and Japanese. After the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, this epic was adapted into a film that won the top dance prize at the Spanish International Film Festival. Ashima, which means “girl as beautiful as gold,” is the heroine of the epic. She epitomizes the finest qualities of the Yi people: diligence, kindness, honesty and a love of life. “Ashima” has become synonymous with the beautiful, gentle Yi girls. The strong, warm-hearted, kind, clever, honest and brave Ahei is the hero of the epic. Young Yi women often refer to their sweethearts as “Brother Ahei.”

On the day of the Torch Festival, men and women in pairs form rows facing one another on a patch of grass. The men play three-stringed instruments as the women kick and clap to the tempo. Snack vendors take full advantage of the occasion, pitching booths under shady trees where people can rest and take refreshments before carrying on with the day’s activities.

This assembly is a good chance for young men and women to find their “Ashima” or “Brother Ahei,” paying particular attention to their costumes. Young women wear a stiff, triangular piece of fabric on either side of their headdress to attract the attention of young men, but no young man should ever touch this ornament, or he will be forced to labor for three years at the girl’s home. On their wedding day, young women remove the two triangles and lay them flat on top of their heads to symbolize marital peace and happiness.

When a young man chooses a certain young woman, he snatches away her embroidered belt when she is not looking. This practice can be traced back to the ancient Yi marriage custom, where the bridegroom pretends to kidnap his bride. If the young woman returns his love she will allow him to court her. If not, she will put on another belt allowing the man to keep the one he had “stolen.”

In the afternoon a costume contest begins. A team from each of the 27 Yi kindred tribes displays their beautiful costumes on stage. There is a huge diversity of men’s and women’s clothes among them — the headdresses alone encompass many varieties, such as circular, cylindrical or cone-shaped curves adorned with flowers or with hanging embroidered balls, colorful ribbons, and fringes. Seated on the surrounding slopes are the audience, watching and cheering on their teams.

As night falls, the crowd gets bigger, and the climax of the Torch Festival draws near. When it is completely dark, the activities on the open ground subside and a five-meter-tall platform venerating the shrine of the God of Fire is erected to the north.

Suddenly, the ground becomes illuminated by light from its four corners, and the fire-worship ritual begins. Hundreds of women clad in blue shirts and trousers and black aprons enter the grounds in a square formation. They hold a fan-shaped black-and-white wooden drum in their left hands and a drumstick in their right. They then move towards the center of the ground, beating their drums and leaping, squatting and shouting to represent the hard life and daily struggles their ancestors had to endure before they learned to use fire.

The drum beat then stops and the women kneel to face the east from where an army of men clad in black turbans and cloaks emerges. In the front are four men carrying a thick bamboo pole on which stands a necromancer wearing a black gown, swaying and shaking his long, loose hair. On either side are three men, each holding a large red mask with a yellow beard and exposed teeth — images of the God of Fire.

The necromancer advances to the front of the shrine and makes obeisance and prays for the Yi to be blessed with a bountiful harvest in the coming year. He then raises his arm and a ball of fire bursts from the top of the shrine, turning it into a torch. As the crowd cheers, the young men shed their cloaks, and, bare-chested, converge on the site where they cavort wildly, accompanied by women who sing and beat their drums.

Gradually, the women disappear, and, having discarded their drums, reappear holding torches, which are simultaneously lit to illuminate the dark ground. As the crowd bursts into thunderous cheers, fireworks shoot into the sky from all around, and the torches and their bearers form lines that move rapidly across the ground like flying dragons.

As the performance draws to a close, bonfires all around the ground are lit and spectators on the surrounding slopes form circles and dance around the bonfires. At this point, all those present on the sacred site — young or old, man or woman, local or visitor — become completely immersed in the happiness and joy of the festive atmosphere.

Chahua festival

Chahua festival is another characteristic festival which is held to commemorate the hero, Mi Yinu, who helped the Yi people overcome the tyrannical ruler. When the Maying flowers blossom, people will wear them on their hairs or present them to each other and sing to their heart’s content to celebrate their happy life.

Yi is a minority worshiping the tiger. Thus, from the 8th to the 15th day of the lunar January every year, Yi people, especially those from Shuangbai County, celebrate their Tiger Festival. The Tiger Festival is actually a sacrifice and is called “Luoma” in Yi language.

On that occasion, all the adult men from the whole village gather behind the village to offer sacrifice to the local god. The wizard chooses eight of them to perform the main ceremony of the festival. The eight selected men then dress up like tigers by putting on felt with tiger stripes and making-up on their faces, hands and feet also painted like tiger stripes. Under the lead of the black “Tiger King”, they perform all kinds of dances reflecting the production, living, and procreation of the Yi people and go to each house at the village to help get rid of evils, which is called “Luoma Naihong” in Yi language.

It is said that the Yi people from Shuangbai County was once living in a dense forest and disturbed by snakes and wild animals. In order to prevent themselves from being hurt, they thought out a way to guard the village. They put on the peeled tiger skin and dance to show their tiger-like strength and valor, thus the Tiger Dance was created ever since. Today, it is even more vivid and animated with music and drums accompanying. There are eight “tigers” on the first day of the Tiger Festival. Then, there will be one more joining every day until it amounts to 15 “tigers” on the last day of the Festival. It is no more a way for driving away snakes and wild animals but showing the production and daily life of the Yi people.