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Eastern Miao

These Miao girls are from the Eastern Guizhou Miao. The elaborate headdresses are worn only for festivals, but intricate embroidered clothes are worn every day. The girls begin learning embroidery around 6 or 7 years of age.  Festivals traditionally are a time for the young girls to meet their future husbands.  Young men may come from many miles away to find his bride.  The young couple may meet at one festival and agree to marry, though only see each other once or twice a year at festival times until they marry. 

Close-up of the headdress they wear.  The headdresses are made up of silver or base metal that is silver plated.  Some headdresses are so elaborate they may weigh up to 15 pounds.

Eastern Miao girl from Shidong during the Sister's Rice Festival. This festival used to be characterized by young boys singing traditional Miao love songs to the girl they hoped to marry.  They would pair up at night and spend the entire night getting to know each other while their parents had a big party together.  Many aspects of the festival stays in tact, though with some changes. At a recent festival, it was observed that the young boys hoping to win the girl of his choice didn't sing traditional songs, but played popular Chinese  love songs on a cassette player. Notice the differences between this and the previous picture. Though they live close to each other and fall in the same language group, they have their own adaptations to their languages and cultures.

View of a Miao village. You can often stand on a mountain in highly concentrated Miao areas and see 3 or 4 villages dotting the mountains around you. In this village, a worker asked many people if they knew anything about God or Jesus. After explaining who God was, the Miao man asked "Does he live in my village?  Sorry, but I don't know him."

The Miao religion doesn't normally involve "worship" as we think of it.  It is more of a spirit appeasement.  In this picture, a major festival has taken place inviting the dragon spirit to come and protect the village. The Miao then take blood from a chicken or pig and paper money offered at natural boundaries, such as here where a path crosses a small stream. In this way, the spirits will see the offering and not cross over into their land.

This   altar is similar to what you can find in many Miao areas. The altar is placed at the base of a strong tree as you enter the village. Miao often sacrifice to a tree spirit that watches over their village. Another common place for an altar would be near a pond in the village. Miao invite a dragon spirit to come down from the mountain and dwell in the pond to protect their village from harm. They will sometimes perform an elaborate ritual, "calling the dragon" to ensure the spirit comes down. This may involve the village herding a duck down the mountain and into the pond. The belief is that the duck is inhabited by the dragon spirit and makes its way into this village through the duck.

Wash day among the Miao usually means taking your clothes down to the river and finding a couple nice smooth rocks used to beat your clothes senseless in an attempt to get them clean. They you lay the clothes out on the dirty ground to let it dry. In the warm months, it is fun to loiter by the river watching activities of washing clothes and cleaning vegetables. The screams of laughter from the children can often be heard as they swim nearby.

Miao believe they have 3 or more souls. Many believe that when you die, one soul stays with the body at the grave, one travels on to the place where the rest of the ancestors go, and one stays near the home.  Miao practice ancestor veneration and believe they must take care of the departed's soul or tragedy will strike. Burial practices are similar for most Miao groups, and involve a certain placement of the body in the casket along with things from the deceased life that they can bring with them. This may include drink to refresh them on their journey and a knife they can use to protect themselves on the journey to join the ancestors.

The worship of Guan Ying in China is growing. Guan Ying was a male Hindu god that was imported into Chinese Buddhism as a female deity of compassion. Temples to Guan Ying can be found in many places. Though the Miao don't traditionally worship Guan Ying, some who live in the larger towns will engage in this.

Farwestern Miao

The Horned Miao are part of the Farwestern Miao group. Very little early Christian work touched this group of Miao, so most live with no knowledge even of the name "Jesus". This horned Miao girl is putting on her headdress wrapped around horns to depict a water buffalo. In some areas real hair is used, sometimes including hair from mothers and grandmothers.   In this picture, the "hair" is mostly yarn.

This Horned Miao woman making cloth on her loom.  You find these types of looms among all the Miao groups as they use their skillful hands to create the beautiful embroidery they are famous for.

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