When you come to take part in summer program in China, you may have traveled to Yunnan province. As everybody who travels to Yunnan knows, there are 26 minorities in Yunnan province. Those 26 minorities in Yunnan province have their own culture and traditions. Among those minorities in Yunnan province, Yi Nationality is well known among those foreign learners.
If you go to Sa Ba region in Lu Quan County in the city of Kunming when you spend a Summer in China, you will find the local tradition that every family will prepare a sheepskin as dowry when their daughters get married. It is the tradition passed down by their ancestors for generation and generation.
Why they need a sheepskin as one of the articles in their dowry is the question that every student from HSKpreparation program in China will ask. The tradition is coming from a folk story in Sa Ba region in Lu Quan County in the city of Kunming. It was said many years ago, there was a beautiful girl living in the Sa Yong Village. Her appearance was much more beautiful than a camellia, and her voice was clearer and much more melodious than bird’s singing.
Wherever she went, people lived in that place would forget their sadness and tiredness, and their hearts would be filled with joy and love. Thus, villagers gave a name of A Zhi. If you take internship in China and know some Yi language, you may find A Zhi means magpie in Yi language. When A Zhi grew to about 17 years old, many local families went to her house and brought up proposals of marriage to her.
Some students from volunteer programs in China may ask who the lucky man that she chose was. Unluckily, she did not choose any of those men. Until A Zhi was 20 years old, she fell in love with a man named A Da. A Da was living in the remote Snow Mountain Village, and his family lived on hunting for generations. A Da was a handsome boy and he possessed good hunting skills.
Bad things always happened at a happy moment, which could be summarized from the local stories you had read about when you came to study Mandarin Chinese in Kunming. At the day A Zhi and A Da were getting married, the ghost took A Zhi away. Hearing about the news that A Zhi was taken away, A Da was so distraught that he went to find the ghost regardless of the suggestion and persuasion from local villagers.
What happened next should be covered in your Chinese classes when you study in China. A Da got to the cave where the ghost was living in, and he found many human bones around the entrance of the cave. A Da hid himself behind a big tree and began his preparation work. He took out a cucurbit bottle and daubed some powder on his arrows.
A Da shouted outside the cave, and the ghost thought there was another man came to seek death. The ghost walked out and opened the gate without any caution. A Da discharged the arrow and the ghost fell to the ground immediately the arrow impaled his throat. The kind of powder he used should also be introduced as a deadly poison to ghost by your Chinese teacher when you learn Mandarin in the city of Kunming.
The most exciting part of the story should also be talked about if you traveled to learn Chinese in China. A Da tried to get into the cave, but the ghost turned into large area of nettle and stopped him from getting into the cave. A Da used his sword to chop those nettles, but the cuts on them got healed quickly.
He was so disappointed and angry. Local villagers came to help. They went back to the village and brought many sheepskins to the cave where the ghost was killed. They spread the sheepskins out on those nettles. Stepping on those sheepskins, a Da got into the cave and brought A Zhi out. In order to show her gratitude to A Da, A Zhi treasured the sheepskin as the most precious dowry and wore it on her every day, which was the same as the situation you meet when to go to Sa Ba region in Lu Quan County while you study Chinese in Kunming. The tradition passed down for generation to generation for many years.