Qiang folk religion is the
indigenous religion of the majority of the
Qiang people
The Qiang people ( Qiangic: ''Rrmea''; ) are an ethnic group in China. They form one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognised by the People's Republic of China, with a population of approximately 310,000 in 2000. They live mainly in a ...
, an ethnic group of
Sichuan
Sichuan (; zh, c=, labels=no, ; zh, p=Sìchuān; alternatively romanized as Szechuan or Szechwan; formerly also referred to as "West China" or "Western China" by Protestant missions) is a province in Southwest China occupying most of the ...
(
China) tightly related to the
Han Chinese
The Han Chinese () or Han people (), are an East Asian ethnic group native to China. They constitute the world's largest ethnic group, making up about 18% of the global population and consisting of various subgroups speaking distinctiv ...
and the
Tibetans
The Tibetan people (; ) are an East Asian ethnic group native to Tibet. Their current population is estimated to be around 6.7 million. In addition to the majority living in Tibet Autonomous Region of China, significant numbers of Tibetans liv ...
.
Chapter 1.3.6 "Religion"
It is
pantheistic
Pantheism is the belief that reality, the universe and the cosmos are identical with divinity and a supreme supernatural being or entity, pointing to the universe as being an immanent creator deity still expanding and creating, which has ...
, involving the worship of a variety of gods of nature and of human affairs, including Qiang
progenitors. White stones are worshipped as it is believed they can be invested with the power of some gods through rituals.
They believe in an overarching
God
In monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. Swinburne, R.G. "God" in Honderich, Ted. (ed)''The Oxford Companion to Philosophy'', Oxford University Press, 1995. God is typically ...
, called ''Mubyasei'' ("God of Heaven"), which is connected to the Chinese concept of ''
Tian
''Tiān'' () is one of the oldest Chinese terms for heaven and a key concept in Chinese mythology, philosophy, and religion. During the Shang dynasty (17th―11th century BCE), the Chinese referred to their supreme god as '' Shàngdì'' (, "Lor ...
'' and clearly identified by the Qiang with the Taoist-originated
Jade Emperor.
[See excerpts]
Religious ceremonies and rituals are directed by priests called ''duāngōng'' in Chinese. They are
shamans
Shamanism is a religious practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with what they believe to be a spirit world through altered states of consciousness, such as trance. The goal of this is usually to direct spirits or spiritu ...
who acquire their position through years of training with a teacher. ''Duāngōng'' are the custodians of Qiang theology, history and mythology. They also administer the
coming of age ceremony for 18-year-old boys, called the "sitting on top of the mountain", which involves the boy's entire family going to mountain tops to sacrifice a sheep or cow, and to plant three cypress trees.
[
Two of the most important religious holidays are the Qiang New Year, falling on the 24th day of the sixth month of the ]lunar calendar
A lunar calendar is a calendar based on the monthly cycles of the Moon's phases ( synodic months, lunations), in contrast to solar calendars, whose annual cycles are based only directly on the solar year. The most commonly used calendar, t ...
(though now it is fixed on October 1st), and the Mountain Sacrifice Festival, held between the second and the sixth month of the lunar calendar. The former festival is to give sacrifice to the God of Heaven, while the latter is dedicated to the god of mountains.[
]
See also
* Chinese folk religion
Chinese folk religion, also known as Chinese popular religion comprehends a range of traditional religious practices of Han Chinese, including the Chinese diaspora. Vivienne Wee described it as "an empty bowl, which can variously be filled ...
* Chinese shamanism
* Dongbaism
Dongba ( Nakhi: ''²dto¹mba'', ) refers to both the religion and the priests of the Nakhi people of Southwest China.
Role in society
''Dongba'' is believed to have originated from the indigenous Tibetan Bon religion. According to Nakhi leg ...
* Mongolian shamanism
Mongolian shamanism ( mn, Бөө мөргөл — ''Böö mörgöl''), more broadly called the Mongolian folk religion, or occasionally Tengerism, refers to the animistic and shamanic ethnic religion that has been practiced in Mongolia and i ...
* Tibetan folk religion ("Bon")
Notes
References
{{religion in China
Qiang people
Religion in Sichuan
Chinese folk religion in Asia