The Zhuang have a rich variety of customs and culture.

Festivals

"Sam Nyied Sam" the 3rd day of the 3rd month of the Chinese lunar calendar is one of the main festivals of the Zhuang celebrated by singing, dancing, games, and special food. At this time traditionally young men and women sing antiphonal songs to each other. *festival of the ancestor sacrifice of the 7th lunar month *the ''

Duanwu The Dragon Boat Festival ( zh, s=端午节, t=端午節) is a traditional Chinese holiday which occurs on the fifth day of the fifth month of the Chinese calendar, which corresponds to late May or June in the Gregorian calendar. Names The Engl ...

'' medicine festival *Buffalo King Festival - celebrated in Niutouzhai Village, Wenshan County, where there is a Buffalo King Temple. The Zhuang have long worshipped the

water buffalo The water buffalo (''Bubalus bubalis''), also called the domestic water buffalo or Asian water buffalo, is a large bovid originating in the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia. Today, it is also found in Europe, Australia, North America, So ...

. *bullfighting festival *Firstfruits Festival *Zhuang children's festival; dates chosen by each individual village

Stories

The Zhuang peoples of Yunnan and Guangxi have a rich tradition of written and unwritten stories.Johnson & Wang 2008 Zhuang folk stories often take the form of songs. There are various folk tales, myths, legends, and historical poems and chants. For over one thousand years they have used Sawndip to write a wide variety of literature, including folk songs, operas, poems, scriptures, letters, contracts, and court documents. Bronze drum with frogs

There are many stories that are a thousand years old, or older. One, a fairy tale which has attracted much attention in recent years, is "The orphan girl and the rich girl." It is an early version of the story Cinderella (Zhuang "Dahgyax Dahbengz" Dah - indicates female, means orphan and means rich). It is found in Zhuang opera scripts. A 9th century Chinese translation of a Zhuang story entitled

Ye Xian "Ye Xian" (; ) is a Chinese fairy tale that is similar to the European Cinderella story, the Malay-Indonesian Bawang Putih Bawang Merah tale, the Vietnamese Tấm Cám story, and stories from other ethnic groups including the Tibetans and the ...

was written in the

Miscellaneous Morsels from Youyang The ''Miscellaneous Morsels from Youyang'' () is a book written by Duan Chengshi in the 9th century. It focuses on miscellany of Chinese and foreign legends and hearsay, reports on natural phenomena, short anecdotes, and tales of the wondrous an ...

and the Sawndip versions we now have are quite similar. Analysis suggests these versions took shape no later than the 10th century. "The house-raising song" has been sung for over a thousand years. This song has two parts. The first part describes the construction of a traditional

stilt house Stilt houses (also called pile dwellings or lake dwellings) are houses raised on stilts (or piles) over the surface of the soil or a body of water. Stilt houses are built primarily as a protection against flooding; they also keep out vermin. The ...

, and the second part describes customs to ward off evil from the new home. "The Origin of the

Bronze Drum Bronze drums are ancient artifacts found in various cultures in Southeast Asia and southern China. The drums were cast in bronze using the lost-wax casting method. The drums were both musical instruments and cult objects. They are decorated with ge ...

" tells of the origins of bronze drums that are like "stars" (such drums have a star in the middle of them), that they are as many as the stars of the sky and like stars can ward off evil spirits. The Zhuang have their own scriptures written in poetical form such as the '' Baeu Rodo'' about the creation of the world. As well as indigenous stories many stories from other peoples such as the Han Chinese have become part of the Zhuang literary tradition. Whilst the original Chinese opera of "

The Legend of Wenlong "The Legend of Wenlong" is an ancient folk story of Han Chinese origin, that was early on adopted by several people groups in Southern China including the Zhuang. It is also known by the name of the associated Chinese opera ''Liu Wenlong and the Wat ...

" has been lost, the story has been preserved in Zhuang texts. *"The cutting down the banana tree song" ("Kau Tam Gvoa") *"The song of the origin of bronze" ("Gvau Dong") *"The rice paddy-planting song" *"Village visitation songs" *"Wine banquet songs" *"The national partition song" *"Banlong and Banli" *Poems of the Poya Songbook *"The escape from marriage song" *"Yiluo and Diling" *"Buloakdvo" *"Tea origin songs" *''Swqmo'': records of Zhuang history, ethnic relations, astronomy, farming technology, literary arts, religious beliefs, customs and traditions, and so on.

Folk arts

Zhuang folk arts include music and dance:

Music

*Masa classical music: classical orchestras of Masa Village, Maguan County, Yunnan *Zhuang ceremonial music *Bawu: a type of Zhuang folk music dating back to ancient times *Mubala: ancient Zhuang wind instrument *Huqin: stringed instrument made from a water buffalo horn or horse bone; may be two-stringed or four-stringed *''Svaeu'na'' toasting they dance and sing

Dances

There are many types of Zhuang dance. *bronze drum dance *straw man dance *water buffalo dance () *paper horse dance *hand towel dance *sun () dance

Handicrafts

Traditional Zhuang folk handicrafts includes the following. *bird totem hats *elephant trunk shoes reflecting Zhuang elephant worship *totem back carriers, consisting of fish, bird, and abstract symbolic designs *cloth monkey medicine bags *embroidered balls *spinning tops *: teeter-totter; the is a more complex variant *wood prints *paper *traditional waterwheels *traditional brocades and weavings *silver jewelry *straw mats *bamboo basket weaving *rattan *''Paeng'vae'': a type of linen made of grass leaves and hemp fibers, made by weaving the two 90 degrees with each other

Religion

Most Zhuang follow traditional

animist Animism (from Latin: ' meaning 'breath, Soul, spirit, life') is the belief that objects, places, and creatures all possess a distinct Spirituality, spiritual essence. Potentially, animism perceives all things—Animal, animals, Plant, plants, Ro ...

practices known as Mo or Shigong which include elements of ancestor worship. The Mo have their own

sutra ''Sutra'' ( sa, सूत्र, translit=sūtra, translit-std=IAST, translation=string, thread)Monier Williams, ''Sanskrit English Dictionary'', Oxford University Press, Entry fo''sutra'' page 1241 in Indian literary traditions refers to an aph ...

and professional priests known as Bu Mo who traditionally use chicken bones for divination. In Mo, the creator is known as Bu Luotuo and the universe is tripartite, with all things composed from the three elements of heaven, earth, and water. There are also a number of

Buddhists Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and gra ...

, Taoists, and

Christians Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

among the Zhuang. *sacrificing to the field deity *mountain sacrifices *worshipping ''Zoa'nongz'', the god of the ''ndoang'' (forest) *sacrifices to ''Zoachu'', the sun deity and original ancestor spirits now living in trees of ancient forests *sacrifices to the mother tree or ''mih maix'' (among the Dai or Tu of Wenshan) *''Longdvaen'' festival: theatric performances in Guichao Township,

Funing County Funing may refer to the following locations in China: *Ningde, Fujian, formerly named Funing * Funing County, Hebei (抚宁县) *Funing County, Jiangsu (阜宁县) *Funing County, Yunnan Funing County (; Zhuang language: ) is located in Wenshan Z ...

*Opening the seedlings' door ceremony: a healthy, beautiful girl is chosen to plant the first seedling *Ceremony for repelling insects: insects are loaded onto paper boats, which are floated away in the water while drums and gongs are beaten *Sacrifices to

Nong Zhigao Nong Zhigao (modern Zhuang language: ; , vi, Nùng Trí Cao, links=no) (1025–1055?) is a hero admired by the Nùng people of Vietnam, and Zhuang people, Zhuang people of China. His father Nong Quanfu was head of the local Zhuang people in Gu ...

in the 6th and 7th lunar months; purple-dyed

glutinous rice Glutinous rice (''Oryza sativa var. glutinosa''; also called sticky rice, sweet rice or waxy rice) is a type of rice grown mainly in Southeast and East Asia, and the northeastern regions of South Asia, which has opaque grains, very low amylose ...

is offered, and sometimes cattle *offerings to the sun: In Shangguo Village, Xichou County, Zhuang women bathe in the river, put on their traditional clothing and headdresses, and then make offerings to the sun with yellow glutinous rice, which they carry up Sun Mountain. *Sky Sacrifices: practiced in Bahao (''Pya'Kau''),

Guangnan County Guangnan County (; Zhuang: ) is located in Wenshan Zhuang and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan province, China. The seat of Guangnan, known today as Liancheng (), was the heart of the Gouding Kingdom () that lasted approximately 400 years, f ...

, which a wooden hall on Bozhe Mountain is dedicated for *''hvaeng ting Svaeu'' (townhall shrine) sacrifices: in Guima Village,

*sweeping the village to chase away evil *sacrifice to the song immortal: shrine in Ake Village,

*reception of the Princess Huanggu *sacrifices to

bronze drum Bronze drums are ancient artifacts found in various cultures in Southeast Asia and southern China. The drums were cast in bronze using the lost-wax casting method. The drums were both musical instruments and cult objects. They are decorated with ge ...

s *''Paeng'zong'': banners hung during sacrifice ceremonies for funerals *''Paengban'': long banners hung during sacrifice ceremonies to repel evil *''Paengsaeh'': banners hung during animal sacrifices for religious ceremonies

Language

The

Zhuang languages The Zhuang languages (; autonym: , pre-1982: , Sawndip: 話僮, from ''vah'', 'language' and ''Cuengh'', 'Zhuang'; ) are any of more than a dozen Tai languages spoken by the Zhuang people of Southern China in the province of Guangxi and adjacen ...

are a group of

mutually unintelligible In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is a relationship between languages or dialects in which speakers of different but related varieties can readily understand each other without prior familiarity or special effort. It is sometimes used as an ...

languages of the Tai family, heavily influenced by nearby dialects of Chinese. The

Standard Zhuang Standard Zhuang (autonym: , , (pre-1982: ; Sawndip: ); ) is the official standardized form of the Zhuang languages, which are a branch of the Northern Tai languages. Its pronunciation is based on that of the Yongbei Zhuang dialect of Shuangq ...

language is based on a northern dialect but few people learn it, therefore Zhuang people from different dialect areas use one of a number of

Chinese varieties Chinese, also known as Sinitic, is a branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family consisting of hundreds of local varieties, many of which are not mutually intelligible. Variation is particularly strong in the more mountainous southeast of main ...

to communicate with each other. According to a 1980s survey, 42% of Zhuang people are monolingual in Zhuang, while 55% are bilingual in Zhuang and Chinese. Whilst according to some semi-official sources "In

Guangxi Guangxi (; ; Chinese postal romanization, alternately romanized as Kwanghsi; ; za, Gvangjsih, italics=yes), officially the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region (GZAR), is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the People's Republic ...

compulsory education Compulsory education refers to a period of education that is required of all people and is imposed by the government. This education may take place at a registered school or at other places. Compulsory school attendance or compulsory schooling ...

is bilingual in Zhuang and Chinese, with a focus on early Zhuang literacy." in fact only small percentage of schools teach written Zhuang. Zhuang is traditionally written using

logogram In a written language, a logogram, logograph, or lexigraph is a written character that represents a word or morpheme. Chinese characters (pronounced ''hanzi'' in Mandarin, ''kanji'' in Japanese, ''hanja'' in Korean) are generally logograms, as ...

s based on

Chinese characters Chinese characters () are logograms developed for the writing of Chinese. In addition, they have been adapted to write other East Asian languages, and remain a key component of the Japanese writing system where they are known as ''kanji' ...

(" Sawndip"), and Standard Zhuang, which was written in

Latin script The Latin script, also known as Roman script, is an alphabetic writing system based on the letters of the classical Latin alphabet, derived from a form of the Greek alphabet which was in use in the ancient Greek city of Cumae, in southern Italy ...

, with a few added

Cyrillic , bg, кирилица , mk, кирилица , russian: кириллица , sr, ћирилица, uk, кирилиця , fam1 = Egyptian hieroglyphs , fam2 = Proto-Sinaitic , fam3 = Phoenician , fam4 = G ...

letters for tone, between 1957 and 1982, and is now officially written using only Latin letters, even though Sawndip are still more often used in less formal domains. Its Wikipedia is za.wikipedia.org.

Traditional medicine

Zhuang folk medicine has a history of over one thousand years. In Sawndip texts thousands of Zhuang medical terms have been identified and some terms have entered into Chinese medical dictionaries, and in Southern China some hospitals have Zhuang Medicine departments.《壮文论集》梁庭望 pages 220,221 中央民族大学出版社 2007 *''Samcaet'': the ''three-seven'' ('' Panax notoginseng''), which has the Chinese nicknames "not to be exchanged for gold" and "the southern divine herb" *''Laeujyaq'': medicinal liquor

References

{{reflist *Johnson, Eric and Wang Mingfu. 2008. "Zhuang cultural and linguistic heritage". SIL International and the Nationalities Publishing House of Yunnan. Culture in Guangxi Zhuang people