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Living in the remote mountainous areas of southwest China, the Miao minority group are celebrated for their handcrafted silver jewels like silver earrings and silver rings. During holidays and big ceremonies, people will wear these silver jewels from head to toe to display their beauty and wealth. Holidays are also a good time for them to get together with friends and relatives to enjoy big meals. Food on their table is various, unique, and ethnic. Here are recipes for just a few:

Roasted chicken giblets in bamboo

Choose a piece of old bamboo, and put chicken giblets, corn mint, the kernel of a walnut, mushroom, garlic, and salt into the bamboo. Cover the bamboo with some banana leaves, and then roast it with charcoal fire. In just a few minutes, you can see the oil coming out from the bamboo. Enjoy it. It tastes really good and smells beautifully.

Salted meat

Salted meat is easily to be made. You just need to cut the meat into slices, and mix them together with salt, pepper, and glutinous rice. Then put all of them into a big jar, and cover the lid. In about 10 days, the salted meat is ready. Take it out of the jar, and fry it with oil. It tastes spicy, hot, with amazing fragrance.  Read more...

Embroidery, batik, and silver jewelry are three great things the Chinese Miao have contributed to the world. Living in the remote mountainous area, the Miao keep their culture and custom quite well. In a village called Basha, the local Miao men wear an interesting hairstyle that has been kept for hundreds of years.

They only have hair on the top of their head and the rest is shaved bald! Their hair is almost always very long, and it’s usually braided into a bun on top.

A boy starts to have this hairstyle at 14 years old, and will keep it all his life. Even more funnily, people use a big sickle to shave their hair, but not a razor.

A small ceremony will be held before the Miao shave their head. A man carries his sickle and rubs it on the ground to ask for energy from the earth. Then he uses this sickle to touch his clothes and hand to get some power from the human body.

This ceremony is very important to the local people, as it means a boy has grown up.  Read more...

Residing in the mountainous areas of southwestern China, the Miao minority group still keeps some of their ancient customs today. One is their unique tradition of crafting amazing silver jewelry. But another lesser-known aspect of their culture, the ceremony of getting new kindling, is held on the last day of each year.

The Miao have a tradition of worshipping fire. They believe fire brings people warmth, light, and happiness. So it is very common to see a fire burning in most Miao homes throughout the year.

But the fire can only be used for one year. After one year, it turns to be old fire. Using old fire will bring people bad luck. So they need to use new wood to make a new fire before the new year comes.

In the afternoon of the last day before the new year, people are divided into a few groups to prepare the ceremony. One group stands at the gate of the village, and prohibits anyone from entering or getting out of the village. Another group is responsible for extinguishing the fire in every family.  Read more...