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THE MUNAO FESTIVAL OF JINGPO PEOPLE
The Jingpo nationality has a population of over 90,000 people, who mostly live in the Dehong and Nujiang Prefectures.
The Jingpos, a people who love to sing and dance, make their thatch bamboo homes in a series of villages scattered along the slopes of the Jingpo Mountains where their ancestors, migrating from the southern part of the Xikang-Tibetan Plateau, first settled a thousand years ago.
As a people they are straightforward and frank. Men, when they venture out in public, like carrying long swords. Women like wearing tube-shaped skirts.
The Jingpo have a reputation for being good dancers and good singers as well as for being good musicians. They dance on all sorts of occasions, for example, to celebrate a good harvest, a newly-built home, weddings, and even to welcome guests. "The Munaozongge" (hence, Munao Festival), meaning "mass dance", is held on the first month of the Chinese lunar calendar.
This is a festival aimed at commemorating and honoring ancestry. All Munao festival activities are conducted around the four erect Munao Poles. The patterns painted on the poles portray scenes from their history, pictures of the Himalayas, and the route their ancestors took in migrating to their current homeland. The most wonderful part of the festival is the scene of chaotic dancing, participated in by thousands of Jingpo people. The choreographic steps and sequence dramatize the route depicted on the Munao Poles. The purpose behind the event is to commit to the memories of the young people the rich history of their collective ancestry.
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