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THE KAQUEWA FESTIVAL OF THE DULONG NATIONALITY
The Dulong is one of the smallest minority nationalities in China(only 4,600 or so ), and its members are mainly scattered along the Dulong River in Gongshan County of Nujiang Prefecture in the northwestern part of Yunnan.
The Dulong people live in remote, densely forested mountains. They are simple and honest. If a lost item is discovered on the road the Dulong will leave it there for its owner to later recover. The Kaquewa is their only festival. The Kaquewa Festival is observed during the eleventh and twelfth lunar months. On the first day of the celebration, every family hangs up a colored tapestry to commemorate the event. In the evening, the whole family meets to drink and does fortune-telling about the coming year's events.
The second day is devoted to honoring the mountain god. They make images of the mountain god and many wild animals with the dough of buckwheat flour. When the ceremony of honoring the mountain god is over, young archers shoot the dough-made animals. Other participants of the ceremony dance around them, beating their big gongs and drums. Meanwhile the Dulong women prepare the bull for sacrifice on a colored Dulong rug. They also hang strings of colored beads on its horns. Then the sacrificial animal is fastened onto the sacrificial pole. Everybody dances around it. All young men in the villages, brandishing mighty spears, come to the sacrificial ground arm in arm. They drink wine "with one heart" (which means, from the same cup at the same time). Then they begin to dance around and by small degrees wound the bull with their weapons. When the bull finally falls down, it is formally offered to heaven. Fortune - telling is conducted with the help of the animals severed tongue. The meat is, then eaten by everyone. One of young men carries up the bull's head on his back and dances the bull-head dance, everyone else follows him cheering. When the dance is over, they begin to cook the meat and roast it in front of bonfires. The celebration usually continues throughout the whole night.
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