Miluotuo

The name of China's national intangible cultural heritage: Miluotuo

Applicant: Du'an Yao Autonomous County, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region

Project No.: 1061

Project No.: i-117

Time of publication: 2011 (the third batch)

Category: Folk Literature

Region: Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region

Type: new item

Applicant: Du'an Yao Autonomous County, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region

Protection unit: cultural center of Du'an Yao Autonomous County

Introduction to Miluotuo:

Applicant: Du'an Yao Autonomous County, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region

Miluotuo is a Creation Epic of the Yao nationality (Bunuyao). Miluotuo is the Mother God of human beings. She created everything in the universe with wind and air flow - mountains, rivers, plains, lakes, seas, forests and creatures. She sent her sons to shoot and kill the sun and the moon, which exerted obscene influence on the people, and to cut off the ferocious pigs, monkey and tiger that endangered human beings. She taught people how to understand the sinister villains and the morality of life, and guided the Bunu people from darkness to light. The epic expresses Bunu's desire to conquer and transform nature and his indomitable national spirit. The epic also describes the tragic process of ethnic migration under the invasion of different ethnic groups, and the emergence of surnames, the end of consanguineous marriage and the abdication of maternal rights to male rights.

More than 400000 Bunuyao live in the mountainous areas of Guangxi. Du'an Yao Autonomous County is a place where Bunuyao live together and one of the central areas where Miluotuo is spread. Since 1962, more than 14000 lines of Miluotuo (the first version) have been collected by LAN Huaichang, LAN Shujing and Meng Tongshun, sung by 8 singers including sang Bulang, and published in 1988. It took 27 years for Miluotuo to spread as "the second life". Today, this epic is still being circulated among Yao people in Du'an. Every year on the 29th day of may in the lunar calendar, Yao people gather to sing "Miluotuo" to show their remembrance of their ancestor Miluotuo and their compliance with their ancestors' custom. The first ancestor Miluotuo of Yao nationality is praised for his achievements in creating all things in the universe, human beings and their national culture, as well as the tragic history of Yao nationality.