Tu nationality Nadun Festival

Name of Chinese national intangible cultural heritage: Tu nationality Nadun Festival

Application area or unit: Minhe Hui and Tu Autonomous County, Qinghai Province

Item No.: 477

Project No.: Ⅹ - 29

Time of publication: 2006 (the first batch)

Category: folk customs

Region:

Type: new item

Application area or unit: Minhe Hui and Tu Autonomous County, Qinghai Province

Protection unit: Minhe Hui and Tu Autonomous County Cultural Center

A brief introduction to the Nadun festival of Tu Nationality:

Application area or unit: Minhe Hui and Tu Autonomous County, Qinghai Province

Nadun Festival is a unique folk activity of Tu Nationality in Sanchuan area, Minhe County, Qinghai Province. The native language of "Nadun" originally means "game". There is no written record of its historical origin. Some scholars believe that from the content, form and dress of Nuo dance and Nuo opera in Nadun Festival, Nadun Festival should have originated in the middle of Yuan Dynasty and perfected in the early Ming Dynasty.

More than 70 villages in seven towns, such as Guanting and Zhongchuan, in Sanchuan area of Qinghai Province, celebrate the Nadun Festival. The order of Nadun held in different places is arranged according to the harvest season. Starting from songjianadun on the 12th of July in the lunar calendar, village by village, Nadun was transferred from Xiachuan to Zhongchuan and Shangchuan, and lasted for 63 days until the 15th of September in the lunar calendar.

The Nathan Festival is divided into three stages. The first is preparation. Starting from the Qingming Festival, the villages in Sanchuan held a memorial ceremony for Erlang God and local god in their own temples, and selected the "big Paitou" and "small Paitou" who held the Nadun meeting in July of that year. They were responsible for raising funds before the festival, maintaining the social order of the village, coordinating the production management (such as the sequence of water use in the field), etc., while they were specifically responsible for the organization and implementation of the activities during the festival. The second is the small meeting. Before the festival, villagers set up large tents in the meeting hall for the installation of statues and memorial ceremonies. One day before the festival, gongs and drums were played on the big and small Paitou, and a series of activities such as festivals were held. Then there is the main meeting of the Nadun Festival, which is composed of three parts: hand dance, mask dance (Nuo opera) and "Farah" (Sorcery).

The characteristics of the Nadun festival of Tu nationality are very distinct. It is a folk Nuo activity of villagers, which connects the villages with folk beliefs. It has a long history, and each activity lasts for a long time, and it is widely participated in. Nadun Festival has strict organization and procedure, its activities are closely combined with rural management and production sequence, and has obvious social adjustment function. During the festival, the activities are rich and colorful, full of ethnic and local characteristics. In particular, Nuo opera and Nuo dance preserve the remnants of Shaman culture of northern ethnic groups, and absorb the contents of Han culture such as Erlang God and Guan Gong worship. It not only shows the cultural personality of Tu nationality, but also reflects the phenomenon of multi-cultural coexistence, mutual influence and mutual blend of national harmony. It has rich cultural and artistic connotations, such as music, dance, eulogy, clothing and ritual Ceremony and so on are full of characteristics.

Nadun Festival is a "living document" for people to understand the history of Tu nationality. It contains rich cultural information and is an important source of academic research.