Bai nationality is the 15th largest ethnic minority in China, mainly distributed in Yunnan, Guizhou, Hunan, and other provinces, among which Yunnan Province has the largest population of Bai nationality, mainly living in Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture. Also, it is distributed in Sichuan Province and Chongqing city.
Bai nationality has its own language, and Bai language belongs to Yi branch of Tibeto Burmese language family of Sino Tibetan language family. Chinese has been used by Bai people since ancient times. Bai nationality is unique in art, and its architecture, sculpture and painting art are famous all over the world. In the process of its formation and development, it interacted with the surrounding nationalities and created a splendid economic culture.
Bai nationality is a nationality with a high degree of settlement. It has three branches: Minjia, Lemo, and Nama. It is deeply influenced by Han culture.
![Bai nationality litttle girl](https://huawei-file-cdn.sacbu.com/uploads/picture_handle/webp/902bb9d9ffb3ab07e80e9fddf0ebe378.jpg_width-800.webp)
Diet
(1) Eating habits
Bai people pay attention to festivals, almost every festival has one or several kinds of food. For example, during the Spring Festival, they eat Ding Tang, Pao Mi Hua Cha, and Jiang Zhai rice; during the marching street, they eat steamed cakes and Liang fen; during the Qingming Festival, they eat cold mixed assorted dishes and “Zhai Yan Xiang” (fried crisp meat); during the Dragon Boat Festival, they eat zongzi and realgar wine; during the new year’s festival, they eat new beans, tender melons and Chen Gu mixed with new rice; during the torch festival, they eat sweets and all kinds of sugar and fruit; during the Mid Autumn Festival, they eat Morchella and fish wrapped meat; during the Mid Autumn Festival, they eat white cakes and drunk cakes; during the Double Ninth Festival, they eat fat sheep; during the Double Ninth Festival, they eat rice; During the winter solstice festival, we eat fried Yangli and mutton farms.
![Bai nationality food](https://huawei-file-cdn.sacbu.com/uploads/picture_handle/webp/0db3ac70c8801bef8436227c579992fd.jpg_width-800.webp)
(2) Special diet
1. Fish in casserole and bean curd in casserole: put ham slices, chicken nuggets, mushrooms, egg rolls, dried slices, bean curd, Magnolia slices, meatballs, and bow fish (or carp) into a casserole in proportion, put seasoning, and simmer. If you change the main ingredient fish into tofu and a small amount of cabbage, it will become casserole tofu.
2. Milk fan: it is a famous specialty. The method is to put the milk in the pot, add sour water (or alum) to make it semi-solid, pick it up with chopsticks and dry it in the sun. It can be eaten raw or boiled.
3. Fresh pig liver: “chop the pig liver, mix it with salt, pepper, wine, sesame, star anise, grass fruit, etc., and seal it in a pottery pot, which can be stored for one year. It can be steamed and seasoned.
4. Blow the liver: blow the whole fresh pig liver with enough air, put some salt and hang it in a cool and ventilated place to dry. When eating, slice the pig liver, add sesame oil, vinegar, pepper, onion, and coriander. Just cold mix.
5. Raw skin: after the pig is slaughtered, barbecue it with fire to remove the hair, make the skin golden, and the meat is half cooked. Cut it into pieces or shredded meat, and then eat it with onion, ginger, vinegar, garlic, and other seasonings. Rawhide is the banquet dish of old festivals.
![Bai nationality building-1](https://huawei-file-cdn.sacbu.com/uploads/picture_handle/webp/74b04a37ec298146cca28cd8f648f2a7.jpg_width-800.webp)
Housing form
In the form of houses of Bai nationality, most of the houses in the dam area are “long three rooms”, which are lined with kitchens, stables, and thatched houses with yards, or tile-roofed houses with “one main room and two ears”, “three sides and one screen wall” and “four in five patios”. The bedrooms, kitchens, and stables are separated from each other. Most of the mountain areas are thatched cottages, Shanpian cottages, bamboo fence cottages, or wooden crib cottages, where cooking and sleeping are often connected.
Clothes & Accessories
The costume of Bai nationality has a long history and formed its own national characteristics. Bai people advocate white, clothing styles vary slightly from place to place, with white clothing as the noble.
Women’s clothing varies from place to place. In the Dali area, embroidered cloth or colored towel are often used to wrap the head, white coat, red shoulder, light blue coat, black velvet collar coat, silver ornaments of “three whiskers” and “five whiskers” are hung at the right tie button, embroidered waist is tied, blue trousers are worn under, and embroidered shoes are worn. Married people wear a bun, unmarried people wear braids on the back of the head, all wrapped with embroidered, printed, or colored towels. In the headdress of Bai girls, there is a very familiar word, it is: romantic. Explanation: the hat of Bai girls, the falling Huizi is the wind of Xiaguan; the gorgeous flowers are the flowers of Shangguan; the white of the hat top is Cangshan snow; the curved shape is Erhai moon.
Women’s headwear is even more colorful: unmarried women in Dali wear a single braid, which is wrapped outside the Huatoupa, and then wrapped with a flower ribbon, with a bunch of white tassels hanging on the left side; after marriage, the braid is changed into a bun, which is wrapped on the top of the head, wrapped with tie-dyed or batik blue cloth, and wrapped with plain cloth strips. The girls in Fengyu, Dengchuan, and Eryuan like to wear “Phoenix handkerchief”; in some places, they wrap a flower towel on their head or only wrap a bunch of red headrope around their braids; in some places, the headdress is “a tile”; in some places, the head is covered with multiple pieces of cloth, and the outermost piece of cloth is embroidered with a pattern favored by the Bai people. And then wrapped with a variety of colors of the head rope, especially beautiful. Women like to wear jade or silver bracelets and earrings. Most urban residents wear Han clothing, while young people love fashion.
![Bai nationality building-2](https://huawei-file-cdn.sacbu.com/uploads/picture_handle/webp/a982db009651e58c5d46b43eff8944a6.jpg_width-800.webp)
Recreational activities
There are many kinds of folk entertainment activities of Bai nationality, such as horse racing, swing, unicorn playing, mud splashing, flower pot dancing, goat dancing, etc.
Swing: Bai mountain forest, vines crisscross the forest, farmers and mountain people usually pick buckwheat cutting wood, cut firewood for heating, often in the vines and vines to hand, to practice the ability of swing climbing rope, very fond of swing activities. During the Spring Festival every year, in the mountainous area, bamboo strips are often tied under the banyan trees to form a swing; in the dam area, three or four Zhang high poles are set up to bind the swing. The most wonderful thing is that young men and women play together. At this time, they often win the fun of the onlookers.