Traditional Sports
When it comes to the natural environment, the Dai people mainly live in areas with dense river networks. So the water transport is greatly convenient for the locals. The places where they inhabit enjoy the long sunshine duration, a mild climate and an abundant rainfall all year round because of the tropical and subtropical climates. Therefore, their sports are mostly related to water and rivers, showing an extremely different feature from the overwhelming majority of ethnic groups living in mountainous areas in Yunnan. From the perspective ofhistorical factors, the emergence, rise and development ofthe Dai traditional sports are closely related to the spread and development of Theravada. When mentioning the long-term productive activities, for the sake of expressing exhilaration brought by good harvests and successes in life, the industrious Dai people create their sports games to meet the needs of recreation. By the way, their own festivals and celebrations are the cradle of some traditional sports of the Dai. For instance, the Dai people hold dragon boat racing for celebration in the Water Splashing Festival; they engage in the activity of setting offGaosheng fireworks symbolizing one’s better-off or dance to the tempo of the elephant’s foot-shaped drum to express happiness and auspiciousness on thejoyous occasions; the Dai People’s yearning for a better life is reflected by all these activities. Moreover, looking back to the history, some of the Dai traditional sports are products of their wars in the ancient times. Because the wars were not only a test of intelligence quotient, but a trail of stamina and skills,victories of the wars were often decided by the direct confrontation between groups. In the past, therefore, the Dai people had to train the fighting skills for defending themselves or winning wars, so that such sports as wrestling and martial arts were gradually created and further perfected.
(1) Dragon Boat Racing
The traditional dragon boat racing is held on the Lancang River on the Water Splashing Festival, namely, the New Year of the Dai People, by the Dai people in Xishuangbanna of Yunnan. The dragon boat ofthe Dai is 18 to 24 meters long and 1.4 to 1.6 meters wide. The stem and stern ofthe dragon boat ofthe Dai are quite different from that ofthe Han people living in the Hunan, Hubei, Guangxi and Guangdong provinces. The other distinctive feature of the dragon boat racing of the Dai is how to paddle. There are a host of teams in the race, in each racing boat, three people as ballast stand on the stem, five people standing on the stern push the end oflong poles against the bottom ofthe river and one person as the commander in the middle of the boat strikes a gong. In accordance with the length of the hull, 30 to 40 people are in charge ofpaddling and 60 at most. The participants are dressed in their best suits, being in the high spirits. Under the directions of the commander, all paddle act promptly, and then all boats dart towards the finishing line like arrows. The more engaging type is women’s dragon boat racing, in which slender and charming participants wear red, white, yellow, green and blue sleeves, and long skirts with patterns of peacock feathers or flowers. Thus, it is the embodiment of the improvement of the Dai females’status.
(2) Martial Arts
The martial arts of the Dai people have a more-than-2300-year history. It, on the one hand, derived from the Dai People’s imitation of animals in their long-term laborious life and has been constantly improved in practice, producing a unique style ofthe martial arts.
Their moves with a fast rhythm are simple and practical. And the styles the Dai martial arts are featured by diversified regions.
(3) Dance to the Drum in the Shape ofAn Elephant’s FootAccompaniment
Dance to the drum in the shape ofan elephant’s foot accompaniment is the most popular and characteristic dance of the Dai males, playing a key role in the life of the Dai people.During the spare time and festivals, the Dai youth gather together from various villages to dance with a drum in the shape of an elephant’s foot hung on their shoulders. In addition,the drums in the shape of an elephant’s foot are classified into three types: the short drums,the medium drums as well as the long drums. Usually, this is a one-to-one game when hosting this dance as a competition.
(4) Setting off Gaosheng Fireworks Symbolizing One’s Better-Off
The Dai people set off Gaosheng fireworks on festivals andjoyful occasions symbolizing their conditions are bettering off. The so-called “setting off Gansheng fireworks” means:some gunpowder are loaded in a hollow bamboo, and after being lit, the whole bamboo can be exploded and fly to the sky for one or two hundred meters. The purpose of this activity is to extrapolate whether one can be lucky in the coming year according to how high a Gaosheng can reach. The Buddha and the souls ofancestors who give the Dai people happiness can hear prayers and take the oblations after Gaosheng fireworks are set offby the Dai people. Traditionally, setting off Gaosheng fireworks not only adds a festive atmosphere for the festivals and important events, but make “ancestors in the east and the west” and“gods of the whole universe” pleased; in the contemporary era, this activity symbolizes sweeping out the old in preparation for the coming year. When holding setting off Gaoshengfireworks in the Water Splashing Festival in Xishuangbanna, the participants representing different villages, at first, respectively carry Gaoshengs with singing and dancing, then enter the “launch site” and finally set off them in sequence. All the audiences will confirm the highest Gaosheng, by which the team witht the highest one is the winner.