Introduction

According to the sixth national census in 2010, the De’ang ethnic group has a population of 20,556, mainly living in south-western Yunnan. The Gaoligong Mountains and Nu Mountains wind through Dehong and Lincang areas, and the De’ang people are found in the mountains ofthese two ranges.

The De’ang originated from the ancient ‘Pu’ people^[30], who lived around the Nu River in the 2nd century BC and are an indigenous people of Yunnan. The history records of early Qing dynasty refer to this ethnic group as “Beng (Bo) long”. After liberation in 1949,the name “Benglong” was used for ethnic identification. As the word “Benglong” has a derogatory connotation, the ethnic group requested to change their name into “De’ang”. The De’ang ethnic group has its own language, but the majority of De’ang people speak Dai language, Chinese or Jingpo language. The De’ang people use Chinese because they do not have their own characters and some of them know Dai characters. The De’ang people believe in primitive beliefs and Hinayana Buddhism. The traditional De’ang festivals are mostly related to Buddhism, including the Door-Opening Festival, the Door-Closing Festival, the Festival of burning white firewood^[31], the Alms Giving Day^[32], etc. The most solemn festival is the Water-Splashing Festival. At this festival, people use water to wash the dust on the Buddha statue for blessing good luck, and splash water on each other to celebrate the New Year. The De’ang people have the custom oftattooing their hands, thighs and chests with tiger, deer, bird, flower or Dai scriptures.

The De’ang is skilled in music and dance. During important holidays, they have a custom of dancing accompanied with the drum in the shape of an elephant’s foot. The man who beats the drum leads the dance and the rest follow in a circle. There are also men and women who dance in two circles, men outside and women inside, with a man wearing a straw hat, leading the dance by beating an drum in the shape of an elephant’s foot , while the other men dance in circles with their large trouser legs up, revealing the tattoos on their legs.