The History of the Dai People in China

The Dai people are one of the 56 officially recognised ethnic groups in China. According to the national census they have a population of around 1.2 million, living in the Dai Autonomous Prefecture and the Dehong Dai-Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture in Xishuangbanna in the southern part of Yunnan province.

Like with the rest of the ethnic groups in China, the Dai have their own oral language, belonging to the Zhuang-Dai branch of Zhuang-Dong Austronesian of Chinese-Tibetan Phylum and it has its own written script. The Dai have four forms of written script, however they only use the standard characters used in the Xishuangbanna and Dehong scripts.

The origins of the Dai people are said to have originated with the native aboriginal people on the southeast Yunnan-Guizhiou Plateau. These indigenous people are also the ancestors of the Bouyei, the Dong, the Shui, the Li and the Zhuang ethnicities.

The first mention of the Dai in Chinese records can be found during the reign of Wu Di of the Han Dynasty in 109 BCE. The emperor established the Yizhou Prefecture and in later years the Dais sent tribute to the Han court in the form of gold seals. The emperor was said to have called the Dai leader ‘Great Captain’. The Dai were, at this time, named ‘Dianyue’ or ‘Shan’. During the Tanf and Song dynasties they were called Jingchi, Huaman or Baiyi and Baiyi or Boyi during the Yuan and Ming dynasties. The Dai call themselves ‘Dai’ to express their devotion to peace and freedom.

During the ninth century, the Chinese recorded the livelihoods of the Dai people. Mainly agricultural, they developed a sophisticated method of irrigation farming, grew rice and used oxen and elephants to till the land. Records also stated that they used gold and silver to plate their teeth.

During the 12th century, the Dai were able to establish their own regime under the leadership of a Dai man named Bazhen. He united all the local tribes and established Jinghong as the capital. “According to local records, the kingdom had a population of more than one million, and was famous for white elephants and fine-breed horses. It recognized the Chinese imperial court as its sovereign. When Bazhen ascended the throne, he was given a ‘tiger-head gold seal’ by the Emperor, and the title ‘Lord of the Region’”. The Dai had even established the Mengmao Kingdom in earlier years with Ruilijiang as the capital.

The Dai are a truly remarkable people. In 638 CE, they created their own calendar and there are books in the Dai language to calculate solar and lunar eclipses. Theravada Buddhism is the main religion of the Dai and they have many festivals. These include the Door-Closing Festival in mid-June by the lunar calendar, the Door-Opening Festival in mid-September, and the Water-Splashing Festival in spring. The Water-Splashing Festival is still the most important festival where they splash water on each other and hold dragon-boat races in order to cleanse illnesses bad fortune and bring about a good harvest and weather for the following year.

Bibliography:

Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China http://www.fmprc.gov.cn/eng/ljzg/3584/t17878.htm

The History and Significance of the goddess Guanyin

Although the Buddhist religion venerates the Buddha, there are, in fact, a range of deities that continue to be worshipped. The Chinese Buddhist goddess Guanyin, or Kuan Yin, is one of these and a very popular deity throughout history.

The goddess of compassion and/or mercy, Guanyin is an interesting deity as she developed from the male bodhisavatta, or ‘buddha-to-be’, Avalokiteshvara. Throughout the years that Buddhism was introduced into China (around the first century CE), Avalokiteshvara developed female characteristics until he was completely female and was renamed Guanyin. In Japan, she is known as Kwannon.

There is another myth that claims that the goddess was originally born a mortal princess, named Maio Shan, who strangled herself. However, the Buddha revived her and placed her upon an island where she stayed for nine years before she became a goddess.

Another legend tells that she refused to marry and in retaliation her father sentenced her to death. However, when the executioner brought down the sword to behead her, the sword broke and she was unharmed. Later, her father had her smothered and she died. Upon arriving in the underworld, the gloomy place was transformed into a paradise which was not suited to Yama, the ruling god, so he had her revived.

Throughout history, Guanyin was highly popular with women and children and there have been sources which state that a month after a young woman’s marriage, she would be gifted with a pair of candlesticks and a censor with the image of Guanyin on them. These objects would be items where she could turn to, if times were troubled.
There has been much debate as to her origins and the transformation of her gender. Indeed, when she was first introduced into China, she had male attributes and one scholar suggests that it is the romantic legend of the princess Maio Shan that encouraged her feminine attributes.

Indeed, according to some scholars, there was no goddess of mercy in China before the arrival of Buddhism from India, although it should be stressed that not all scholars agree with this point. However, despite this, it is clear that she has strong Indian roots and was considered male until around the seventh or eighth century CE when she was transformed into a female form. From the 12th century onwards, this became her general form and when she was considered a goddess.

Her name can be translated as meaning ‘she who hears the sounds (prayers) of mortals; she who looks down upon the world and hears its cries’ and is also called the ‘Goddess of the Southern Sea’. She is commonly depicted with 1000 arms and eyes, due to the Maio Shan legend where her father commissioned a statue in her honour, but due to a misunderstanding with the artisan, he sculptured her likeness but with 1000 arms and eyes.

It is likely that she is a goddess of the sea due to her legend where she was placed on an island by the Buddha, or when the god Yama had her reborn on an island after her death. In this role, she is often depicted in temples with the waves of the sea and rocks around her. Before sailors set off for voyages, she was prayed to for protection, and those who had escaped shipwrecks often offered her gifts for her protection.

It is likely that it is her relationship with the sea that she is often prayed to for rain. When villages experience drought, the people often take her statues out of the temples and carried out in procession.

Guanyin, in both her mythology and the historical influence she had, is of great interest to historians. Indeed, her Indian and male roots and then the merging of feminine characteristics from a highly popular myth to create a fully female deity makes her a fascinating character who offers great insight into not only the history of the Indian and Chinese cultures, but to the history of religion as a whole.

Bibliography:

Chamberlayne, John H. (1962) The Development of Kuan Yin: Chinese Goddess of Mercy, Numen, BRILL.