Sigangli
01 · Historical Records
The work describes the various stories that occurred after mankind came out of the Sigang, including the origin of mankind and the closely related emergence of plants and animals, the deeds of the ancestors, village history, clan history, national history, ethnic relations, heroic stories and love stories. Through the Wa forebears' distinctive interpretation of the universe and the origin of mankind, Sigangli describes with rich imagination the process of labour creating the world and the primitive cosmology, expressing the wish of the various peoples to live together in friendship and unity. When the People's Republic of China was founded in 1949 the Wa passed directly from the late primitive society into the stage of new-democratic society; their creation epic Sigangli was for the first time recorded in writing in the ethnic survey of the 1950s. In the 1980s a complete recorded text appeared and was translated into Chinese and published.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The Wa creation epic Sigangli circulates in Cangyuan, Lancang and the Ximeng Wa Autonomous County of Yunnan. Sigang means stone cave, cave or gourd in the Wa language. Its content touches the Wa and natural phenomena, plants and animals, production and life, clan history, traditional customs, tribal wars, sacrifices and multiplication. The whole poem has more than five thousand seven hundred lines and is a magnificent ancient Wa creation song. Handed down from generation to generation and continually enriched, it has become a comprehensive vehicle of the national folk traditional culture of the Wa, including history, morality, religion, philosophy and custom, the crystallisation of the collective wisdom of the Wa people and a classic of Wa folk oral literature.
The Origin of Mankind
The core content of Sigangli in which mankind comes out of the Sigang.
Village Migration and Genealogy
The content of village migration and genealogy in Sigangli.
The Chanting and Singing Form
The form of transmission that gradually developed from storytelling into chanting and singing.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Sigangli circulates in the Wa-concentrated areas of Cangyuan, Lancang and the Ximeng Wa Autonomous County of Yunnan, the chanting tradition of the Ximeng Wa Autonomous County area being especially complete. Sigang means stone cave, cave or gourd in the Wa language.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Sigangli.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Because the Wa have no script, Sigangli was first transmitted orally by way of storytelling and gradually developed into a form of chanting and singing, a history of more than a thousand years to the present. It has important historical and literary value for studying the Wa's national origin, literature and art, customs, production and life and religious philosophy. Protecting and transmitting it is of great value.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Yansang 04-1502
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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