Dai Water Splashing Festival
01 · Historical Records
The Water-Splashing Festival has a history of nearly a thousand years; it gradually took shape on the basis of Dai rice-farming civilization, merging with the Theravada Buddhism that spread southward in the 11th to 13th centuries; it is the product of the combination of Theravada Buddhist religious rites with the traditional etiquette of the Dehong Dai people, and displays the distinctive characteristics of Dai traditional culture.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The Dehong Water-Splashing Festival is a grand traditional festival of the Dai, De'ang, and Achang peoples who have long lived in the Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture of western Yunnan Province; the festival period falls on the seventh to tenth day after the Qingming solar term. The festival takes a rich variety of forms, with profound humanistic connotations and a broad popular base; its main activities include flower gathering by the people, danfo (offerings to the Buddha) by believers, sacrifices at the Dragon Pavilion, the Buddha-bathing rite, sprinkling water for blessings, singing and dancing, martial arts performances, the throwing of embroidered balls between young men and women, and the launching of Kongming lanterns, floating water lanterns, and gaosheng rockets. The festival fairly completely embodies the essence of Dai rice-farming civilization and water culture, and has broad cultural and social functions.
Picking flowers for the Buddha
Girls go up the mountain for wild flowers, offering them first at the shrine and then at the dragon pavilion.
Making offerings at the temple
Congregations take prepared food to the monks, who eat on the spot, with the remainder returned to the donors.
Rites at the dragon pavilion
Before the water is thrown, elders offer incense and words of prayer at the dragon pavilion of each village.
Sprinkling blessings door to door
Water is carried to the village gate and sprinkled at every door along the lane, never skipping a household.
Beanbag tossing and sky rockets
Young people toss embroidered balls to meet, and bamboo rockets are shot skyward in a contest of height and report.
Floating and sky lanterns
Water lanterns drift along the channels while sky lanterns rise from the village square as the festival reaches its height.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
In Dehong, the counties of the prefecture take turns hosting the Water-Splashing Festival in a competitive Dai fashion with market fairs; the basins around Mangshi, Ruili, Yingjiang, Longchuan, and Lianghe enter the festival almost simultaneously. The splashing procession first gathers at the Dragon Pavilion, then goes along the streets sprinkling water for blessings door to door; the sprinkled water is drawn from rivers and ponds and carried on shoulder poles to the village entrance, every door being doused, with none skipped. Flower gathering and danfo are a complete set of activities before the festival: flowers are picked on the hills by girls in groups and offered before the Buddha and the Dragon Pavilion; believers go in procession to the Buddhist temple to make danfo offerings, provide food for the monks, and listen to scripture chanting. The throwing of embroidered balls, the launching of Kongming lanterns, floating water lanterns, and gaosheng rockets are arranged after the sun begins to set; when the Kongming lanterns and water lanterns rise into the night sky, the sounds of water and voices around rise together with them — the climax of the festival in this region. What is distinctive about Dehong is that the same festival is jointly held by multiple ethnic groups: the De'ang people call it the Flower-Watering Festival, and the Achang people observe it in a similar way, though the manner of splashing water has its own gestures and signals; martial arts performances are given separate venues, staggered in time from the singing and dancing, so that the festival runs from morning till night without a gap. The festival period is set on the seventh to tenth day after Qingming, matching the rhythm of Dai rice farming and the agricultural calendar.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Dai Water Splashing Festival.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
It is an important vehicle for the transmission and continuation of the material and spiritual civilization of the Dai people, and has considerable reference value for research in history, cultural studies, ethnology, folklore, religious studies, and ethics.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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