Dong Sama Festival
01 · Historical Records
What has kept Sama worship alive to the present day is the southern Dong people's layering of blood-lineage memory onto the rhythm of the farming year: the festival dates fall in the first and second lunar months, precisely the lean season when the old grain is exhausted and the new crop not yet in, and the storehouses are at their thinnest. The whole village offers incense at the same Ransa on the same day, which shows that the dates were not taken from the death anniversary of the founding ancestress, but from the moment when the community most stood in need of consolation. The Ransa is close to a public ancestral hall, housing both Sama and the village's departed elders. When the village meets with a matter it cannot settle by discussion, it first goes to the Ransa to offer sacrifice, and afterward returns to report the outcome; sacrifice thus serves as both the opening and the closing of village deliberation. The Yeping is laid out in an open area outside the village or near water, and is a gathering ground shared by the whole village. When the ceremony ends, the procession circles the village once and then converges on the Yeping; in this way the sacrificial space is joined to the daily round-village circuit of life, and beyond the rite itself the boundary of the village is walked once more.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The Dong Sama Festival circulates among the Dong areas of Rongjiang, Liping, and Congjiang counties in Guizhou Province and their surroundings, and is represented chiefly by the Sama Festival of the Chejiang Dong of Rongjiang County. The Dong believe that the power of the ancestral deity is immense and supreme, able to give people the strength to defeat enemies, conquer nature, and overcome disasters, and to win peace for the village, abundant harvests, and the flourishing of people and livestock; they therefore worship her devoutly and honor her as the sheji deity of the Dong people. At the same time, Sama is also a heroine of ancient legend who occupied an important place in the politics, military affairs, and culture of ancient Dong society. The Sama Festival (Sama worship) is the oldest extant traditional festival of the southern Dong and a survival of customs from the period of Dong matrilineal clan society. In order to worship Sama, most Dong villages have built an altar to her called the "Ransa" (in the Dong language "ran" means house; it is rendered in Chinese as "the grandmother's house" and is also called the Sama Shrine or the Holy Mother Shrine). Every year, in the first and second lunar months, grand sacrificial ceremonies are held at the Ransa, on a vast and spectacular scale; handed down from generation to generation, they have formed today's "Sama Festival." The Sama Festival is generally held in the first and second lunar months, though it is sometimes moved to another month in the light of production, daily life, or other major activities. Sama worship is generally performed by each village (or village cluster) on its own; in some cases neighboring villages, several villages, or adjacent districts are invited to join in a combined sacrifice, a spectacular sight. The participants in Sama worship vary from place to place; in many places the whole village, men and women, old and young, takes part together. In the Sanbao Dong villages of Rongjiang, by contrast, married women form the main body of participants (with a small number of highly respected male village elders also taking part). For this reason the Sama worship of the Sanbao Dong villages of Rongjiang bears a lingering flavor of the remote matrilineal clan society of antiquity. After the Sama sacrifice, the participants circle the village once and finally arrive at the fixed Yeping, where they form a circle, join hands, and dance, singing the "Ye songs" in praise of Sama at the tops of their voices. This form of singing and dancing together is called "Duoye," and its atmosphere is at once simple and fervent. The Sama Festival has a deep influence on the thinking of the Dong people, and the "utmost goodness" virtue of the forebears has played a decisive role in the prosperity and development of the Dong. For this reason, respecting the elderly and the like have become fine traditions handed down from generation to generation among the Dong people. "Sama" culture has a long history and rich connotations, and exerts a profound influence on many aspects of Dong social life.
The Rana shrine as communal hall
The Rana, or grandmother's house, is both the shrine of Sama and the place where the village's departed elders are kept; it opens and closes the village's deliberations.
Circling the village to the Yeping
After the rites the participants walk a full circuit of the village before gathering at the fixed Yeping, linking shrine, lanes and singing ground into one route.
Duoye: singing hand in hand
Men and women join hands in a ring, singing as they dance; this is called Duoye, and its songs praise Sama, carrying the rite to its climax.
Women taking the lead in Sanbao
In the Sanbao villages married women form the body of the rite, with a few venerable male elders beside them, an arrangement that preserves a matrilineal past.
Sama: the Great Grandmother
Sama is a Dong loan: sa means grandmother, ma means great, hence the Great Grandmother or Saisui, the common ancestral deity of the southern dialect groups.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
"Sama" is a transliteration from the Dong language: "sa" means grandmother and "ma" means great, so "Sama" can be rendered in Chinese as "Great Grandmother" (also called Sasui). She is the embodiment of the ancestral spirit common to the whole Dong people, especially those of the southern dialect areas.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Dong Sama Festival.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Sama is the protective deity and the unifying deity of Dong villages, and also the deity of amusement of the Dong people.
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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