Dong Sama Festival
01 · Historical Records
The saying "Great is the Sama of the Dong household, great are the temples of the Hakka" states plainly Sama's rank in the hearts of the Dong people: the power of a deity is not measured by the size of its temple, but by how close it stands to the clan ancestor; thus, although the villages of the Liping area each have their own Ransa, the ancestral spirit they enshrine is one and the same. The month of Sama worship is not fixed from place to place; when there is a poor harvest, a marriage, or a major dispute, the date may be changed. This shows that the festival dates are strongly event-responsive: the sacrifice is convened temporarily in response to concrete problems, rather than passively awaited on an annual calendar. The roster of participants says even more about the nature of this ritual: it is composed mainly of middle-aged and elderly women and elder men, with the roles of presiding and of singing and dancing reserved to the village's elders and women; in the Sanbao area of Rongjiang it goes a step further, with married women as the main body, so that locals simply call the Sama Festival the Dong people's Women's Festival.
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, with the Sama Festival of the Chejiang Dong of Rongjiang County being the most representative. 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 legendary heroine of matrilineal clan society; the people hold her in the utmost reverence, regarding her as a deity who can bring peace and auspiciousness, and honor her with the title "Sama." A saying among the Dong villages puts it this way: "Great is the Sama of the Dong household, great are the temples of the Hakka (Han)." From this it can be seen that in the minds of the Dong people, Sama is their greatest deity. Every year in the first and second lunar months, the Dong people hold grand "Sama worship" ceremonies, on a magnificent and spectacular scale; this sacrifice, handed down from generation to generation, has formed today's "Sama Festival." The festival dates are sometimes moved to another month according to the needs of production, daily life, or other major activities. Sama worship is generally performed by each village (or village cluster) on its own, and there are also cases of several villages or adjacent districts holding combined sacrifices. Participants differ from region to region: usually only middle-aged and elderly women and elder men are entitled to take part, though in some places the entire village, men and women, old and young, participates together. By comparison, the Sama worship of the Sanbao Dong villages of Rongjiang is the most solemn. When the Sama worship ceremony begins, the keeper of the altar first brews tea, offers incense to "Sama" and presents tea; then the women of each household, dressed in festive attire, proceed in line to the sacrifice. In the sacrificial activities, the Sama troupes from each village are composed almost entirely of women; on the Yeping (the square) they form a circle, join hands, and dance, singing the "Ye songs" in praise of Sama at the tops of their voices, in a spirit of sharing joy with "Sama." This form of singing and dancing together is called "Duoye"; when it appears in the ceremony, its form is simple and archaic and its atmosphere fervent, often carrying the rite to its climax. The Sama Festival has a deep influence on the thinking of the Dong people; the "utmost goodness" virtue of the forebears has played a decisive role in the development of the Dong, and against this background such fine customs as respecting the elderly have become national traditions carried on from generation to generation among the Dong people.
Who may take part in the rite
Participation is usually reserved for middle-aged and elderly women and older men, keeping the rite's voice in the hands of the village's eldest.
Tea for the goddess and the queue of dressed wives
The ritual opens with the caretaker brewing tea and offering incense; then the wives of each household, newly dressed, queue up in the order of their doors.
A festival moved to fit the occasion
The date may be moved to another month for bad harvests, weddings or disputes, keeping ancestral faith answerable to the year's actual events.
The Sama teams circling the Yeping
The teams are almost entirely women, circling the Yeping hand in hand, so the rite becomes a relay in which one village after another takes the ground.
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. Local people say that the Sama Festival is also the Dong people's Women's Festival.
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; Sama culture has a long history and profound connotations, and deeply influences the social life of the Dong nation.
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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