Chapter 25: The Adventure of Stealing a Girl 3

Almost all the people of the Dai people believe in Theravada Buddhism, especially people over 40 years old, almost all of them have to go to the Zangfang to receive ordination and practice, and participate in the three-month summer home chanting of the Buddha every year. The Dai language calls Buddhism "Sasanna", and calls Shakyamuni Buddha Gautama. Siddhartha is "Gundarma".

Dai men have to become monks for a period of time, and learn Dai language, Buddhism, astronomy and geography in Buddhist temples. It is believed that only those who have been monks in monasteries can be regarded as educated and cultivated people. Therefore, only a man who has been a monk can be worthy of the favor of the girl, can he harvest love, and can become a partner with the girl, fly with wings, and build a happy nest of his own.

A young boy from a good family generally enters a Buddhist temple at the age of seven or eight, and returns to the world for three or five years. When they are dressed up, escorted by their relatives, blown and beaten, and enter the temple to the laughter of the crowd, they will proudly think that they have begun to be protected by the Buddha and can grow up. Then they shaved their hair, put on their robes, and began to recite the scriptures calmly, learn the culture, and live on their own.

The Dai people also have taboos, taboo outsiders to ride horses, drive cattle, carry burdens and unkempt hair into the village, thinking that it is disrespectful to the people of the village, trampling on the dignity of the nation, blasphemy, and will bring disaster and suffering to the people in the village. If the guest is visiting, the guest must follow the local customs, respect the customs and habits of the local people, dress neatly, cleanly, look dignified, behave dignified, and frequently be polite, in order to show respect for the host.

Visitors entering the Dai bamboo building should pay attention to etiquette, first, they should take off their shoes outside the door, and walk lightly in the house; second, they should not sit on top of the fire or cross the firepit; third, they should not enter the master's inner room; fourth, they should not sit on the threshold; fifth, they should not move the iron tripod on the firepit, nor should they step on the fire with their feet; sixth, it is more taboo to whistle and cut their nails in the master's house; seventh, they are not allowed to use clothes as pillows or sit on pillows; eighth, when drying clothes, the jacket should be dried in a high place, and the pants and skirts should be dried in a low place. If you enter the Buddhist temple to burn incense and worship the Buddha, pay attention to the Buddhist temple to take off your shoes, do not touch the head of the little monk, and a series of Buddhist holy objects such as Buddha statues, spears, flags, etc., because the little monks are the most taboo about this, it will bring them bad luck and misfortune, and enter the Buddhist temple can not be casually loud and loud, so as not to blaspheme the Buddha, because the Buddha is a quiet place, is a place of meditation and practice, if you do not abide by the rules and precepts, it will cause the Buddha's unhappiness and bring disaster to yourself.

Laborers who go out often eat in the wilderness, which is to use banana leaves and rice to hold a ball of glutinous rice, accompanied by salt, spicy seeds, bacon, roast chicken, lami (Dai language means sauce), moss pine can be eaten. The dishes and snacks are mainly sauerkraut, such as sour bamboo shoots, sour pea flour, sour meat and wild sour fruits.

The reason why the Dai people often eat sour dishes is because they often eat glutinous rice foods that are not easy to digest, and sour foods help digestion. It can be seen that in daily life, the ancestors have learned from the experience of trying and prodiging, and the baton has been passed down for a long time in order to carry forward and reproduce the offspring.

Dai people, both men and women, always like to carry a shoulder bag made of woven cotton on their shoulders (called a handkerchief in Dai language). The shoulder bag is colorful, and the colors are so bright and eye-catching, with a strong atmosphere of life and national characteristics.

The patterns on the satchel are varied, there are rare birds and animals, trees and flowers, or geometric figures, the image is realistic, lifelike, each pattern contains specific content, has a strong breath of life, full of the Dai people's yearning and love for a better life. For example, red and green are used to commemorate the ancestors and children and grandchildren are not ungrateful, the peacock pattern is to represent the auspicious life, and the elephant pattern is to symbolize the abundant harvest and beautiful life...... In short, there are many patterns, too many to mention, all have novel and unique content, which fully expresses the Dai people's love of life, admiration for the beautiful scenery of nature, and are willing to integrate into nature, appreciate the wonder of natural scenery, and pursue happiness and peace.

Uncle Meng gave birth to two children, the eldest is a son, named Mengba, and the younger is a daughter, named Meng Ying, who is a married daughter. Like other boys, Mengba began to become a monk, studied devout in the monastery, exercised his cultivation, and gradually grew into an adult, becoming a good guy with a simple temperament, helpful and kind-hearted.

He is so handsome, so dashing, so heroic, he is the most beautiful among men, how many young and beautiful women have won the favor of him, in order to win his heart, he tries his best to please him, he dresses himself like a flower, shows off himself in front of him, attracts his attention to her, and wants to follow him to his house.

Those Chinese women, like countless flowers, spitting fragrance and competing to open for him, are like larks, competing to open their voices for him, singing beautiful and moving songs, and like beautiful peacocks, competing to open the screen for him to show their hearts, hoping to arouse his gaze, to attract his gaze to himself like a magnet, to ignite his love for beauty, hoping to become his partner, to be a pair of mandarin ducks playing in the water, bathed in love.

Natural things are naturally selected, survival of the fittest, even birds and beasts know how to choose the best to match, not to mention the girl with language expression and spiritual beauty, of course they want to find their own Prince Charming can become their best mate, Zhenggong Niangniang holds a long worm in her arms - the dragon in the picture. Because this is related to her lifelong happiness, it can be filled with romantic sincere love, from which it hits the spark of beautiful life, flashes brilliant colors, composes a beautiful poem for a lifetime, shows the colorful aura of life, and leaves a perfect memory for a lifetime.

Whether it is a human being or a bird or a beast, in order to reproduce offspring and achieve eugenics, there are criteria for choosing a mate, that is, to choose a good, good, beautiful, and look without defects, just like people choose food when they are hungry, if there is a white bread and a black nest in front of you, you will undoubtedly go to get the white bread, and will not lose the white bread to choose the black nest. Although birds and beasts do not have the ability to think, they also know how to recruit on the basis of merit, just as the male beasts of the same kind get together and fight for the right to mate with the mother, the winner wins the favor of the mother, and the loser hangs his head and leaves. And the Dai people inherited the group of beasts gathered together and chose a mate, forming a Songkran Festival.

Songkran Festival is the festival with the richest ethnic characteristics of the Dai nationality. The festival is in the sixth month of the Dai calendar, which is equivalent to the 4th day of the Gregorian calendar. On the day of Songkran, people want to worship the Buddha, and the girls wash the dust of the Buddha with the water floating in the flowers, and then splash water on each other to play and wish each other. At first, the girls splashed water with their hands and bowls, and then they used basins and buckets to sing while splashing, and the more they splashed, the more intense they became, the sound of singing, gongs, splashing water, The cheers resounded together, interweaving a perfect symphony, from which it showed the national customs and boldness, regardless of men and women gathered together, like a bustling ocean, the men inside were like seagulls flying, the women were wearing colorful clothes, dancing like butterflies, shuttling back and forth, unable to distinguish who is a man, who is a woman, showing a jubilant scene, from which we can see that people are full of vitality, full of joy for life, reflecting the health of life, for the peaceful and prosperous auspicious eulogy and praise, the country and the people, in order to have this grand event。

During the Songkran Festival, traditional entertainment activities such as dragon boat racing, flying lanterns, and various singing and dancing evenings are also held.

The Songkran Festival is also a festival for unmarried young men and women of the Dai nationality to fall in love. The young men and women were divided into two teams, standing face to face at a distance, and each threw the flower bag he had prepared in his hand to the person he had already met. If the man does not catch the flower bag thrown by the woman, the man has to take a flower and put it on the woman to apologize. If the woman did not catch the flower bag thrown by the man, the woman also had to hold a flower to the man to apologize, indicating that although the two have love, but there is no fate, although they cannot become the other half of each other, can not live and fly together, but the friendship is still there, so I have to say "bye-bye!", break up, separate amicably, and find their own lovers in each other.

If both men and women catch the flower bag thrown by each other, it means that it is a natural pair, a pair made in the ground, the Buddha intends to fulfill, please each other, and then leave hand in hand, go to the place where the person is back, talk about love, and show the simplicity and moral demeanor of the nation. This is a very fresh choice of mates, and it has attracted many tourists to visit here to witness the style of Songkran.

Meng Ba also participated in this Songkran Festival, holding a flower bag and throwing it to a young and beautiful girl in his photo. The charming and amorous girl happily caught his flower bag, smiled understandingly, said that she gladly accepted his love, and threw the flower bag in her hand to Meng Ba, Meng Ba He also caught her flower bag, and the two of them smiled at the same time, indicating that they accepted the arrangement of the Buddha, and then the two of them exchanged eyebrows and exchanged hearts, and then they held hands and left the crowd tacitly, and went to find a secluded place to talk about love......

After Meng Ba had a sweetheart, he became more energetic, more diligent, worked at sunrise and returned at sunset, and took care of all the affairs of the family without his parents worrying. The parents saw it in their eyes and were happy in their hearts, knowing that their son had grown up, and the golden peacock had fallen on the plane tree at his house, and they were ready to save some money to do their son's marriage, but they also had a heartfelt matter for their parents.

Because it is humid and hot here, there are many kinds of insects, and the Dai people love to eat insects. The insects they often eat include cicadas, bamboo insects, large spiders, soft-shelled turtles, ant eggs, etc. Cicada hunting is in summer, every evening, cicadas colony in the grass, cicada wings are soaked with dew, can not take off, people dare to quickly pick the cicada into the bamboo basket, go home into the pot to dry and make sauce.

Cicada sauce has the medical effect of clearing heat and detoxifying, removing pain and reducing swelling. Of course, this is also a valuable experience passed down by one's ancestors in the natural world to survive.

Meng Ba also likes to eat insects, loves to go to the forest to catch cicadas and look for ant eggs, but he did not expect that when he went to catch cicadas and look for ant eggs, he unexpectedly suffered a great disaster...... 9