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The Blang ethnic minority
The Blang people, numbering 82,400, live mainly in Mt.
Blang, Xiding and Bada areas of Menghai County in the Xishuangbanna
 Dai Autonomous Prefecture in southwestern Yunnan Province. There are
also scattered Blang communities in the neighboring Lincang and Simao
prefectures. All the Blangs inhabit mountainous areas 1,500-2,000
meters above sea level. The Blangs in Xishuangbanna have always lived
harmoniously with their neighbors of both the other minority
nationalities and the majority Han.
The Blang people inhabit an area with a warm climate, plentiful
rainfall, fertile soil and rich natural resources. The main cash crops
are cotton, sugar-cane and the world famous Pu'er tea. In the dense
virgin forests grow various valuable trees, and valued medicinal herbs
such as pseudoginseng, rauwolfia verticillata (used for lowering high
blood pressure) and lemongrass, from which a high-grade fragrance can
be extracted. The area abounds in copper, iron, sulfur and rock
crystal.
 The Blangs speak a language belonging to the South Asian language
family. The language does not have a written form, but Blangs often
know the Dai, Va and Han languages.
According to historical records, an ancient tribe called the "Pu" were
the earliest inhabitants of the Lancang and Nujiang river valleys.
These people may have been the ancestors of today's Blangs.
The Blang people were very superstitious. Ancestor worship was a part
of their way of life. The Blangs in Xishuangbanna area believed in
Hinayana Buddhism, as a result of the influence of the Dai tribe. The
Blangs' Buddhist temples and social systems were similar to those of
the Dais.
Blang men wear collarless jackets with buttons down the front and
loose black trousers. They wear turbans of black or white cloth. Men
have the tradition of tattooing their limbs, chests and bellies. Blang
women, like their Dai sisters, wear tight collarless jackets and tight
striped or black skirts. They tie their hair into a bun and cover it
with layers of cloth.
Their staple diet consists of rice, maize and beans. They prefer their
food sour and hot. Drinking home-brewed wine and smoking tobacco are
their main pastimes. Blang women like chewing betel nut and regard
teeth dyed black with betel-nut juice as beautiful.
 The Blangs live in two-storied balustraded bamboo houses. The ground
floor is for keeping domestic animals and storing stone mortars used
for hulling rice. The upper floor is the living quarters, and in the
middle of the
main room is a fireplace for cooking, heating and light. When a family
builds a house, nearly all the grown-ups in the village offer help,
completing the project in two or three days.
The Blang ethnic group has a rich store of folk tales and ballads
transmitted orally. Their songs and dances show the strong influence
of their Dai neighbors. Elephant-leg drums, cymbals and three-stringed
plucked instruments provide musical accompaniment for dancing. People
in the Blang Mountain area revel in their energetic
 "knife dance."
Young people like a courting dance called the "circle dance." For the
Blangs in the Mujiang area, New Year's Day and weddings are occasions
for dancing and singing, often lasting the whole night.
The Blangs seek spouses outside their own clans and practice monogamy.
With a few exceptions, mainly parental interference, young Blangs are
fairly free to choose marriage partners.
The death of a person is followed by scripture chanting by Buddhist
monks or shamans to "dispel the devil," and the funeral is held within
three days. Each village generally has a common cemetery divided
according to clans or people having the same surnames. The dead are
buried in the ground except for those dying a violent death, who are
cremated. |
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