The Four Seals Miao are one of the tribes of the Miao minority group in southwestern China. Without silver jewels like other tribes, the Four Seals Miao are characterized by their women’s unique garments embroidered with four colorful square patterns. Their clothes are usually blue or black. Women like wearing pleated skirts. Some women wrap their hair into a bun with a wide blue cloth at 12 meters in length.
The Four Seals Miao reside in a village called Maige, which in Miao language means a place with lots of woods. A long time ago, a tribe of Miao was forced by their enemies to move to a remote mountainous area in southwestern China. Wanting to lead a peaceful life and not be harassed by the enemies again, they decided to destroy everything that might reveal their identities. When a Shaikh was about to throw the four big seals, the symbols of the tribe, into fire, a girl stood up and said: Please print the patterns of the seals on my clothes before you burn them. This way, the soul of our nation will live forever.
Since then, this Miao tribe kept a tradition of embroidering four colorful square patterns on women’s clothes. And they got a unique name the Four Seals Miao.
The Four Seals Miao are well known for their excellent batik technique with a history of more than 2,000 years. Women use a specially-made knife dipped into melt wax to paint beautiful patterns like flowers, bird, insects, and fish onto a white cloth. The cloth is then dyed in blue liquid, and put into boiling water for a while to remove the wax. As a result of this process, beautiful blue patterns are printed on the cloth.
The local women spin, weave cloth, batik, sew, and do embroidery all by themselves. To prepare a set of clothes for holidays, they often spend seven to eight months on sewing and embroidery. Their frocks have a big, multiple layered collar embroidered with colorful designs. The largest seal- a square pattern on the front of the frock is especially noticeable. Their pleated skirt are highlighted with the embroidered horizontal lines which represent the rivers and lakes their ancestors ever crossed during their migration throughout China.
Their houses are built with stones and dirt. Corn is their staple food. Rice is considered expensive food which they only eat several times in a year. They farm on the hillside. Their farmland is fertilized by manure carried there by the women. Everyday the women will go back and forth 5 to 6 times between their homes and the farmland. They are living a simple, hard life.
Many holidays are held for single, young people to look for their life partners. Each year, on the fifth day of the first lunar month, they will hold an exciting Flower Dance Festival where young people get together to sing and dance. In the evening they will have a bonfire party where they sing love songs to express their feelings.
The ceremony of releasing soul of a dead person from purgatory is also held during this festival. One man is selected to wrap his body in the dead person’s clothes, singing and dancing, with the Lusheng music as a background. In this way, the dead person’s soul could ascend into the heaven.
The local people enjoy raising thrush in their spare time. Kept in a cage, a thrush sings beautiful songs. After getting trained for a few months, some thrush can imitate the sound of other animals, including dog, cat, goose, and duck. Visit their village on a sunny day, you will hear the intoxicating songs.
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