Residing in southwest China, the Miao minority group are well known for their beautiful silver rings. During the Moon Dance Festival, Miao women will wear silver rings and other silver jewels to proudly display their beauty and elegance. For young people, the Moon Dance Festival is also a good time to look for their life partners. Men play their unique Lusheng musical instrument, with women singing and dancing around. The festival is held three times a year. The story below tells the origin of this festival.

A long time ago, there were two brothers who lived on the mountain. Every day, the elder brother went to hew wood, and the younger brother went fishing. Then they sold their products in the market. Their life was simple but happy.

The elder brother enjoyed music. Every time he went to hew wood, he would always look for some reed and bamboo, then make them into a pipe and play it. It sounded very beautiful. So gradually he collected many pipes. One day, he sat on a stone, and blew the pipes one by one. Each pipe made sound with various pitches. He said to himself, “If I play all these pipes together, then what music it would make?”

One day when he chopped a kiri plant, he found the inside of the kiri was hollow. He drilled some holes in one side of this kiri wood, and put the pipes into the holes. He then blew into the kiri. Immediately the kiri made several different sounds concurrently. After studying this carefully, he eventually made a nice musical instrument which could make beautiful melodies with various tones. This instrument was later called Lusheng. The beautiful music of Lusheng attracted many people, young and old, men and women. Even the birds and animals in the mountain enjoyed this sweet and touching music.

In a cave nearby, there was a female tiger who was intoxicated by the music too. But the tiger dreamed to have the elder brother only play music for herself. So one day, the tiger became a lady with several big silver rings around her fingers. She came stealthily to the brothers’ home, and ate some food in the kitchen.

When the two brothers arrived home and saw the tiger, they were really not happy, ” How are you here and eat all our fish?” The tiger laughed, ” Your fish was yummy! And now you go with me. I want you to be my husband!” The tiger caught the elder brother, and ran away. The younger brother tried to fight to get his brother back, but eventually he was defeated. The elder brother was taken away. When they left, the younger brother saw there was a tail under the lady’s skirt. So he understood that the lady was actually a ferocious tiger.

The younger brother immediately called the villagers together. They took arrows and bows to look for the elder brother in the mountains. One month passed, and they still couldn’t find the brother. Until one day in lunar January, they walked up to the top of the mountain, and heard a bird singing, ” In the cave, in the cave!” They walked ahead, and finally found a cave behind a large patch of grass. The elder brother was captured in the cave, and beside him was the tiger. The younger brother and villagers shot the tiger to death, and rescued the elder brother.

The elder brother was so happy that he played excitedly his Lusheng music. People sang and danced around him to celebrate their victory.

Since then, Lusheng became one of the most important musical instruments in the Miao areas. In lunar January, June, and August, an exciting festival is held, when men play Lusheng music, and women dance to the music with glistening silver rings on their fingers. Sometimes the festival is held in a night when the moon shines brightly in the sky. So it got a name ” the Moon Dance Festival”. The festival also has another name ” Looking for Brother Festival”. The women’s silver rings are particularly beautiful in the moonlight.

Writer C. Liu writes about the world’s silver jewelry, especially silver rings. In particular, Miao silver rings are popular almost everywhere. To let her know what you think, check out the Miao silver rings here.

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