The religion of the Achang

The different groups achang present religious beliefs with important common elements, as well as clear differences.

Achang of Husa
Achang de Husa is Buddhists, followers of the small vehicle. Of course for the long contact with the Dai. At present they celebrate the religious holidays of form similar to the Dai, like the Holiday of Beginning Water.

The traces of his original religion also are influenced by his neighbors Dai, and are similar to those who can be observed between them. The most important is the cult to the God of the Village or Seman.

Every village has his Seman, which is established in some tree especially big or leafy, that is thought has his spirit. Opposite to him a stone is placed to mark it. The meno is venerated two times a year. The New Year's Day to ask him for good harvest and during the holiday of the harvest to be grateful for it. The girl who goes out of the village to marry also must realize a ceremony to the Seman, offering a meal that they all distribute. The Achang think that the Seman is capable of protecting the people of the village, his cattle and his cultivation. The ceremonies in honor only they can be directed to the Seman by the members of the family that initiated the establishment in this village.

Another trace of the traditional religion achang is the cult to Banqing, the God of the Sun. One believes him capably of taking prosperity to the people. Every family venerates him along with his house. Symbolized by a pipe of bamboo fixed in the ground, in whose top end there is a basket of which they salt four minor bamboo pipes, in four directions.

Achang of Lianhe
Achang de Lianhe practises the cult on the ancestors and on that of the spirits of the nature.

The Achang think that the spirits of the ancestors are very powerful, capable therefore of taking the prosperity or the misfortune to his progeny. Every person has three souls. On having died, each of the souls continues a different way. One remains on the grave, other one goes to the home-made altars, and the third one is going to meet the King of the Spirits. By it, after the death of a person, an important ceremony is realized to take his souls. His shaman or Leibao is summoned, that for one day and one night he will read the writing to show to the way to the soul.

In every house there is a tablet of the ancestors similar to that of the Chinese, which is venerated at least three times a year. The first lunar day and the first day of the seventh month to ask for good harvest; and on the 15th of the eighth lunar month, to be grateful for it. But there are families that realize ceremonies for his ancestors every month or with an even major regularity.

To the soul that is in the grave there is venerated the day of the Brilliant Purity, which coincides with the Chinese holiday. To the soul that is with the King of the Spirits role wealths offer him the first day of the seventh lunar month, when one believes that the doors of the sky are opened and the spirits can return to the ground. Under the symbolic presidency of the ancestors, familiar meetings are celebrated.

When the spirits of the ancestors devote themselves to bite and to hurt the people they are met like Spirit of the Big Family or of the Small Family, according to the size of the same one. For the Achang when a person is sick it is because of these spirits. By what a Leibao is called so that he expels them reading the writing while a pig and a cow is offered to these familiar spirits. Less harmful are the spirits of the girls who went out of the village to marry, that if they have received maltreatment, after his death can return to his native village and bite the people.

Between the spirits of the nature the Achang he believes that there are some of them that are right in the people and others that harm them. Between the first ones they are:
- Pang or the God of the Wealth. In some villages it is considered that she is an oldster.
- Guqi, a woman who protects the store of the grain.
Also they are the Spirit of the Earth, that of the Mountains, that of the Cultivation, and that of the Hunting, which sometimes is venerated in the same temple.

Between the bad spirits the Wolf is that of the Sun, the Moon, the wild Mountain, the Famine and the Weariness, etc. The most important is Meitou that was opposed to the king of the creation. Every evil spirit can bring misfortunes and illnesses, which assume to different spirits as the affected organ.

Achang of Luxi
His religious beliefs are not very different that those of Achang de Lianhe. They believe that the persons have three souls, but only they venerate his ancestors during two generations.
They think that the illnesses are provoked by the spirits of the ancestors who bite the people, which they call of the Big Family or the Small Family.

Between the spirits of the nature he emphasizes the cult to Dimu or the Local Mother, who is venerated generally under a big tree that is along with the village.

For them the Spirits of the Hunting, of the Mountain and of the Millet are benign. Between his harmful spirits the Spirit of the Dead persons is, that of the Famine and the Weariness, that of the Oppression, that of the Sterility.

Achang de Luxi has three types of priests or shamans:
The Motao, which they expel to the malignant spirits reading the writing.
The Buguishi or fortune tellers consulted continuously for multiple matters.
The Zhangzhai, which direct the ceremonies in honor to the gods of the village there where they are.

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