Dances of the Qiang

Between the Qiang the dance has a fundamental importance. All the aspects of his life and culture are related to some dance. Every activity has his dance: holiday, harvest, to receive guests, to adore the gods, funerals. It is possible to say (1) that "The dances impregnate every aspect of the life of the Qiang" In fact, there are one of the favorite vehicles of expressing his feelings.

The different communities Qiang of the actuality, on having lived during the last isolated enough centuries of other communities, support numerous features of his traditional culture. For them the dance is still an activity related to his history and mythology. A way of expression capable of transforming any act in sacred, and therefore in significant. The dance is the memory of the sacred procedure bendecido for the ancestors. Any dance, between them, has an important ritual component.

Between the Qiang it is possible to be said that there is so much variety of dances changed the human activities are. Nevertheless, some authors try to classify them under 4 types (1):

- Dances to enjoy. The most numerous and most widespread, like Salang or Yuechipu
- Religious dances. Realized principally by the shaman in his different activities.
- Ceremonial dances. They are very numerous, with special characteristics as the ceremony for which they are destined. The used ones are different in the step rites, from those who are represented to receive the guests.
- Meeting dances. Generally of military aspect inherited from the past.

The dance Salang

Of all of them, the most famous of his dances, is called Salang. According to the legends it is a dance inspired by those that the shamans realized formerly. Nowadays only women take part in this dance. Of course in the ancient times his shamans were exclusively feminine, as between many other peoples. Although this dance is considered to be playful, and cannot be missing in any ceremony of the Qiang, his important ritual components are still clear, since the participants are distributed in a semicircle about the fire, dressed in red skirts.

In fact this type of dance is used in his most important celebrations: principal holidays, marriages and at the end of the harvest. Sometimes it lasts the whole night, and does not finish up to the arrival of the dawn.

This dance possibly is of the most ancient between the Qiang, since it has developed tremendously, including at present numerous formal changes that imply different meanings related to the love, the marriage, the harvest or the works in the field. This dance has big resemblances, on the other hand, with the dances that there celebrate the Naxi, the Moso and other peoples who keep clear historical relations with the Qiang.

In the funerals a type of dance Salang is used with special characteristics, in which slow and stereotyped movements express the respect for the dead person.

Religious dances

The shamans Qiang, without keeping the monopoly of the religious dances, must be present whenever they are realized, since they usually do it under his direction. These dances include big formal variety, which is related to the function that is assigned to them. Jiang Yaxiong (2) mentions the following ones as the most important:

- The dance of the leather drum: It is realized generally to treat a sick person or in the funerals. During the same one the shaman tests different relations with the drum, which turns into his communication vehicle with the gods. Although some of his activities look like a pure stunt, they support an important relation with his religious beliefs.

- Dance of the Cat. The shamans adopt the position of the cats (a sacred animal for the Qiang) during the epoch of the harvest. With his movements they try to expel the calamities.

- Dance of the Dragon of Rope. The shaman faces only a dragon with wooden head and a body of rope. The movements that it realizes in a dance species - it fights against this mythological animal they are provided with a premeditated ambiguity.

- Dance of the Armor. Of origin obviously military, it tries to represent the exit of the victorious soldiers to a battle and his return. It is realized only in funerals, trying to show to the spirits the protection that the alive ones provide to his dead persons.

(1) Zhuo Yigeng and Liu Zhisong. - Qiangzu (The Qiang). Nationalities Press. Beijing. 1993
(2) Jiang Yaxiong. - Qiang Dances. In Flying Dragon and Dancing Phoenix. New World. Beijing. 1987

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