Religion of the Talu

The Talu support the cult to the nature and to the ancestors.

The cult to the nature is evident in the worship Zhuo'e and Milu. The first one is at present the principal god for the Talu, but his cult possibly will originate like one of the cults to the mountains. Two times do ceremonies in his honor a year, in the New Year of the Talu (8 of the January to 12 of the lunar January) and in the Holiday of the Torches (lunar June 24), when they offer to Zhuo'e goats (generally three), gluttons, funks, wine and cakes saliva.

The cult Father spread enough over the area derives Milu from the cult to the Mountain. In the beginning every clan was venerating a different mountain, which god was the protective god of the harvests, for his aptitude to regulate the wind and the rain. That's why, nowadays, the people of different surname still venerate Milu in different mountains.

Also they believe in other gods, like the Spirit of the Dragon after the Mountain and the Spirit of the Trees. As well as other spirits and bogeys, which plans can know by means of the divination, which they realize using fundamentally bones of goat, bones of chicken or eggs.

As for the cult to the ancestors, it is evident by means of a branch that they fix in the wall of the houses, and the ceremonies of "Opening the way" to the dead persons.

They have two types of priests, the Niefu and the Luxi, which are not withdrawn from the productive activities.

The Niefu, more numerous, do a function similar to Dongba de los Naxi, treating the patients, banishing the demons, and practising the divination.

The Luxi, they know the sacred myths of the Talu, and are therefore, the managers of directing the most important ceremonies, like that are celebrated in honor of Zhuo'e, of Milu, as well as "to open the way" to the dead persons.

On having died, the dead person is buried in a wooden coffin. Often the graves of a family or a marriage are together. Before burying them, the Luxi watch the corpse during a time that changes between one and three days, reciting the instructions to open the way for his soul to the country of the ancestors, and that does not remain for the outskirts doing of bogey.

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