Basha (Biasha) is a Miao village 7 kilometers away from Congjiang County, Guizhou Province. The local pronounciation is Biasha, but people can not find the similar word in Mandarian Chinese, so the writen name in official document of this village is Basha.
The 2,140 villagers living in more than 400 households are more like a tribe and seldom have contact with the outside world. They lead a self-sufficient life in the hilly areas, and is tinted with its time-honored Miao traditions and a strong local flavor.
Though situated by State Highway 321, the Miao villagers here have maintained the characteristic lifestyle of the Miao ethnic group, still retaining the living customs and dressing code of the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties.
Through hundreds of years, Biasha men have been guarding their homeland. A strong sense of precaution inherited from Biasha ancestors keeps them isolated from the outside world and has helped them maintain a primitive slash-and-burn lifestyle. Even young children wear sickles on their waists.Biasha might be the only village authorized by the government to keep guns.
Basha Style Miao mainly live in Basha,Judong,Guping villages near Congjiang county, and live in some other villages near Liping, such as Jiangkou, Yinchao and so on.
Though not tall or strong, Biasha men are extremely confident in their traditional clothes. The color is a special bluish purple. Biasha people usually add egg whites into the indigo when dying the coarse cloth, making it shiny and waterproof. Decorated with old-fashioned and colorful embroideries and supplemented with the charm of silver chaplets and bracelets, the clothes of Biasha women wear are uniquely beautiful.
Biasha men attach great importance to their hair bun, as it represents masculinity. They grow a long section of hair from the middle of the tops of their heads, which they keep coiled in a bun. The rest of the hair is shaved off with a sickle. According to anthropologists, this hairstyle is believed to have existed in Biasha for thousands of years. As a result, Biasha men are also known as 'the living terra cotta warriors.'
Even little boys understand the hair bun is a symbol of being a man, as well as an emblem of power. Boys have to take part in a shaving ceremony between the ages of seven and 15. The tribe leader wets a sickle with the water used to boil eggs, and shaves off all of the boy's hair except for the central part, which is coiled into a bun. Boys are given a hunting rifle at the age of 15 as a sign that they've become adults.
The local Miao men are good hunting wild animals,such as wild pigs, rabbits and birds, they still keep their hair very long,and twist them on the heads and each man has a topnot. Around it,the other hair is shaved clean by silkles instead of a shaver. As a man,he begins to have it when he is 15 years old,it is a symbol of being an adult. While the women are good at making batik and embroidery, planting cotton and making cloth and clothes for their own families.
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