The Yao are a major hill tribe in Laos, also found in Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam and along the Chinese frontier. A resilient people who migrated south from Yunnan some 250 years ago, their cultural heritage seems to have survived their wanderings as they adapted to different lands and environments. In Laos, they comprise two groups. The Yao Mun tend to congregate around upland mountain streams in the northern Lao provinces, and are called laohuay, ‘people of the streams'. They are related to the Yao Mien, a bigger group widely scattered in the highlands and as far south as Luang Prabang and Vientiane, known as lao soung, ‘high lao'. According to the 2005 census, there were approximately 27,449 Yao Mun and Yao Mien living in Laos.
The Yao speak a Miao/Yao language of the Sino-Tibetan family and the Mun and Mien dialects are understood by both groups. Because of their relatively ‘recent' migration south, the Yao have retained the use of Chinese ideograms for their language. They also have a belief system based onChinese Taoism, a philosophy that originated in 5th century BC China, which took on a religious fervour towards the 2nd century. Despite being in a predominantly Buddhist environment in Laos, Yao life continues to be heavily influenced by their version of theTaoist religion and its various rites and rituals.
In Laos, a special exhibition, Splendour & Sacrifice: Taoism of Northern Laos at the newly opened Traditional Arts and Ethnology Centre at Ban Khamyong, Luang Prabang focuses on the belief systems of the Yao Mun and Yao Mien as reflected in their ceremonial costumes. The Yao are distinguished by their dress which gives them a distinct identity. Subtle variations in clothing style and embroidery motif indicate kinship, cult and ethnic affiliations immediately recognised among themselves. Contrary to other ethnic groups, who are slowly abandoning ethnic attire, the Yao Mun dressin their traditional clothing much of the time. They are economically self-sufficient and grow their own cotton from the Gossypium arboretum and Gossypium barbadense species and use the indigo plant, Indigofera tinctoria, widely found throughout Asia, for dyes. Yao Mun women harvest the plants and then spin and weave the cotton on floor looms outside their houses. A labour-intensive process is involved in the cotton dyeing process. One solution is made from indigo plant leaves submerged in vats of water. After lime has been added, it is left to stand for two to six days. A second solution consists of ash and water. The woven cotton cloth is soaked in a mixture of both solutions and is then dried out in the sun. It is dyed repeatedly throughout the day, over a course of 25 days, to achieve the deep colour-fast blue-black hue, appropriately called lantian, ‘blue heaven'.
The Yao Mun costume has not changed for more than a century. Tunics for both men and women are made from four basic vertical panels, two for the front and back, and two for the sleeves. They have round necklines and fasten on the right. Tunics tend to be longer for women who embellish them with pink silk streamers hanging from the neck and loosely knotted at the waist. Women also wear white cotton leggings, a part of their costume, which is disappearing rapidly since their embroidered shoes are being replaced by rubber flip-flops.
The Yao Mien wear a similar but darker, almost-black tunic. Female attire is distinguished by heavily hand-embroidered trousers, made by the wearer herself, and an indication of the particular identity, group, or sub-group that she belongs to. According to the Yao Mien, embroidery is an attribute of diligence and creativity, demonstrating qualities for motherhood. Young men are said to examine such embroidery in their search for future wives. Indeed, girls as young as six or seven begin their ‘apprenticeship' when they are taught its finer points. The embroidery panels have no reference marks and are sewn from the reverse side, with the completed product turned over once itis done. A pair of trousers might take up to nine months to complete. The spacereserved for the embroidery band on a trouser leg starts at the hem and could extend up to 70 cm. Several types of stitches are used, depending on the particular Yao group or sub-group concerned. Generally they feature a complex array of motifs depicting mythical creatures based on key-fret and geometric patterns, as well as stars. Silk threads of five colours, red, blue, green,yellow and white were used in the past to make the weave stitch but have been replaced by cotton and the cross-stitch in recent years. The trousers are worn with Yao Mien jackets distinctive for having red woollen ruff fringes. Part of the female dress are turban-like head-wraps which are worn daily, also previously worn by men but this practice has fizzled out, except at ceremonies.
Both the Yao Mun and Yao Mien practise a form of Taoism, which incorporates ancestor and spirit worship among a celestial hierarchy of several deities. It is understood that the Chinese Taoist religion replaced their original animist or tribal beliefs around the 13th century, and when they reached Laos around the 18th century, they were already Taoists. The Yao community at large functions as a religious congregation with a hierarchy made up of head-priests and their subordinates. A large amount of material resources are dedicated to rites of passage concerned with life and the after-life. Of particular significance is the ordination of boy priests, usually applied toall boys of twelve years and above.
Yao Mun boys being ordained to become what are called Meishan masters, sai kong and Taoist priests, taokong, follow a religious tradition that involves exorcistic and healing rituals. They are required to wear an antique robe called man kuaybiow measuring 118 cm long and 95 cm wide, which has been handed down from generation to generation. It may have taken a female embroiderer ayear to make, during which time she must remain celibate, and cannot visit an‘unclean' woman who has given birth. The robe is symbolic, indicating the Yaomélange of Taoist and Chinese beliefs. Auspicious dragons on both sides guard the Jade Emperor's palace depicted at the back with a flame-like radiance. The five-coloured qilin, one of four great supernatural Chinese creatures alongside the dragon, phoenix and tortoise is embroidered below it. This mythical hybrid animal has the tail of an ox, forehead of a wolf and horse hooves. Five mountains lining the lowest parts of the robe are homes of the supernatural creatures, the deities and the emperor. The robe's edge is bordered with the bagua, ‘eight trigrams' with yin-yang characteristics. The rest of the robe is filled with xian, ‘divine spirits' attending to the deities. Horses, when embroidered on the robe, signify speed and endurance. The occasional unicorn also makes an appearance. The fragility of antique priest robes made of silk mean many are now worn out. The antiques trade has also led to their depletion. New robes using neon-dyed cotton andartificial silk have designs formed from plastic sequins.
The Yao Mien priesthood consists of an important ritual by the taogong, ‘high priest of the tao' of the topmost echelon who must read andwrite Chinese, to be able to understand the ritual books. Compared to the Yao Mun robe, the Yao Mien priest outfit is less elaborate. A ceremonial skirt is worn with an indigo-dyed cotton jacket or vest made of Chinese fabrics over traditional clothing. Accessories include a hat, tassles and a length of whitecloth worn as a belt. Since the priest functions as a shaman, he is allowed to wear the outfit only when performing the ritual. He also carries a staff to represent a ‘horse' as in traditional Chinese opera, and a buffalo horn to entice the spirits to the ceremony during which he enters into a trance.
The religious life of a Yao Mien male formally begins when he is introduced to the Taoist pantheon through four ceremonies. The first degree ceremony is called ‘hanging the lamps', kwa tang, an important rite to secure his place among his ordained ancestors. The second level is ‘passing the master degree', tou sai; the third, ‘adding functions', chia tse and the last, is a ‘graduation', pwangko. Most ordained boys do not proceed further than the first rank. Since such ceremonies are getting increasingly expensive, a family might hold one ceremony simultaneously for several sons and male relatives. The most basic ordination ceremony, the kwa fam toi tang, is performed continuously over a period of two days and two nights, requiring five sai kong priests aided by assistants. Those to be initiated wear red ordination turbans and red ruffs over their blue-black tunics. They receive candles - made from the banana tree trunk - lit by the father, senior priest and deputy priest. After the ceremony has taken place, the ‘little master', saichia ton, is able to perform a limited range of rituals. He will also be conferred a special middle name, fa, that replaces his generational name to denote his newfound status. Someone called Pien Fu Tsang, for instance, will be renamed Pien Fa Tsang.
Although their religious affiliations remain strong, Yao communities have been increasingly enticed to move downhill where they arecurrently organised around basic services, such as water supplies, schools and clinics. Many communities were destroyed during the Vietnam War but some refugees returned to their original homes in the 1980s and 1990s. In Laos, Yao Mun villages number about 60 households and the Yao Mien congregate in 36 household villages. There are also notable Yao communities in the US, who enjoy continued trade and exchange with their Laotian cousins. Ceremonial clothing mentioned above are still made in Laos and sent to the American Yao where rite and ritual may be diluted, but remain alive.
Yvonne Tan
Until 15 September 2010, Splendour & Sacrifice: Taoism of Northern Laos is at theTraditional Arts and Ethnology Centre, Ban Khamyong, Luang Prabang, Laos. www.taeclaos.org
