1. The Dai people, also known as the Tai people, Shan people, etc., their national language is Dai (Thai), which belongs to the Zhuang-Dai branch of the Zhuang-Dong language family of the Sino-Tibetan language family.
2. The Dai people regard peacocks and elephants as mascots, and their folk stories are rich and colorful. The Dai people like to live by water, love cleanliness, bathe often, and women like to wash their hair, so they are called the "water nation" In the past, the Dai people generally believed in Theravada Buddhism and primitive religions.
3. The Dai people are the main ethnic group in Thailand and Laos, accounting for 40% of the total population of Thailand. The Dai people are also the second largest ethnic group in Myanmar and are ethnic minorities in China, India, Vietnam, Cambodia and other countries. According to the sixth census data in 2010, there are more than 1.26 million Dai people in China.
4. The language is divided into three dialects, namely the Dai language in Xishuangbanna area, the Dai language in Dehong area and the Dai Bong language in Menglian and other places. The Dai people also have their own script, which can be divided into four types according to the area of ??use: Dai Lu script, Dai Na script, Dai Pang script and Dai Duan script. For a long time, the Dai people have used these characters to record the long history of the Dai people, allowing a large number of cultural classics and folk manuscripts to be passed down to this day. The folk art of the Dai people is also rich and colorful, especially music and dance.
5. The clothing characteristics of the Dai people are different for men and women.
Men's clothing: Dai men generally do not wear jewelry, but occasionally they will find a shiny silver bracelet on their wrist. Gold and silver teeth are their preference. There is little difference in the clothing of Dai men in various places. They are generally relatively simple and elegant. They wear short shirts with no collars, double lapels or large lapels with small sleeves, and wide-waisted trousers without pockets. They usually wrap their heads with white or cyan cloth, and some wear woolen hats. In cold weather, He likes to wear a blanket at times and is often barefoot in all seasons.
Women's clothing: Dai women pay attention to clothing, pursue light, beautiful, and elegant clothing, and coordinate clothing colors, which are extremely outstanding.
Young women tie their long hair on top of their heads, which is a distinctive feature of Dai costumes. Dai women wear various tight underwear, light-colored coats with large or double-breasted narrow sleeves, and colorful tube skirts with various patterns woven on them. Dai women like to wear their long hair in a bun, with combs and hairpins inserted diagonally into their buns. Or flowers for decoration.
Dai women like to wear jewelry. Jewelry is usually made of gold and silver, mostly hollow, and engraved with exquisite patterns and patterns. Dai women are generally slim, with pure and delicate faces, and they look slim. Because of his elegant demeanor, he is known as the "Golden Peacock".
The clothing materials are mostly made of thin and soft georgette, vermicelli or brocade silk. On the basis of absorbing the "essence" of traditional clothing, the styles of dresses are developing in a graceful, soft, bright and elegant direction. It further shows the colorful characteristics of peacock feathers in the land of peacocks.
6. Food culture: Most of the Dai people have the habit of eating two meals a day and eating rice and glutinous rice.
1. The Dai people in Dehong eat japonica rice as their staple food, while the Dai people in Xishuangbanna eat glutinous rice as their staple food. Workers often eat outdoors, using banana leaves or rice to hold a ball of glutinous rice, along with salt, spicy pepper, and sour meat. , roast chicken, Nanmi (meaning sauce in Dai language), and moss pine are ready to eat. Bitter melon is the most produced and consumed daily vegetable. In addition to bitter melon, Xishuangbanna also has a kind of bitter bamboo shoots, so the Dai flavor also has a bitter flavor. The most representative bitter dish is the beef skin cold dish platter cooked with ox bile and other ingredients.
2. Religious food and customs The Dai people generally believe in Theravada Buddhism, and many festivals are related to Buddhist activities. During the Buddha Bathing Festival (Water Splashing Festival), in addition to abundant wine and food, there are also many Dai-style snacks. There are also crispy snacks made from fried glutinous rice paste.
3. Festive food customs Among the Dai people in Xishuangbanna, when a family builds a house, the whole village will come to help. When a new house is completed, the young man goes upstairs first, carrying a cow's head and singing blessing songs. The men carry the boxes, the married women hold the quilts, and the girls carry the meals one by one. Then they set up tripods on the fire pit, set the tables, prepare wine and dishes, sing songs to celebrate the new house, and the villagers also give some tokens to the owner. Auspicious gift.
4. Sour Pork is a traditional Dai dish made from beef that is marinated and then stir-fried. It is characterized by a strong sour flavor and can help digestion. The preparation method is to wash the fresh yellow beef with rice washing water, cut it into large pieces and put it in a basin. Add fresh pepper leaves, salt and rice, mix well, put it in an earthen pot, pour in white wine and compact it, cover it and use plant ash. Mix it with mud to seal the mouth of the jar and marinate for one month. Cut the marinated yellow beef into shreds and fry with green garlic sprouts until cooked.
5. Fire-roasted fish is a traditional home-style dish of the Dai people, characterized by its softness, tenderness, sweetness and original flavor.
6. Pickled beef head is a traditional Dai nationality home-style dish.
7. Tamarind: In winter and spring, when the sky is high and the clouds are clear and the wind is refreshing, it is easy to see a fruit tree that is particularly loved by local people when you walk into a Dai village in Xishuangbanna - Tamarind. It has a tall tree, rough trunk, sparse branches and leaves, and bunches of brown hook-shaped pods hanging on the branches.
8. Insect food: The Dai area is humid and hot, and there are many kinds of insects. Using insects as raw materials to make various flavor dishes and snacks is an important part of the Dai food. Commonly eaten insects include cicadas, bamboo insects, giant spiders, field turtles, ant eggs, etc.
7. The Dai people mainly live in Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture, Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture, Gengma Dai and Wa Autonomous County, Menglian Dai Lahu and Wa Autonomous County and Lincang area in Yunnan Province, with a few scattered nearby. Other states and counties. Dai people usually like to live in large river basins, dam areas and tropical areas.
Baidu Encyclopedia-Dai Nationality