| They mostly reside in Heilongjiang Province and the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in Northeast China. The word Evenki means residents in the mountain forest.
Aobao Meeting
It is the traditional worship festival of the Evenkis, which takes place from April to June of each lunar year. It prevails in Heilongjiang Province and the Evenki inhabited area of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. The word Aobao means the pile or the hill. The worship in the Aobao is to pray for good weather, safety for both human and livestock. The Aobao is mainly located on the top of mountains, piled like the shape of a taper with stones or clods. Besides, colorful cloth strips or paper are hung on the top.
Legend has it that once there was a woman who went to a village in a sedan chair drawn by a mule. But she incurred a storm, and the whole village suffered from the disaster. In the winter of that year, when people broke the frozen ice in rivers to fetch water, they found a woman with disheveled hair. At that moment, it winded suddenly and snowed. People felt quite scared.
The villagers invited 9 lamas to patter. The lamas caught the succubae depending on the power of the Buddha and pressed her under the stones and rideau. As people worried about her escape, they wound add a piece of stone on the pile to increase the pressure whenever they passed by. In spite of this measure, they did not feel assured. They regularly worshipped her and pleaded her not to cause any disaster and asked her to bless people with safety and animal as well as human prosperity. From April to June, lots of worshippers added stones. Year after year, this became a traditional festival.
Among the rituals of the Aobao, there is clan worship, family worship, village, Banner and league worships. The Aobao in different styles will be worshipped in various scopes. For instance, the Aobao of the clan is to be held inside the family. The offerings and costs will be shared within themselves. The Aobao of league will be worshipped within the scope of the League, the offerings and other costs are shared by people within the League. There are volunteers who offer to contribute. The well-off families can present several sheep at one go. A person will be appointed specially to herdsman the surplus livestock of the offerings for the next year.
On the festival, people gather to the Aobao to take part in the worship activity from everywhere. At the beginning, the horse race will be held, and then, the offerings are served. The lamas patter for the worship. The participators start adding the stones on the Aobao one after another. When it is finished, entertainments such as wrestling, singing and dancing will be organized.
Nowadays, the Aobao Meeting has been turned from the religious worship to both the mass entertainments, sport activities and commercial events, which are similar to the Mongolian Nadam Fair.
Mikuolu Festival
On May 22 of every year, in the Evenkis residence area, people gather to celebrate the Mikuolu Festival. On the festival day, people put on pretty folk costumes. Friends and relatives gather together and brand the livestock. Boys ride on horse, waving the lariat pole and running after a 2-year-old horse. When it begins, the riders rush out, jumping onto the horseback; drawing the horse's tail and holding the horse ears. At last, they overturn it suddenly. Someone cuts mane and snips the tail end, and someone brands mark on the horse ears. The owner makes print at the right side on its hind legs.
It is a more strain, furious and interesting game. It is also a good chance for the herdsmen to demonstrate and compete for their skills. While snipping the horse ears, according to the traditional custom, the old people wish that their offspring were with a large flock of sheep and living a happy life by means of gifting a female lamb to their children.
Afterward, the host junkets the friends and relatives. He will announce to all, the number of the dumb things bred in that very year. When the feast is over, people will jubilantly hurry to another family. Again, another merry scene starts…
Fire God Festival
Once,the poor or the rich, every family of herdsmen in Suolun will worship the Fire God on each December 23. There is a legend concerning this custom.
One day, a poor hunter went hunting in a forest but gained nothing the whole day. He climbed several mountains and felt tired and sleepy. He tried to hunt a gazelle before dusk. That could be his dinner, but he failed. As the sun set, the hunter went ahead; he suddenly found a patterned snake, drilling quickly into a cave. He smelt a kind of aroma and lapped the blue stone that the snake got over. He got a sweet taste that he had never experienced before. Then, he went into the cave and saw there were many snakes overlapping. He settled down in the cave that night and lived there for a long time.
Some days, or maybe years later, the hunter went out of the cave. He saw that the gun that he put on the cave entrance was rotten as the gunstock and the tube were rusty. He looked around, and nobody was there, but he heard a chat and laughter. He listened carefully. They talked in other terms than human language. But he could understand. They were in fact immortals. They hunted many animals and held a celebration party. The hunter managed to remember when he actually came to the mountain, when he entered into the cave and what he did, but he could remember nothing. He found it very strange: he just entered the cave, but how it could be that several thousand years had passed!
The hunter left the cave. Regardless of the direction, he tried to find out the way. He looked at the thick forest around and the mountain paths were somehow larger than they used to be. The birds flew in the sky in groups. He thought that everything had changed. The hunter walked and saw there were two yurts on the hill. A car was parked in front of a yurt. A rich family! There was only a ropey saddle in the front of the other yurt. The hunter looked at his humble cloth and decided to enter the poor one. Stepping in, he asked, Are you from Suolun? The host was a poor herd. He answered, Yes. Then he served the guest with tea and milk. When the hunter was ready for tasting, he heard someone talk to the host on the roof of the yurt. My poor brother, you are so poor to have a horse with the saddle, don't you? But, in my point of view, it is really lucky for you! Look! I keep a large flock of sheep at home, which fill my sheepfold, but none of them is mine.
The hunter felt strange. He just had a look at the person on the roof pretending to hear nothing and kept drinking tea. At the moment, the guy on the roof uttered, We have suffered for generations, and cannot bear it anymore! We have to kill that greedy master!
Listening for a while, he identified that the utterance came from the Fire God. The poor herdsman understood nothing. After these words, the Fire God flew away from the roof. At that time, herdsmen in the pastoral area did not know how to use the fire. The hunter asked the poor host to let him stay over one night. On the morrow, there was a storm on the grassplot, it was so strong that the yurt was almost about to be blown away. The hunter went out and saw the poor herdsman drive his livestock after the yurt and hedge from the storm. And he looked at the rich family: the yurt and livestock were blown away. The residues were all over the ground. Seeing this with his own eyes, he was aware that the Fire God showed his power. Then, he told his experience to other herdsmen, but they dubitated. Later, abundant and fertile grass kept appearing on the pasture and the herdsmen fed their own livestock. Since then, the Suolun herdsmen began to believe in the Fire God. Before they have dinner and drink wine, they have to worship the Fire God, and have each December 23 as the Fire God Festival. |
