Langde Miao Ethnic Minority Village
Overview
Miao Ethnic Minority is both mysterious and exciting. The Miao people are identified by their dialect, dress, location and other customs. In dress we have Long Skirt Miao, Short Skirt Miao, Black Miao, Flowery Miao and Long Horned Miao. By location there are River Miao and Mountain Miao. The villagers in Langde wear long skirts; hence they are "Long Skirt Miao". The Miao style houses "Diaojiaolou" and its featured and creative festivals will cause you spell bound.
Langde Village attracts travelers mainly for its three distinctive features: The first feature is that it is an excellent example of traditional Miao architecture; The second feature is that the village brims a strong ethnic atmosphere which is best presented by the Welcome Ceremony; the third feature is the picturesque landscapes-most travelers know Langdeshang Village for its ethnic culture, however, the natural scenery in this part of the country alone is worth a trip.
Langde Village preserves a large number of old wooden Diaojiaolou buildings. These wooden building is generally held together by means of wooden joinery, i.e., without recourse to either metal (nails, screws, bolts, etc.) or glue, but simply by means of interlocking joints such as mortoise and tenon ("peg and hole") joinery and other, more articulated joinery methods (think of a jigsaw puzzle). All the wood cottages in the village are multi-storeyed and built on an incline. There is indeed method in this seeming madness, and it demonstrates the adeptness of the Miao people in artfully adapting to the challenging conditions that they have faced since ancient times.
Villagers in Langdeshang keep their centuries-old tradition and custom, with the most distinguished practices being the Welcoming Ceremony. It’s a welcome party and guests are allowed in after drinking their twelve courses of way-blocking wines -- a most ceremonious etiquette. Here, people are wearing colorful festival dress. Women wear gorgeous and complex silver jewelry, and some young ladies adorn silver horned coronal on their heads; men robe themselves in blue-black, with chuddar of the same color covered their heads. Each man carries a Lusheng (a bamboo-made music instrument) and stands in line to play the Lusheng pipe music.
Location
27 km away from Kaili City in southeast
Features
An excellent example of traditional Miao architecture The picturesque landscapes and ethnic culture
