Silver flowers, silver bells, silver collars and silver hats, the whole body of Miao girls can weigh twenty or thirty pounds. Why has silver become a symbol of a nation for hundreds of years? Why do Miao people want to be wrapped in silver?
The reporter and silversmith master Yang Wenbin came to Qianhu Miao Village in Leishan County, Guizhou Province. The mountain road is very bumpy. We walked for three and a half hours on a 20-kilometer mountain road before we arrived at Kongbai Village, Leishan County, the only silversmith village in China.
In Leishan County, almost every Miao family has a silver collection. It is said that every year on the first day of the Miao people's New Year's Day, Miao women are dressed in white, wearing several silver collars around their necks to drown their noses and mouths, wearing large silver locks on their chests and wearing several pairs of silver bracelets of different styles between their wrists. They will compete to see who has the heaviest silver costume, who is the biggest and who has the most silver costume. The winner will be the target pursued by boys in Lusheng. However, Yang Guangbin believes that beauty is not the direct reason why Miao people like silver ornaments.
In addition, there is a very important point, that is, the function of silver ornaments. Yang Wenbin told us that the silver ornaments of Miao nationality can ward off evil spirits, detoxify and prevent pestilence.
There is a big maple tree in the village. The local people told us that this is Baozhai tree. According to an old Miao song, butterflies come from a maple tree, fall in love with blisters and lay twelve eggs. After 12 years' incubation, Jiang Yang, Niu and centipede, the ancestors of Miao nationality, were hatched, so they were sacred trees worshipped by Miao nationality. Legend has it that mother butterfly is the same ancestor of Miao people.
An old Miao people kept a set of the earliest silver headdress in Xijiang, and the butterfly jade hook on it is the best witness.
In today's Miao batik, we also see butterfly patterns. Miao people believe that "Mother Butterfly" is the common ancestor of all Miao people. If there are words, the deep affection of the Miao people will surely merge into an epic. However, Miao people, like all ethnic groups without words, can only pour their memories into white silver ornaments.
The silversmiths in Kongbai Village generally inherit their father's business from generation to generation, and their skills are rarely spread abroad. It is the fifth generation descendant of the Yang family, and the silverware making process is exquisite. He is going to make a pair of silver horns. First of all, the silver block should be made into 26 mm silver wire as thin as white hair.
This kind of meticulous work is very harmful to your eyesight. Master Yang said that he wore reading glasses when he was 37 years old.
Carved patterns have no templates, and mallets and chopping boards are his tools. The fineness of craftsmanship depends on having a picture in your heart and knowing it in your hand.
After that, we will make butterflies and silver flowers. A pair of silver horns need to weld 203 pieces of silver flowers, and each piece needs to be hand-woven and welded a little.
Yang Guangbin said that the silver flower woven with silver thread is bonded with welding liquid and then welded with a blowpipe, and the firepower is moderate, so that the welded products have no obvious solder joints and the silver ornaments are natural.
On the street of ethnic handicrafts in Kaili City, where the state capital of Qiandongnan Prefecture is located, we found that the silver ornaments here look black. Yang Guangbin told us that this is a tourist commodity. It's made of zinc-copper, not silver, but silver-plated, and the price is very cheap.
A set of bronze ornaments costs 1000 yuan, and a full set of silver ornaments costs 123000 yuan. So many silversmiths have gone out of silversmiths' village and made their own living.
Yang Wenbin is very worried that the popularity of tourism products is the time when Miao people's memory disappears.
In 2006, Yang Guangbin knew that Miao silverware forging skills were listed in China's intangible cultural heritage protection list, and he began to have the idea of announcing that artists who stayed in Silversmith Village would become master craftsmen and calling on more silversmiths to go out and forge the real Miao Yin.
Can the white silverware continue to shine on the Miao family who have lived in the depths of the mountains for generations?
Miao people worship silver ornaments so much, but Guizhou, where they live, is not a silver producing area. So where did such a large amount of silver come from?
More than 200 Miao people in Kongbai Village migrated from Rongjiang more than 400 years ago, and frequent commercial trade gave the Miao people raw materials to play silver.
Miao people migrate all the year round, so they like to carry all their wealth with them. When people leave, they follow their families. Preserved property decorated with money. This may be the direct reason why Miao people love silver.
Article source: International Online