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.