Silver Adornments
On top of their beautifully embroidered clothes, Miao women are also famed for the glittering silver adornments that they wear during festival time. The Miao ethnic group's silver ornaments are second to none, both in terms of quantity and variety. Their women's festive attire includes a variety of silver decorations, weighing as much as 15 kilos!
In the past 2000 years of history, Miao people have experienced 5 massive migrations. It is very rare to see such large-scale and long-distance arduous migrations in human history. These massive migrations have profoundly influenced Miao culture and development.
Constant migrations have built Miao people’s strong will and tough folkways. They have strong resistance spirits against exploitation and oppression. Every time after moving to a new place, conflicts and wars often happen, due to Miao’s resistance to local authority’s oppression and discrimination. Unfortunately, a lot of times they got defeated due to their relatively weaker strength.
Therefore, migrating, settling, defeated, and migrating again have become Miaos’ main lifestyle. So, in the long-term migration history, how to preserve their assets had become a major concern.
Then Miaos have developed a living habit: whenever they earned some assets or valuables, they converted them to silver immediately (because in ancient China, silver had been a hard currency). Next time when they had to migrate again, livestocks and living materials might not be carried with them, but the silver assets hidden under bed can be taken with them very conveniently, so that they could get back on their feet again in a new place.
But a lot of times, wars happened suddenly, there was no enough time to go back to home fetching silver. And enemies could have occupied their homes before they could go back. Therefore, after those painful experiences time and time again, Miao people began to smith their silver into women’s adornments, such as combs, hair clasps, waist belts, etc. Women were responsible for taking care of these valuables.
Because when wars happened, men would join battles, which could make them die. So, to avoid losing family assets, men seldom wore silver adornments. If they got defeated and had to move, they must find the family females and took them away, because the home assets were all with women. This is also called “people leave along with property”.
The Miao people regard silver as a symbol of wealth. And of course, wearing all these silver is primarily aesthetic.They also believe that silver symbolizes light and good health, so wearing silver will ward off evil spirits, stave off natural disasters and bring good fortune. In some regions, Miao people believe that silver represents the moon, pure and immaculate.
When it comes to the ornamental silver worn by the Miao women, the heavier the better, so some festival outfits can weigh upwards of 10 to 15 kg. A typical festival outfit worn by a Miao woman will include a hat or crown, horns, a comb, earrings or ear pendants, a neckband, a necklace, a collar, bracelets, and rings, all made of silver.
The decorations are typically in four styles: symmetrical style, balanced style, connected style and radiating style.
The patterns or motifs are categorized by functions, there are hats, clothing, necklaces, bracelets, and rings. They usually feature patterns involving dragons, phoenixes, flowers and birds. The most striking of these adornments is the silver hat or crown.
Common motifs for the silver hats are a magpie stepping on plum, a golden pheasant calling out, a peacock spreading its tail, and a male and female phoenix perched together.
The Miaos mainly lives in the border areas of provinces in southwest China where they speak their own language. Farming is their main source of income supplemented by hunting. Their cross-stitch work, embroidery, brocade, batik, paper cut-outs and handmade ornaments, etc. are world-famous for their elegant techniques.
The headwear of the Miao is made entirely of silver, with many varieties.They include silver horns, fans, caps, kerchiefs, silver hairpins, pins flowers, chains, combs, earrings, and bonnet ornaments.
Silver horns are usually decorated with a raised pattern of two dragons playing with a ball. Girls put chicken feathers on the two ends of the silver horns which look beautiful blowing in the wind and increase the height of the wearers.
Elegant silver caps are used by the Miao people for dressing up. They are made from numerous silver flowers and silver bells with various patterns such as birds, butterflies and animals, giving an impression of pearls and jade all over the head.
The Miao sew five hollow silver flowers onto red and green striped kerchiefs. The middle one is bigger and placed on the forehead; the other four are smaller and placed in front of and behind the ears. The flickering silver and the flowery colors of the cloth complement each other beautifully.
The Miao people's silver hair clasps have many different designs although most of them feature flowers, birds or butterflies. Their themes are very varied; for example, flowers may be single or double-lobed, in bunches or bundles, dense or sparse, and in various designs and sizes. The style may be fine, slim and delicately beautiful, or more classically simple and heavy.
The Miao people wear silver pins in various ways. The Miao who live in Longli City wear pins made of three silver balls, with three silver bells hanging off each ball. The whole pin is inserted behind the bun. In Shidong City their pins are shaped like dragonheads in various sizes. Big pins are worn during festivals, and small ones are used in daily life. They are inserted horizontally right through the top bun, with a section of the clasp protruding sideways.
The Miao people's silver chains are a kind of hair clasp. Typically, they are made of a five-stranded net chain, fixed by pins. The five silver chains spread out like a net, covering the bun.
Silver combs are both a tool to comb and flatten the hair and an adornment. They are usually wooden and covered with silver - except for the comb prongs - with various decorative silver patterns on the back. The style may be complex or simple with elegant patterns such as flowers, birds, dragon, and deer.
There is a much greater range of silver earrings than any other type of Miao silverware. The Museum of Guizhou Province alone has, nearly one hundred kinds in its incomplete collection. There are four types of earrings: drop, circle, hook and wheel. Drop and circle types are the most popular types and earrings use other patterns besides the usual flowers, birds, butterflies and dragons.
The Miao people regard silver as talisman against evil spirits, so people living around the Qingshui River have a custom of decorating their children's bonnets with silver ornaments. Traditional bonnet ornaments include lions, fish and butterflies. Chinese characters such as fu (prosperity), lu (high position), shou (longevity), xi (happiness) and changming fugui (longevity with wealth and honor) are also used because of the influence of dominant Han Chinese culture.
Bracelets are an important part of the Miao people's silver decorations. There are many variations in shape and different styles represent the diversified tastes of various Miao group branches. People usually wear four or five pairs of bracelets at a time up their forearms.
Miao silver rings are usually large and wide featuring birds, flowers or vines. There is no specific restriction on how many or where to wear rings. The Miao people near Guiyang sometimes wear eight rings at one time - one on each finger except the two thumbs. In comparison with other silver Miao ornaments, there are few patterns and styles for rings, and they are only popular in a small number of regions.
People of the Miao branch near the Qingshui River delta area traditionally wear clothes with silver patches. The most common patches are square, rectangular or round and usually feature reliefs of lions, tigers, phoenixes, golden pheasants, dragons, cranes, butterflies, flowers, children and arhats (enlightened Buddhists). Butterfly-shaped bells decorate the bottom of gowns and wristbands, ringing melodiously when the girls walk.
Silver waist chains are mainly shaped like plum blossoms, with single or double layers.
Silver clasps are most common in the Duliu River delta area. These clasps are highly decorative.
Back decorations can be functional or purely for ornamental purpose. These decorations are usually shaped like butterflies or gourds, and are mostly worn by girls and women.
