Customs and Festivals

1.Customs

Dulong people are chiefly involved in agriculture, but retain their fishing tradition too. They attach great importance to their standing in the community and keeping their words is a moral imperative. To this day they have maintained their local custom of "locking no doors and taking no lost items."

The Dulongs are known for being as good as their word. They never lock their doors when they go out. They store the harvested grain on slopes far away from home. In order to lighten the burden when they trudge over long distances, they usually hang their haversacks for the return journey from the branch of a tree. No one will touch others' belongings. "Everything has a owner, and never pick up someone else's lost property on the road" are admirable traditions the Dulongs have kept.

Their relatively closed natural environment has enabled the Dulongs to maintain their old simple folkways through the centuries. "Respecting the old and protecting the young" and "living in harmony" is not at all empty talk for the Dulongs. Wild game caught must be divided equally and it is shameful for one person to enjoy it alone. If one family is in difficulty, all their neighbors will come to help without being asked.

2.Festivals

Their annual traditional holiday is called "Kacuiwa." It is held on a lucky day chosen from the last month of the year by elders in the villages. After worshipping the mountain gods comes the festive joyful "bulla2robbing banquet." As the gongs and drums resound to the skies, everyone starts to sing and dance. Kacuiwa used to be a rite performed to celebrate victory, but now it has become a festival when the whole valley is caught up in joy and fun.