Achang ethnic communities live in Yunnan Province, especially Longchuan County of Dehong Dai Autonomous Prefecture and Luxi County of Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture. They have their own spoken language, but no indigenous written language. Because of living in the same regions with Han community and Dai community over time, most Achang people have adopted the spoken language of the Dai ethnic community into daily speech  and the written and spoken Mandarin of the Han people. Most of Achang people believe in Hinayana Buddhism. The purpose of the Hinayana practicer is to attain Individual Enlightenment rather than Enlightenment as a Bodhisattva who works for the Enlightenment of all sentient Beings, as is the goal in other forms of Buddhism such as Mahayana.

Achang people live on what they earn from agriculture, in particular on rice planting. The rice they plant boasts a reputation of good quality and diversifications. "Hao An Gong" breed from Lianghe region was once known  as "the King of Rice". Achang people are good at making iron tools, especially the well-known cutting tools like "Husa Knife."

Taboos

Local taboos of the Achang community include no slaughtering livestock or hurting animals on the first day of the lunar New Year. No men are allowed to enter into the house compound if there is a baby born less than seven days. In a household, bedrooms lay on the two sides of the main living room with the left rooms for the elderly people and the right ones for other people in the family. Elderly men shouldn't step into bedrooms of the married younger generation. Unmarried men can live in the side houses, both on the ground floor or the second floor. Women are not supposed to live on the second floor, go upstairs when there are men downstairs or step over farming tools.

Hospitality

Achang people have many good traditions or etiquettes. They are hospitable towards guests and they are respectful towards the old and care for young children. When guests come, the hosts would treat them with the best wine and tea. The hosts leave the seat of honor to the guests. If guests are young, they could refuse the offer politely and sit besides the seat of honor instead. If the hosts offer tea or propose toast, the guests shouldn't refuse.

Achang people have the tradition of offering more food or drink  to their guests. So whether the guests are good at drinking, they shouldn't refuse the offer. When the hosts offer more to eat, the guests should hold the bowl with two hands to accept the offer. It is polite for the guests to stand up and use both hands to pass things. Usually, offering more food or drink is to show the hosts' hospitality towards the guests. The hosts might express their goodwill towards the guests in words or singing local folk songs during the process of offering more food.

Marital Customs

The dissolution of marriage bonds or wedding proposals requires the two parties to return photos or hair to each other. It is forbidden to burn the photos or hair of someone, because it is believed the person would become seriously ill or go crazy if their photos or hair were burned.

In the Achang community, people with the same surname cannot get married. The family of the bride's side has the tradition of having the son-in-law live with them and the bridegroom is supposed to change his surname to his wife's. The wedding ceremony usually lasts three days. The bride and bridegroom would go to each guest to offer candies or drinks, and the guests are supposed to leave some coins inside the cups when they have finished drinking.

At the wedding banquet, the bride's uncle is supposed to sit in the seat of honor. A plate of pig brains is offered on the table. After the banquet, the uncle will give the bride a pig's rear leg and tail weighing approximately 4.5 kg as a present. This is called "meat from the mother side" and it means the bride will never forget the kindness from her parents.

In history, Achang people have had the tradition of forcing marriage or escaping marriage. Forcing marriage is caused by the following two reasons: one is the deep affection between the couple despite the disapproval from the parents of the girl. In this case the boy's side would make a plan to steal the girl, thus forcing her parents' agreement; the second reason is the girl's broken promises of marriage. In this case, the boy's side would steal the girl and force her to marry him. Escaping marriage happens when the parents from neither side agree with the marriage. The couple would elope to pursue freedom of marriage.

The above-mentioned traditions or customs have changed or eradicated with the changes of time and people's ideology. In a family, Achang people should marry in the sequence of the eldest to the youngest .If an elder son or daughter hasn't got married, then the younger son or daughter cannot either. If the younger brother or sister gets married before their elder brother or sister, they need to hold a special ceremony called "surpassing" and give a certain amount of money to their elder brother or sister for respect and apology. When the bridegroom goes to pick up the bride from her home, he will have two agile best men beside him holding an open umbrella for him. Young women in the bride's village will splash water on him from the eaves of the house. If the bridegroom gets wet, others will despise him, and if he keeps dry he and his best men will feel proud of themselves.

Origin of Umbrella, Talisman for Bridegroom

It is said that the umbrella is a tool to protect the bridegroom from being attacked. Long time ago, there was a little girl named La Mi from the Achang community. When she was around six, her parents died and from then on she lived with her elder brothers. At the age sixteen, her two elder brothers distributed the family property and she began to live with her eldest brother.

One day, a young man named La Na from another village came to La Mi's brother proposing marriage with his sister. Indeed, he was a spoiled and bad-tempered guy, who even knew nothing about daily spending. However La Na offered a lot of gifts to marry La Mi, which after calculation by her two brothers would still leave them a lot apart from the dowry they should give. So the two brothers agreed with the proposal.

La Mi had no feelings towards La Na, but liked a young man named La She. Once after they had sung love songs to each other, the two exchanged love presents and began to date each other. La Mi's brothers though also accepted wedding gifts from La She, were not satisfied with their sister marrying him. La Mi's two sisters-in-law were jealous of  La Mi's excellent boyfriend and even made the situation worse by persuading their husbands to kill La She.

On the wedding day, La She arrived at La Mi's village early in the morning. But La Mi's two brothers asked him to come later in the afternoon.
Waiting till it was dark, La She together with his friends went into La Mi's house accompanied by the pleasant sound of firecrackers and other musical instrument. Happily La She went up to the door and was to politely make his salutations, when suddenly cold water was splashed from the eaves down on him. He saw the light of some weapon before he fell down with a scream. When La Mi found out, she hanged herself.

So later on, people open umbrellas for the bridegroom for protection when the bridegroom comes to the bride's house. This is called: "the umbrella protecting the bridegroom's body". The  umbrella is practically a talisman for the bridegroom of the Achang community.

Achang People's Funeral Customs

In most cases, dead people are put into coffins and buried in the earth, except when the person died from a severe disease or when a women dies giving birth. In this case the dead people would be cremated before being put into coffins and being buried. People who die outside the village are forbidden to be carried back into village. Dead bodies are forbidden to be stepped over by people or other animals like cats and dogs. Dead people could be buried together with their favorite properties in their lifetime but not including things made of iron or steel. Therefore false teeth of the dead person should be excavated before burial.

In the Achang community  people with the title "Huo Pao" will read Buddhist scriptures at a funeral. They will play the funeral music and sing the "filial songs" all through the night. After the burial ceremony, the music instrument and other tools used in the funeral are forbidden to be touched, otherwise it is believed that someone else in the village will die.

(Source: chinaculture.com.cn/Translated by womenofchina.cn)