Blang

The Blang, called the Pu in the Yuan period, are a Mon-Khmer people of southern Yunnan who, by later accounts, keep animism, ancestor worship and Theravada Buddhism side by side. Their religious life centres on rice, water, bees, beeswax and the local spirits tied to them.

Most Blang festivals are religious. The rite of the village god is held for three days in the first or sixth lunar month: a chicken is killed, water is dripped around the village and at its centre, and the young men dig for bamboo rats to offer to the god, asking for good weather and safe herds. The most solemn festival is Sangkan, when the sun is welcomed and the Buddha is bathed.