Ngac'ang

The traditional religion of the Achang, Tibeto-Burman people of western Yunnan descended from Qiang tribes, varied from place to place. In the Lianghe district they kept a primal belief in the spirits of all things, while the Achang of Husa took up Theravada Buddhism.

The heart of the old belief is the creation epic Zhepama and Zhemima, in which the first ancestors spin the heavens, weave the earth and make human beings, then outwit the demon king Lahong. They are the highest of the kind gods. At the Wo Luo festival people honour the ancestors with sacrifices, songs of the epic and dancing.

At a Buddhist funeral the monk leads the soul along a cloth tape tied to the coffin. Nothing metal is buried, since metal is thought to taint the soul.