Gaofeng township is inhabited by Han, Yi, Miao and Bai nationalities, of which the Yi population accounts for 85% of the total population. There are mainly two branches of the local Yi people, "nasupo" (he called red Yi) and "gesupo" (he called Bai Yi). They still have relatively complete and ancient national traditions in terms of clothing, language, marriage, sacrifice, singing and dancing, customs, festivals and so on. Gaofeng township is rich in ethnic culture and rich in ethnic customs. In 2008, it was named "the hometown of Chinese folk culture and art" by the Ministry of culture.

Gaofeng Yi Torch Festival is well-known for a long time. From June 24 to June 27 of the lunar calendar, there are six traditional folk activities, including ancestor worship, opening ceremony, heaven worship, torch playing, evil exorcism and torch sending. It is known as "the most primitive, most authentic and most unrestrained Torch Festival" in the cultural circles. Among them, "Dagao dance" is the most vivid, unique, mysterious and shocking content throughout the whole process of Torch Festival.

Dadao dance is called "atogao" in Yi language. Ato is a sword and Gao is playing, which means playing with Dadao. Dadao dance of the Yi people in Gaofeng retains the ancient Nuo ceremony. Accompanied by suona, gongs and tuba, it imitates the fighting between the two armies, attacks cities and lands, and reproduces the scenes of ancient tribal wars. It is a folk sacrificial Nuo dance integrating witchcraft, martial arts, dance, sword technique and belief. It reflects the survival and development history of the ancient Yi nationality in hunting, sacrificing, fighting, migration, attacking the city and guarding the soil. According to the academic circle, Dadao dance embodies the cultural connotation of fire worship, ghost view and ancestor belief of Yi people. It has the function of condensing ethnic consciousness, maintaining social operation and expressing aesthetic emotion. It retains rich historical culture and national art information, and has high academic research value.

Gaofeng Yi Dadao dance is mainly preserved and inherited in dahuaqing, xiaohuaqing and cangdi villages. It is said that there were 72 routines of Dadao dance in ancient times, which were gradually lost. Now there are eight routines handed down.

Time: August 15, 2020

Source: Yunnan Daily