Tai People's Rite Of Lungqiao And Their Marriage Custom

Though both Chinese Zhuang and Vietnamese Tay are nationalities that belong to Zhuang-thai ethnic group that are distributed in two different counties, they are"peoples from the same origin". Tai in China is a branch of Zhuang nationality, but it is Tay nationality in Vietnam."Lungqiao"is a rite that every Tai people must practice, which is usually held when a couple's first baby is 30 days old, or when the wife is pregnant or when the baby is a little older. A person who has not practiced the rite, no matter how old he or she is, is still treated as"a child", but not"an adult". When he or she dies, he or she can not be buried in the village's graveyard and people in the village do not dare to carry his or her coffin to bury.This paper tries to interpret Tai people's rite of"Lungqiao"with the theory of rite of passage and interpretive anthropology. This paper gives a preliminary conclusion:"Longqiao"is an important rite of passage of Tai people's, which has very close relation with Tai people's marriage custom,"the wife lives with her parents'family before she gets a baby". It's a rite that the wife's family sends their married daughter to her husband's family after she has a child. It's a rite that the husband's family and their ancestors accept this woman. The root of"Longqiao"is Tai people's ancestor worship.