The Cultural Interpretation Of The Votive Ceremony Dances To The "Nuo" In Western Hunan Province

The votive ceremony to the “Nuo” of the Miao people, which still remains inwestern Hunan province, refers to a religious ritual for rewarding the “Nuo” when Miaopeople experience disasters.They pray the “Nuo” in the name of Badai fordelivering saying of a child, becoming wealthy and blessing the whole family safe. Thedances of the votive ceremony to the ‘”Nuo” is an important part of the religious rites ofMiao people in western Hunan province, which constitutes the basic content of folkreligious dances.Based on field investigation, this paper carries out a survey of the art forms of thedances of the votive ceremony to the ‘”Nuo”. Dalongdong village was elected as thefield for the research. The details of the ritual dances are presented by the observation ofthe process when Miao people are holding the ceremony. The forms and characteristicsof the postures, costumes and rhythms of the dances are explored and analyzed throughartistic theories and methods. The symbolic significances of the dances are interpretedby the theories and methods of anthropological religion. Seemingly the steps of thedances are simple, substantially they are mysterious codes which can be regarded as thechannel between Man and god, Men and nature, and figure remits which are full ofreligious symbolism. The dances make huge cosmic space which are interassociatedwith each other among Heaven, earth, Man and God. The religious concepts of thedances can be presented through the notion of the God, the divine and the view of theMan and God. The functions of the votive ceremony dances are mainly to strengthen theinternal ethnic identity, promote social stability, deliver ethnic traditional culture andenrich spare time of Miao people.The folk and religious artistic forms which are contained in the votive ceremonydances comprise the manifestations of national the folk religion, so the analysis of thedances should be focused on the resources of folk and artistic culture which are includedin the dances. A moderate exploitation and utilization of the resources is beneficialto the delivery and development of national and folk dances. This paper provides certainreferences of the discovery and protection of national and folk art by the analysis of theart forms, religion and social function of the votive ceremony dances.