The Culture Connotation Of Ritual Dance In The Tujia Sheba Festival

The Tujia, with a time-honored culture, is an ancient ethnic minority lives in the common border of Hunan, Hubei and Guizhou Provinces, and Chongqing Municipalit y. The Tujia people loves singing and dancing and has their own belief. A ritual dance s howed on a Tujia festival called “Sheba Ri” is the structure and embodiment of the cult ural facts during the Tujia history and development. The basic elements in that dance ar e the art creations of the Tujia ancestors. The dance form has a close connection to its en vironment and is also a mirror of the local environment. The Tujia people’s living envir onment and natural ecology can be seen in these ritual dances that are rooted in the Tuji a culture, hence, it demonstrates the colorful folk culture patterns and the genuine spirit s in the Tujia culture.The field investigation held in this paper was in the Tianjiadong Village of Duanl ongshan Township in the Guzhang County.In the Tianjiadong Village,a ritual name d“Sheba”(社巴)or“Sheba Ri”(舍巴日)will be held in the fifth“Wuri”after Beginnin g of Spring per year.The word“Sheba”is a Tujiag language,meaning hand-waving,an d the word“Ri”,used as a verb in the Tujia language,means doing or holding,so the Sheba Ri”means holding the hand-waving activity.The whole ritual handed down to th em from their ancestors as a way of sacrifice and can be divided into three parts:“inviti ng the gods”,“worshiping the gods”and“sending the gods off”.The major dances in th e ritual are Tima Dace,Broom Dance,Maogusi and Hand-waving Dance.Every dance t ype has different cultural meaning,but the connotation of these dances is the same,tha t is,the admiration of their ancestors,praying for the blessing from ancestors,removin g ill fortunes and warding off evil spirits as well as the pursuit of the happy life.These d ances play a crucial role in improving the cultural development in the ethnic group regio n and guiding the art creation of ethnic groups.