Ethnic Hand-waving Dance of Tujia People
By admin on 2014-12-19

The Hand-Waving Dance, also called the Shebari in the Tujia language, is a dance used in sacrificial rituals and is common in areas where there are concentrations of the Tujia ethnic group, especially in western Hunan Province.

The Hand-Waving Dance is a traditional collective performance of the Tujia people, with a history of over 500 years. In the past, the Hand-Waving Dance was a martial dance and used when fighting an enemy.

When dancing, all the dancers form a circle on the ground with the tima (wizard) leading at the front, and dance with their armsswingingfreely and legs following all kinds of floor patterns to the music of drums and gongs. The dancers keep waving their arms in all directions, hence the name the Hand-Waving Dance. There are two kinds of Hand-Waving Dance. One is performed by several thousand people at the 'Great King of Eight Tribes' (the progenitor of the Tijua people) sacrificial ritual, and the other, performed in lesser numbers, commemorates the memory of Penggong Juezhu, the progenitor of some of the families.

Ethnic Hand-waving Dance of Tujia People

From the 3rd day to the 15th day of the 1st lunar month, the Tujia people hold large-scale sacrificial, prayer and celebratory activities. The Hand-Waving Dance is an integral part of these activities.

This dance, now with its seventy ritual gestures that represent rituals, war, hunting, farming and other aspects of life, is popular at the New Year Festival and other festive occasions and has become a recreational dance of the Tujia people. Though simple and rough, it looks beautiful and has an impressive primitive style. It expresses the origin, immigration and historic events of the Tujia ethnic group.

Indeed, the Hand-Waving Dance expresses the origin, religion, immigration, historic events, life, and customs of the Tujia groups and is a splendid historical epic.