Photo: Wang Bingzhen 王炳真 攝

　　Bainiaoyi, or hundred-bird costume, is mostly worn by the Miao people living in Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture, SW China's Guizhou Province. The costume is decorated with celebrated Miao embroidery, a craft that has been listed as one of the national intangible cultural heritages. It has diversified colors and unique patterns and has been known as the wearable epic of Miao nationality.

　　苗族百鳥衣主要流傳于貴州省黔東南一帶，由國家級非物質文化遺產“苗繡”刺繡而成，色彩艷麗，圖案古樸奇特，被稱為“穿在身上的苗族史詩”。

Photo: Wang Bingzhen 王炳真 攝

　　Songlong village in Danzhai county is a branch of Ganao Miao nationality and has been famous for Bainiaoyi. "Ganao" in the Miao language means "tribe of birds". For them, the costume is a representation of their migration history throughout history, a witness of local textile culture, and a living fossil of Miao farming civilization.

　　丹寨縣送隴村屬于嘎鬧苗族支系，百鳥衣最為出名，“嘎鬧”在苗語中是“鳥的部族”之意。是千百年來苗族遷徙史的記錄，是紡織文化的見證，也是苗族農耕文明的活化石。

Photo: Yang Qian 楊倩 攝

　　As a general term for festival attires, Bainiaoyi is called "Ouhuayong" for men and "Ouhuanao" for women in the Miao language. Ouhuayong is mostly decorated with the abstracted patterns of ox&dragon or snake&dragon, while Ouhuanao features bainiao(birds) patterns. "Bai" means one hundred, but it is only an approximate number——that is, the number of birds embroidered on the clothes is not necessarily over one hundred; "niao", which means birds, here generally refers to various flying objects, such as butterflies.

　　百鳥衣作為節慶華服的統稱，在苗語里，男裝叫“歐花勇”，女裝叫“歐花鬧”。歐花勇多由抽象的牛龍或蛇龍等圖案組成，歐花鬧則繡百鳥圖案?！鞍佟敝皇歉艛?，百鳥衣上繡的鳥少則幾十，多則上百；“鳥”的品類也是泛指，蝴蝶之類能飛的物象也包括在內。

　　Bainiaoyi's patterns of butterflies, birds, fish, flowers, and dragons have all been abstracted from natural objects. Miao people venerate nature, so they embroider these patterns on clothes to repose their sincere and positive outlook on life and convey the ideas of mutual respect, coexistence, equality, and harmony between mankind and nature.

　　百鳥衣服飾中，所有的蝴蝶紋、鳥紋、魚紋、花草紋、龍紋等，都運用大自然中的生物特征。苗族人崇尚自然，寄托著原始而又真摯積極的生命觀，傳達了一種萬物有靈、萬命同源、眾生平等、和諧共處的理念。

Photo: Yang Qian 楊倩 攝

Photo: Yang Qian 楊倩 攝

Photo: Wang Bingzhen 王炳真 攝

　　Author: Cai Dongwu

　　Source: 《全域旅游》雜志

　　Editor: Wang Ziyi

　　Senior Editor: Min Jie