The Origin of the Tujia Bride's Mengpa in Zhangjiajie
The Origin of the Tujia Bride's Mengpa in Zhangjiajie. In Tujia villages around Paifengxia in Zhangjiajie, a bride wears the mengpa on her wedding day, weeps in farewell before the ancestors, receives her share of the family's incense, and is carried out to the sedan chair by her brother. The mengpa must not be new—it is the old headscarf the bride has worn year-round.
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The Origin of the Tujia Bride Wearing the Mengpa in Zhangjiajie
In the Tujia village stockades around Paifengxiashan in Zhangjiajie, when a girl marries, on the day she leaves home she must put on the Mengpa. After crying and bowing to the ancestors and dividing the incense fire of departure from her mother in the main hall, she is carried out on her brother's back to the sedan chair. There are certain rules for putting on the Mengpa: the Mengpa cannot be bought new; it must be an old headscarf that the marrying girl has worn all year round. The person who puts on the Mengpa must be the girl's closest sister-friend, or a nimble-handed member of the escort party. First, clear, bright water must be sprinkled on the Mengpa, to show that the marrying girl is pure as ice and clean as jade. Then, holding the Mengpa in both hands, she bows three times, showing that from then on she will be separated from her parents. Putting on the Mengpa requires a certain skill: it must not be wrapped too tightly, nor too loosely, otherwise, riding the sedan chair over mountains and across waters all the way, the bride will feel suffocated and unable to breathe, leading to dizziness and vomiting, bringing ill fortune to the groom's family. Therefore, whether the Mengpa is wrapped well or not is a matter of great importance. Why do Tujia girls wear the Mengpa when they marry? It is said that long ago there lived an old man in Xiluo Mountain. He had a daughter who was extremely beautiful and also skilled at needlework. She was truly loved by all who saw her, and flowers bloomed when trees saw her. When the daughter reached a suitable age for marriage, the old father asked a matchmaker to find her a good family behind the mountain. On the wedding day, father and daughter could not bear to part, and they wept in each other's arms again and again, always unwilling to separate. The people sent to escort the bride urged them again and again. The old father grew anxious, and quickly took off the old headscarf the daughter was wearing. While the daughter was crying bitterly, he wrapped it over her eyes. With her eyes covered by the headscarf, the daughter could no longer see the father who depended on her for life. Under the repeated urging of the wedding escorts, dizzy and disoriented, she cried as she left her father. From that time on, the custom of girls wearing the Mengpa when they marry arose. The Tujia people say that the custom of brides crying at marriage also arose from that time.
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