再造传统:布朗族“贡母”节的当代重构及其仪式实践——来自云南省永德县送归村的调查

Reconstructing Tradition:Contemporary Reconstruction and Ritual Practice of the Gongmu Festival of the Blang People in Songgui of Yongde County,Yunnan Province

云南省永德县布朗族的“贡母”节起源于送归布朗族传统的“拱木”会,是永德布朗族重要的民俗信仰活动。当地布朗族文化精英为了在现代社会变迁中拓展布朗族文化的生存空间,弘扬和传承优秀民族文化,与地方政府合力推动重构了“贡母节”,由此重塑了地方社群的传统仪式与文化空间,并使之成为维系布朗族历史记忆和文化认同的重要标志。这种“传统的发明”、节日的再造和“非遗化”的传承不仅有助于提高布朗族的民族自豪感和社区凝聚力,维护中华文化多样性,而且成为各民族交往交流交融的重要平台以及铸牢中华民族共同体意识的精神纽带,为乡村振兴背景下永德布朗族民族文化的传承发展提供了新的路径。

The Gongmu Festival is an ethnic festival reconstructed in recent years thanks to the joint efforts of the cultural elite of the Blang in Yongde county and the government.It arose from the Blang tradition of Gongmu and is an important Blang event,related to folk beliefs in Yongde County.The word gongmu in Blang language means Buddhist pagoda.The event was originally an outcome of the introduction of Southern Theravada Buddhism,and gradually became a folk belief of the Blang people in Songgui of Yongde County.The gongmu worship service was generally held next to the pagoda three days after the Water Splashing Festival.It is an folk activity attended by Southern Theravada Buddhists and Blang people from the entire Yongde County,and stopped taking place for a time.In recent years,with growing protection of traditional ethnic culture by the government,the cultural elite of the Blang in Yongde County,as well as local government officials,organized a series of rallies calling on community members to join hands in reconstructing the rituals of the gongmu worship service.The Gongmu Festival of the Blang people in Songgui of Yongde County,therefore,has been reconstructed by“inventing the tradition,”and endowed it at the same time with new cultural connotations and modern meaningfulness.This not only reshaped traditional rituals and the space of local culture but also turned it into an important symbol aimed at preserving the historical memory and cultural identity of the Blang.After being successfully listed as municipal intangible cultural heritage,both the government-led restoration of the Gongmu Festival as intangible cultural heritage and the bringing back of annual repeat ritual practices and cultural performances not only continuously strengthen the historical and cultural memory of the Blang people in Yongde County of the traditional gongmu worship gathering but also have become main drivers of the reintroduction of regional ethnic festivals and culture elsewhere.Hobsbawm once pointed out that“an invented tradition”means a set of practices,normally governed by overtly or tacitly accepted rules and of a ritual or symbolic nature,which seek to inculcate certain values and norms of behavior by repetition,which automatically implies continuity with the past.The Gongmu Festival of the Blang people in Yongde County just borrows a reasonable tradition to symbolize both its connection with the past and future continuation of this tradition.Such“invention of tradition,”festival reconstruction,and a legacy of intangible cultural heritage not only help to improve the self-esteem and cohesion of Blang communities or secure the diversity of Chinese culture,but also have become a platform for contact,communication,and integration of all ethnic groups in China as well as a spiritual domain for consolidating the people's sense of community for the Chinese nation;they,moreover,provide a new way to inherit and develop Blang culture in Yongde County against the background of Rural Revitalization.