Ritual Process

            There are many rituals associated with the institutions of Gansu culture, to include the aforementioned religious, political, marital, and economic institutions that contribute to the uniqueness of our society.

            For example, there are multiple religious rituals just performed over the span of a single day. Because of our polytheistic beliefs in the Gods of the sun, sky, and stream, there are three prayers or tributes a day performed for each deity. In the morning, the village religious leader (a position reserved for elders who don’t wish to enter politics) rings a bell three times, indicating that it is time for the day’s first prayer. All present in the village bow down and spend a period of five minutes of silence as a symbol of respect to the sun God. In the middle of the day, the religious elder rings the bell six times as a sign for the prayer or tribute to the sky God, and this time villagers bow in silence for ten minutes. Finally, at nighttime or around dusk, when villagers tend to wash in nearby streams, the bell is rang nine times and if villagers are near the river, they must enter the water and spend fifteen minutes of silence in the waters (or fifteen minutes bowing in silence in the village) to praise the stream God. The reason for the nature of this ritual is that as night nears, the demons of the mountains are more likely to wreak havoc on our villagers and the longest tribute occurs at night to appease the stream God and have protection against the demons. The rituals also follow along with a typical day in the village: working outside in the morning and day, and cleaning and washing at night.

            A ritual associated with Gansu politics is the ceremony associated with an elder becoming a political leader after another elder has died. The new elder is awarded a sacred piece of bamboo that has been blessed by the village’s religious elder, and the village assembles to watch this ceremony. The ceremony is held in the middle of the forest, and the elder is called in front of all the villagers to accept the sacred bamboo (symbolizing his transition from that of villager to that of village leader), and once he does this, a public session of governing is held for all the villagers to trust that this new elder will be a just leader. Typically, the four village elders make decisions independent from the rest of the villagers, and later discuss their decisions with the rest of the village, but this ceremony is a noteworthy event because it not only inaugurates a political leader, it is opportunity to build trust within our society.

            The most intriguing marriage ritual in Gansu culture is the marriage anniversary. Although Gansu weddings are unique, marriage anniversaries of interest due to their changing nature. In the morning of the couple’s anniversary, the couple’s friends or family will have a small party with gifts and to accept the responsibilities of all their duties for that particular day, whether these duties include any type of labor or most definitely childcare. The couple’s friends and family then give them gifts and send them off into the forest for a day so they can enjoy the day in each other’s company, but for years there has been a typical place in the forest that all couples venture to during their anniversary; a peaceful part of the river with a natural island in the middle. A hut was build there a long time ago, and the couples usually spend the day in this hut. However, a recent change to this ritual has been the common gifting of prophylactics to the male, and despite the postpartum sex taboo enacted to control our population, if such a gift is received many couples spend their anniversary breaking this taboo of postpartum sex, or sex for purposes other than procreation.

            An economic ritual has recently developed in Gansu culture with the rotation of labor between our village labor and opportunities in modern China. Anytime two Gansu people rotate labor patterns, they bring a part of modern China back to the village and if a person is going out into Chinese society they always must plant a tree near their location of work. If there are random trees by sweatshops or outside of farms, they were most likely planted by someone from our village. And in our village, there is a hut that contains random goods from modern China that can be borrowed and returned by any villagers at any time. To symbolize this exchange between our village and the rest of China, when one person returns to the village and another replaces them, the village religious leader accepts any gifts from wherever in China the returning person has worked, and the leader gifts the outgoing villager with tree seedings.

A Rite of Passage

            Although there is a ceremony that officially inaugurates an elder into one of the four political positions, there is an additional rite of passage that the elder must endure to prove that he has the strength to be a political leader. The village religious elder accompanies the incoming political elder once the former elder has died, and they together must take the deceased elders’ corpse far into the forest, where they cannot leave until they successfully sacrifice the body to the Gods by feeding the body to a panda. Because pandas are becoming extinct they are sometimes hard to find, but the two elders must remain in the forest until the body has been given over to a panda. Sometimes, the two elders may not return for up to a month, but only when they return can the new elder officially become a political leader. This is an interesting ritual because it requires a rite of passage to prove the strength an elder has; there is no such rite of this sort for boys to symbolize their passage into manhood, the only rite of passage for males involve their particular functions as members of Gansu society. Whether they become a political or religious elder or any other occupation, there are rites associated with proving themselves in that particular skill. For political elders, the rite is one of the most dangerous and grisly.