Baby-Carrying Strap with Patches and Embroidered Sun and Butterfly Patterns

This baby-carrying strap with patches and embroidered sun and butterfly patterns is called "eight dishes and one soup" for fun by the Dong people in Sanjiang area, Guangxi. The big sun is composed of eight small circles and one big circle, which is also the auspicious pattern commonly used by them. The worship of the sun is a unique belief culture of the Dong people, which is greatly significant for the ideology, moral principles, value orientation and aesthetic standard, of the society of Dong. Many contents on the Dong folk costume reflect their worship of the Sun, the first of which is the sun pattern. The Dong people are convinced that the sun is the spirit of the universe, which grants light and warmth to the earth. Therefore, mothers of Dong would pray to the God of Sun for blessing their children to turn ill luck into good and grow up healthily. They embroider the sun pattern onto baby-carrying straps with the hope of making the sun into the guardian angel of their children. In the meantime, the ancient Dong people regarded solar halo as "Xi", which represents the great primogenitor Satianba. "Eight dishes and one soup" is a conventional auspicious pattern of the Dong Nationality. The application of nine circles narrates the legend about shooting the sun in the ancient ballad of Dong. The flower in the center is called ignorant blossom, which is said to be the embodiment of Goddess Satianba --- golden-spot tarantula in mortal world.