Splendid Clothes of the Dong People

The Dong people mainly live in the intersection of Guizhou, Hunan and the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. They believe in a number of Gods, worship natural creatures and regard Goddess Sasui as the supreme god. Clothes of the Dong women are variously designed. They wear plain clothes on ordinary days and lay stress upon practicability. They value aesthetic decoration when wearing splendid clothes. Plainness and splendor bring out the best of each other.

The upper garment of this suit is an indigo right-lapelled loose-front garment with extremely short sleeves, which are embroidered with four rows of sleeve decorations in various sizes. The tippet seems to be jointed with silver hooks. Each silver hook has an ox-head-typed silver bell at the edge and the pendants made of blue, green, and rose-red threads. The bottom is a green pleated skirt. The waist is tied with a wide square girdle. The entire suit of clothes is gorgeous and heavy, which is designed into a complicated structure. It takes several hours to merely put it on. Clothing of Dong was included into the fourth-batch National Intangible Cultural Heritage List by the State Council in 2014.