Baby-Carrying Strap with Patches and Embroidered Patterns of Pomegranate, Phoenix and Blossoms

This baby-carrying strap with patches and embroidered patterns of pomegranate, phoenix and blossoms is from Danzhai, Guizhou. The unique feature of this strap lies in this special embroidered pocket. Since the Miao people in Danzhai, Guizhou worship the God of Grains, they would hang a string of embroidered sachet holding divine seeds for blessing their babies' spirits. Additionally, demons are afraid of explosion in the conventional views of some minorities in Southwest China. They thus make a number of small diamond-shaped pockets with colored cloth, put cinnabar or homemade gunpowder in them and hang them on the baby-carrying straps for frightening demons away. Such custom of hanging sachet, tassels, glass beads and tree seeds on baby-carrying straps is commonly seen among the Miao, Dong and Yao people in Guangxi and Guizhou.