Three Biasha teen girls with arms around each other's shoulders are laughing as their photo is taken. Youths in the Biasha village are free to pursue love and romance. They work in the fields during the day and get together at night, singing and drinking. It is a custom for boys to hold girls in their arms, even several girls at a time. It is embarrassing for a girl not to be hugged, which can mean that people think she is ugly.

Three teenage Biasha girls are sitting next to an older teen boy. When a baby is born in Biasha village, the family will plant a birth tree, which grows as the child is raised. Parents often take good care of the tree, as they believe it represents the fate of their child. It is considered inauspicious if anything happens to the tree. When a person dies, his birth tree will be cut and made into his coffin. During his funeral, another tree will be planted where he is buried, and his clothes and shoes will be hung on its branches.

Three teenage Biasha girls are standing in the doorway. They place a great deal of importance on their distinctive hairstyles. There is a little secret about women's pleated skirts. Those with skirt hemlines of white insets are married women. Others with hemlines as black as the skirts themselves are single girls.

A Biasha teen boy is holding an instrument called a lusheng. The lusheng is used primarily in the rural regions of southwestern China (e.g. Guizhou, Guangxi, and Yunnan) and in nearby countries such as Laos and Vietnam, where it is played by such ethnic groups as the Dong and Miao. Egg whites in the dyeing process provides the sheen in the ethnic costume.

Biasha (Basha) Miao are quite different from other Miao groups in terms of clothing and daily life. Biasha people belong to the Miao branch that is least affected by modern civilization. Even in the modern times, they still lead very traditional lives.
#China #Guizhou #biasha #miao