The Jinos reside in the Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture and its neighboring areas in Yunnan Province. They have their own language, but do not have letters. They believe that everything in the world has a spirit; they worship the ancestors and honor the sage Zhuge Liang. They have a long history of tea planting, for which the most popular is Zener Tea.
The Jinos used to believe in the primitive religion that deems that everything in the world has a spirit, but the worship to the ancestor still had the dominant status. The most important festival is the New Year. Though each village would determine the actual time of the celebration, it is mostly held in December of the lunar calendar year.
On the occasion of the New Year or the worship, every family will slaughter livestock and prepare the festal feast. The most spectacular entertainment during the festival is the bull slaughter. On the occasion, some lads cut the bull legs with swords. Then, they cut down a part of the huckle of beef to worship the ancestor. The rest of beef will be distributed among the villagers. At the meantime, people will make a sort of cold dish made of muscle beef, skin, blood, gall bladder, garlic, pepper, sour bamboo shoot, areca, leaves and wine, which are offered as gifts combined with three chickens and flying squirrels to present to the village chief in the neighborhood with eulogy.
After the bull slaughter ceremony, the host of every family has to visit the head of the kin for the ancestor worship. The head will entertain the guests, who get seated according to the table prescription.
Temaoqie
Also called Forging Iron Festival, it is one of the Jino folk festivals. It falls in December or January of the lunar calendar. The word Temaoqie is from the Jino language, which means to celebrate the New Year, or to forge iron. The festival usually lasts three days. Legend has it that a woman had been pregnant for 9 years and 9 months; the baby was born by breaking his mother's ribs in the posture of holding the pincers and hammer and pretending to forge iron. Therefore, he was esteemed as the ancestor of the forgers and his birthday was taken as the Forging Iron Festival. Finally, it became the local custom.
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