Our Yao Qiao

So, as I predicted, last night was a little rough in some ways, but much progress was made in others. The good news first; Victoria and Poppy finally got a decent night's sleep and seem to be feeling much more like themselves. The not as good news is that Willow woke up @ 1:30 a.m. (went to bed about 8:30 p.m.), so I took her out to the family room to be with her and let the rest of the family sleep. She cried off and on for over two hours. I'm convinced that she has a "combination burrito" ailment of jet-lag, residual cold recovery and a bit of some stomach adjustments to all of the foreign foods she's now eating (which are quite different from China, of course). So with all of that time in the dark morning hours, I did a lot of thinking and praying. Aside from feeling and caring for Willow, my mind just couldn't shake the trip Barret and I made almost exactly one week ago to Poppy's finding spot several hundred kilometers northwest of Guangzhou, quite near the Hunan Province boarder. I found myself mesmerized by the natives there (Yao) and praying for them as I looked out of my family room window under the light of an almost full moon. These are a fascinating group of lovely people, so I thought I'd share with you some details about them (information I found on the Internet) and the type of culture our little Yao Qiao (Poppy) came from:

More than two million Yao people live scattered throughout the mountainous regions of southern China, where they have dwelled for the past 2000 years. Yao tribes also live in Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand, and often refer to themselves as Kim Mien, or "men of the mountains."

Agriculture is the chief activity of the mountain-dwelling Yao. Even though they occupy land up to heights of 12,000 feet, they have ingeniously adapted to their landscape by carefully constructing terraced rice paddies that hang off the sides of steep cliffs.

The Yao have their own language, Mein, but it is only spoken by about half of the population. In fact, some of the Yao do not speak Mein at all, but one of many other Chinese languages.

The family unit is very important to the Yao, and divorce is a rare occurrence among them. Although some marriages are still arranged by parents, that choice is now generally left up to the young couple. The groom is usually 16 or 17 years old and his bride is perhaps four years older.

The Yao live in "extended family" situations, or with many relatives. Each house usually has a number of rooms where individual family units sleep, and one common area where meals are shared. The oldest male is considered to be the head of the household.

Traditional Yao costumes are made out of coarse blue or black cotton fabric that has been brightly decorated with multi-colored embroidery. Women's costumes are always elaborate and are accented by large, colorful turbans. Yao men usually wear a short, side-buttoned jacket with dark blue, loose-fitting trousers; a black skullcap; and a wide sash tied around the waist. Both men and women enjoy wearing silver jewelry, particularly necklaces.

The Yao religion is a combination of ancestor worship and exorcism. ("Ancestor worship" is the practice of praying to the spirits of deceased ancestors for help and guidance. Exorcisms are used as a means of "casting out" evil spirits that are believed to be inflicting illnesses.) Religious beliefs of the Yao also compare to popular Chinese Taoism. They recognize 18 "chief" deities, in addition to a host of "minor" gods, supernatural beings, deceased heroes, and nature spirits. "Good spirits" would include the spirits of their ancestors, as well as "household deities," i.e., the "Door god," the "Stove god," and the "Fireplace god." Evil spirits would include jungle demons, valley demons, and city demons. Small altars for spirit worship are located inside Yao homes. Finely painted portraits of the 18 deities are preserved on scrolls and kept on the spirit altars. They are taken out and placed on display during special ceremonial occasions.

Although agriculture is the chief activity of the Yao, they often cannot produce enough of the staple foods, such as rice, to feed all the people. Though the Yao are very much aware of the spirit world, they are actually suffering from spiritual famine. There are only a few thousand Yao who profess to be Christians.

I found this to be very illuminating. It's a miracle that we have Qiao Qiao (Poppy) in our home, as it also is with Willow. We're blessed!

(BTW: The picture above is of the general area where Poppy came from.)

Warmly in Christ,

Tom