KUNMING TRIP 5 DAI PEACOCK DANCE

TRAVELING WITH DR L TO KUNMING 2019 The Peacock Dance is the favorite dance of the Dai. It is a very graceful and elegantly performed dance that imitates the stately strutting of the peacock, and is marked by undulations of the waist and the arms. The Peacock Dance is usually performed during Dai New Year celebrations, as well as during certain Buddhist festivals such as the annual Baipala Festival. The peacock dance is a graceful folk dance that imitates movement, gait and flight of the bird. Peacocks are holy birds and symbols of luck and happiness. Special emphasis is placed on the tail and wing movements. In the White Peacock Dance, dancers wear white long-sleeve silk chiffon dress with a full skirt with multiple painted peacock eyes trimmed with sequins. As to its origin, according to legend, long ago, the feathers of the peacock were not so colorful and beautiful, nor did the peacock possess the characteristic "eyed" tail feathers by which it is known today. The peacock was known, however, for its relative tameness and obedience. It so happened that once during a Buddhist festival at a local temple, word spread that the Buddhist patriarch would descend to earth. Therefore a great throng of adherents came rushing to the temple, which quickly became overcrowded. At the time, the peacock was living in a remote mountain region. When he heard the news about the patriarch, being a devout Buddhist, he flew the long journey as fast as he could to join the other worshippers in the already overcrowded little temple, just as the patriarch arrived. But with all the people the peacock couldn’t see anything. In agitation he paced back and forth behind the throng of other worshippers, looking for a view of the patriarch. The patriarch became aware of this and cast a beam of the light of Buddha in the direction of the devout peacock. The light beam struck the tail of the peacock, lighting it up in iridescent colors and producing the characteristic "eyed" tail feathers by which the peacock is recognized today. On departing, the patriarch said to the devout peacock that the two would meet during the next Baipala Festival. From then on, when the Patriarch descended to earth during the Baipala Festival, he would first meet with his human followers at the temple, and afterward he would visit the peacock on its remote mountain and watch it prance and dance and show off its beautiful tail. That is how the peacock came to be so beautiful, and that is also why the Dai perform a dance in its honor every year during the major Dai festivals, including the harvest festival and of course the Baipala Festival.