The Mulam People

Ninety per cent of the Mulam live in Luocheng County in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Others live in neighboring counties. Their land is one of rolling hills and lush green valleys. They call themselves 'Ling' and 'Jin,' and are a branch of the Liao and Ling people of the Jin dynasty (265-420). Many speak Han or Zhuang in addition to their own language and are hardly distinguishable from either group.

They farm and have always had relatively advanced farming techniques. Labor is fairly distributed among the sexes, the men doing most of the plowing, carrying manure and threshing while the women transplant rice, sew, and do housework. They plant rice, corn and beans, and they sell medicinal herbs, livestock, wrought iron items and ceramics.

The Mulam are primarily animists who have festivals each month except for the tenth and eleventh months. These include the Ox Festival on the eighth day of the fourth month, the Dragon Boat Festival on the fifth day of the fifth month, and the Slope-Climbing Fair held during the New Year days. The latter is held at the Huayuan Cave in Luocheng county. During the festival, young men stop women by waving hankerchiefs. They sing to the women love songs, and the women sing in response.

Mulam spirituality also has elements of Buddhism and Taoism. "At times of sickness or natural disaster the Taoist priest would be called to pray and drive out the evil spirits." They also practice ancestor worship and likewise believe in the existence of the Heavenly Palace and the Netherworld. In former times they had slaughtered pigs and sheep, performed lion and dragon dances and dramas.

When a Mulam dies, the son of the deceased brings the body into the main room and carries water from the river. Before drawing the water, he tosses two coins into the river and so "buys water." He bathes the corpse with it. Funeral clothes are then put on the body. The son then breaks a silver coin putting half of the coin in the mouth of the corpse. He also places a small white bag with silver and copper coins in the left hand, and a white towel in the right. The body is then wrapped in a white cloth, put in a coffin and buried.

The Mulam are void of a testimony to Christ, and most have not even heard the term "Christian." "The nearest Christian concentration to the Mulam are Chinese believers in Guilin and the surrounding districts and the few believers of the Maonan minority to the west."

The Mulam are modernizing with both old and young preferring the clothes of the Han, the farmer's average income increasing and selling fish from their own fish ponds . In the past, marriages were arranged and brides would not live with their husbands until their first child was born. Now this is no longer the norm.

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