2024 Tujia Sheba Festival of Guzhang County held

The hand-waving dance of Xiangxi Prefecture is an ancient traditional dance of Tujia ethnic group, integrating dance art and sports fitness functions. It’s known as the “Oriental Disco”.

The 2024 Tujia Sheba Festival was held in Tianjiadong Village, Duanlongshan Town, Guzhang County on the morning of March 25. Sheba Festival is the most solemn traditional sacrificial festival of the Tujia ethnic group, aiming to commemorate ancestors and pray for blessings.

Around the second day of the second lunar month after the beginning of spring each year, the local Tujia people gather in the funnel-shaped altar to pay homage to their ancestors, worship the gods, and pray for good weather, peace and auspiciousness.

It’s a comprehensive carrier of the intangible cultural heritage of the Tujia people. The Tianjiadong Sheba Festival resumed in 1990 and is the 35^th session this year, becoming a famous cultural brand of Duanlongshan Town. There are now 191 intangible cultural heritage projects in Guzhang County under national, provincial, prefectural and county-level protection and 282 intangible cultural heritage inheritors.

Guzhang County has become an important inheritance site for the intangible cultural heritage of Xiangxi Prefecture.

In recent years, the local government has relied on rich tea resources and local culture to develop the tourism industry, promoted the integration of culture, tea industry and tourism, and further accelerated the cultivation of new driving forces for rural development.

Based on the ethnic characteristics and Guzhang’s resources, the county has worked to create tea tourism integration brands, and further make the brands of Guzhang’s tea and tourism better-known.