Costume of worshipers of San Chay people

The priest's costume is a special costume, bringing many spiritual elements of the San Chay ethnic group, with decorative embroidery lines, showing aesthetic views, and the costume also expresses the aspirational dreams of they about a brighter future.

Unique fabric dyeing technique
The San Chay people did not plant trees to get materials for weaving, they bought cloth of other ethnic groups, they only created their own costumes from dyeing fabric, but also because of that their costumes lost their identity. only for our people. The San Chay costume has unique features not to be confused with any ethnic groups in the Vietnamese ethnic community.

Fabrics of San Chay people that were distributed or bought back were called white sheets, cotton fabrics without chemicals, about 4 m long and 50 cm wide. After taking the fabric back, they prepared the material to dye the fabric.

Raw material for dyeing fabric is a natural tree called Cham, which is planted around January, February and harvested in July and August. Trees have small stems, leaves and fruits, on average until harvest. The tree is about 60 - 70 cm tall, the tree has many small fruits, fruits are located throughout the trunk. After harvesting, they took the whole trunk and folded it into 3 or 4 times to put it in a porcelain jar soaked, filled with water, soaked within one to three days, then it can be picked up, then the water color in the jar changed to color. dark blue.

Next, take some lime powder and kitchen ash into the shift, fill the water with water and let the lime water settle, remove the water and remove the lime under the shift to stir up the indigo water, wait for the water to settle. Remove the clear water, the residue is left in the porcelain used to dye the fabric, when the water is a yellowish color, dry the substance later to dye the fabric.

In order to ensure the long lasting color, the San Chay people went to the forest to look for the celestial tree (chu chu thoi), the reed tree (distorted distortion), the banyan tree (cymbals) and the cork bark, along with red-brown bulbs. , when finding enough to bring soaked with dry indigo. After a week, start to drop the cloth soaked in water to soak evenly across the cloth, then remove the fabric to dry on two long tree rods. One-time dyed fabric has a light blue color that fades easily, soaked in the fabric again and then exposed to dry cloth, indigo water soaked into the fabric becomes dark blue, looking very beautiful.

The dyeing stage is quite elaborate and takes a lot of time, from taking the seeds of indigo tree to nursing, caring for the trees growing, then harvesting the trees to take as dyeing materials, but perhaps The most difficult task is to go to the forest to find the medicinal plants mixed with dyes so that the colors of the dyed fabrics will be durable. Along with the blue cloth gleaming in the sun, the hands of the women were also indigo blue.

Features in San Chay priest costume
The priests usually have a separate costume for each ceremony, the priest's costumes usually include: shirt, pants, hat, walking stick, prison and (buffalo horn), rubber sandals suitable for each school. specific offerings ...

The priest's clothes are usually worn in pairs, the inner white is shorter than the outer ones, traditionally sewn with buttons and pockets on either side. The outer coat is quite picky with sewing and decorative motifs are elaborate embroidery, the shirt is usually black, indigo, over the knee of the wearer, the collar is a seam that extends from the top to the bottom, usually embroidery with red thread is also long from top to bottom, the body of the shirt is usually decorated with dragon, the kettle with white, yellow and red thread. Two wide sleeves, upper short, drooping downward, until the end of the shirt, with a sleeve brace is an embroidery line or red thread splint, under the hem is a red and yellow embroidery thread. Pants of the same color as the shirt, wide tube, crotch pants are often knee-length, long pants bear beams all feet.

The priest's hat is designed in an upward-facing pyramid, often with a black base, indigo, in addition to the embroidery thread of yellow thread mixed with red thread into a solid brace, on the body of the hat is an embroidery decoration decorated with colored threads. , shaped like a bird, a mirror ...

When attending the ceremony, almost no priest lacks the sword, with the belief that the sword will help a part in catching exorcisms.

The buffalo horn to blow is the disgrace of the monks when going to the ceremony, people believe that with its blowing it will make the evil spirits scared and have to run away and dare not cling to the sick anymore.

The priest's vest also has a 1.2m-long coat sewn by hand, the collar is embroidered with an elaborate embroidery, which is joined two dark indigo fabric pieces together, the front to open in the middle of the abdomen, the back body. stitched immediately, the shirt has no sleeves, the brace is a white 1.5 cm wide cloth that extends from the neck down to the hem of the shirt, the hem is also a 1.5 cm wide white cloth connected at the bottom body shirt. The shoulders of the shirt are assembled with a white cloth with the size of 1.5 cm long from the shoulder to the hem of the shirt. The shirt has two ties in the front two ties, both the front and the back of the body are embroidered with dense Chinese characters and the motifs of people riding birds, dogs, horses, horses ... these are drawings of the universe. , on the stars, the yin and yang elements of the five elements and the hexagrams in the I Ching ... The front of the Han Chinese embroidery is on the sides of the neck from the neck to the bear, the back is embroidered from the shoulder to the whole body.

Over time, the traditional costumes of the San Chay people gradually changed to integrate with the common culture of other ethnic groups. Although the traditional costumes have had certain changes, the priest's costumes are still preserved and preserved by the San Chay people.