Maple on Miao Embroidery
1 min readThe Butterfly Mama story is fascinating but where does the butterfly come from? This is logic question and the answer by the Miaos is, from inside the maple wood Ancient Miao Epic sings that maple could “produce thousands of seeds and give thousands of blossoms”. History also records that the ancient forefather of the Miaos Chiyou was captured and executed before he turned into a maple tree.
This gives us the clue that maple was the totem of the Jiuli Ethnic Group led by Chiyou. The barracks of the Miao people are characterized by the central pillar made of maple wood, which according to the folklore will he able to connect the family to their ancestors for getting their blessings, for the family to prosper When they are moving home, they will plant a maple tree first to see whether the tree will survive to make the final choice and decision.
Since the maple tree is related to ancestry and with the origin of the Miao people, then the maple tree deified and worshipped Then we can understand why the maple tree is so commonly found on the Miao embroidery works. That is the affection of the Miao people to their Mother Tree.
