Cloth Dyeing Custom of Landian Yao People in Hechi, Guangxi

The Landian Yao ethnic group is a branch of the Yao nationality. At present, more than 1,700 people of the group live in Fengshan county in Hechi, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region. They still maintain the custom of planting indigo plants and using them to dye cloth.

The newly picked indigo leaves should first be soaked for two to three days. After that, the leaves can be taken out. The most important step is to put some lime powder into a sock and rub the sock in the light blue water. The chemical reaction makes the water fill with bubbles. After one or two days, the indigo is deposited. After filtering the residue and throwing away the water, the cloth dye is ready to be applied.