Yi minority people, who live in the Small and Big Liang Mountain, have unique costumes with a long history. Yi People worship leather loricae, because they believe loricae could protect the safety of family and individual. It was said that ancient people used rhinoceros skin and elephant skin to make loricae, and what we could see now are mainly made by cattle skin with rawhide as the roughcast. They are coated with lacquer and decorated with colorful lacquer pattern. The animal patterns used are dragon and python surrounded with arrowheads and the edge decoration is clouds. The implied meaning is that dragon and python are the animals sent to the human world by deity to help tile loricae's owner to conquer enemies. They could protect loricae wearer's safety and help them win the victory by shielding lance and arrows. Among Yi people, they divide the loricae into two types: male and female. The color of male loricae is mainly red while the color of female loricae is black. In Yi's other artworks, they also like to use black, red and yellow colors. Black color signifies sobriety, red signifies courage and passion, and yellow signifies beauty and brightness. Yi people worship black, military force and respect fire, which are well displayed in their leather loricae.
Big Liang Mountain
