Why China’s heritage-listed Dog-Carrying Festival honours canines as sacred lifesavers
Festival helps pass core cultural values to younger generations by honouring dogs as miraculous heroes and lifelong companions to the Miao people
In a remote Miao village in southwestern China, dogs are honoured as life-saving heroes.
Every seventh month of the lunar calendar, residents of Jiaobang village in Jianhe county, Guizhou province, celebrate Tai Gou Jie, or the “Dog-Carrying Festival” – a unique folk tradition recognised as local intangible cultural heritage in 2015.
During the festival, villagers select a dog. Traditionally, it was a white female, but today adult males and native Xiasi dogs may also be chosen.
