The costumes of the Dong ethnic group in Forty-Eight Villages are inherited from the border area between Liping County and Rongjiang County in Guizhou Province. The so-called Forty-Eight Villages mainly refer to the natural villages of Shangzhong, Gaibao, Yangdong, Gaocen, Gaoma, Shaodong, Yudong, Yuezhai, Shunzhai, Pingtu, Jideng in Liping County and Wanzhai, Pingbao, Biandong, Gaolu, and Sebian in Rongjiang County. The Forty-Eight Villages are surrounded by mountains and rivers. There is Laoshanjie on the west side of the water and Baotang Mountain on the south side, both of which are more than 1,200 meters above sea level. The Yudong River originates from the Laoshanjie primitive forest and the Niupi Daqing of Baotang Mountain, and flows from north to south through the Forty-Eight Villages at the border between Liping and Rongjiang. The Forty-Eight Villages of the Dong ethnic group are located in the highest geographical area of Liping. It is rich in fir and is an important fir production area in Guizhou Province. The primitive tree species of more than ten thousand hectares in Laoshanjie are in various shapes and forms, and it is one of the important scenic spots of the national forest park. The area where the Forty-Eight Villages are located has many mountains and little land. It is known as "nine mountains, half water and half farmland". There are very few dam fields, high mountains and winding terraces, dense forests and clear rivers. Rice and cotton planting are the geographical characteristics of this area. The Dong people call themselves "Gan" (gaml), "Geng" (8acml), and "Jin" (iacml), and they belong to a branch of the ancient "Luoyue". The ancient Dong song "Ancestors Entering the Village" also sings: "We are all descendants of the King of Yue, there is no distinction between noble and humble." The Dong people are mainly distributed in the border areas of Guizhou, Hunan and Guangxi. In the area where the Dong people live in Liping County, Guizhou, the vast majority of them have lived there for generations. After the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, there were more records of the Dong people living in Liping for generations. The Dong people of the 48 villages are a traditional ethnic group. Their costumes (female) are mainly represented by Shangzhong, Gaibao, Gaoma, Yangdong, Yangyue in Liping County, Guizhou Province, Wanzhai and Sebian in Rongjiang County. According to the "Records of Liping Prefecture, Fengwuzhi, Manyizhi", as early as the period of Zhuge Liang's southern expedition during the Three Kingdoms period, the Dong costumes (female) of the 48 villages had already been formed. The Dong costumes (female) of the 48 villages represented by Shangzhong, Gaibao, Gaoma, Yangyue, Yangdong, Wanzhai in Rongjiang County and Sebian Ziranzhai in Liping are the best of the Dong folk handicraft costumes that are self-spun, self-woven, self-dyed and self-made. The basic content is divided into two parts: the upper and the lower parts: the upper part is divided into two colors: blue and vermilion, and made of two kinds of homemade Dong cloth, with a shawl, and the left and right hands are sleeves, armpits, flowered silk pieces, and moon belts. The lower garments are divided into a hundred-piece skirt (two pieces encircling the front and back), a waist-encircling skirt in front (at the level of the calf), and a waist-encircling skirt in the back (at the level of the buttocks and slightly below). Leg wrapping, and smooth cloth shoes without heels. The costumes of the Dong people in Forty-Eight Villages (women) are all decorated with silver ornaments carefully made by the Dong silversmiths in Ping Village from head to waist, including silver hats, earrings, hairpins, bracelets, back buckles, silver bubbles, etc. The totem silver ornaments of different styles and designs are also quite valuable. The fabric of the top of the Dong nationality costume (female) in Forty-Eight Village is cyan and blue. The egg white of chicken and duck eggs is applied to the fabric, and then it is beaten smooth and flat, showing a bright luster; the skirt and leggings are cyan and red, tied with white or fish belly-colored straps; the heelless polished cloth shoes are pink or bright red; the lace patterns on the chest, collar, cuffs, etc. are all hand-embroidered, delicate and exquisite; the waist is composed of 18-24 pieces of silk-shaped flowers, birds, fish, insects, butterflies, etc., which are colorful; the front and back pieces of the skirt are surrounded; the heelless polished shoes are also embroidered with fish, insects, flowers, birds and other patterns. The most expressive characteristics of the Dong nationality women's clothing in Forty-Eight Village are the abstractness of the embroidery totem; the diversity of the display forms of the embroidery totem, the delicate and precise traditional handicrafts of weaving and embroidery; the overall coordination of silver ornaments and clothing without being mediocre. The whole dress looks gorgeous and rich, which is indeed the best Dong women's clothing. Ming Dynasty scientist Song Yingxing wrote in his Tiangong Kaiwu: "All cotton cloths are used to keep warm, and the price is the same. Cotton is called mulberry and hemp in ancient books, and it is planted all over the world. There are two kinds of cotton: kapok and grass cotton. The flowers are white and purple. The best ones are white with 19 flowers and purple with 11 flowers." "All cotton is planted in spring and blooms in autumn. The flowers that bloom first are picked every day, and the picking time is different." Cotton "is rubbed into long strips with wooden boards after being fluffed, and then the yarn is twisted into yarn, and then it is wound around the reed and pulled to weave. Every visitor (spinner) holds two tubes in one hand and spins on the spindle." The Dong people in Forty-Eight Villages grow white cotton by themselves. The Gaibao Dong people choose an auspicious day in May every year as the Cotton Planting Festival, and men, women, old and young go up the mountain to plant cotton and grass. It has been passed down to this day, and the traditional way of planting cotton in ancient times has been maintained. Similarly, the production process of Dong ethnic costumes (female) in Forty-Eight Villages is very complicated, mainly including cotton planting, spinning, weaving, dyeing, egg white application, beating, washing and drying, cutting, sewing, weaving, picking clothes, embroidering and silver jewelry making, etc. In addition to the spinning loom, the traditional tools used include "yarn tubes" (woven from bamboo), "yarn poles" (yarn picking tools), silver jewelry making tools (a set of nearly 100 pieces of various sizes), indigo (also known as indigo) wooden barrels, etc. This area uses the oldest method of the Shang and Zhou dynasties to grow "tea indigo" plants, which the Dong people call "indigo tea". The "ribbon disc" is the most unique production tool for Dong ethnic costumes (female) in Forty-Eight Villages, and the Dong people call it "Dengzhe". It is round, 30 cm in diameter, and is equipped with a "grabbing silk seat" on the disc. Grab the silk threads of different colors, set up the disc foot column below, and stand on the ground. The column reed on the disc holds the silk thread around the disc, and is released with a "ribbon hook" (made of cow bones), and is vertically held with a "thread weight" (called "dongqiankong" by the Dong people, made of ancient copper coins) for easy operation. The "ribbon sentence" is set according to the size of the woven flower belt and the usage of the lace pattern of the clothes. It is generally divided into 11, 13, 15, 17, and 19 odd-numbered threads, and there are also 12, 14, 16, and 18 threads. According to the ancient introduction of the women in Gaibao Dong Village, it takes 1-2 months to weave a flower belt, and it takes two to three years to make a complete garment. The Dong costumes of Forty-Eight Villages are a carrier of weak culture. The colorful foreign culture has penetrated the villages, and the fashionable wear has caused the Dong girls to hate learning traditional production techniques, and many fine production techniques have been lost. (No pictures yet, welcome to provide.) (No pictures yet, welcome to provide.)