People in Leizhou have the custom of eating dog meat, "dog meat rolls three rolls, the gods are unstable", and dishes like dog meat that "can't be eaten" can be tasted in Zhanjiang on the Leizhou Peninsula. The dog meat pot here, in Cantonese, is "playing the edge stove", all year round.
Leizhou white cut dog
However, Leizhou people also have a tradition of reverence for dog spirits, and the Leizhou stone dog custom is a local custom of worshipping the stone dog as a "guardian spirit" and "mascot".
Leizhou City is located in the middle of the Leizhou Peninsula and is an important birthplace of the "Stone Dog Cultural Circle" around the Beibu Bay Area. Leizhou ancient belongs to the land of Luo Yue. The Luoyue tribe of "Pan Yao Man" once lived here, and they called themselves descendants of dogs, and had the custom of worshipping dogs - carving dog totems (commonly known as "stone dogs") from basalt as a worship object. After the Qin Dynasty destroyed baiyue, the integration of the Han and Yue ethnic groups enabled the totem worship customs of the Luoyue people to be inherited and developed in Leizhou. During the Southern Dynasty, the birth of Lei Zu Chen Wenyu's "Dog Ear Xiang", the development of the Maritime Silk Road and the introduction of Buddhism in the Tang Dynasty, and the influence of the Southern Migration of Fujian In the Song and Yuan Dynasties, the cultural connotation of this custom was enriched, and a folk culture with unique local characteristics of Leizhou was formed.
The Leizhou stone dog custom is the product of the integration of Han and Yue cultures, with the connotation of pluralistic beliefs and distinct regional characteristics. Leizhou people generally worship stone dogs at the gate, village entrance, intersection, water mouth, temple, and tomb, and worship on the first and fifteenth day of the first year or when there is a red and white happy event. The main contents include "praying for rain", "praying for shelter", "praying for heirs", "giving stone dogs as fathers", and naming children "nickname dogs", "paparazzi", "dog protection" and asking them to wear "paparazzi hats" and "dog shirts".
Stone dog is an important material carrier of Leizhou stone dog customs, cultural relics are densely distributed, the shape is varied, the additional ornamentation is rich, with obvious characteristics of the times and local atmosphere, is a heavy cultural heritage.
Leizhou stone dog customs have important historical, cultural, artistic, folklore and religious values, and are a condensed history book of Leizhou's historical evolution, social culture and ethnic folklore. In 2004, Leizhou Stone Dog was listed as a pilot project of the National Ethnic and Folk Culture Protection Project. In 2005, the Leizhou Stone Dog Faith was included in the list of intangible cultural heritage protection in Guangdong Province.