The Li women of Hainan Island (Province) are known for their elaborate hair ornaments
 
The Li women of Hainan Island (Province) are known for their elaborate hair ornaments, usually long pins made of bone and carved intricately in the shapes of human figures.
 
These figures represent a warrior ancestor and tribal leader who protected his people. Wearing the pins is said to bring good luck and blessings.
 
These works of art are worn every day and on special occasions. Women fix their hair in elaborate shapes and use as many as 10 pins. Some are topped with tassels, hanging silver ornaments or strings of beads.
 

 

 

Li women fix their hair in elaborate shapes and use as many as 10 pins

 
Single pins can be 20 to 25 centimeters long, some are as wide as 3 centimeters, so there’s ample space for carving.
 
The Li people live mainly in the middle and southern parts of Hainan Island in southern China and their history dates back to the Neolithic Ages.
 
A typical pin has three carved parts: the top is a hat, turban or elaborately coiled hair; the middle is the face — sometimes double-headed; the lower part is the body, extending to the feet.
 
Other ornamental patterns are carved on the bone pins, include waves, fish, flowers and fruit, indicating abundance.
 
Pins are made by craftsmen using ox or other long straight, white bones that are dry and fatless. The bone is first carefully smoothed and polished, then carved, and then coated with lampblack and melted beeswax to make the black patterns stand out against the white bone. It can take days to make a single hair pin.
 
When they marry, young women wear numerous bone hair pins of their ancestor to bring good luck. Their gowns are also elaborately stitched.
 
Their hair ornaments can still be seen today. 
 
SOURCE: Shanghai Daily
 

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