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The widespread Taoyuan Yoga Flamming Mouth and Gesture Dance, as a preserved ancient religious dance, is one of the key action prototypes of  local folk opera and other folk dances in Taoyuan County, Changde City of Hunan Province.

Taoyuan Yoga Flamming Mouth and Gesture Dance are a combination and portrayal of Shamanism, Daoism and Buddhism. Yoga belongs to the Yagacara School of Buddhism who regarded Maitreya as father. In Buddhism, “Flaming Mouth” is also referred to as “Facial Fire”, the name of hungry ghosts. It is said that the hungry ghosts are as thin as a lath, and if seen at night, sprout fire from their mouth, thus getting the name of “Flaming Mouth”. The Yoga Flaming Mouth Dance, as one of the rituals of Buddhist ceremony, is held at dusk by believers who beg Buddha for relieving the hungry ghost from miseries in order to avoid becoming a hungry ghost after death.

During the Xianheng Period of the Tang Dynasty (618A.D.-907 A.D.), the Yoga dance was introduced into Qianming Temple of Jiande Mountain in Wuling, a district of Changde City today, thus the temple was titled “Fifty-three Blessings of Buddhism”.

The Yoga Flaming Mouth and Gesture Dance, with a history of 700 years since the early Song Dynasty (960A.D- 1279A.D.), has gradually evolved into a set of actions and become an inseparable part of folk dances in Taoyuan, occupying a noticeable position among all the Hunan folk dances.

Taoyuan Yoga Flaming Mouth and Gesture Dance
Place：Taoyuan County, Changde,  Hunan Province 
Heritage NO.：Ⅲ-26 
Category: Folk Dance 
Declaring Date: 2006
Declaring Unit: Taoyuan County, Hunan Province
Level: Provincial