The Four Seals Miao are a tribe of the Miao ethnic group in southwestern China. Not wearing silver jewels like other tribes, the Four Seals Miao distinguish themselves with four multi-color square designs embroidered on the front, back, and sleeves of women's frock. The colors of their clothes are usually blue or black. Women wear short pleated skirt. Some women like to wrap their hair bun with a wide blue cloth which can reach 12 meters.

A village called Maige is hometown of the Four Seals Miao. The village in Miao language means " a place with many plants". Long time ago, a tribe of Miao had to migrate to the mountainous areas in southwestern China after they were defeated in a war. They wanted to have a peaceful life, but not harassed by the enemies anymore, so they decided to destroy all their identity documents. When a Shaikh was ready to throw the four big seals, the symbols of the tribe, into fire, a girl stopped him: No! Before you burn the seals, please print their patterns on my clothes. So, the soul of our nation will never die.

Since then, this Miao tribe kept a tradition of embroidering four colorful square patterns on women's clothes. And they got a unique name the Four Seals Miao.

The Four Seals Miao are well known for their excellent batik technique with a history of more than 2,000 years. Women use a specially-made knife dipped into melt wax to paint beautiful patterns like flowers, bird, insects, and fish onto a white cloth. The cloth is then dyed in blue liquid, and put into boiling water for a while to remove the wax. As a result of this process, beautiful blue patterns are printed on the cloth.

The local women spin, weave cloth, batik, sew, and do embroidery all by themselves. To prepare a set of clothes for holidays, they often spend seven to eight months on sewing and embroidery. Their frocks have a big, multiple layered collar embroidered with colorful designs. The largest seal- a square pattern on the front of the frock is especially noticeable. Their pleated skirt are highlighted with the embroidered horizontal lines which represent the rivers and lakes their ancestors ever crossed during their migration throughout China.

People build houses with stones and dirt. Corn is their staple food. Only in new years or holidays, they can afford to eat rice. Their farmland is on the hillside. Women carry a back basket contained with manure, and go to mountains to fertilize their land. Everyday they go back and forth 6 to 7 times. Their life is simple and hard.

Festivals are held especially for single, young people to choose their partners. Every year, on the fifth day of the first lunar month, they will hold a famous Flower Dance Festival where young people get together to talk, sing, and dance. For several nights, they will have a bonfire party where they sing songs to express their love.

During the festival, a ceremony is held to release the soul of a dead tribe member from purgatory. In the ceremony, a man will be chosen to wrap his body with the dead members clothes, and then sing and dance to the Lusheng music in the background. This way, the dead members soul could ascend to the heaven.

The local people enjoy raising thrush in their spare time. Kept in a cage, a thrush sings beautiful songs. After getting trained for a few months, some thrush can imitate the sound of other animals, including dog, cat, goose, and duck. Visit their village on a sunny day, you will hear the intoxicating songs.