"Gelao Maolong" is mainly spread in the Gelao villages such as Yanming and Longfeng in Longjing, Tangshan and other towns in Shiqian County, Guizhou Province. Shiqian is located in the northeast of Guizhou Province and belongs to Tongren District. It has a total area of 2,173 square kilometers. It is adjacent to Jiangkou and Cengong in the east, Zhenyuan and Shibing in the south, Fenggang and Yuqing in the west, and Sinan and Yinjiang in the north. The county seat is 149 kilometers away from Tongren, the seat of the regional government, and 320 kilometers away from Guiyang, the provincial capital. It is a small mountainous county deep in the hinterland of northeastern Guizhou. There is no clear historical record about the origin of "Gelao Maolong". From the main material of "Gelao Maolong" bamboo, and its performance function of "seeking children", Maolong should originate from the ancient Gelao's "Bamboo King" worship and fertility worship. According to the "Shiqian County Chronicles", "Lamps have been around since the Tang Dynasty". In the local area, "Maolong" is a kind of "lamp", so it can be inferred that the history of "Gelao Maolong" can be traced back to the prosperous Tang Dynasty. Judging from the main activities of "Gelao Maolong" in the territory recorded in the "Shiqian County Chronicles" of the Republic of China, "Gelao Maolong" has been popular in villages of all ethnic groups in the county from the late Qing Dynasty to the eve of liberation. Shiqian "Gelao Maolong" is a kind of belief folk activity based on the belief in the "Dragon God" of the Gelao people. The activity period is from the night of New Year's Eve to the 15th and 16th of the first lunar month every year. The first is the preparation stage, which lasts from the night of New Year's Eve to the second and third days of the first lunar month. The "Hall Master" of that year leads 23 people with some culture and cultivation to collect funds from each household, commonly known as "cultivating public morality". Then, young people with strong work ability are designated to purchase the materials needed for "tying dragons" that cannot be collected locally. The second is to ask the bamboo craftsman to burn paper to "break bamboo", select an appropriate place to set up a "lantern hall", invite artists to "tying dragons", and at the same time call on male neighbors of all ages to participate together, which is also a spontaneous inheritance of the "tying dragon" skills. The last is "playing with dragons". After tying the "hair dragon", the master will first select a good day (usually on the sixth or seventh day of the first lunar month) to hold the opening ceremony and water-inviting ceremony before going around the villages or performing in a concentrated manner. During the "opening ceremony", incense and paper will be burned in the house of the hall master (headman). The master will recite a spell and burn three holes of incense on the "dragon head" and "dragon tail" respectively, which is called "ventilation" (that is, becoming a "dragon god"). Then go out to the ancestral hall, cave, river ditch or well with water near the village to "worship the ancestors and ask for water", and then go to every household in the village or city to "play with the dragon". Generally, the fifteenth or sixteenth day of the first lunar month is the day to "burn the dragon". When burning the dragon, the dragon team is arranged, gongs and drums are beaten (some people set off firecrackers), and they go to the place selected in advance and burn the pre-written petition, which means that the village sincerely plays with the hair dragon, worships the gods and God, and begs for the blessing of the whole village for peace and good fortune. The ceremony held at the same time as burning lanterns is "releasing road candles", that is, inserting road candles that you have watered every five feet on the road of burning dragons, which means that after releasing road candles, "livestock will prosper, crops will be abundant, and every household will be safe and sound". After burning the hairy dragon, the suitcase, gongs and drums, and remaining money and goods are sent to the home of the next hall master. After entering the house, the new "hall master" will greet you with cigarettes, tea, and supper. Finally, everyone bids farewell to the host and goes home, and the year of playing with dragons is over. The "Gelao Hairy Dragon" has a unique shape. The hairy dragon is shaped like a snake and its tail is like a fish. The whole hairy dragon needs four or five hundred fire grass sticks to make it. It looks like it is covered with hair, which is quite different from the dragons made by other ethnic groups. In addition, the "Gelao Hairy Dragon" was originally circulated among the Gelao people, and later spread to the local Miao, Dong, Tujia and other ethnic groups, and absorbed the excellent culture of other ethnic groups. "Gelao Maolong" is a manifestation of the Gelao ethnic belief. It contains totem worship, religious worship, Gelao language, crafts, songs and dances, etc., which has important research value for the study of Gelao culture. The inheritance of "Gelao Maolong" in ancient Shiqian was mainly spontaneous and natural, which was relatively casual, but the "Hall Master", that is, the elderly ceremony host with a higher status, the Maolong artist or the performer of the dragon head and dragon tail, often only one in a village. In the middle of the last century, there were about 200 villages in Shiqian playing "Maolong", but during the "Cultural Revolution", Maolong was banned, books were burned, and development suffered an unprecedented blow. At present, there are only 8 or 9 villages such as Yanming and Longfeng that hold spontaneous activities every year, but as the old artists passed away one after another, young people are unwilling to participate in this activity. Although the Maolong activity has inherited the form shell, its substantial cultural core and folk beliefs have disappeared.