They dance the weaving dance and lion dance. Some sources say that the traditional religion of the Buyi is a mixture of animism and Taoism. Paraphernalia and techniques of priests resemble those of Chinese Taoist priests. Beliefs and practices include the propitiation of ancestral spirits with altars maintained in the homes. Food offerings were left at the roots of certain trees and at small shrines outside the villages.
Death is followed by a period of mourning.
The corpse is fully clothed and lies in a wooden coffin. A bull is slaughtered, then the priest leads the procession to the grave site accompanied by horns and drums. Paper money and incense are burned. Three years after the burial the body is disinterred and the bones are placed in a clay jar for reburial. In the early twentieth century they developed a dictionary using French to approximate the sounds of the Buyi language.