Sacrificial songs possess a mysteri-ous cultural identity and have been widely popular in Chinese folklore; at the same time it has been difficult to identify and record them all. Therefore, in the cultural history of the Han Chinese people, folkloristic sacrificial songs ( including ‘calling-soul-back lyrics’ or certain incantations closely re-lated to the sacrificial songs) rarely have been re-corded and/or successfully handed on to our day and age. In times past however, the sacrificial po-etry chanted by ethnic priests/shamans in various rituals and ceremonies was respected, protected, and widespread among the various people. Among all sacrificial music belonging to various ethnic groups in China, the music of the Tujia people is quite unique. The traditional worship culture of the Tujia has been very rich, elaborate, and mysterious. Due to intense cultural beliefs, the sacrificial mu-sic of the Tujia had become quite colorful. This u-nique musical style and rhyme reflects the Tujia people’ s unique historic and artistic charm, cus-toms, and connotations. The ancestors of the Tujia first lived in the isolated Wuling Mountains. Due to their limited productivity level, they weren’ t a-ble to interpret most natural and social phenome-na; instead they viewed these phenomena accord-ing to their personal animistic beliefs. In recent years, however, scholars have conducted a lot of research on the Tujia religious beliefs, including their sacrificial customs and music. In this con-text, the tima shenge ( tima sacred songs ) have enjoyed meticulous scholarly research from the per-spectives of both cultural philosophy and communi-cation. This article tries to explore the origin and mysterious musical features of the tima sacred songs, in order to better understand their socio-cultural function:this in turn could allow for a bet-ter protection and promotion of these songs. Tima sacred songs are the most ancient and o-riginal type of the Tujia songs. Tima is a word of the Tujia language: ‘Ti ’ means ‘to worship dei-ties’ and ‘Ma ’ means ‘people ’ . Thus basically‘Tima’ means ‘the people who worship deities’ and indeed tima shenge were especially sung dur-ing the performance of worship rituals. Looking at all expression of Tujia musical culture, only Tima songs are connected to elements of religion such as deities, scriptures, worship etc. In addition, the knowledge of Tima songs usually was transmitted from father to son, from generation to generation. The melody of Tima sacred songs was origina-ted from the melody of ox horn played by ancient Tujia tribes. Tima sacred songs were part of a com-prehensive musical form, which combined enter-tainment, worship of deities, communication with deities, lengthy instrumental pieces, poetry, and dance. It usually was aimed at certain practical re-sults such as e. g. exorcisms of demons, worship of‘heaven and earth’ , worship of ancestors, invita-tion of certain ‘gods ’ , realization of certain wi-shes, prevention and/or removal of disasters and other evils, blessing of animals, giving thanks for good weather for crops etc. In addition, there are two types of Tima performances: ( i) a large-scale collective type of worship called tiao baishou ( dancing and waving of hands ) and ( ii ) a more intimate or family type of worship called wan pusa ( praying for blessings from Bodhisattva) . Of these two, the family-scale Tima ritual-wan pusa-of-fers the easiest introduction to Tima and the Tujia people’ s religious beliefs. While Tima sacred songs support the personal religious convictions of members of the Tujia peo-ple, they also promoted the common ideology of the Tujia. In addition, as Tima-shamans ( or sor-cerers) also practiced medicine there were many Tima-shamans whose medical skills reached quite high levels. Such Tima-sorcerers were indeed re-garded as very capable people that had access to, and influence in, the world of gods and demons. These shamans enjoyed a privileged position in that society, and were highly respected by the Tujia people. During the performance of a Tima sacred song, the main singer was indeed such a sorcerer or ‘medium ’ who was believed to communicate with deities and demons. Therefore, during the Ti-ma ritual, the shaman was believed to mediate the people’ s wishes to deities, and at times even‘be-come’ an incarnation of certain deities as to com-municate the deities ’ orders to the people. Ac-cording to Tujia beliefs, the ‘Tima-sorcerers’ not only could talk with the deities in the heavens, but also could order animals to be his protectors. As a ritual was enacted, Tima sacred songs also were meant to ( i ) exalt virtue and persuade people to do good things, and to ( ii ) denounce vice. Indeed, these sacred songs have helped maintain the moral standards of the Tujia people. Tima songs worship nature and respect ancestors. This mysterious expression of religious belief doubtlessly created a binding force, which in turn deeply influenced the Tujia people’ s morality and values. Moreover, Tima sacred songs also con-veyed and reinforced the Tujia ’ s habit of respect-ing ancestors and filial piety. Hence, Tima weren’ t only religious or sacrificial activities, but also carriers of the religious beliefs and cultural charac-teristics of the Tujia people. Tima originates in primitive sorcerer ’ s wor-ship ceremonies, and over time have been supple-mented with many topics such as mysterious deities and demons, true or concocted historical legends and figures, the discussion of the meaning of life, and the philosophical exploration of norms and val-ues. Meanwhile, the Tima songs also touch upon other fields of science such as music, dance, lan-guage, and folklore. Hence, they could be regar-ded as an encyclopedia of the Tujia ethnic group. Tima sacred songs are unique regarding stylistic genre, melody, rhythm, emotional expressions etc.; they indeed reflect the traditional ethnic characteristic of the Tujia people, i. e. their fine arts as well as their ancient philosophy and ideolo-gy. Every ethnic group evolves over time as socie-ties develop. Similarly, the Tujia’ s religious be-liefs also have been changing gradually, or even have been completely abandoned. It is true that in the course of time Tima gradually has lost populari-ty and relevance. In other words, the usage of Ti-ma has been slowly disappearing, or even had been banned completely during the period from the 1950s to the 1970s. At present, as old practition-ers grow old and get sick, Tima has been having a hard time finding new followers and practitioners. Young people no longer seem to be interested in learning Tima, and Tima-shamans themselves also have no confidence in training possible successors. This explains the disappearance of Tima, a histori-cal and inescapable trend. However, the People’ s Republic of China’ s issuing of a law protecting in-tangible cultural heritage, led to a boom of appli-cations for the inscription in the list of intangible cultural heritage. And yes, Tima sacred songs of the Tujia ethnic group also have been inscribed in the first list of intangible cultural heritage of the province of Hunan in 2006; moreover, Tima also got registered in the second list of national intangi-ble cultural heritage in 2008. Because of this, Ti-ma has now received protection by the government of China. This has opened new roads to partially maintain the inheritance of tima shenge, as only a living and practiced tradition can truly maintain a cultural heritage. To summarize, Tima sacred songs are a rich expression of the culture of the Tu-jia people;people who will study its rites and hid-den meanings can catch a glimpse of the mysterious and vivid history of the Tujia.