Bawu, a reed instrument, also known as "bawu", is popular among the Yi, Miao, Hani and other ethnic groups in Yunnan, and is often used for solo performance or as an accompaniment to dance and rap. There are different legends about the origin of Bau.

In the Ailao Mountains on the south bank of the Red River, there is an ancient story about Bawu among the Hani people: a long time ago, in the Ailao Mountains on the south bank of the Red River, the Hani people had a pure, beautiful and kind girl named Mei Wu, who was with handsome, Brave, hard-working young man Bachong fell in love with each other. They vowed to be together forever like branches and green leaves, and everyone in the stockade admired and envied them. This was known to the greedy devil in the deep mountains. While people were singing and dancing, the girl was swept away by a gust of wind, and she forced her to marry him. The girl was not afraid of the coercion and temptation of the devil, and was always unyielding and did not say a word.

So the devil became angry, cut off her tongue fiercely, and threw her into the deep forest. Missing the lover in her heart, the girl wandered between the mountains and forests all day long.

One day, the fairy bird in the woods brought the girl's tongue and a piece of bamboo, and asked the girl to put her tongue into the bamboo tube and tell her that "bamboo will help you speak". So the girl blew the bamboo and made a beautiful musical sound, expressing her longing for her lover and her accusation against the devil. The music reached Bachong's ears, and the young man went through all the hardships to rescue the girl, returned to his relatives, and regained happiness. Later, people used the names of the two to name the talking instrument Bau. Since then, Bau has been passed down from generation to generation in Hani cottage.

Among the Niesu people, a branch of the Yi nationality in Gejiu, there is such a legend: In ancient times, a deaf and mute man died of his mother, and he was extremely sad, but he could not express his sorrow in words. One day, he found a piece of bamboo with worm eyes and blew it in his mouth, making a low and sad sound. He thought, the bamboo tube worm's eyes can make noise, how many more holes should be dug? So he used a sharp knife to dig a few equidistant small holes in the bamboo pipe, and sure enough, he made a cadence sound. He listened, blew, and finally blew out the feeling that he missed his mother with the sounding bamboo pipe. Since then, this kind of bamboo pipe, which is called Feili in Yi language, has been handed down.

There are many legends and stories about the origin of Bau. They show that Bau was invented by the wise and intelligent people of all ethnic groups in the labor.