In the Hengduan Mountain area on the border of Yunnan and Sichuan in southwestern China, there is a beautiful plateau lake called Lugu Lake. Around Lugu Lake, there is a special ethnic group who call themselves Na and Mosuo people. They have a strong heritage of matrilineal civilization and live in warm matrilineal families. They come from and belong to their mothers. No matter how many generations are passed on, the children of Mo Ling eventually return to their mother's home, ensuring that the woman in the Mosuo home is in charge and can exist and continue forever. The Mosuo people and their matriarchal cultural traditions are rich in legend, renowned at home and abroad, known as the "Eastern Daughter of the country".
The first experience of Mosuo.
This year in mid-spring, this is my fifth time to Lugu Lake. Thinking back to my first time to Lugu Lake is in the early spring of 1992, in Lugu Lake officially open to the public before the tour, Yunnan Provincial Party Committee Propaganda Department organized a propaganda group to the rural areas to preach the central one document. Before leaving, the leadership of our comrades in the propaganda group said: Lugu Lake is a beautiful natural scenery, unique ethnic customs. You have to respect the religious beliefs and folklore of the Mosuo people. At the same time, some places without the consent of the local cadres and masses, not allowed to take pictures with a camera.
We went to Lugu Lake with longing and awe. At that time, the road from Kunming to Lijiang was a secondary highway, and the road from Lijiang to Ninglang was a dirt road with high mountains and steep slopes and narrow bays. It took five days to get to Lugu Lake by car.
We walked along the mountain road by the lake, and the horse gangs kept ringing, as if we had entered ancient times. There were only one or two hotels by the lake in those days, and there was no electricity in the countryside. At night, we stayed in the reception public room of the Yongning Township Government and slept on wooden beds covered with military quilts. Arrangements were made for our village preaching group to go to the surrounding farmers' homes to preach to the masses. I remember that in a farmer's house in Xiaoloshui Village, there were adults, children, elderly women, and more than 10 people sitting around a fire, which was very weak. The township cadres we accompanied said that the grandmother was the oldest in the family, with dark, shiny skin, and warmly greeted us as we sat down. Because of the mountain barrier, few people came to listen to the lectures, and they spoke very little. The local cadres translated what we said to the villagers sentence by sentence. The old grandmother said: We have lived here for generations. Now that the Party's policy is better, we are doing much better, with kind smiles on our faces.
Moso people are generally four houses. Grandma's house, Tangjing, Flower House, Grass House. Grandma's house is the core of the family, jagged plane, square walls. Grandmother's house is supported by two pillars, the male and female pillars. The male and female pillars must come from the same tree. In the last section, the male and female pillars are juxtaposed. The male and female pillars symbolize the siblings in the family, who share the same roots and will never be separated. Grandmother's house is the place where family members live and die, where important ceremonies are held, and where the whole family eats, lives, deliberates, and entertains guests. The hall is the holiest place in a Mosuo family and the highest building of all houses. The grass building is the men's residence, the bottom floor is the material yard, and the upper floor is the building where the grass is piled up. When the men are not married, it is the bedroom. The building opposite the grandmother is called the flower house, which the Mosuo call "Nizayi", meaning double-story. Downstairs there are farming tools, and upstairs is the bedroom where the adult woman gets married.
Curious to see the flower house, want to understand the custom of walking marriage. Township cadres said: Mosuo people fancy Mosuo women, the male party let the matchmaker with dresses, belts, shoes, tobacco, wine, tea and other gifts. To the woman's home, to the woman's mother to propose. Men can not go together, the mother can accept the gifts with the consent of the daughter. I also made my daughter a pair of linen pants and a linen belt. This process is called "Zozoga", which means exchange of tokens. At the same time, the woman distributes the gifts brought by the man to people in her village and to her relatives, indicating that her daughter has an "aha". On the night of the first visit, the woman's mother and sister sent the man to the woman's Axi's flower room
There is another way for Mosuo people to get married, that is, men and women are engaged to get married privately, that is to say, free love. In their daily interactions, Mosuo men and women love each other and secretly exchange jewelry and rings. These are used as tokens to establish an "Axia" relationship, and they secretly visit each other behind others' backs. If you want to maintain this non-traditional way, you have to establish the "Axia" relationship through the "ZuoZuoGa" ceremony, so that the marriage will be recognized by the families of both parties, otherwise it will not be recognized by the family and society. The Mosuo people's marriage, because it does not involve the relationship of other family members, there is no property disputes. No matter men or women, it is completely based on feelings and is rarely obstructed or interfered by the family. It is the purest love and marriage in the world.
There are many ceremonies in the life of Mosuo people, but only three in the life of an individual, i.e., the birthday ceremony, the passing ceremony and the funeral ceremony. These are the three most important ceremonies in their lives. The three ceremonies are very grand and there will be a dakpa or lama there to do things. The birthday ceremony is held on the day of the child's birth or the next day, and the naming event is held at the same time, which is presided over by the dakpa to give the child a name. The Mosuo Bar Mitzvah, held when a Mosuo child passes the age of 13 in Bai Bai, marks the child's growth. Thereafter, as adults, they participate in productive labor and social activities. The Bar Mitzvah is usually held in the Spring Festival. Elders preside over the ceremony. During the ceremony, the dakpa or lama chants, and the boys and girls step on bags of food and pig fat, which means that the barn is full of food. Livestock flourished and the Mosuo people had loquat meat, also known as pig fat, which did not rot for several years and was cinnamon-scented and fatty. Pig fat is not only Mosuo cuisine, but also a symbol of Mosuo women's hard work and family wealth.
The fifth time I felt this divine scene.
My second visit to Lugu Lake was in the early spring of 1997, and the provincial party committee leaders went to Lugu Lake research. Lugu Lake is still relatively closed due to the difficult roads. Not many tourists go to Lugu Lake. Some casual visitors came, but the reception conditions were still very poor. There are a few hotels in Lushui Village, which can't meet the demand of tourists. Tourists basically live in ordinary homes.
After 10 years, on the National Day of 2008. I went to Lugu Lake for the third time. I love photography, special trip to Lugu Lake. On this trip to Lugu Lake, thousands of tourists gathered around the lake, driving, backpacking, and biking. There were more people and the tourism industry prospered. What with the Goddess Garden, Daughter Country Inn, Matriarchal Homestay, Goddess Restaurant, Grandmother's Room, Yang Er Che Naam Inn, there were many hotels and inns around the lake on the sleeve to cater to the curiosity of foreign guests. The hills are full of flowers, the mountains are in full bloom, and the cosmos is in full bloom. The cosmos blooms on the Fourth of July and is called the "Fourth of July Flower". The quiet lake has strange reflections. Sometimes it reflects the bathing figure of a fairy, and sometimes it looks like a tiger or a lion bird, so that tourists can see enough. I kept pressing the shutter to capture the morning light and evening sunset. After two days of shooting, shooting the marvelous light and shadow of Lugu Lake, climbed the Gemu Mountain to shoot the panoramic view of Lugu Lake, drove to Yongning Hot Spring, to experience the bathing scene of the year; go to the foot of the Lion Mountain, to shoot the herdsmen's life. At night, take the camera to shoot, a tall Mosuo woman, in the fire, wearing a pleated skirt; Mosuo wearing wide-legged pants, fox-skin hats, felt hats, boots, sometimes noisy and sometimes soothing, sometimes holding hands, sometimes shoulder-to-shoulder, singing and dancing carnival scene. During the two-day trip to Lugu Lake, I basically strolled through the big villages in Lugu Lake, Yunnan and Sichuan, and took thousands of photos. Later I chose more than 100 photos and published "Lugu Lake Photography Collection". Liu Dawei, chairman of the China Artists Association, inscribed the title of the album, "Poetry and Painting Yunnan".
Some places you go to more often than not, you don't want to go back. But when Lugu Lake is visited more often, they feel more and yearn for it. 2008, as the first commander of the Mosuo troops at Lugu Lake, He Shaoquan retired and founded the Yunnan Oriental Mosuo Cultural Research Center. Early summer of that year, He Shaoquan invited 120 famous painters at home and abroad to visit Lugu Lake, where Mosuo people live, to publicize the cultural landscape of the Mosuo people in the form of painting art, I was invited for the fourth time to join the team of painters in Lugu Lake, and at this time, Lugu Lake's tourism services and scenic area infrastructure has been greatly improved. In the face of the beautiful natural landscape and magical humanistic landscape of Lugu Lake area, the painters were intoxicated and created a number of colorful art works reflecting Mosuo culture. Those days, during the day, we danced and sang with Mosuo girls and boys in the lake. Mosuo people like to drink, singing, dancing, voice high and melodious, like heavenly music. Dancing, dusty, like an eagle with wings, can dance 72 kinds of tunes. Artists can't help but sing and dance with their flutes, from the rising of the moon to its setting. I wrote the poem "Drunken Daughter Country" with great interest: Life has many attachments / the most fascinating is the daughter country by Lugu Lake Life has many destinies / the most difficult is the daughter country by Lugu Lake Later, it was composed by the Naxi composer He, and sung by the famous Naxi singer Dapo Magi. It has been performed on CCTV and at large cultural evenings in the province and abroad, and is now on-demand dance music and karaoke.
2016 is the year of Chen Bing. He Yong, a childhood friend, told me that he had visited Lugu Lake many times over the past 30 years. Now, the Lugu Lake airport has been opened, and the Sichuan, Yunnan and Tibet Shangri-La Loop has been built, which will be a golden tourist route in China and the world. He invested tens of millions of dollars to build a elegant style, plumbing full, constant temperature lake view hotel. When I live in the hotel, it is not cold in winter and not hot in summer, and I can enjoy the different landscapes of the four seasons, and I can take a leisure vacation.
Spring, I came to Lugu Lake for the fifth time. It only takes more than 40 minutes to fly from Kunming to Lugu Lake. Looking from the air, the small Liangshan Mountain is even more magnificent. After getting off the airplane, I came to Lugu Lake. Nowadays, there are many guesthouses and hotels in the scenic area. You can walk through Big Lushui Village, Little Lushui Village, Luopu Village, Grass Sea, Lover's Tree, visit Yan Yuan Mosuo Museum, the former residence of the last princess, and climb up to the observation deck. The beautiful scenery is mesmerizing.
I am now standing in the secret place of my old classmates, - the Luogu Meian Hotel. Looking from the bright window sill, the turquoise blue lake, bright sky, birds are flying, the mountains are dripping green, and the green hills around the lake are as picturesque as a dream. I sincerely feel: this side of the fairyland on earth, man and nature in harmony **** exist, the lake nourishes the Moling people, but also gives them the opportunity to develop, which shows the change of a nation. I walked into Lugu Lake again and again, as if Lugu Lake is a ribbon. Wherever I go, she always ties it tightly around my waist. Beautiful Lugu Lake is our **** with the home, colorful Mosuo children are descended from the matriarchal culture. Whether in the melodious song or in the beautiful dance, Mosuo people are brave, intelligent, optimistic and open-minded, simple and healthy. It shows the happy life of Mosuo matriarchal family and the charm of beautiful mountains and rivers. This magical, mysterious and marvelous place is the holy land of mankind with a long and fantastic landscape.