by Jim Goodman
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| the White Pagoda on a hill next to Dayao City |
Chuxiong, in between Kunming
and Dal, is officially a Yi Autonomous Prefecture because the Yi minority
nationality, though constituting only around a quarter of the population,
resides on more than half the territory.
The Yi are the largest ethnic minority in the province, 11% of Yunnan’s
residents, divided into a few dozen sub-groups and five major dialects. But most travelers skip Chuxiong. It doesn’t have the spectacular scenery
of areas further west, like snow mountains, mighty rivers and picturesque
lakes, so the only Yi the average visitor encounters in Yunnan are those in Lijiang
and Dali prefectures, the Stone Forest near Kunming and maybe Yuanyang.
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| 8th century White Pagoda |
The Chuxiong government earlier
this century tried to play up the Yi aspect of its territory with the
construction of a Yi theme park on the northern side of the capital, exhibits
in its fine new museum and promotion of the annual Torch Festival. Still, that hasn’t resulted in a burst
of Yi cultural tourism. Chuxiong
City is easy to access, but Yi villages are far away in the hills, requiring a
little time and effort, and in many areas, especially the northwest quarter of
the prefecture, quite unspoiled and solidly rooted in their traditional lifestyle.
Dayao County is a fine example. Besides its several Yi sub-groups, who live relatively the
same way but dress very differently, the county also features a couple famous
religious monuments. One is the
White Pagoda, so named for its color, on top of a small hill next to Dayao
city. It is also known as the Bell
Stick Pagoda, for its shape resembles the stick used to strike bells in a
Buddhist temple. Built in the
Nanzhao Era in the 8th century, rising from an octagonal platform 18
meters high, it has stood erect through major earthquakes over the centuries,
its only scar a meter-long crack near the top.
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| bronze Confucius in Shiyang |
The other religious monument
of note is the huge, 2.5 meter-high bronze image of Confucius, housed in a
temple in Shiyang, 36 km west of Dayao. Made in the early 17th century, it took
over nine years to cast. Weighing
around 1000 kg, this statue of the seated sage, crowned and holding a tablet,
flanked by dragons, is the only extant bronze Confucius on the mainland of
China. Shiyang means Stone Ram, named after something like that found when
digging a great salt well in the town many centuries ago. The town lies along a narrow river with
Buddhist and Daoist shrines on the slopes of the south bank hill, some in
caves, with odd statues like a scowling, bearded man ripping open his abdomen
to reveal a Buddha inside and a clean-shaven man splitting open his face to
show another one underneath.
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| Daoist sculpture, Shiyang |
Shiyang is actually more of a
religious center than Dayao itself.
Aside from the temples around the White Pagoda, the only other religious
monument is the late Qing Dynasty six-tiered pagoda on the hill at the south
entrance to the elevated plain around Dayao. The city still had a lot of old wooden, two and three-story
tile-roofed wooden buildings when I first visited it over twenty years ago,
friendly inhabitants, mostly Han, an active artistic scene of sculptors,
painters and silk carpet-weavers, all yearning to attract foreign appreciation
and business. Bars and
entertainment venues were few and social life revolved around private visits
among friends.
On Sunday market day this all
changed. Han villagers from the
plain and Yi from the hills swarmed into town. They came on foot or bicycle, led or rode ponies, pulled
carts, pushed wheelbarrows or took tractor-trailers. They set up stalls in the main market area and along New
Road, selling grain, fruits, walnuts (the county is famous for these,
especially the soft-shelled variety from Tiesuo, northwest of the city), cloth,
shoes, mountain herbs, silver ornaments, tools and crockery.
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| Yi in Dayao for market day |
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| Santai Yi girl |
Most sellers and shoppers were
Han, but the Yi formed a sizable percentage and their traditionally dressed
women brightened up the crowd scene.
Most of the Yi were from villages to the east and south of the city, the
females dressed in long-sleeved, pastel-colored blouses, black vests, black
turbans, plain trousers and a short, thick apron embroidered with big
flowers. Some may also wear a goatskin
vest, a characteristic garment of Yi in Chuxiong prefecture.
Both men and women wear these.
They make them from the skins of two goats, expertly stitched together, that reach
to the knees, hang open in the front and, though worn all year round, last for
several years. In the cooler
months they tend to wear the fur side against the body and the leather side
out. When it rains they reverse
the vest and wear the fur side out.
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| Santai on market day |
A few of the Yi will be from
sub-groups north or west of the city.
The most colorful outfit belongs to the Yi women around Santai, to the
west. They wear the brightest
blouses in the area, appliquéd with many rows and bands elaborately embroidered
with flowers and arabesques. They
accent this with several long silk aprons in front, of graduated sizes,
different hues and patterns. This
is worn over ordinary trousers and shoes and usually topped, incongruously,
with an olive green army cap.
Santai lies along a junction
of two streams west of Tanhua Mountain, surrounded by high hills. On the 28th day of the 3rd
lunar month Yi in this area celebrate Fuzhuangjie, the Dressing Up Festival,
also known as the Yi Fashion Show.
On this occasion they show off the best traditional clothes they own,
gather in Santai town for an all-day market scene, then go to nearby Guola
village on the hill above at night for several hours of singing and dancing.
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| Tanhua market day |
Yi from Tanhua district,
directly north of Dayao, may also be in Dayao for market day, but in fewer
numbers, for Tanhua also holds its market day on Sunday. And while there may be a few Han
merchants from Dayao and Shiyang in attendance, here the crowd is
overwhelmingly local Yi. The
village lies on the southern slope of a ridge, dappled with peach and pear
trees. Just beyond the lower part
of the village are a small cave and a modest waterfall.
Tanhua houses are typical of
rural Yunnan, made from mud-brick and wood, with tiled roofs, two stories, on
stone foundations. The interior
walls are often stone, the floor earthen and the wooden doors and shutters might
feature carvings. The people raise
wheat, maize, beans, buckwheat and potatoes and tend goats, the main meat dish
in the area.
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| Yi at his doorstep, Suimo village |
Higher than Dayao, the weather
is always cooler and one local Yi custom I learned on a fairly cold, drizzly,
pre-market morning when invited inside to “come sit by the fire a while.” The Yi here always keep live coals in
the hearth so that they can get a fire flaming quickly when they come back
inside. My gracious hostess served
me tea and warm, unleavened wheat bread until the rain ceased and people had
begun arriving for the market.
Tanhua market day differs from
those around Dali or in Ailaoshan, where the great majority of the people in
attendance are women. Here, as in
other market day venues I witnessed in the county, as many men show up as
women. Trails lead out of Tanhua
in several directions and a couple villages are visible from the upper end of
Tanhua. But many of those who come
hail from places three or four hours away and leave home as soon as it’s light
enough to see the path.
Unlike Tanhua, where the women
seem to compete with each other to see who can wear the most gorgeous outfit,
the Yi in Tanhua market were not quite so inclined. They have a traditional ensemble that is at least as attractive
as Santai’s, but most of them rarely wear more than a few elements of it for
market day. For sure this will
include the goatskin vest, but also, like the vest used by both sexes,
intricately embroidered, fringed and heavily tasseled shoulder bags. They are fairly large and their bright
colors contrast sharply against the dark goat fur of the vest over which they
are draped.
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| Tanhua Yi shoulder bag |
The embroidery on every
shoulder bag is unique, and they can be of any color, but the overall design
follows an ancient tradition, in which the patterns and their arrangement have
symbolic, religious significance. The
central motif represents the sky god, the paramount deity in local Yi
religion. He is the first god
worshiped in any ceremony and his permission must be sought before the Yi honor
any other deity in their pantheon, which includes gods of the mountains, the
forests, hunting, autumn, grain and marriage.
The blocks and patterns around
the central motif represent the yin-yang principle. Lines that divide the inner patterns from the outer ones are
known as tiger paths. Various
trees, stars and other motifs fill the area beyond the tiger paths. Several tassels hang on each side where
the strap meets the bag and a long fringe, of one or several colors, is
attached to the bottom. Great
variation exists in the patterns, colors and motifs deployed and some women
achieve a high degree of artistic talent making them. Since the bags are always in public view, with people
constantly comparing and evaluating them, reputations for fine embroidery get
established. One can ask who is
the best embroiderer in the village and be given a name at once.
To embroider their bags the
women use the cross-stitch style, in which the motifs consist of tiny x’s. For their long-sleeved, side-fastened,
hip-length jackets the decorative strips use a more pictorial style, with rows
of flowers, whorls and arabesques, similar to the Santai style. They can be just as lavishly
embellished as the latter, though the dominant background color is usually red
or blue rather than golden yellow.
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| Yi woman in Tanhua |
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| the Yi style in Tanhua |
The main stylistic difference from the Santai outfit is the
combination bib-apron worn over the jacket, with large, fist-sized flowers
embroidered on the lower part. An
ornamented silver chain holds the top part around the neck, while a belt, with
several embroidered cloth tabs attached, fastens it in the back. Rather than an army cap the women wear
black turbans lined with rows of silver studs in front and the tail ends
elaborately embroidered and fringed at the ends. They tie it in a way that shows off the ends and add a few
thread tassels above the right ear.
In the village environment of shades of brown and green, the traditional
Tanhua outfit stands out in resplendent contrast.
While the entire ensemble is
not part of everyday wearing apparel, it is all but obligatory for major public
events like weddings and festivals.
Besides important Han events like New Year and Qing Ming, Yi villages in
the county also stage their own Torch Festival programs. But one event—Chahuajie-- draws Yi from
all over the area to Tanhuashan, the 3657-meter high mountain just above Tanhua
village. Held the 8th
day of the 2nd lunar month, its name translates as Putting Up
Flowers, honoring the ancient Yi heroine Miyilu and is also celebrated in other
parts of the prefecture by other Yi sub-groups, albeit with a slightly
different story behind it.
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| belt tabs at the back of the apron |
Long ago a powerful, wicked
lord kept demanding young Yi women for his depraved pleasure until the brave
Miyilu offered herself in marriage, intending to slay him in the process. According to the Yi in the hills close
to Chuxiong, Miyilu killed the tyrant on the wedding night and fled. But his relatives caught up with her
and murdered her beside a white camellia tree. Her blood stained the roots and the camellia has been red
ever since. The Tanhua version has
her offering to marry him while pinning a poisonous azalea flower to her
hair. She asks the lord to join
him in a drink, secretly poisons the liquor with the azalea and when they
imbibe they both die.
In commemoration the Yi mount
azaleas and camellias on their doorways and then assemble in a grove on the
slope of Tanhuashan. There they
witness rites conducted by their bimaw
(ritual specialist), watch a dramatic re-enactment of the tale, a different Tanhua
girl playing the part of Miyilu every year, then make flower wreaths, break up
into groups for feasting and in the evening indulge in singing and dancing,
featuring boys playing the ‘moon guitar’ and girls singing in high-pitched,
undulating voices, until long past midnight. It’s a welcome break from their ordinary life of farming and
herding and a proud re-affirmation of their Yi identity.
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| the traditional style in Tanhua |
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