The Tropic of Cancer and the Hani in Mojiang

                                                           by Jim Goodman

view of Mojiang from the Tropic of Cancer Park

       The Tropic of Cancer, 23 degrees north of the equator, the line that forms the southern boundary of the earth’s temperate zone, runs right through the city of Mojiang, Yunnan.  The city is the capital of a county on the eastern side of Pu’er Prefecture, lying west of the Ailao Mountains that run along the right bank of the Red River.    What lured me to the area was not so much its geographical significance as the fact Mojiang is an Autonomous Hani County, the uppermost part of the Ailao Mountain range where they reside.

       Though it is the only strictly Hani autonomous county in the prefecture, the Hani are not the only minority nationality living in it.  I discovered this right away when I rode a bus to Mojiang from Mosha, on the Red River in Xinping County.  Upon departure the road climbed into the forested Ailao Mountains and after about 30 km swerves around Dajianshan, 2278 meters, and enters the county on the high plain around Malu village.

market day in Malu

       This is Yi territory, inhabited by a sub-group whose dwellings, of mud-brick walls and wooden posts on stone foundations with tiled roofs, and clothing resemble those of Yi in southern Chuxiong Prefecture.   The women dressed in a colorful jacket with an apron in front, the lapel, upper sleeves and apron borders heavily embroidered, with a sliver-studded stomacher across the waist, black trousers and turban.

       The men wore ordinary modern clothes, but both sexes might also don the goatskin coat.  Made from the skins of two goats, also popular in Chuxiong Prefecture, especially Dayao County, it hangs open in the front and reaches to the knees.  In the summer people wear the fur side out and in the winter the fur side in.

Yi woman in the Malu market

Haoni woman above Bixi

       It was market day when we passed through Malu, so progress was quite slow.  Stalls were up all along the main road and people wandered among them oblivious of the vehicle traffic.  Beyond Malu, the road begins a long and slow descent towards Mojiang.  It passes the attractive Buka Reservoir, a long and narrow body of water surrounded by forested hills, and then runs by Hani settlements perched on hillsides above their terraces.

Haoni woman on the road

older Haoni woman in Mojiang

       Different sub-groups of Hani live in the county but they all speak a similar dialect, which is quite unlike that spoken by Hani in Honghe, Yuanyang and other places further down the Ailao Mountains, which is close to that spoken by the Aini sub-group in Xishuangbanna.  The sub-group north of Mojiang, concentrated above Bixi, is called Haoni and their women wear a distinctive outfit. 

rural Mojiang County above Bixi

       They wear ordinary modern trousers and long-sleeved blouse.  Over this is a short-sleeved jacket, waist-length in the front and knee-length in the back, dark blue or black for older women and white for younger ones.  If white, it is heavily embroidered with red designs on the sleeves and back. On their heads they wear a tall turban, fastened with their braids across the front and with hair braids hanging far down the back.

       From Bixi the road descends further, through an area of Han villages, until it reaches Mojiang, about 12 km further.  Mojiang lies in a natural bowl with mountains all around and two small hills in the urban area.  It’s predominantly Han-inhabited, mostly full of modern buildings, but with an old-fashioned neighborhood left and a park with a pond and elegant pavilions.

astronomical observatory, Tropic of Cancer Park

       The southern hill is the site of the Tropic of Cancer Park.  Climbing the staircase I passed a niche of carved red sandstone pillars and, near the tip, a circle of white Stonehenge-like pillars about 1.5 meters high.  On the summit is a monument with a spiraling exterior staircase, evocative of the ancient Lighthouse of Alexandria.  A row of red bricks marks the actual Tropic of Cancer line here and I could actually walk the line through this monument. 

       Near this stands a large stone sundial and behind it is the domed astronomical observatory with a large telescope inside.  With nothing to obscure the view, it’s a perfect place to observe the heavens as well as the city and its setting.

tower over the Tropic of Cancer line

pavilion in the Mojiang city park

       Mojiang is a small city.  Nearby gold mines gave it some prosperity in the past, but it was not a major stop on the main trade routes through the province.  Caravans on the Tea and Horses Road did not come here.  The French Mekong Expedition passed by in the late 1860s, during the Muslim Revolt that ravaged Yunnan for several years.  Mojiang appeared to have been spared the depredations suffered by other cities like Ning’er and Pu’er and the French were pleased to find the local inhabitants extremely hospitable.  The city officials even provided them an escort to their next destination.  This tradition seemed to have continued to today, for I found Mojiang people very friendly and helpful.

water wheels in the river near Nanwen

       Mojiang hosts market day every five days.  Besides the local residents and Han villagers from the valley, many Hani turn up; the Haoni and two other sub-groups.  One came from villages south of Mojiang, around Nanwen, on the Aomo River.   The women wore dark blue jackets, knee-length trousers, wrappers around the calves a belt with a brightly embroidered sash hanging down the back and a black turban festooned with lots of bright yarn.  Their villages are much lower than those of the other sub-groups and they also use water wheels for farms along the Aomo River.

       The other, Bukong Hani, I would meet on a return trip to Mojiang a couple years later.  I had a task to perform, to deliver some books by a Hani teacher friend to his colleague in the Mojiang Middle School.  After I introduced myself and mentioned my interest in Hani culture, he invited me to a local restaurant with a few of his fellow teachers, all Hani.  We had a leisurely meal, lots of rice wine and talked about the Hani I had met in other parts of Yunnan.

Bukong Hani house

       One of the teachers came from Longba, a town southeast of Mojiang.  He informed that a Hani village a little beyond Longba, called Dameido, would be celebrating Hani New Year the next day.  As in the mountains of Yuanjiang County, where I had just observed it, the Hani in Mojiang hold it in November, rather than at Lunar New Year, though on different days in different districts. 

       With a couple days to spare before I had to return to Kunming, I set out early morning on a bus to Longba, a ride about an hour and half through open countryside.  From here, continuing east, the road is rougher and soon amongst the hills and terraced farms.  The road ended at Zhaogaisu, with Xiaomeido village just across the stream.  At the latter settlement the first Hani I met were three men departing for Dameido, so I joined them.

terraced farms of Dameido village

       The landscape is not as dramatic as north of Bixi or further down the Ailao Mountains, like Yuanyang and Luchun Counties.  The hills are smaller, the terraces less steeply angled and not always irrigated.  Domestic architecture, however, is quite different from that of Hani villages elsewhere in Mojiang and next-door Honghe County.

       The Bukong Hani, the name of the area’s sub-group, live in block-like, mud-brick houses with flat roofs and a notched ladder connecting the lower floor roof with the upper roof.  They resemble those of the Huayao Dai in Xinping County and those of the Yi and Hani in Yuanyang and Jinping Counties, but with no shed on the roof.  No doubt they lay out crops here to dry, but my arrival didn’t coincide with any harvest.  Instead, I saw local residents sometimes ascending to the roofs just to sit in the sun or do some stitching. 

on the flat roofs of Dameido village houses

       Dameido lay on the other side of the ridge, about a twenty-minute walk.  I didn’t have a contact name to look up.  When I asked for one the evening before, my Hani hosts told me it wasn’t necessary.  Hani people are very hospitable.  Just show up and someone will invite you to stay with them. 

       And that’s how it went.  One of my walking companions took me to his uncle’s house in the upper part of the village.  The path was higher than the settled area, so we had to climb down a notched ladder to get to the lanes between the houses.   His uncle immediately invited me to stay the night.  New Year had just begun and folks were killing pigs and preparing dishes for the evening feast. 

       We had tea and jiu (rice liquor) inside on a hard mud floor, cabinets lining the walls, large jugs of rice wine in front of them and the kitchen to the right just inside the door.  A bedroom on this floor was graced with a wooden window frame with carved floral designs.  Upstairs were more bedrooms, one of which I would use, and from the roof I had a great view of the stars later that night.

Bukong Hani women on the first floor roof

      My host Mr. Li claimed Dameido was a thousand years old.  Every house was in traditional Hani style, with the only exterior modern intrusion being a single rooftop satellite dish.  The men dressed in modern clothing, but most women and many girls still preferred the traditional look.  They wore indigo-dyed, hand-woven cotton jackets over trousers.  The jackets fastened in the front and were decorated with silver chains and coin buttons.  Around their heads they wrapped a turban with embroidered ends.  Young women and girls festoon the front of the turban with colored threads.

       After a late afternoon tour of the village it was time for the banquet.  Before it began an older woman went to several corners of the ground floor with a basket of seeds, scattering some in each spot as an offering to the spirits    We then commenced dining on several pork dishes, including the fat, blood soup, a few vegetables, rice and jiu.

       The special dish for the occasion was a sweet dumpling called tangyuan in Chinese.  When preparing these the Hani first cook three of them, each marked as representing people, animals and crops.  Whichever pops up first out of the bowl they’re cooked in indicates good luck in the coming year for whichever of the three the dumpling represents.

Bukong Hani girl

Bukong Hani woman

       Mr. Li had several guests, so it was a typically long and drawn out meal.  We talked about Yunnan and Thailand (they weren’t curious about America).  Nobody spoke English here, their Hani dialect was incomprehensible to me, so we conversed in basic Chinese, at a level I could more or less understand.

       After this first day of feasting, the second day was devoted to entertainment.  The previous evening the villagers had erected a sturdy swing in the center of the village near the middle school and next to the basketball court.  It had a strong crossbeam supported by two tripods, with two ropes hanging down and a board connecting them. 

Mr. Li entertaining his guest before a meal

riding the New Year swing in Dameido

       People rode it standing up, alone or in pairs, and doing knee bends to go higher.  By mid-morning the scene was crowded with youths eager to swing.  Such was the demand for a turn that each rider only got to execute three or four movements and thus didn’t get very high.  But everybody had a good time and no one tried to hog the time and swing longer than anyone else.

       After a couple hours the kids started drifting off to lunch, as did I.  I walked back to Mr. Li’s house and passed a shirtless man sitting on a stool and a Hani woman massaging his back with jiu as a treatment for a skin rash.  So they don’t just drink the stuff.  When I arrived, Mr. Li brought out his bow and two-stringed instrument and, while the women prepared the food, entertained me with a few tunes.

Hani woman in Dameido

       Then we had our meal, resembling that of the night before.  I reported what I saw around the swing and mentioned that only about a third of the girls wore Hani clothes.  He replied that the percentage would likely go up tonight for the dances.  Unfortunately, I had to return to Mojiang.  The third day involved visits to relatives, both within Dameido and to other villages.

       One of Mr. Li’s guests said dances would also take place in Zhaogaisu and there was a bus from there to Mojiang at 4 a.m.  Zhaogaisu was where I had to go first anyway, but when I got there folks told me no dances that night and no bus next morning.  Fortunately, a truck gave me a lift all the way to Mojang. 

       The following day I took a bus back to Kunming to keep my appointment.  Naturally, my recent experiences with the Hani of Dameido kept reverberating in my memory.  And I also recalled that dinner in Mojiang, when one of the teachers told me not to worry about not having a contact in Dameido  because “The Hani are very hospitable.”  Yes.  I’d just had proof.

the Hani village of Dameido

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for  more on Mojiang and the Hani see my e-book The Terrace Builders

Mojiang is one of the stops on Delta Tours Vietnam’s journey from Kunming to Jinghong.  See the schedule at https://www.deltatoursvietnam.com/kunming-to-jinghong 

      

       

Limi Yi Discoveries in Wumulong

                                             by Jim Goodman

Limi Yi girls in Wumulong on market day

     Numbering over five million, the Yi minority nationality is the largest in Yunnan.  They are not a homogenous ethnic group, however, for the designation of Yi includes 25 distinct sub-groups in Yunnan alone, speaking five different related, but not mutually intelligible dialects.  Travelers become familiar with some Yi groups when visiting popular destinations around the province, like the Sani of the Stone Forest area, the Nisu of Yuanyang County, the Tuli around Dali and the Nuosu of the northwest.  Yet autonomous Yi districts, where the Yi constitute the majority of the population, exist in almost every prefecture. 

       Several of these are in Lincang Prefecture, south of Dali and one of the least explored parts of the province.  I was traveling in Lincang around Lunar New Year one time, in company with my friend and fellow veteran Yunnan explorer Ludwig Brinckmann, when we unintentionally wound up in Wumulong, a Yi Autonomous District.   We’d been in Junzhai, on the Nanding River near Mengding, for the New Year festivities and intended to proceed upriver to Daxueshan, mainly because neither of us had ever been there. 

young Limi Yi woman

Limi mother and baby

       That mountain rose to 3504 meters just northwest of Daxueshan township.  According to the map the district was an autonomous Yi, Lahu and Dai one.  So there might be some traditional clothing photo-ops, though we had been only moderately successful in that respect in Junzhai.

Limi Yi women taking a rest in the market

       We were lucky to be able to depart Junzhai the day after New Year, for transportation is irregular for the holiday period.  But local folks claimed the road to Daxueshan was bad and we couldn’t even hire anyone to take us there.  However, a truck offered a lift to Yongkang, so we took that, intending to find a bus from there next day.  The journey afforded us lots of scenic views of terraced hills, flame trees in full bloom and De’ang mountain villages scattered across the slopes. 

       Yongkang itself was a boring town, its only attraction a magnificent old banyan tree in a special park in the northern part of town.  No bus went directly to Daxueshan though, so early next morning we got tickets to Wumulong instead, hoping to find a minibus or something to Daxueshan from that town.

young Limi girl

impromptu gourd-pipe duet

       The ride took three hours, passing flowering bushes on either side of the road as we left town, going northeast to Yalian, at 1400 meters altitude.  From there the bus turned east, climbing into the mountains to 2200 meters and passing steep hillside terraces.  Then it gradually descended to Wumulong, at 1900 meters.  By chance, it was market day when we arrived, held every chicken and rabbit days, according to the 12-day animal cycle.  The streets were already crowded with black-clad Yi people, and we opted to forego Daxueshan and stay here a couple nights.

Limi woman's black headdress

        These folks in black belonged to the Limi branch of the Yi, a small group numbering around 26,000, about 20,000 living in Wumulong district, the rest in Yalian and Daxueshan.  As usual on market days, women dominated the crowds, and virtually all females of all ages dressed in their traditional outfits.  What photographer, or even just ordinary curious traveler, could ask for more?

       The basic woman’s outfit comprised a thick-brimmed turban or headdress with the back end falling to the shoulders, a long black coat with its tail tucked up in the back of the waist, a black apron and black trousers.  The only part standing out for its color was the thin cloth belt around the waist.  But only among the oldest women was the ensemble completely black.  Middle-aged women stitched blue trimming onto the lapels of the coat and around the trouser cuffs.  Some also attached bright strings or other small ornamentation just above the brims of their headdresses.

Limi girl's checkered headdress

teenaged Limi Yi girls

       The younger the female, the more color embellishment the outfit featured.  Some of the unmarried youth wore no headdresses and festooned their collars and sleeves with strips of very colorful embroidery and lots of sequins.  Others embroidered colored lines on the lower front half of the apron and the wide cuffs of their jacket sleeves, as well as the lower back part of the jacket.

       While the teenagers tended to wear no head covering, many of the pre-pubescent girls wore headdresses as fulsome as those of their mothers, but instead of plain black, they were checkered black and white.  The even younger girls wore long black coats with lots of color trimming and embroidery.  They also wore caps, like those of the babies still carried by their mothers, only partially black, with colored appliqué patches all around and some silver half-globes stitched onto the front.

tree on the edge of Wumulong

       According to Limi Yi history, the black clothing originated over a thousand years ago, when they lived further north and escaped a wicked overlord.  Their tale of this does not mention whether they wore brighter, more colorful clothes before that, but the black clothing they date to this event.  Perhaps it was to conceal them better in the dark when they fled.

       We didn’t spot anything that might have been a traditional Limi Yi men’s outfit.  The overall percentage of male attendance at market day was anyway small and both Han and Yi men dressed in ordinary modern clothes.  Occasionally we could distinguish which men were Yi by overhearing them speak to each other in what was recognizably not Chinese.

       That’s true elsewhere in Yunnan.  Even in places where the women remain strongly attached to the traditional look, the men have abandoned it.  They have always been more connected to the outside world, where they are more conscious of being part of a minority group, and more inclined to avoid ethnic identification (and possible discrimination) by appearing to be part of the anonymous modern masses.

winter flowers at Wumulong

      On the other hand, they can be extremely conservative and tradition-minded in all other aspects of life.  They follow all the domestic customs and those involving relationships with both kin and non-kin.  Their ritual specialists know all the ancient rites, even though while performing them they dress in their daily apparel, with nothing particularly identifiable as Yi.

      Yi women, like other minority nationality women in Yunnan, spend most of their time at home or in the immediate village environment.  Their traditional culture orders their lives far more than those of the men.  They are also less likely to be conversant in Chinese and whatever disparaging remarks might be made about them by Han Chinese when in the towns will pass right past them without their comprehension.

       Another characteristic of traditional minority women is to generally travel outside their environment in small groups.  They may hike out to their fields and back alone, but to venture into a venue like market day in the nearest town, they prefer to have companions.  Occasionally it might just be one friend, but usually it’s a group of four to six.  Individuals might wander off from the group to examine something at a stall, but will rejoin them afterward.

elderly Limi woman with her pipe

       Such was the scene we witnessed at Wumulong.  Groups of women, or even young girls, roamed through the market together, stopped at stalls together, took breaks together and departed at the end of the day together.  Some of the groups were all of the same approximate age, but others were mixed, like two or three families, mothers with their children, that might include teenaged girls.

       Wumulong is basically one long street, part of the main highway, where lies the business district of shops, restaurants and hotels.  The residential neighborhoods are along the side streets that lead out to the fields.  For market day, some merchants set up stalls or street layouts on the main road from the center of town to the eastern end.  Most, however, were in the spacious market square near the eastern entrance to the urban zone.

       Mountains rose just behind the market area to provide a scenic backdrop.  Most of the stalls were lined up in rows in the center, but others set up around the edges.  They sold clothing hung on racks, shoes laid out on tarps, grain in bags, vegetables and other farm produce in bins or baskets.  Other stalls sold tobacco and water-pipes for smoking it, farm tools, hot noodle dishes and cold popsicles for the children.

       There were many cloth merchants, with both plain black cotton cloth on offer, as well as colored silks.  These seemed to draw some attention from the Yi, as did the shoe racks, to a lesser extent.  One shop sold gourd-pipes, which we noticed just as two Yi customers were trying then out with a little Impromptu duet that drew a quick crowd of listeners.

Limi woman making clothing

Limi village near Wumulong

       The activity began dying down by 4 p.m., so we strolled past the market square to the edge of town.  Flame trees were full of bright red flowers at this time of year and a few stood in Wumulong.  On the path beyond the market square were bushes with flowers just as bright as the flame trees.  Trees here divided from their trunks into several thick branches just above the ground.  With the mountains visible just beyond, it was a fitting climax to a lovely day, especially since it was so unexpected.

       Yalian staged market day the following day, so we returned there early next morning.  It was a beautiful drive, passing over the mountains with early sunshine bathing the villages on the slopes.  But market day was disappointing, with only very ordinary stalls and few Limi Yi in attendance.  We returned to Wumulong around noon and wandered out to a Yi village a few km from town.

village women embroidering together

       Nearly surrounded by a patch of forest, the village had houses of mud-brick, usually with gray with tiled roofs, a few with a roof of corrugated iron.  We also spotted some satellite dishes, which seemed pretty incongruous for an otherwise typical old-fashioned village.  The very first people we saw, from the knoll on the way to the entrance, were a pair of women in a yard behind a house.  One was seated on a stool embroidering cloth, while the other was weaving cloth.

       Weaving is a common winter activity, done outdoors on a simple loom of wood and bamboo that can be dismantled and taken inside if the weather turns bad.  It has two overhead heddles that separate every other thread and are connected to two treadles, operated by the feet.  The Yi woman we witnessed sat on a bench at the back of the loom and wove a strip of plain white cotton cloth about 25 cm wide. 

       It resembled the Akha loom in Thailand I am quite familiar with, except that the Akha weave standing up.  After a short conversation with these two women about the loom and their work, we wandered off to another courtyard, where several women were sitting together busy with their needlework.  We chatted quite easily with them, too, while they stitched appliqué patterns onto black cloth or embroidered sleeve cuffs and apron borders.

       Soon one of the men came to invite us inside his home to share a small bottle of maize liquor.  We sat beside the fireplace near the ancestral altar on a wooden plank mounted on the wall just below the ceiling.  It was decorated with flowers and small pine boughs and held offerings of rice cakes and small cups of liquor.  A polite but lively conversation ensued ad we stayed until it was getting dark and left while still sober enough to negotiate the trail back to town.

weaver at her loom

Limi woman at Yalian

       The biggest event of the year for the Limi Yi is Sangzhaoli, staged about 10 km from Wumulong.  The festival originated with their relocation to this area.  At that time two young men made some unspecified ‘great contributions to building up the town.’  The headman then invited them to choose the best Limi girls for their wives.  All the young women bathed in a nearby hot spring and dressed up for the event, which is what Sangzhaoli has commemorated annually ever since.

       Festival day begins with bathing in the hot spring and then dressing in t heir finest traditional apparel and jewelry.  Besides the display of ethnic fashions, the festival includes lots of dance performances on or in front of a wooden stage and contests among the men playing the gourd-pipe and shooting crossbows.  The evening is devoted to romance, with married couples this night permitted to date their former boyfriends or girlfriends.

       With its shows and its crowds of traditionally-garbed attendants, Songzhaoli is the most spectacular time to visit the Limi Yi.  Yet traditional ways are firmly embedded in everyday Limi life and not confined to one splendid annual festival.  That tradition also includes warm hospitality to guests, especially strangers, with the intent to leave a good impression of the hosts.  Consequently, anytime of year is a great time to visit the Limi Yi.

Limi Yi women in Wumulong

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