Route 9 : In search of the Kingdom of Females

Email|Print|Comments       twitter     facebook     Sina Microblog     reddit    

(Xinhua)

Kunming, Lijiang, Lugu Lake

Suggested itinerary: six days and five nights
1st day: Kunming 2nd-3rd day: Lijiang 4th-6th day: Lugu Lake

In modern society, only Mosuo people still keep the custom of a matriarchal group.

Every family is always led by a female. The head is the most capable woman in the family and is highly respected by other members. Children live with their mothers. It is also the female who inherit property. If a single male spend the night at a female’s home and then return to his mother’s house, this kind of behavior is called male-leaving marriage.

(Notes: In Mosuo, every family is always led by a female. The head is the most capable woman in the family and is highly respected by other members. She has both an honorary status and important responsibilities since everyone counts on her to make decisions in handling family affairs.

The traditional Axia system is marriage-free. Mosuo men call their beloved women Axia ("intimate companion") and women call their lovers Azhu. They are not bound by marriage and will live in their mothers' homes all their lives. Every adult Mosuo girl has a special Azhu house of her own where her lover can visit during the night but must leave early the next morning. If the girl wishes to stop the love affair she simply closes the door and then the man will not return. The lovers have no economic or legal ties: Their relationship is based only on mutual love and affection, where the will of the female is highly respected. )

Guozhuang Dance boils the cold night, pig slot boats sway on the Lugu Lake, the sound of singing wanders on the lake:

(Notes: In the Tibetan language, "Guozhuang dance" means "singing and dancing in a circle". It is one of the three major Tibetan folk dances popular in Tibet and places like Yunnan, Qinghai and Gansu where Tibetans live.
In the dance, men and women of an equal number form a circle with one person acting as the leading dancer. The dance involves repeated musical dialogues in antiphonal style between male and female dancers, without any accompaniment of musical instruments.)

(Lugu Lake lies 200 kilometers (approximately 124 miles) from the center of Lijiang City, on the border between Ninglang County in Yunnan Province and Yanyuan County in Sichuan Province. It is like a beautiful pearl shining among the hills of the northwest plateau in Yunnan.Lugu lake is in the shape of a horse's hoof - long from north to south, and narrower from east to west. The vista of the lake changes constantly throughout the day. The morning mist mixed with the light of the rising sun gives it an orange glow covered by mist. When the light of sun causes the hills to throw their shadows onto the water, the lake has a jade green color. The lake is calm and dark green in the evening when the sun sinks, and is peaceful when night comes. Gentle wind blows and water ripples.)

It is the wood that drifts with the stream.

It is the seed that flies with the wind.

Please look at the flower on the hill.

Is it as beautiful as me?

Please look at the cloud in the water.

Which one are you, which one is me?

• Route 8: Explore the source of the Zhujiang River
• Towering grandeur of Naigu stone forest in Yunnan
• Picturesque scenery of red earth in Dongchuan, SW China's Yunnan

• Discovering Yunnan

We Recommend

• National Plug In Day celebrated in Washington D.C.
• New model of indigenous surface-to-air missiles testfired
  
• 118.28-carat diamond to be auctioned in HK
• Maternal love under streetlight
• Naked foreign student sits in the middle of a road in Haikou
  
• Colorful Yunnan: Enjoy the natural beauty
  
• Harbin named Chinese city with most beautiful women
• For last four students, teacher couple sticks to post on island
• When big sport stars were kids