Bingzhongluo, the largest tableland in the Nujiang Canyon, is located at the boundary of Yunnan Province and Tibet Autonomous Region. The isolated, special environment and rainy, humid climate of Bingzhongluo makes it a good grain-producing area, as well as a place where various ethnic groups and religions live with and influence each other.
To this day, the old trade caravans are easily seen in Bingzhongluo, often referred to as the "land of peach blossom" the symbolism of this name conveys much more than the words, and speaks of a place which is beautiful, peaceful and unsullied by the outside world.
Covering an area of some 800 square kilometers, Bingzhongluo is a township of the Gongshan Dulong and Nu Autonomous County. Here, in harmony, dwell the ethnic groups of the Nu, Dulong, Lisu, Tibetan, Naxi, Bai and Han, while Tibetan Buddhism, Catholicism, other Christian denominations and primitive religions have long co-existed.
Bingzhongluo was originally named Bingzhong, which in Tibetan means "Tibetan village beside the bamboo grove." In the past Tibetans ruled the area, but it is the Nu people who have lived there the longest and make up the largest population. The Lisu, Tibetan and Dulong people all migrated to the area after the Nu.
Because of the special geological structures and landforms, the Nujiang River is obstructed a number of times in the area, resulting in it making two successive great turns.
Although it is on the periphery of Yunnan Province, Bingzhongluo is the best-known place in Nujiang Canyon. Historically, it was an important caravan route between Yunnan and Tibet. And even today, a continuous flow of caravans trek between Gongshan and Zayu in Tibet, albeit a trickle of those which passed in bygone days.
Earliest settlers
The Nu people were the earliest settlers of Nujiang Canyon, according to historical records, arriving here more than 1,000 years ago. They call themselves the "Anu," and officially became the "Nu" ethnic group after the founding of New China.
In Bingzhongluo, along both sides of the Nujiang river, crops grow in profusion while the houses of the families who farm them stand nearby in the shade. As we drove uphill, the form of Bingzhongluo, that of a lotus, became apparent.
Structures were comparatively concentrated around the township government building, while other houses and villages were composed in trapezoids on both sides of the river. Together with the golden fields, they constituted a serene and idyllic vista.
My companion told me that this is the homeland of the Nu people. Decades ago, Nujiang Canyon was a dream destination for adventurers and travelers, because of its unique landform and almost primitive human living conditions. Now, it is one of the most charming places in the area.
We drove to a village called Chongding, built on a sloping hillside facing the river. Wooden houses nestle among luxuriant trees and beside limpid brooks. The beautiful scenery and fresh air of this quiet village do indeed make it "a land of peach blossom."
Today it is a designated tourist destination. In the households near the entrance of the village, groups of tourists were either sightseeing or drinking tea.
Villagers' houses are open to visitors and we went into one, the home of the Liu Ji'an family. Typically it was a multi-ethnic household.
The head of the family is an 81-year-old Nu, his wife a Tibetan. Their son and our host Liu Ji'an, 61, is married to a woman of similar ethnic mix. Of their three sons and two daughters, two are married to Lisu and Han nationalities, while a third, their eldest daughter's husband, is a Nu.
Broken down, this four-generation household of 17 people comes from four ethnic groups who speak Nu, Tibetan, Lisu, Dulong and Han.
In Chongding, households made up of people from two ethnic groups are the norm, but such a large family made up of people from four ethnic groups is rare not only in the area, but in the whole country.
The younger women in the family wore ethnic dress and made buttered tea for us, while Liu's wife cooked lunch the locally enjoyed buckwheat cake on a stove which had replaced the traditional cooking pit.
Upstairs, hanging from the eaves I noticed scores potted orchids. A good orchid is worth hundreds of yuan, and one of the highest quality can be sold for tens of thousands of yuan. Growing orchids has long been popular in the northwest of Yunnan and has gradually become a vibrant industry, which is helping to boost local economic development.
Before lunch, I took a look around the village of 40 households and 200-plus inhabitants. From the construction of houses, arrangement of courtyards, water supplies for the people and livestock, and guestrooms under construction and decoration, one could tell that most of the people today enjoyed a certain level of affluence.
In fact, I was later to discover, the village, which had developed through tourism, boasted a higher standard of living than that of the township.
The next day, in Shuangla village on the opposite bank of the river, Li Wenming invited fellow villagers to drink and dance in his home to celebrate the building of his new house. This was the opportunity that I had dreamt of for my interview, so I bought some wine and food and joined the party.
The arrival of people from outside the village added to the festive atmosphere. Everyone was dressed in their ethnic costumes, and all the people, regardless of gender, formed a circle to dance and drink, with hands on each other's shoulders. The beat was slow, but clear and dynamic.
Though the new house was not yet complete, the concrete ground and wood structure indicated that it was not going to be of traditional design.
Li, the father of a two-year-old, owns six mu (0.4 hectare) of dry land and half a mu (0.03 hectare) of paddy field, and raises cows and chickens at home. He spends 10 months of a year working outside, with a daily income of some 30 yuan (US$3.6). His Lisu wife and child are looked after by his parents, while he is away working.
Tourism and working outside are today no longer rare occurrences in this isolated canyon. And remote as it is, it is no longer an inaccessible place. The doors of the mountains have been opened, and that on the inside and outside is today inextricably connected.
A peaceful Buddhist village
As multiple ethnic groups have settled and thrived in the area, they have also come to learn to respect the different beliefs and religions.
Lama village, a multi-ethnic village located in the central area of the tableland, was so named because of its lamasery, the "Puhua Temple."
Compared to Chongding village, not far away, houses in Lama village were more concentrated, but a little simple and crude. Living standards in this village are not very high, and the environment rather isolated.
Looking around the village, we saw very few villagers and were told most were either working outside or in the fields.
As we wandered around we spotted a man returning from collecting firewood, sweat oozing from his dark, strong arms. His name was Wang Jiangmin, a Tibetan. I gave him a cigarette and lit it for him, which drew a smile of thanks. Beside his house, a Nu woman grinding corn, told us about the village.
I noticed a girl sitting on the wooden steps of a house, looking at us and when I raised my camera towards her, she sat motionlessly for me to take a picture, a sharp contrast to the reaction of other camera shy locals. I later learnt her name was Nu Weixiang, of the Dulong nationality.
Although small, Lama village is home to a variety of ethnic groups. Nowadays, however, it is very difficult to distinguish the ethnicity of villagers in Bingzhongluo from their appearance and customs.
Puhua Temple is located on a tableland called Changputong and its white enclosure and gate have been newly renovated. Its abbot, 72-year-old Ganma Yuanzhai, said the temple belongs to the karma bka' brgyud pa sect, and dates back over 200 years.
The abbot is a Nu and joined the temple as a boy aged 12. The abbot said the temple gets very crowded during the Tibetan New Year, according to the Tibetan lunar calendar, and on the Fairy Festival of the Nu people which falls on the 15th of the third lunar month.
The lamasery, explained the old abbot, was not only influential in the area, but was the only lamasery in the whole prefecture. That was why among the 5,700 population of the township, about 2,000 were followers of Tibetan Buddhism.
(China Daily June 9, 2005)
