Mystical mountains tower on both sides of the narrow gorge, whose clear water runs thunderously ahead over its course of century-smoothed stones, dashing against rocks the size of small dwellings. Above this tributary of the Minjiang River hangs a suspension bridge constructed from bamboo. A winding path from it leads to the mountain village of Taoping.
Taoping Village has nearly 500 residents in 98 households. It is in Lixian County of the Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan Province. This 2,000-year-old Qiang settlement is the oldest and best preserved of its kind in China. Its antiquity and well-maintained architecture have inspired researchers and scholars to call it by the name, "Ancient Oriental Castle."
The bamboo suspension bridge was formerly the only access to the village. At times of war it would be dismantled to keep invaders at bay. Today a cement bridge connects Taoping with National Highway No. 312.
Viewed from the opposite mountain, the village appears as a cluster of yellowish-brown houses spiked with the occasional chimneyesque tower. Dwellings are built of stone and clay that glistens yellowish in the sunlight.
Taoping has survived countless armed conflicts and battles over the centuries, largely due to the diligent defense of its villagers. The village design appears to have been based on the Eight Trigrams of the I Ching, or Book of Changes. It is laid out in a central core of castles from which houses radiate, forming an eight-gate enclosure. All dwellings are connected by passages to entrances and doors, over rooftops, and through a labyrinthine network of subterranean tunnels. The tunnels, which carry water to each corner of the village and every house in it, are spacious enough to hide and move about in. Their shooting holes enabled villagers to be active in the defense of their home.
As I walked through the village I could hear clearly the sound of flowing water, yet not a drop was in sight. The mystery was solved when villager Chen Shiming lifted up a stone slab to reveal a hidden tunnel, wide and deep enough to stand in. He told me that melted snowcaps flow first to the tunnels beneath the castles and then to various parts of the village. The tunnel system provides water for the entire village and also helps maintain a comfortable temperature and humidity.
Towering castles distinguish Qiang villages, which in the past would be site of several in square, hexagonal or octagonal design, the highest over 30 meters tall. Two of the original seven ancient castles in Taoping Village are still standing.
In 1933 an earthquake in the area left a canyon-like crevasse in the upper reaches of the Minjiang River. The damage it inflicted on Taoping Village, however, was restricted to the destruction of half of one of its ancient castles. Most of the other village dwellings remained intact, albeit with a few cracks. That the village should have survived wars and natural disasters pays tribute to its method of construction, which owed nothing to plans, plumb lines or scaffolding. Houses and castles were built one story at a time, layer by layer, using sticky clay to cement stones together according to the experienced eye of the builder. There would be a gap of around six months between the adding of each story, so a four-storied house took at least two years to build, while a castle, generally seven or eight stories tall, took at least four. The lower walls, generally more than 60 centimeters thick, taper toward the ceiling at a thickness of between 20 and 30 centimeters. Thick pillars built into the walls add to their strength. The rich potassium content in both the local stones and clay is believed to have contributed greatly to the adhesion of the walls.
Chen Shiming and his family live in one of the impressive castle-style houses. He tells me, "My grandfather made sure that our house could hold out in times of siege by keeping plentiful reserves of food. Now that there are no more wars, we use our house as a tourist resource."
In the past villagers lived from farming, but their main source of income for the past five years has been tourism. Taoping receives an annual flow of 70,000 tourists; a family with a large house can easily earn 10,000 yuan a year by offering accommodation. Those whose houses lack adequate space make a living from selling local produce and souvenirs.
A 21-year-old young woman named Erma Yina has recently become Taoping Village's, and indeed the whole county's, local celebrity. Last August a visitor to Taoping took a photograph of this beautiful village girl. When he arrived home he posted it on his personal blog, calling it "Fairy Sister." Since then, the blog, to his great surprise, has scored nearly 2 million hits. Many netizens have gone to Taoping to see Erma Yina in the flesh, and her popularity has now expanded beyond cyberspace to enter the TV and print media. At the end of last year, Sohu.com conducted an online Fashion Role Model competition. "Fairy Sister" won, with 44 percent of the vote, outstripping Olympic 100-meter hurdle race champion Liu Xiang and pop star Li Yuchun. Lixian County local officials are delighted at the ascendancy of this home-grown star, as it has helped to propel local tourism and bring fame to the county.
Fairy Sister is by no means Taoping's only celebrity, as 30-year-old villager Long Xiaoqiong was decorated by the local government for her work in establishing the Qiang folklore tourism program. Her reward was an invitation to Beijing, where she met former president Jiang Zemin. Long Xiaoqiong's castle-style house that she shares with her eight-member family is so huge that she is unsure exactly how many rooms it contains. She does know that it has more than 100 doors and that it can accommodate 50 tourists. Long's clear sighted, sharp-eared 90-year-old grandmother oversees the daily running of her home, and her younger brother and sister help out during school vacations.
Qiang households are generally large, three-storied houses with surrounding courtyards in which vegetable gardens are cultivated. The first floor is used to store foodstuffs and house domestic animals, and the top two floors are the family living quarters. Long Xiaoqiong has converted the first floor of her house into a bar that combines Qiang and Western styles of interior décor. On the second story is a main hall with a wooden floor and pillars. A niche is carved out of the wall that faces the door, and wooden paneling partitions off the space around it into bedrooms. The main hall's focal point is a constantly lit fireplace, made from long stone slabs and an iron triangle that stands over the fire, surrounded by various pots and copper kettles.
The fireplace is sacred to the Qiang people and source of many taboos. For example, no-one sits at the point of the fire where fuel is added because this place is reserved for the God of Fire. It is also forbidden to throw anything considered unclean into its flames. Taboos notwithstanding, main family activities are conducted at the fireside, particularly leisure pursuits. At festivals and on grand occasions such as weddings or birthdays the whole village gathers in the main hall of a senior villager's residence to sit around the fire and "suck liquor," sing folk songs and form a ring to dance the Shalang.
The Qiang people worship their ancestors and more than 30 other deities. The household pantheon of gods, associated with nature, family affairs, agricultural produce and the village, is headed by the God of Heaven. All deities are represented by white stones that are kept on the third floor, accessed by a wooden ladder from the main hall on the second floor. The God of Heaven is symbolized by a large, white quartz stone, placed at the center of the wall directly above the niche in wall of the main hall on the second floor. The smaller white stones around it symbolize the other deities.
The Qiang People
The current Qiang population stands at 150,000. Most live in Maowen in western Sichuan, the rest are scattered around Wenchuan, Lixian, Heishui and Songpan. The Qiang are descendents of an ancient Chinese ethnic group. They refer to themselves as "Erma," meaning "locals." The Qiang language is one of the Tibetan-Burmese group of the Chinese-Tibetan language. It is distinguished by northern and southern dialects. There is no written Qiang language. The Qiang people live mainly by farming, but have also developed leather, papermaking, timber, cement and fertilizer industries. Their traditional handicrafts are embroidery and weaving.
"Liquor Sucking"
Qiang men enjoy a drink, and have an unusual method of imbibing. They drink home-brewed low-proof liquor, made from barley and corn and stored for seven or eight days -- sometimes longer -- in tight-sealed jars. When a jar is opened, water is added to its contents and a bamboo tube, used as a straw, is inserted. Drinkers take turns, in order of seniority, to drink through the tube upon a toast being proposed by a village elder. Water is added at intervals until the alcoholic content diminishes. When friends gather for a drink, they each insert a long bamboo "straw" into the jar and drink simultaneously. This custom is known as "sucking liquor."
Tour Tips
By public transport: There are four daily buses from Chengdu's West Gate Bus Station to Lixian County at 7:20, 10:30, 13:10 and 14:50. Tickets sell at 27 yuan per person for a three-hour ride. Tickets on buses and mini-buses that leave for Taoping from the county seat of Wenchuan cost 4 yuan.
By car: Taoping Village is 160 kilometers from Chengdu. To get there, drive along the Chengguan Expressway. After crossing Yincheng Bridge, take the Cheng'a Highway that runs parallel to the Minjiang River. Upon arrival at Wenchuan County, take a left turn to Minjiang Bridge, cross it, and continue for about 30 minutes along National Highway 317 until you come to Taoping Village.
Accommodation: Visitors can stay with local families. Long Xiaoqiong's inn is called Xiaoqiong Qiang House. A single bed costs 10 yuan per night, with an additional 5 to 10 yuan per person for meals.
(China Today March 31, 2006)
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