Lijiang Baisha, China

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• published: 23 Nov 2013
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Video with images of Lijiang and Baisha two townships in the northwest of Yunnan province in China. The old town of Lijiang is situated in a valley at an altitude of two and a half thousand meters. The first inhabitants were members of the Naxi minority. In the fourth century AD they were dispelled by invading nomads and fled from the mountains of northwestern China to the area of Lijiang. For a long time Lijiang was a terminus for the caravan route from Tibet to China. Many Naxi people were engaged in mediation for merchants and transporters. Much of the original architecture in the old town of Lijiang has been preserved. The streets around a central market square are paved with cobbles in an original state. The houses are made of wood and have two floors built around a central courtyard with cobbles in geometrical motives. The courtyard is covered with trees and plants. The upper floor is a storage room and people used to live on the ground floor. An ingenious system of water canals runs throughout the old town of Lijiang. The canals lead to wells which provide water for drinking, cleaning food and vegetables as well as washing and cleaning clothes. In recent years the old town of Lijiang has witnessed many changes. An earthquake in the late twentieth century has unfortunately devastated many building. They are however restored in original style. Due to the influx of many tourists the original inhabitants in the old town have left their houses and settled somewhere else. They have sold their houses to modern entrepreneurs who turned them into shops, restaurants and taverns. Despite strict regulations to keep all buildings in an original state of architecture they lost their function as a home for the family. The sound of whispering adults and crying children has been replaced by the sound of loud karaoke music from high-tech media players. Empty streets at night have been replaced by tourist crowds looking for some entertainment. The Naxi men and women in Baisha wear traditional dress. The code of dress for the women has not changed in hundreds of years. They wear a blue shirt and trousers with a blue or black apron. They wear a cape in the shape of a capital letter "t". The upper part of the cape at the backside is a dark blue strip of textile which represents the dark night. The lower part of the cape at the backside is made of cream coloured silk or sheep skin which represents the daylight. Each half is separated from the other by seven circles which symbolize the stars and the moon. In the past the women applied two larger circles on each shoulder of the cape. They represented the eyes of a frog who was an important god for the Naxi people up until the fifteenth century AD. This primitive belief however has become uncommon in the present day community. As a result the frog eyes are no longer part of their dress. The Naxi men were the spiritual caretakers of the traditional community. They were the dongbas or shamans who acted as mediators between humans and spirits. They wrote their spiritual beliefs down in pictograms. They were the only ones who could read and write these pictograms. It was not a reproduction of their oral language, but rather a string of symbols to prompt their rites. Singing and dancing were part of these rites to attract the attention of the spirits. In social and economic life Naxi men have a less prominent position. Many of them are active as a gardener or musician. Their music is in origin taoist ceremonial music introduced by the Mongols in the thirteenth century AD. The music has kept its authenticity in the Naxi community and was mixed with local elements. In recent years there is revival of traditional Naxi music orchestras after an official ban during the cultural revolution in the sixties of the last century. Theatres sponsored by a proud local community in the old town of Lijiang present cultural shows with a tribute to Naxi traditions in dress, music, song and dance. During these shows the actors demonstrate shaman rituals and dongba script.