Blog 3 - The missing bit of Dong culture...

April 3
Still in Chengdong. After a rest and lunch we walked to village centre, crossing the Chengyang Rain and Wind Bridge, built in 1912 and 78m long. Took 12 years to build and without the use of nails or bolts. It is considered by the Dong people to be the best of their 108 Wind and Rain bridges in Sanjiang County. The bridges are built as shelter for the poor. They have seating and ornate tiles roofs with wide eaves.
Then into the village square to see a song and dance performance by local young men and women in front of the Drum Tower - a tower from which a drum was hit to summon the men to meet and discuss issues in the meeting room inside it. It is now just a general meeting place. Bamboo reed instruments (lushen) were played by the men which accompanied the women singing melodic love songs. Women wore colourful traditional costumes - mid blue embroidered tops, indigo skirts with colourful leggings. The indigo dye is special to the Dong people. They grow the plant and the dye is extracted to dye the cotton fabric made from cotton grown, spun and woven by them. This fabric is then embroidered and made into clothing as well as items to sell to tourists.
Michael invited us to join him and his extended family to pay respects to their ancestors next day, April 4th Ancestors Festival. This turned out a lot more involved than we had anticipated. We were escorted by Michael's mother up a steep slippery hill to the ancestors' grave sites - the family has lived in the village for more than 560 years. We arrived at the site
to find about 16 people including some wives and children busily clearing growth around the graves. The 8 or so men were busy erecting new, ornate headstones on the grandparents' graves. These were five piece prefabricated which made a three-dimensional tombstone with a carved headpiece and a back plate inscribed with Chinese characters. While this was happening more family members arrived including infants and toddlers.
Everyone took part in the cleaning and tidying of the site including one enthusiastic teenage boy who lit a fire in the long dry grass to save him effort.(We think he is the Chinese Daggon.) When all was ready the graves had small sapling, stripped of leaves and placed on top of the grave. Onto these saplings and around the gravestones special paper money and yellow
perforated paper was attached. Some notes were small and some were for 1 million yuan. This was for ancestors to pay their way in Heaven. Then many incense sticks were placed in front of headstones and lit. Each person put some of each on to each grave. Lastly they let off firecrackers to frighten away the demons. This ceremony was a joyful occasion and they
asked the ancestors to send them good luck.
John then went with Michael and some of the relatives to a communal cemetery and paid respects to ancestors there. We then joined the relatives for a special lunch which included the traditional pickled black eggs and yellow rice of the Festival. There were many dishes such as duck and chicken including their cooked heads and feet being served up.
A late departure took us further in Dong country over the Liping Passes through beautiful mountains arriving late at Zhaoxing, a village of 800 households, with five drum towers and villagers who continue to wear the indigo clothing daily. Many of the people only speak Dong language. After leaving our hotel the next mornig and while walking to breakfast along the edge of a small river that dissects the town, we saw a man and a woman butchering a large doge dog in the river, washing it very carefully.
After breakfast we spent as hour strolling through village and through the open air food market where a recently butchered pig was being delivered in baskets on the back of a motorbike (rigor mortis had not even set in!) On the stand in front just about every part of the animal was for sale. A massive selection of vegetables, especially greens, both gathered from the forests
and cultivated, was for sale. This was a fascinating town in which you could spend more time strolling around.
Then on a long and winding drive, sometimes rough to Gaezheng. The highlight here was a song and music performance by the young men and women in traditional dress specific to this area - the embroidered indigo cloth plus lots of silver necklaces and bracelets and high piled hair decorated with flowers and silverware. Again lovely singing with an unusual musical tongue click and accompany by the bamboo stringed instruments. We then went to an upper room for a private performance in which we both participated in a circle dance ending with John being thrown up in the air by the men. Lunch followed.
After lunch we drove on to Miao minority village of Baisha. This appeared a village untouched by time with basic wooden housing and many granaries for rice. We were to watch a performance but our visit was cut short by the death of one of the local men just after we arrived. The people went out on a path away from the village to have rice wine and eat lunch as tradition does not allow them to eat in the houses immediately after a death.
Back through Conjiang to the newly constructed highest drum tower in China, in excess of 40m, built for tourism. The amazing part of the structure was the four central uprights which were single tree trunks running the total height of the construction with a base diameter of more than a metre. This was built to surpass the previous highest one in Ronjiang. Overnight in Ronjiang, after visiting their now second highest drum tower and the thousand year
old banyan trees.
There are about 2.5 million Dong people. The housing of the Dong, Miao, Zuang and Yao minority peole is all timber and they are constructed of pine logs with mortise and tenon joints. The outer and inner walls and floor are single skin pine boards with an overlapping lip and they have tile roofs with curved up ends. Next day from Ronjiang a long drive that included a massive climb over and down a mountain range which any Targa driver would love, the road never straight, spectacular views and magnolias in bloom along the roadside.
Into Nanhua for a special performance for us by a hundred plus villagers. We were welcomed with rice wine at the bottom of the steps by beautifully dressed young women who the led us up the square through a guard of honour starting with men, then the older women and being greeted again at the top by the young women with rice wine. The older villagers some in their 80's+ sat down. The oval meeting ground had a large totem pole in the centre with deity carvings of, this is used for their religious ceremonies. The dancing is performed around this pole.
Two old men beat a welcome on the metal drum. Then the performance began. The costumes were spectacular and split, richly embroidered overskirts swirled with the dancing. The silver adornments here were the most spectacular we have seen - necklaces, bracelets, backplates and very ornate headpieces. The lead dancers had buffalo horn shaped pieces on top
of their headdresses. The men played the lushan and there was a large bamboo drum.
After the introductory dance we were again given rice wine. The performance concluded with a ring dance in which Cynthia was taken to join by the women. Lunch in village.
Then a drive on to Guiyang to overnight. Plans from here were totally disrupted. Six hour flight delay to Chengdu. Stranded in Chengdu for the night as no tickets available to fly on to Jiuzhaigou. China Airlines were most helpful. Refunded 100yuan on air ticket because of the delay. They booked us on to their flight for next day at no cost even though we were originally to travel with another airline. They supplied breakfast and lunch at Guiyang Airport and when we arrived at Chengdu organised hotel and transport at their cost. (Can you imagine an Australian airline doing this!)