Lugu Lake

From the high pastures above Zhifan, where the Torch Festival dance contest is held, or from the lakes on the summit of Yaoshan, range after range of Xiaoliangshan unfolds towards every horizon. The real jewel of the county, though, lies in its northernmost district of Yongning, visible soon after crossing the last pass coming up from Ninglang. This is Lugu Lake, a 52 km square, butterfly-shaped body of water with the most gorgeous natural setting in the province.

The smaller, eastern wing of the lake, most of Tubu Peninsula, the long finger of land that nearly cuts Lugu in two, and a small part of the larger wing, on a line to the Naxi village of Dazui on the northern shore, belong to Sichuan. The greater part of the lake, three of the five offshore islands, and the majestic Lion Mountain that towers over the northern shore, belong to Yunnan.

Lugu Lake lies at an altitude of 2700 metres, with the summit of Lion Mountain another 900 metres. The waters average 40 m in depth, in some places reaching 90 m, making it Yunnan's second deepest. Its surface reflects the colour of the sky; a deep blue on clear days, steel grey on cloudy days, sometimes streaked with sunrise bands of red and purple, or checkered with the rose and yellow that bounces off the clouds at dusk. Villages occupy the small, flat strips of land in between the shoreline hills while various peninsulas jut out far enough to create small, picturesque coves. The prettiest village of them all, Lige on the northwest side of the lake, lies on the shore of one such cove, with a small peninsular mound protruding into the lake at the far end of the village.

Fishing, of course, plays a major role in the life of Lugu Lake villagers. It's men's work and they use dugout canoes exclusively on the water, a custom the locals date back to the origin of Lugu Lake. Once upon a time, they say, a settled valley existed here. One day a man spotted an enormous fish stuck in a hole in the big rock off the shore between Xiaoluoshui and Dazui, at the Sichuan border. Unable to pull it out himself he called on his comrades, who hitched up the fish to a team of water buffaloes.

When the animals yanked the fish from the hole a torrent of water gushed out, quickly flooding the valley. One Mosuo woman, who was feeding her pigs at the time, saw the flood coming, kicked the pigs away and emptied the trough. In it she placed a boy and a girl, just before the water swept her away, along with everything else in the valley. But the trough stayed afloat and the children survived to become the ancestors of the Mosuo, who have used the pig trough shape for their boats ever since.