The Mosuo and Pumi of Yongning

Beyond Lugu Lake the road rises into the Yongning Basin, 100 metres higher than lakeside, and proceeds to Yongning town. This is a largely Mosuo settlement with a small Naxi quarter of Lijiang tanners who migrated here in the late Qing Dynasty. The great lamasery of Zhameisi, restored in the mid-90's, sits in a field just beyond the to, Yi and Pumi often come to the market here. And with the log cabins on the muddy lane that serves as the main thoroughfare, the Yi women in long skirts and big hats, and the ponies tied to the rails until they're picked up for the road, Yongning's atmosphere evokes the American West of a century ago.

From the small hill behind the town the whole length of Lion Mountain is visible. From this angle it does indeed resemble a seated lion. Far beyond the plain the snow peaks of western Sichuan loom on the horizon. One road out of Yongning heads north to Wenquan, a small village with a famous hot spring. In the old days men and women bathed in it together. But in recent years a bathhouse has been constructed, dividing the spring by sex. The other road branches northwest to Laba township, home of several ethnic groups, especially Lisu, Pumi and Zhuang.

Lugu Lake has been touted as the homeland of the Mosuo people, but, counting the Sichuan side, only half a dozen Mosuo villages lie on its shore. The plain around Yongning holds far more, though except for the absence of fishing the architecture, lifestyle, farming, religion and society is the same. The Mosuo, and their less numerous Pumi neighbours, follow the Gelukpa (Yellow Hat) sect of Tibetan Buddhism, having been converted in the 16th century. But the deity they revere most is Goddess Ganmo, incarnated in Lion Mountain, whose paramount importance reflects the most salient feature of Mosuo culture-their matrilineality.

Mosuo

Not all Mosuo are matrilineal. The families of the former ruling clan, descended from Kubilai Khan's Mongol officers and the smallest of Mosuo clans, are patrilineal. So are the Mosuo further south, in the low-lying valleys of Ninglang County. But matrilineality is the norm in Yongning district. The women own the property-the house, big animals and the farms-and pass it on to daughters. And if they don't have a daughter, they'll adopt one of their sister's. All children owe their loyalty to their natal home until death, even the males, who maintain their residence there and contribute their labour to their mother's household even when "married."

One must use quotation marks around the word because the Mosuo don't really have marriages. Nor is there a word for it in their own language. When speaking of a non-Mosuo's marriage they will use the Chinese words. When Mosuo establish a conjugal relationship, the man comes to the woman's house at night, for every mature Mosuo female has her own room in the family compound. He returns to his own house in the morning. All children belong to the mother, even if the relationship is terminated. Nor is the man expected to donate any child support.

The system, called by outsiders "walking marriage," may at first seem to be inherently unstable, due to the lack of obligations in the relationship. But in a matrilineal society stability is more important in the maternal household than in the relationships between conjugal partners. In that respect the system has served the Mosuo well and survived repeated campaigns against it before the reform period, after which no one tried anymore.

Men, therefore, are very much in the background. They have their work roles, for they do most of the house construction, the ploughing, the long-distance trade and the fishing. But the woman's load is heavier and more constant. Men handle religious affairs, and every household has its monk who attends to its religious rites.. Yet the major festival of the year, Zhuanshanjie (Rounding the Mountain Festival), held the 25th day of the 7th lunar month, is in honour of Goddess Ganmo. And all the minor festivals, plus the New Year events, when the young girls and boys have their rites of maturity, include Ganmo worship.

Mosuo and Pumi from all over Yongning district hike to a slope on Lion Mountain for Zhuanshanjie. And from Zhamei Monastery monks come to perform rites, beat drums and blow long alpine horns. The crowd ascends the slope to Ganmo's shrine, where they kowtow and deposit prayer flags. Afterwards they form small groups and picnic on the grass, then walk home. At night, perhaps still dressed in traditional costume-Tibetan style for the men, long white skirts, velour or silk jackets and braided turban for the women-they form a ring and sing and dance around a bonfire.

Mosuo women sing often-while rowing boats,gathering fodder, walking back from the fields, riding buses-whenever the urge strikes them.. Their distinctive,high-pitched tunes are unlike any other and when sung at Lugu Lake the wonderful acoustics there carries the across the water. The repertoire is not unusually extensive, and a few songs have been added in recent years, yet they never tire of singing the same old songs.

Pumi

In terms of culture, lifestyle, appearance, even character, the Pumi of Yongning are scarcely distinguishable from the Mosuo. Sometimes several Pumi families will take up residence in a largely Mosuo village(or Yi village further south). but several villages, such as Upper Luoshui on the south shore road at Lugu Lake, the bigger settlements around Wenquan and a few in Laba township, are more or less exclusively Pumi. Their language differs considerably from Mosuo and while they venerate Ganmo as they mark the Mosuo festival calendar they do stage one big, uniquely Pumi festival in late summer.

This is held in honour of their mountain deity Suoguonaba, who resides on Yak Hill, the mountain just south of Lugu Lake. Local Pumi either hike up the mountain on festival day or delegate someone to do it for them. Before going up that morning the participants call on those they will represent and receive barley cakes to take along. Pumi believe that all the effects of spirits and bad karma will cling to these cakes and be absorbed by them. When left at Suoguonaba's altar all bad fortune is left there as well and the souls of the living have been purified.

Ninglang County's other sizable minority is the Lisu, of two sub-groups. A few Lisu villages lie in Laba township, northwest of Lugu Lake, but their material culture differs little from the norm in the district. The women dress similarly, except that on special occasions they wear an elaborate head-dress. At such times the men, whose clothing resembles the Tibetans', may don big fur hats and vests.

Southeast of Ninglang the string of Lisu villages west of Wukai, in Fuyangping township, uses rammed earth as the basic housing material and raises maize as their own main staple. Men like to wear goatskin vests over their otherwise ordinary clothes. Women dress like the Pumi and Mosuo neighbours: long skirt (sometimes of pleated hemp cloth), wide striped sash belts. side-fastened jackets, but with turbans rather than thickened and coiled braids.

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