Nujiang Festivals

The Dulong are a happy people. They like to joke and tell funny stories. At harvest time after a long, hard day's work they get together in the evening for impromptu song and dance sessions. Laughter among them is even a part of customary politeness. But as for big organised festivities they have only the New Year. Called Kaquewa in their own language, it is held in the 11th or 12th lunar month, the date decided each year by the village elders, depending upon the weather, the expected number of. guests and other criteria.

The first day is simply a collective announcement of the start of the festival. Families decorate their houses with coloured streamers and in the evening feast, get drunk and make predictions about the coming year. Next day the lemuya conducts the rites for the mountain god, at the end of which young men with crossbows shoot the animal figurines, surrounded by a crowd of dancing, singing onlookers.

The next event is the sacrifice of an ox. The clan chief and the lemuya fetch the ox from its owner. Girls drape a Dulong cloth over it and festoon its horns with strings of beads. The two men lead the ox around the owner's house six times, then tether it to a stake. Villagers form a big circle around the animal and commence dancing. The ox's executioners then come to dance before the ox. They first drink a measure of rice wine together from the same cup, then pierce the bull's heart with poison-tipped spears.

The animal staggers, falls to the ground and expires. One man cuts off an earlobe of the ox, impales it on a stick and waves it back and forth over the carcass as he recites prayers consecrating the sacrifice to Heaven. Then he throws away the stick and the ox is cut up for distribution. The head goes to its owner, large slices of beef to the two spearmen and smaller chunks to each of the villagers. One of the executioners then puts the ox's head on his back and performs a special dance. Dancing, feasting and drinking, with scores of "union toasts," continue throughout the night.

The Nu people's observance of New Year shows a strong Han influence in some of the activities. They clean their houses, dump garbage far away and ceremonially open the house door to allow wealth and fortune to enter. Early New Year morning a child from each house collects a ladleful of water from each well. The family offers a cup of wine to the pine trees in the courtyard. And for the next fortnight they spread pine needles, symbols of prosperity, on the main beam of the house, the hearth and the family altar. They also leave offerings at the communal altar and make processions around it.

A bigger Nu celebration takes place at Jimudeng village in Gongshan County the 15th day of the 3rd lunar month. This is the Festival of Fresh Flowers, held in honour of their mythical heroine Areng, who construtted the first rope-bridge and the first canal. Afterwards she was murdered in a.cave by her enemies. On this day, the anniversary of her death, the Nu gather great bunches of wild flowers on the mountain slopes and bring them to her altar at the mouth of the cave. In addition to the prayers and rituals, the Nu also collect water off two large stalactites, said to be Areng's breasts. Devotees first offer some to visiting Tibetan lamas in attendance, then drink it themselves as a blessing from the goddess who brought them clean water.

The Black Lisu of Fugong County and vicinity have their own peculiar calendar which, like some Yi branches, divides the year into ten months. New Year will fall on a new moon, like the Chinese, but not necessarily the same new moon, for each year the date is set by the elders. Called Kuosheu in their own language, the festivities run for at least a week. Glutinous rice cakes and cup after cup of rice wine are consumed throughout the week, which is also marked by visiting, dancing, courting and singing from a seemingly endless repertoire of traditional songs.

It begins, like the Nu New Year, with house-cleaning, feasts, rituals and calling on relatives. The latter few days are given over to fun and games. The Lisu construct a swing consisting of two rectangular bamboo frames, a seat suspended at each end, mounted on a crossbar resting on two sturdy, upright posts. Young men stage a competition with their crossbows, first shooting at a rice cake perched atop a pole. They also line up in a rank facing a rank of their girlfriends. On top of their heads the girls place a bowl of rice to hold upright a thin bamboo tube. On top of the tube is an egg, the target. The set-up displays the extreme confidence the girls have in the skill and accuracy of their William Tell sweethearts. And theirs as well.

Courtship plays a major part in the Kuosheu activities. Lined up in opposing ranks the youth sing and dance, antiphonal songs as well as solos and choruses, all dressed in their finest Lisu clothes and ornaments.The men play a lute whose body is not much wider than its neck. Girls play a bamboo mouth harp.

The other major courtship game involves burying a young man in the sand-a pit dug on the ridge of the riverbank. A group of young women grabs one of the young men, laughing all the way, and dumps him into the pit, covering him with sand up to his chest. His true love will be the one who digs him out. Much of the humour revolves around the mock suspense while the young man wonders who, if anyone, will declare herself and dig him out of the pit.

Laughter, joy, good humour and a sense of fun are not reserved by the Lisu for just the big festivals. They are integral aspects of the Lisu character. And they need no excuse to indulge in merriment, for an ancient and oft-quoted Lisu adage says, "None but the dead should be deprived of the mirth of life."