Beats of a different drum
 |
|
During the Qishi Festival
which coincides with the Spring Festival, Naxi minroty invite monks to hold
sacrificial ceremony for their ancestors at the Dazu Village, Yanyuan
County, Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture of Sichuan Province .
|
The most interesting event of the Lisu people's traditional Kuoshi festival
is the Hair-Combing Contest held on the first and seventh days of the first
lunar month.
While men cook breakfast, women dress in bright costumes and put on make up,
but don't comb their hair. The whole village gathers to see the women from
little girls who have just learnt to comb to elderly ladies who can still hold
the comb steady display their long shiny hair and make it into some fancy
hairdo.
Staged against blossoming peaches, pear and plum trees, the combing is a way
of making a wish: Girls generally wish for love and housewives for happiness,
peace and bumper harvest.
This is one of many celebrations by minorities living in Liangshan, which is
part of the north-south running Hengduan Mountains bordering the Qinghai-Tibet
Plateau, the Sichuan Basin and the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau.
The geographical diversity of the area has led to a rich cultural diversity,
which has been preserved rather well thanks to the difficulty of reaching the
area.
The Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture in southern Sichuan Province has the
biggest concentration of the Yi minority: Nearly half of the 4 million Yi people
live in Liangshan.
 |
 |
|
Women of Lisu minority eagerly
comb their hair in a special ceremony while making wishes for the New
Year. |
A young Lisu girl has put on
her festive attire. |
Their most important festival is the Torch Festival in
summer. But during the Spring Festival, they also stage large group dances and
men take on all the family chores to give women a break.
| 
