Culture on the Floors
Here is a photo showing their unique way of tiling their floors. They like to use small stones that are made into patterns using roof tiles as separators/designs. Found this in almost everywhere!
Greetings
Every tribe has their own ways of calling others. In Naxi tribe (纳西族 - main tribe in Lijiang), women are called PanJingMei (胖金妹) and men are called PanJingGe (胖金哥). Well, I know, it should be pronounced as pang-jin-mei instead of pan-jing-mei, but Mandarin is not their native language and that IS the way they pronounce it! Some times a bit confusing when you listen to them, but it is quite fun too to guess what they actually mean! :D
In other tribes, these are called differently. Women are call JinHua (金花) in Bai tribe (白族 - main tribe in Dali) and A-Shi-Ma (阿诗玛) in Yi tribe (彝族 – main tribe in Kunming). We didn’t have the chance to learn more about other tribes, but it is really interesting! When we were in Lijiang, it took us a while to be accustomed to be called PanJingMei, and when we were in Kunming we found it funny when we were practicing mentioning AsiMa and other women responded to us!
Unique DongBa Religion – environment concerns
As highlighted in my previous post, Naxi’s DongBa religion emphasize a lot on taking care of the natural resource. They have built in environmental awareness into the religion, since many hundred years ago. This is really, really, unique!
They are so eco-friendly, even in their daily activities. They do not use plastic bags for all shopping. Instead, they use recyclable bags. I was told, if one walks away from a shop with a plastic bag, both the shop owner and the shopper would be fined!
All over in Yunnan, we see trash bins that come in sets of two – one is specific for recyclable items.
They Eat Flowers
Yes, they use flowers in their dishes, they EAT flowers. Flowers are not just for decorations! I will write more about this in separate posts on food.
Writings
Here are some examples of their DongBa writing. These are found on the walls in the old town:
The figure on the left top represents “Woman”. She holds a mirror with her own reflection.
The one on the right top represents “Home”, which you can see from its roof and the people staying below it.
And the bottom one represents “Pregnant Woman”. She has a big stomach and a fetus is inside the round stomach.
Basically, their writing is very much like drawings.
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