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Dear Friends,
Today we left the old town of Lijiang heading for Lugu Lake. It is a drive of 8 hours. The road is very bad again and you realy need a 4-wheel drive car to arrive safely. On the way to Lugu Lake there are many scenic views. It is a long drive, but when you arrive at Lugu Lake you forget the bad roads very quickly and you realy will enjoy the beautiful scenic views.
Lugu lake (around 2700 meters above sealevel) is a very healthy place with many possibilities for trekking and many scenic views.
In this area also live the Mosuo minority people, officially classified as a part of the Naxi minority. You also find here lots of influences from Tibet.
To read more about the Lugu Lake and the Mosuo people you find here two articles of the www.travelchinaguide.com.
Many thanks for their information. If you want to know anything about travelling in China, please visit their very good site. Information about the Lugu Lake. Lugu Lake lies 200 kilometers (approximately 124 miles) from the center of Lijiang City, on the border between Ninglang County in Yunnan Province and
Yanyuan County in Sichuan Province. The lake is like a beautiful pearl shining among the hills of the northwest plateau in Yunnan.
The lake is in the shape of a horse's hoof - long from north to south, and narrower from east to west. The vista of the lake changes constantly throughout the day. The morning mist mixed with the light of the rising sun gives the lake an orange glow covered by mist. When the light of sun causes the hills to throw their shadows onto the water, the lake has a jade green color. The lake is calm and dark green in the evening when the sun sinks, and is peaceful when night comes. Gentle wind blows and water ripples.
On the lake there are five islands. They are different sizes and are like green boats floating on the water. Heiwawu Island, Liwubi Island, and Lige Island are most notable. Heiwawu Island is in the center of the lake and has a variety of birds living on it. The smallest island on the lake is Nixi Island - an oblong rock covered with shrubs and moss. Besides the five islands, there are also three peninsulas and
an island which is linked to a seawall on the shore by a path paved with small stones.
Mystery and charm surround the lake, partly because it was once an unspoiled place and still retains much of its totally natural beauty, but mostly because the Mosuo people who live there form a matriarchal society. There is no marriage. Men stay in the women's home as mates called 'Axia' and the intimate relationship lasts as long as they like. Children are brought up by women, and use the surname of their mothers. Families are composed of the members of the matrilineal kin. Women operate production and management, and hold the principal position in the society, forming a modern day 'woman's kingdom', which adds mystique to this place.
The lake is encircled with hills. The water is clean and inviting, with fish swimming in it. The forest around is dense and the air is fresh. This is a place that is little tainted by modern industry - the natural beauty is retained. The weather is pleasant - it is cool in summer and warm in winter. All the seasons are as comfortable as spring, but the best seasons to come
here are spring and summer when the hills are emerald green, the flowers are in bloom and the birds are singing happily.
Information about the Mosuo minority people. The Mosuo culture
Mosuo Culture has attracted a lot of interest in recent years. There have been books written about them, documentaries produced about them, and scores of anthropologists coming to study them. Yet, for all of this, much of the information that is out there about the Mosuo is misleading at best, and at times damaging. We hope to provide more accurate information here, to help people understand this unique and fascinating culture!
There is not that much known about the history/origins of the Mosuo culture. The Mosuo don't have a written language (but we are working to help them develop one!), so their entire history is an oral history, passed down from generation to generation, mostly through local priests called “Daba”. There are occasional references in Chinese written history, but due to the many different names that have been used throughout history, it can often be difficult (or impossible) to demonstrate that these definitely refer to the Mosuo. So much of what is
“known” about the Mosuo is a patchwork collection of “most likely” hypotheses.
Of course, this inevitably leads to different/competing theories, and if you do study anthropological writings about the Mosuo, you likely will end up hearing different ideas. Some people trace Mosuo heritage back to Mongolia; others consider the Mosuo to be native to the Yunnan/Sichuan area. In the end, it can be difficult to prove/disprove any of these theories; so this site, for the most part, focuses instead on the situation today, and on those aspects of history that are documented.
Three aspects of the Mosuo culture that tend to attract the most attention are their practice of a system that is similar to matriarchal systems; their practice of “walking marriages”, an alternative system whereby women can choose/change partners as they wish, and couples do not live together or get married; and their integration of Tibetan Buddhism and their own religion, “Daba”. As each topic is quite complex, we've designated separate sections for each subject.
The Mosuo are a Chinese ethnic minority group who live high in the Himalayas, in an area straddling Yunnan and Sichuan provinces, close to the Tibetan border. Although officially classified as
part of the Naxi minority by the Chinese government, they are actually quite a different group, with different language, culture, religion, etc.
Most people who know about the Mosuo tend to identify them with Lugu Lake, however the majority of Mosuo do not live at the lake, but rather in small towns and villages scattered throughout the mountains. Estimates as to their numbers vary, but are most likely around 40,000.
The Mosuo economy is largely agrarian, and they are capable of producing most of what they need for daily living. In the past, Mosuo men would take trading caravans to other parts of China, to buy/trade products they could not produce locally. Unlike most of China, the staple food is potato, rather than rice (although under increasing Chinese influence, this is changing).
The average annual income for the majority of Mosuo would be around US$150-200, which is quite low even by Chinese standards. This does not mean that the Mosuo are starving to death; they are quite able to provide for their basic needs. However, it does mean that even relatively small costs for things such as education, travel, etc., can be prohibitively expensiven.
There are
several other minorities who live in the same area, primarily the Yi, the Naxi, and the Pumi. Each has its own unique culture; and in some cases, some intermixing of cultures has taken place, lending even greater variety to the local culture. So depicting any of these minorities as being “like this” can be rather misleading.
For further discussion of Mosuo matriarchy, religion, and the “walking marriages”, check out our section on Mosuo culture. There is also a lot of inaccurate information out there about the Mosuo; take a look at our “Myths & Misperceptions” section to get a better understanding of the real situation.
Walking Marriages. Probably the most famous - and most misunderstood - aspect of Mosuo culture is their practice of “walking marriages” (or “zou hun” in Chinese), so called because the men will walk to the house of their ‘partner' at night, but return to their own home in the morning.
The Mosuo generally live in large extended families, with many generations (great grandparents, grandparents, parents, children, grandchildren, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, etc.) all living together within the same house. For the most part, everyone lives within communal quarters, without private
bedrooms or living areas. However, women between certain ages (see the section on “coming of age”) can have their own private bedrooms.
Traditionally, a Mosuo woman who is interested in a particular man will invite him to come and spend the night with her in her room. Such pairings are generally conducted secretly, so the man will walk to her house after dark (thus the description of “walking marriage”), spend the night with her, and return home early the next morning.
While it is possible for a Mosuo woman to change partners as often as she likes - and in fact, having only one sexual partner would be neither expected nor common - the majority of such couplings will actually be more long term. And few Mosuo women will have more than one partner at a time. More than one anthropologist has described this system as “serial monogamy”; and, in fact, many such pairings may last for a lifetime. ( In recent years, a lot of information about the Mosuo has portrayed their culture as a sexually promiscuous culture in which women change partners frequently; this is addressed in greater detail in our “Myths & Misinformation” section.)
Even when a pairing may be long term, however, the man will never go to live with the woman's family, or vice versa. He will continue to live with and be responsible to his family; she will continue to live with and be responsible to her family. There will be no sharing of property.
Most significantly, when children are born, the father may have little or no responsibility for his offspring (in fact, some children may not even know who their father is). If a father does want to be involved with the upbringing of his children, he will bring gifts to the mother's family, and state his intention to do so. This gives him a kind of official status within that family, but does not actually make him part of the family. Regardless of whether the father is involved or not, the child will be raised in the mother's family, and take on her family name.
This does not mean, however, that the men get of scot-free, with no responsibilities for children. Quite the opposite, in fact. Every man will share responsibilities in caring for all children born to women within their own family, be they a
sister, niece, aunt, etc. In fact, children will grow up with many “aunts” and “uncles”, as all members of the extended family share in the duties of supporting and raising the children.
The result - as different as it may be from other systems - is a family structure which is, in fact, extremely stable. Think about it. Divorce is a non-issue…there are no questions over child custody (the child belongs to the mother's family), splitting of property (property is never shared), etc. If a parent dies, there is still a large extended family to provide care.
One particularly important result is the lack of preference for a particular gender. For example, in most cultures, the female will join the male's family when she gets married. The result is that if a couple has a lot of female children, they will lose them after marriage, and have no one to care for them in old age; but if they have male children, their sons (and their sons' wives) will care for them. So, in poorer populations in particular, there will be a strong preference for male children.
However, among the Mosuo, since neither male nor female children
will ever leave home, there is no particular preference for one gender over the other. The focus instead tends to be on maintaining some degree of gender balance, having roughly the same proportion of male to female within a household. In situations where this becomes unbalanced, it is not uncommon for Mosuo to adopt children of the appropriate gender (or even for two households to ‘swap' male/female children).
Myths & Misperceptions. There are, unfortunately (but probably inevitably) a number of myths and misperceptions about the Mosuo. If you do an online search for information about the Mosuo, you will inevitably find at least some of these. At the very least, this information is misleading and inaccurate; at the worst, in some cases, it does great damage to the Mosuo culture. In this section, we seek to address these issues, and present more accurate information.
Myth 1 - The Mosuo and the Naxi are the same
It is true that the Mosuo are officially classified as part of the Naxi minority by the Chinese government. This often causes a great deal of confusion, particularly for Chinese, who mix the two cultures up.
The
Mosuo culture is distinctly different from Naxi culture. They have a different language, practice a different religion, and have a completely different culture. However, due to some historical confusions (at various times in history, the Chinese term “Mosuo” was actually used to describe different ethnic groups, including the Naxi), and lack of real knowledge about the Mosuo, they ended up being grouped with the Naxi. (If you'd like to read more detailed anthropological accounts of the different ethnic groups in the area, and the usage of the terms “Naxi” and “Mosuo” in past and present, check out our “Further Information” section).
Myth 2 - Mosuo women are sexually promiscuous
It is true that Mosuo women are free to have different sexual partners, and frequently do not get married. It is true that having multiple lovers, or having children by different men, does not carry a negative stigma (for more information on this, see our section about “walking marriages”).
However, it is common to see the Mosuo portrayed as a culture in which Mosuo women frequently change partners, a kind of “sexual utopia” where women are just waiting to seduce men. This image has been portrayed particularly frequently
by tourism operators who seek to attract more people (mostly men) to visit Lugu Lake. There is certainly a thriving prostitution industry at Lugu Lake; however, ironically, most of the “Mosuo girls” who work in the brothels are actually girls from other areas brought in to dress/act like Mosuo women; and are a source of shame to most real Mosuo.
To set the record straight; while promiscuity is certainly not frowned on like it is in most other cultures, most Mosuo women tend to form more long-term pairings, and not change partners frequently. It might be better described as a system of “serial monogamy”, wherein women can change partners, but tend to do so relatively rarely; and while with one partner, will rarely invite another. I've personally met many Mosuo who have had a “walking marriage” relationship with the same man for twenty or more years.
And having a “walking marriage” with non-Mosuo is very strongly frowned on; in the past, Mosuo women who had such a relationship could face very severe punishment from their family if discovered.
Myth 3 - The Mosuo language has no words for murder, rape, etc.
Actually, it is technically true
that the Mosuo language has no words for murder or rape. However , this information is frequently used in a misleading or inaccurate manner, to portray a culture in which murder and rape are non-existent.
This is blatantly untrue. Murder certainly happens. And rape, although as far as can be told tends to be less common than in other cultures, also happens.
The lack of a word for “murder” doesn't mean that murder doesn't happen; the Mosuo have a word for “kill”, and simply use that word to describe all forms of killing, including murder. And when I talked to the Mosuo about rape, they said that traditionally the punishment for a rape would be execution - why would they have a punishment for a crime that doesn't exist?
There is a great danger for people coming in to study the Mosuo to idealize their culture; and the Mosuo themselves will tend to encourage this, as they don't like to talk about such things with outsiders. It is important to remember that, while the Mosuo culture is certainly fascinating, and has many aspects from which other cultures should learn, it is a disservice to them to describe
them in a manner which is untrue.
As with every culture, the Mosuo culture has both its good and its bad points. Those who are truly interested in the Mosuo should reflect both sides honestly, rather than distorting the Mosuo culture to support a personal agenda.
Myth 4 - Mosuo men don't work, and are there mainly to fulfill conjugal duties
This particular myth is more common in Chinese literature than English, but is a particularly dangerous and misleading one. First, it promotes the myth that Mosuo women are sexually promiscuous, with men kept essentially for providing sexual gratification. And second, it is based on a sad misunderstanding of Mosuo history.
It is true that, traditionally, Mosuo women tend to take on most of the labour duties at home. They take care of the animals, tend the fields, etc. However, this is due to a historic division of responsibilities where Mosuo men were mostly traders, traveling long distances by caravan to trade with other groups. Since the men were frequently gone from home, the women were left to take care of the work. However, when the men were at home, they would also share in the
duties there.
In modern times, the practice of having trading caravans has effectively ceased; with the result that one of the primary male roles has been rendered irrelevant. It is true, therefore, that you may often find men lounging around while women work hard; however, this is not universal (I've visited many homes where the men share in these duties equally with the women); and does not necessarily mean that Mosuo men are lazy…it indicates, rather, the need to define a viable new “male” role within the modern realities of Mosuo culture.
And it most definitely does not mean that Mosuo men are kept primarily for breeding stock and procreation.
Thanks to www.mosuoproject.org.
If you want to read more information about the Mosuo people, please visit their site.
Enjoy the pictures and the many views and travel with us around this beautiful district of Yunnan.
Stay tuned for more traveladventures.
From Lugu Lake with love.
Monkey and Bear.
Lieve vrienden en vriendinnen,
Vandaag komen wij aan in het merengebied van Lugu. een onvoorstelbaar mooi natuurgebied. In deze omgeving leven de Mosuo people. Deze
bevolkingsgroep stamt oorspronkelijk af van de Naxi minority. Het is een groep mensen die voornamelijk leeft van de landbouw en veeteelt.
Voor meer informatie over Lugu Lake en de Mosuo people verwijzen wij jullie naar de hier bovenstaande twee Engelse artikelen.
Ons bezoek hier is weer een onvergeetelijke ervaring. De natuur is schitterend, de bewoners zijn erg gastvrij en wij maken kennis met de vele Tibetaanse invloeden die je hier in het dagelijkse leven terugvindt.
Reis aan de hand van onze foto's met ons mee door dit schitterende natuurgebied.
See you next time and stay tuned for more travel experiences.
From Lugu Lake with love.
Monkey and Bear.
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Hettie
non-member comment
spannend
Hallo Aad en Ien, wat een spannende dingen maken jullie mee zeg! Nog niet overmoeid van alle indrukken? Groet, Hettie