"The Female's Kingdom"
i visited Lake Luguhu last week, share something about this "Female's Kingdom"
Lake Luguhu swaying in paradise, is like the untouched Sleepy Beauty....
Scattered with five islands of different sizes, like green boats floating on the water, Lake Luguhu is like a brilliant pearl shimmering among the mountains. It has been regarded as "the Oriental Female Kingdom" composed of the Mosuo people.
Legend of the lake
"Lugu" means "falling into the water" in the Mosuo language. There is a legend behind the lake. Long ago, there was no lake. An orphan herded cattle in mountains every day. A greed villager found that the orphan ate the meat of big fish that made a quick recovery. He desired to posses the magic fish and employed several young men to pull out it from a cave. Suddenly, the food spewed and submerged the whole village. Only a woman put her two children into a manger for raising pigs. Finally her children escaped the catastrophe, but their mother died. After this, the Lake Luguhu appeared and was named "Mother Lake" in honor of the brave mother.
Huh, forgot to mention the position. It is the highest lake in Yunnan referring to altitude, also one of the deepest fresh water lakes in China.
"the Female's Kingdom"
The male and female youth of the Mosuo people, having fostered mutual love in the long period of productive labour and social activities, begin to reciprocate "tokens". The male party, in accordance with his economic conditions, presents the female party with gold or silver ornaments, jade bracelets, beads and silk threads, etc. The "tokens" returned by the female party are generally some personal accessories which the other party likes. Given such an affection on both sides, the seniors of the male party would bring some "loquat meat", and some tea, sugar or wine to pay a visit to those of the female party.
Once agreement is obtained from them, an axia (spouse) relationship is established for the two. However, such relationship can also be fixed without going through the above procedure. After this the two parties continue to live in their own homes. The male "axia" labours for his home in the daytime, and goes to the female "axia" at night for cohabiting with her in her home. The family of the female "axia" looks upon the male as one of its own members.
During the rush farming season, the male "axia" goes to the home of the other party to help with work. Those who have fixed their "axia" relationship call each other "azhu", which means "dear companion", but never husband or wife. Therefore, it is not appropriate to speak of "father", who instead is only referred to as "maternal uncle". The female is predominant and is therefore the leader of a family.
With the Mosuos goddess worship and the remnants of the matriarchal period, the Luguhu Lake area is indeed one of the rare specimens of "The Female's Kingdom" in the world and a 'living fossil of the matriarchal society hard to come by".
Emm,here is a pic from the Lake
