Random photo: Yi woman, Wujiao

[From the account of my first trip to Muli:]
These were the ‘Lesser’ Cool Mountains (Liang Shan) and the Yi (or ‘Lolo’ as Rock knew them) were a wild, poor people who tilled a barren yellow soil.

“They are very backward. They do not wash,” the Han Chinese in Lijiang had said about them.

Even the Naxi compared themselves favourably with the Yi. “We Nakhi are the best educated of China’s minorities. Unlike some minorities we have a strong culture,” they said, referring to the Yi.

In the countryside around towns such like Ninglang, the Yi were literally dirt poor. Their dwellings had changed little since Rock wrote of them: “The houses of these primitive people are of rough pine hoards, tied together with cane, and the roofs weighted down with rocks.”

I got a chance to see a few Yi women at close quarters when some of them squeezed their way onto our bus. They smelled of the farmyard, and had freckled, weather-beaten faces and wore grubby, unwashed traditional dress, little changed since Rock described them:

“The Lolo women wear skirts decorated with old fashioned flounces, reaching almost to the ground, and short jackets. Hats, with broad, flopping brims, resembling the heads of antediluvian ichthyosaurs, usually cover their wild unkempt heads.”

The Yi women I encountered looked almost European - they had round eyes, aquiline noses and they spoke to each other in weird high-pitched, coo-ing voices. They were the some of poorest people I saw in China. And it was easy to believe that until forty years ago, they had been a slave society, despised by the Chinese and bestowed with the derogatory name ‘Lolo’, (‘wog’).

The Yi were divided into a noble ‘black’ Yi branch and the low caste ‘white’ Yi, most of whom were effectively serfs. And the Yi in this area had originally been outcasts from the main Yi area north of Lijiang, and thus were doubly wretched. Liberation had brought them freedom from slavery, but little else in the way of development.

Random photo: Yading

I like this picture of Milk Lake (Niunai Hai) taken from the ridge above, as I descended back towards Chonggu monastery on the last day of our kora. I took it with the Rolleiflex 3.5F and with Ektachrome slide film. I was on a bit of a high on this last afternoon, as it was the end of the trek and I thought I was home and hosed and over the worst by this point. The great weather probably helped. However, I was to come crashing back down to earth as I descended to Lurong and found it was taking a LOT longer than I expected. A couple of hours later I was still dragging my feet along, and thoroughly fed up, just wanting for it to be over. Oh how I enjoyed that bowl of instant noodles when I finally made it back to the horse hire hut!

Random photo: Radja monastery

Random photo: Ragya monastery 拉加寺, Qinghai

Ragya monastery in the morning, below the huge crags.

Random photo: candles at Ragya (Lajia) monastery, Qinghai

Ragya is a small monastery under a cliff on the banks of the Yellow River. Rock used this as a base and staging post for his abortive attempt to reach Amnye Machen  range. When I visited in May 2012 it was an active and friendly monastery. I was able to wander around during the morning devotions and take a few pictures with my Rolleiflex and Leica film cameras.

Random photo: The king of Muli, 1927

From my Muli chapter: 

"The 36-year old Muli king was known as Chote Chaba, - or ‘Hsiang tzu Cheng Cha Pa’ in Chinese. He was a heavy, rotund man with weak muscles - “as he neither exercises nor works”. And yet his manner was “dignified and kind, his laugh gentle and his gestures graceful. The king’s residence, known as the ‘Churah’ was where Rock had taken his portrait photographs of the king using his cumbersome Eastman Kodak box camera mounted on a tripod. The Muli king sat on his throne, posing in his most ceremonial robes, covered with ornate blankets and surrounded by the best furniture and carpets in the palace (and with his three King Charles spaniels shooed away at the last moment).

 In return for taking the portraits, the king rewarded Rock with some bolts of cloth and a rosary bead bracelet that had been wrapped around the king’s left wrist"

 

A picture taken on my second visit to Muli in 1996

Pianma pass, Yunnan-Burma border 片马丫口

After visiting Bingzhongluo in the Nujiang valley we took a side trip over to the Burmese border near Liuku (much further south). This involved taking a private van over the epic dirt road that rises up to almost 4000 metres from the Nujiang. Here is a picture of the actual pass. During WW2, Allied cargo planes doing The Hump route from India to Kunming would fly over this section of the Gaoligong mountains and the pass itself was occupied by a Japanese outpost. Some of the structures in this photo may be the Japanese fortifications. The pass is often closed in winter, and as you can see even here it is snowy despite Liuku below being almost subtropical. Pianma itself is a dull frontier post that has little to linger for except a reconstructed C47 plane and a "Resist The British Imperialists" monument (the Brits tried to claim the Burmese border all the way up to the ridge of the Gaoliging mountains but here Chinese territory actually extends down into the western side of the mountains).

Random photo: getting there is half the journey

This blog has focused on the travels in the footsteps of Joseph Rock in the remote parts of Yunnan and Sichuan. However, to get there usually involves a few days travel from the more populated parts of China. Here's my son Paul in the restaurant care of the sleeper train from Guilin to Kunming, prior to our last trip to Deqin and the Doker La. Photo by Roleiflex 3.5F and Ektachrome.

Random photo: the support crew

On many of my trips to Yunnan and Sichuan I have been supported by my wife's family, who live in Guilin. I typically start in Guilin and take a train to Kunming or fly to Chengdu. I just want to say a big thank you to them all for making our trips possible - even if they don't understand why we travel to such remote and 'dull' areas of China!

Random photo: Gongga Shan monastery

Buddhist deities and imagery at Konka Gompa, Gongga Shan

Random photo: Cangshan sumit ridge, Dali

Great views from the top of the mountain above Dali, now easy to access via the cable car.

Random photo: Labrang monastery

Notes from my 2011 trip:

"I took a clockwise walk around the circular kora circuit of the monastery, walking alongside many Tibetan pilgrims. Some were obviously just there for the day - mums and dads with their kids who had come by car or motorbike. But others were more devout - old grannies who shuffled along and young hardcore pilgrims who were prostrating themselves on the ground every two or three steps, which would seem to take them more than a day to complete the 3km circuit.
The path climbed into the hills to the north of the monastery and I got spectacular views over the whole complex - and of the more mundane concrete sprawl of Xiahe beyond. "

Note: Photo by Rolleiflex 3.5F and the now discontiued (sob) Ektachrome.

Random photo: Minya Konka trek, Day 2

On the second day of my walk to the monastery at Gongga Shan (Konka Gompa). I woke up in the yak herder's tent just below the Djeis La. It has snowed overnight (it was October 1994) and the scenery was amazing.

From my account of the trip:


"I made some porridge for breakfast in the tent, and my hosts made butter tea and rice porridge. Then we saddled up and were on our way up the gentle incline of the valley again. Ahead of us there was a neat pyramidal peak, which Gerler told me was called Jiazi Feng - Rock took a picture of the same peak and called it Chiburongi. We plodded through the brilliant white landscape of the valley and saw more snowy peaks both ahead and behind us. We were approaching the Djesi La pass, but first the valley assumed a Y-shape, and our horses took us up a trail to the right hand fork. I was glad to have a guide with me, as I would have become hopelessly lost at this point."

Random photo: monk churning butter tea

This old monk at the Minya Konka Gompa (Gongga Shan) was my host back in 1994. There was nobody else at the monastery at that time, he seemed to be the sole occupant. Creepy place.

Random photo: Muli monk

A young monk who was working in the kitchen at Muli monastery, around 1996. Taken with my beloved Leica M3 and foggy Summicron lens.

Random photo: Tibetan 'beautiful daughters' at Wuxu Hai

On my quest to find the 'lost' peak of Muti Konka I stopped off at the scenic lake of Wuxu Hai near Jiulong (a day's drive south of Kangding). Here is an extract from my account of the visit:

"Up a dirt road some 25km to the north west of Jiulong was Wuxu Hai (lake), situated at the foot of some grey limestone peaks known as the 12 Beautiful Daughters. Joseph Rock had passed through this area, but despite his reputation for meticulous recording of every peak and minor geographical feature, he makes no mention in his article or maps of the picturesque lake.

Wuxu Hai was an idyllic spot, a mile-long expanse of water surrounded by peaks and wooded hillside. I spent spend a pleasant day there by the lakeside watching the weather changing around the peaks higher up the valley. The local Tibetans lived in log cabins around the shore and I was the guest of one family whose daughters were eager to dress up in their Tibetan robes for the camera."

Random photo: Mundon temple

Joseph Rock described Mongdong (Mundon) as a “dreary Hsifan hamlet”. But as the morning sun rose over the peaks it seemed to me anything but dreary. The views across the gorge were superb and this collection of four family houses seemed to be a cheerful little community.

Drawn by the sound of chanting and the throbbing of a drum, I visited the small Black Hat Buddhist temple next door, outside which in a stone shrine some burning juniper branches sent up a trail of smoke into the blue sky. Within the dark and dusty interior a couple of old men in ordinary clothes were conducting a morning blessing, impervious to a young boy and girl toddlers who gamboled around them. The bumpy surface of the whitewashed interior wall was covered with colourful Buddhist frescoes.

Random photos: climbing Cang Shan (Dali)

1990: "The vistas on all sides were absolutely breathtaking, looking down on the pine forests that covered the ridgelines until they disappeared into the clouds. Dark razorback ridges of rock snaked menacingly towards the other peaks in the Cangshan range, and in the distance to the north, the snow peaks of the Jade Dragon mountain range near Lijiang could be seen. And yet ironically, immediately below us, Dali was now obscured by cloud."

And in 2012; older wiser and ascending by ski lift!

 

Random photo: Yading trek, Day 4: Ziho Lake

 
The golden rays of the sun lit up the tops of the nearby ridges, and then our mood improved considerably as the sun came over the top of Jambeyang in the east and started to warm us up. The lakeside was then an idyllic spot, the smooth surface of the water acting like a mirror to reflect the nearby peaks, the image ruffled by the very faint early morning breeze. We had the whole place to ourselves, and the Tibetan encampment we’d seen across the lake the previous evening appeared unoccupied and devoid of life. 

When Joseph Rock camped by this lake, which he called Russo Tso, in 1928, he described it as “the most dangerous part of the journey” because here “dwelled the worst of all the Konkaling outlaws”:

“Our lama guide, who carried one of my rifles, looked anxiously about, then tremblingly handed the gun to my headman. High on the slopes, under a rocky shelter opposite the lake, we espied several Tibetans behind rocky parapets. They commanded the entire lake valley and could have kept us from moving forward. Whether they were bandits or pilgrims we never learned. They remained behind their rocky ramparts and watched as we laboriously climbed to another pass, a level alpine meadow with valleys radiating in various directions.”

From the archives: Rock and the military escort provided by local warlords

Rock was not impressed with the pathetic retinue assigned for his protection. Many of the ‘guards’ were mere boys of 14 or 15, and they were armed with rusty Austrian-made muzzle loading rifles dating back to 1857. According to Rock, the guards were more trouble than they were worth, due to their penchant for plundering every settlement they passed through.

“They settle on a village like flies on a pie, and rarely pay for what they eat, but bully the farmers ...” he noted.

To the disgust of the soldiers, Rock made a point of making them pay for everything they took.