Pumi people of Mongdong
Wednesday, July 20, 2005
Monday, July 18, 2005
Saddling up ready to go up to Mongdong
The sounds of clanking bells heralded the arrival of our horses for the next part of our trip. The four horse handlers strapped on our bags, adjusted the stirrups and straps and we were soon setting off up a steep rocky trail behind the houses through the bushy hillside. Almost at once the handlers were urging me "Qi ma , qi ma!" (Ride the horse). At first I tried to walk but as the altitude took a toll I soon conceded and let the horse sweat its way more surely up the narrow and zig zagging trail.
As we ascended, an impressive view of the lower half of the Yangwe Kong emerged, along with a bird's eye view of the narrow cleft of a gorge that lead down to the Yalong river, far below.
"Why did Rock take the trouble to climb all this way over the hills when he could have just gone down to the river there? I asked Choegyal.
The simple answer was there was no place to cross the Yalong at that point and no settlements on the steep sides of the canyon there.
"This is the only way to cross to Muli and Yunnan," he said flatly.
It was a long grinding ascent up the steep sides of the lower Yangwe Kong valley from Shantian to the first ridge.
I rode up, Namu disliked horses and tried to walk until the altitude took its toll.
In the saddle, going up the first ridge, above the Yangwe Kong valley.
As we got higher we got great views of the Yangwe Kong valley.
View from the saddle of the terminal [western] end of the Yangwe Kong valley that we had just left.
The view from on horseback as we ascended: looking down on the village of Shantian and the Yangwe Kong valley as it winds down from the east.
Great views of the Yangwe Kong and Shantian.
We reached the top of the first ridge by late afternoon. It was just a cleft in the razorback ridge.
View over the other side from the top of the first ridge, looking west towards the Yalong canyon.
Another view in the same direction - I needed a wide angle lens. [Top of pic partly obscured by my hand trying to shade out the sun]
View from the top of the ridge down into the abyss of the isolated valley that we had to cross to get to Mongdong.
“No outlook in any direction!” wrote Joseph Rock in his National Geographic article of 1929.
“Here people live and die without the slightest knowledge of the outside world! How oppressive to be buried alive in these vast canyon systems! Or are they happier for it?”
A closer view of the steep-sided canyon as we descended.
"Our track eventually crested and crossed over a cleft in a razorback ridge of Sazanran, to descend equally steeply to some more settlements in a beautiful steep sided valley on the other side. I marvelled at the deep green tones of the precipitous slopes, and the surrounding ridges that hung like crenulated brocade. We dismounted, drank the clear water from mountain streams and we went down, passing a few isolated farm houses on our rollercoaster descent only to begin another weary ascent as the day drew to a close.
For hour upon hour , up and up the poor horses strained, by now needing constant urging from the handlers as they paused every twenty steps, panting and sweating. “Cho! Ra-cho!”
After numerous false summits, it took what seemed like hours before we were able to "Fang Shan" (reach the top of the mountain). When we did, it was dark. We were on top of a rounded ridge overlooking the Yalong river canyon. Even in the fading light, it was very impressive. Down there somewhere in the gloom I could just make out a string of faint orangish lights far below, presumably houses along the river bank in Muli county across the river.
Above, a crescent moon cast a little illumination to guide us further up the ridge. [From my forthcoming article on the trip].
A pause on the way down the first ridge into the abyss.
Saddle sore - having a break.
The peaks taken from the same spot.
Looking back at the first ridge as we ascend the second ridge at dusk. The notch where we crossed [picture six in this post] can be seen as an outcrop of lighter coloured rock on the middle of the ridge.
Looking towards Muli from the edge of the canyon.
Tuesday, July 05, 2005
Muzzle loading flintlock gun - Shantian
This is Wang Qi's cousin, with an old musket from the 1920s. May have been one that was used by Joseph Rock's escort when they passed through here 80 years earlier.
Monday, July 04, 2005
Shantian scenes
This is the upstairs at Wang Qi's ancestral home in the Yangwe kong valley. A Pumi house in the Tibetan style. Probably not much changed since Joseph Rock visited in 1928.
View from the roof of Wang Qi's house.
View up the valley.
Shantian.
Friday, July 01, 2005
Shantian: the view towards Yalong Canyon
These are the peaks I saw when we finished the drive down the Yangwe Kong valley and readied for the next stage to the Yalong canyon by horse/walking. When Wan Qi said we would have to go over these peaks I thought he was joking. He wasn't.
Shantian: Mao and Dalai Lama
Pictures on the wall at Wang Qi's uncle's house. Party official Wang Qi's uncle is a Living Buddha. He also has this pic of the Dalai Lama meeting Mao in the 50s on the wall.
Shantian family pictures
These are the family portraits from Wang Qi's house. He's the local head of education for Jiulong county - a Pumi man who served in the PLA, but whose family are still devout Tibetan Buddhists. His uncle is a Living Buddha.
Intrigued by Joseph Rock's old photos
If you want to travel easily in this part of the world, just take along some copies of pictures taken by Joseph Rock from the 1920s. The local people were amazed that there were photographic records of their ancestors, and of the lifestyle they followed. Here in Shantian they pored over pictures taken of their grandparentsfrom the 1920s, tahen by Rock. A few oldies still remembered the "foreigner" passing through.
This is Mrs Wang Qi and her dad recognising a lot of the local characters in Joseph Rock's photos from the 1920s.
Shantian - Wang Qi's house
Shantian was the end of the road where we transferred from 4WD to horses. At the far western end of the Yangwe Kong valley, this is where the hard part starts - going up the very steep hill on horseback. This is Wang Qi's [local education chief, Pumi nationality] ancestral home - where his family still live. They grow maize, chillis and keep pigs and cows.
Sanyanlong school
In this remote valley there are several local schools where the yak herders andfarmers kids are taught to a surprisingly high level of education. They don't have computers but they sure get the basics drilled into them! This is the school at Sanyanlong with all the teachers on parade with me. They all wanted to have their pictire taken with the Laowai.
Pupils.
Pumi doctor, Sanyanlong
n this picture we see the local doctor, Dr Song, talking to local leader Wang Qi [Tibetan/Pumi: Zago Tsering], who was on a tour of the isolated and roadless Yangwe Kong valley near Jiulong. Wang Qi is the head of the local education department, but retains an interest in the health department he headed up for 12 years, and hence is on friendly terms with the local medics.
Doctor in Sanyanlong, near Jiulong
In 1929 Joseph Rock's passed through the remote Yangwe Kong valley and made these comments about the health of the local Pumi people:
"Whenever we came to a village the peasants would gather about
us and with folded hands would beseech me to dispense medicine to
sick relatives. Often I could help. Sometimes I had to refuse".
In 2004, on our way through the same valley, we paused briefly at a village called Sanyanlong where there were
a couple of stores, a clinic and a sizeable, neat Chinese-style
school. The students flocked out to see us, and Wang, being director
of education went in to make a quick visit.
I popped my head into the clinic, a simple treatment room where a
demur female doctor in a white coat was inserting an IV drip into a
woman's arm. "Conditions here are very poor," she said
apologetically.
At least now they had a clinic.
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