Today was absolute madness- it turns out the Lusheng Festival is like the Miao people's equivalent of our county fairs in Michigan, minus the rides, and with 10 times as many people! There are performances of Miao traditional singing and dancing which are done by local school girls, and everyone wears their festival best. The wealthy families are easy to spot, because wealthier families have more silver for their costumes. Some of the girls had very elaborate silver head dresses, and silver attached to their costumes all over the place. Besides being a yearly reason to celebrate, play the lusheng pipes (a kind of large bamboo flute), and see whose water buffalo bull is the strongest in the bull fighting, it's also a time for people from other villages to meet, and for young people to interact. Traditionally this would have been a prime way for boys and girls to meet and chat, though a matchmaker is still in use. The villages tend to be rather remote, with many footpaths through the mountains between them, so getting from one village to another is not easy. Wealthy families have cars or motorbikes, but some families don't, and gas is expensive for them so walking is still a prime way of getting around.
The festival was absolutely packed- and I mean packed, like we never ever see here in the west. Just when you think not one more person will fit, a car decides to drive along the road honking so loudly you think your eardrums will split, and lo and behold there IS enough space for a car to fit. I got caught between a non moving car and a very slowly moving bus, and I cleaned the side of the bus with my jacket as it went slowly by because I was so close. I did still have plenty of space or I would have hopped onto the car's trunk- see Mom don't worry, I think of all of these things! :)
We really enjoyed the festival- lots of opportunity for photographing people. And I definitely enjoyed the water buffalo bull fights. I don't usually like animal fights, because they tend to be vicious and gruesome, but these water buffalo are part of their families and are critical for their work as farmers plowing the rice paddies, so they don't come to any harm. Also if you've ever seen a water buffalo you might wonder how they could ever come to be angry enough to fight one another- they are so very mild mannered and mild tempered most of the time. And indeed, many of these buffalo were a bit like "Uh, can we go home now?" rather than actually fighting. Even when they did decide to fight, it was more of a putting both heads down and pushing each other around, although we did see one very strong bull flip another one right over. Their horns curve backward, so they don't accidentally gore each other. Mostly they had to be encouraged to fight with each other by being occasionally swatted with a long stick, and by the owners talking to them. Sometimes there was a second round- they would separate the bulls and the owners would pet their noses and talk to them, before the next round. It was really cool actually- I really enjoyed seeing the fairly gentle fighting of such huge and strong creatures.
The days on this tour are very long- after the festival we came back and had a fantastic dinner in a local restaurant. The local flavors are really very good, different from other parts of China. Chinese food is something I get excited about eating, it's about the only kind of food that I love to eat, besides chocolate. J I'm not much of a foodie about any food except Chinese food- mostly I eat because if I don't I'm hungry. :)
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