Liangshan Yi Torch Festival lights up Puge with torches and tradition

The 2026 Liangshan Yi Torch Festival kicked off on Sunday in Puge county of Liangshan Yi autonomous prefecture, Sichuan province, marking the start of 98 cultural tourism events across the prefecture.

The opening ceremony of the three-day Puge event featured a torch-passing ritual, in which a Bimo (the ritualist of the Yi ethnic group) and two teenagers offered blessings and paid homage to fire. After lighting the main torch, the Bimo passed it to the teenagers, a gesture symbolizing the continuity of the Yi people's millennia-old fire culture.

Six hundred Yi women in traditional attire, holding golden umbrellas, performed Duoluohe, a song-and-dance performance unique to the Yi people.

Following the ceremony, traditional folk competitions, including horse racing, bullfighting, sheep fighting, and wrestling, took center stage.

As night fell, the highly anticipated torch carnival began. Thousands of torches lit up the mountain sky, as people of various ethnic groups and visitors from across the country gathered around bonfires for the traditional Dati dance.

A farm and specialty products fair was also held to stimulate rural consumption, featuring sections for mountain produce, Yi crafts, local food tastings, and e-commerce livestreaming.

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