Mosuo Homeland takes shape

Mosuo Homeland, a project to modify the Wakua ancient village located on the north shore of Lugu Lake, has taken shape in December, according to Xinhua.

Sichuan province raised a proposal to build a Mosuo residential area to protect and inherit Mosuo culture in June 2012. The project was launched on Aug 8, 2013. Construction lasted four months and laid out a primitive and distinctive Mosuo village. The homeland is built around Lugu Lake, covering an area of 100 square kilometers and a core area of 50 square kilometers.

Being the representative of both Mosuo culture and Mosuo people, Mosuo Homeland will showcase matriarchal traditions, "walking" marriage and the Daba religion to visitors.

Walking marriage (zouhun in Chinese) is a special practice of Mosuo people. During courtship, a man and woman can get to know each other by singing love songs or contacting each other in daily life. If they fall in love, the woman might give the man a scarf woven by her as a gift. When night falls, the man will visit his lover's house with a piece of fat meat. When he arrives in front of the woman's house, he will throw the meat to the dog to eat so that it won't warn people of his arrival. Then he will go into the woman's house through the window. Before dawn, the man will leave the woman's house. If the two still want to keep in touch, the man can come again.

Daba is an ancient animist religion that involves ancestral worship. Day to day life, however, is largely influenced by Tibetan Buddhism.

Lugu Lake lies 200 kilometers from the center of Lijiang city, on the border between Ninglang county in Yunnan province and Yanyuan county in Sichuan province.

The Mosuo, a branch of the Naxi ethnic group, have a population of about 15,000. They are the main ethnic group in the region and live in scattered lakeside villages. The Mosuo people still retain some remnants of a matriarchal society and some other special customs.

Workers build a Mosuo traditional quadrangle. (Photo from Xinhua)