Ancient and Mysterious Wa Village: What are the Ethnic Styles in Wengding Village?

Wengding is a Wa village surrounded by mountains in Mengjiao Township, Cangyuan Wa Autonomous County, Yunnan Province, about 30 kilometers from Cangyuan County. The village has nearly 100 families and a population of more than 400. Due to the fact that it still maintains a rather primitive lifestyle, Wengding Village is also known as Wengding Wa Primitive Tribe.

Standing on a hilltop, overlooking another hilltop surrounded by green trees and filled with thatched cottages, the ancient village of Wengding that looms in the mist is suddenly full of mystery.

On the way to the gate of the fortress, I saw some wooden stakes with skulls hanging from them, tall and short, thick and thin. The road into the village is not wide, are set with cobblestones. From the smoothness of the cobblestones on the road, it is deduced that the fortress has a history of more than 200 years should not be false. The wooden stakes with bull's head hanging every few steps are called ox-head stakes. Ox-head piles are the symbol of power and wealth in Wa villages. The stakes are usually placed around the village. The more stakes there are and the bigger the bull's head on the stake, the more wealth and power the village has.

Not far away, under a big green tree, there is a door built entirely of wood and thatch, which is the gate of Wengding Village. The gate is very simple, leaning against the big green tree on one side, planted three wooden pillars on the other side, nailed with a few crossbars, and thatched with bamboo pieces on the top, it looks simple but does not look ugly and shabby, and look at the ox-head skeleton that hangs high above the gate, it more or less still feels that there is a hint of majesty. Wa people do not have a door in the true sense of the word, the door of the fortress is open at any time, and the door of the house has no practical significance, at most, in order to prevent livestock from entering and exiting the house, with tree branches and other things to stop a block only. The vicissitudes of the old man sitting by the fire, leisurely smoking a long, long pot of tobacco, that deep, that impatient, and that strange eyes, let a person reverie. Wengding people childish, they will have no qualms in the faucet under the brush pull brush pull with spring water to bathe, little boys and girls in the same faucet under the naked bath, each other also look at and laugh, you touch me a hand, I shoot you, the funny scene, full of a sense of return to the basics.