Miao village market of eight: the side of the field on the stone house

Shanjiang Miao stone house, is a Miao village to catch the market of a transportation hub, but also in the Miao village market outside the side of the field, is the Miao youth A brother A sister to catch the side of the field of the courtship of the place of love, is the Miao people a place of love sprouting. And the same as this nation, rich in mystery, legend, romantic color.

The stone house, in people's imagination, may be located in the remote countryside with stone made of simple housing. In fact, the stone house in Shanjiang Miao Village is a unique Miao-style restaurant, just like what people call Nongjiale.

The stone house, about 20 kilometers from the ancient city of Phoenix, is located in the town of Shanjiang market about 1 kilometer above a depression, the ancient city of Phoenix to the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau Lashan plateau X034 County from the front of the house through. Stone house around three or five kilometers between, there are Phoenix National Geopark Tianxing Mountain Scenic Spot, Hunan Province characteristics of tourism village Lao Jia Zhai Scenic Spot, the original ecological Miao Village Scenic Spot Liang Lantern Village, as well as the Miao King's House, the Miao Valley, the Miao King Cave and other scenic spots.

The stone house of the land, in the late last century or a piece of barren flat land. In this piece of barren flat land, there is a green stone path leading to the village behind the mountain, the surrounding villages of the children are often here to herd cows and sheep, before and after is the Miao people's fields.

It is because of this open barren flat land, every time after the Shanjiang Miao village market, this place has become the Hmong brother and sister dating courtship place. Here, the young brothers and sisters, singing the Miao song each other to express their love for each other, agreed to meet at night time and the cave.

18 years old, was called "Whampoa Military Academy" teacher training, I graduated from another Hmong cottage here in the Hmong cottage, in the stone house than now under the narrow and humble stone house for the classroom, a person with a group of small four or five years old, as big as fifteen or sixteen years old children, and sometimes teach a. Third grade, and sometimes teach the second grade, and sometimes teach the third grade, and sometimes teach the third grade, and sometimes teach the third grade, and sometimes teach the third grade, and sometimes teach the third grade, and sometimes teach the second grade, Third grade, sometimes teaching the second and fourth grades, but also comes with a four or five-year-old preschool, make every effort in such a three-tier complex teaching, teaching children to read and write, singing games, and this group of children on the mountain fern pull bamboo shoots, barefoot in the field to catch loaches to pick up snails.

I've been traveling to and from this once wild place for more than 2000 days in six years. Or a section of the green stone board, or a section of muddy road, back and forth on foot. Later, two or three years, because of a youthful persistence, serious, Miao family group of children are also competitive, although they have to herd cattle in the morning to cut grass for cooking, and at night to cut firewood to find cows to feed pigs, but the countryside children are not afraid of suffering, resistant to squeeze the time to study, every time the final exam, several grades in various subjects are still ranked in the town before the results. The first time, a few neighboring villages neighboring cottage parents, the child also gave me.

The children are more and more, one person really busy. So, the town's central school principal sent me a young female teacher, a temporary substitute teacher, said to me to enrich the teaching force. Two times in the fall and winter season, the two of us together in that simple stone house, together for the forty or fifty children busy, just like a couple of the Miao village. In the morning, I carry water and she cooks, and at night a kerosene lamp, together with the preparation of lessons, trial lectures, correcting assignments, and discussing teaching methods. Mutual coexistence, there is a love for each other. The first time I saw this, I was able to see it in the back of my head.

In that once wilderness outside, there is my wife and I pick new books, back new books to school left behind the figure, but also my wife and I met and fell in love with the words left behind, but also my wife and I disagreement left behind a small quarrel. All of this, all of us left unforgettable memories.

Later, my wife went back to school, and I also transferred out of this town. My wife and I went to Phoenix ancient city to settle down, have children, and then to that village, and then to that once outside the wilderness is much less. Every Spring Festival, take the child to grandma's home to pay homage, my wife and I will always be in front of the stone house to stay for a while, while telling the child about our years and months of the cottage teaching story, but also stayed at the time of the two love. The first thing I'd like to say is that I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do that, but I'm sure I'm going to be able to do it, and I'm sure I'm going to be able to do it.

Leaving the town of Shanjiang for more than a decade, those children of ours have grown up one by one and started their own families. The mother of one of our students that year, Ms. Ma, a shrewd-minded Miao women, taking advantage of the rise of tourism over the years, in that once wild land, built this stone house, doing the restaurant business. Because this restaurant has never had a name, there is also a lot from the speakers called Nongjiale. Later, hemp big sister because of the name of the place, directly called the stone house.

Ms. Ma, a visionary Miao women, in the children's small years (her son and daughter are in my class), she opened a kiosk on the street in Shanjiang Town, and later did a wholesale of daily necessities. After accumulating some money, her husband bought a minibus and ran the passenger business from Shanjiang Town to Phoenix Ancient City. The couple ran a wholesale department and a transportation business, and their business got better and better. And bought a bus, and do the Xiangxi Autonomous Prefecture seat of Jishou to the Phoenix Ancient City line operating business, those years is the Phoenix Ancient City tourism blowout, the couple earned a bucket and a bucket of gold.

In the early years, the mountain river scenic development, hemp sister with the car pulling passengers, responsible for bringing tourists to the village, equivalent to half a tour guide. When the tourists to eat, landing problems, hemp big sister waving knife spoon to greet themselves. One reception, expected to come 300 people, the result came more than 800 people, the villagers have long lived in the village by the sudden influx of people scared. Ma big sister to find the village secretary to communicate, take the loudspeaker village broadcasting, appealing to each family to eggs, sweet potatoes, corn and other stocks out of the hospitality, to solve the more than 800 tourists meals, but also to help the villagers to realize the material cash.

Tasting the dividends of tourism, the couple put down the daily necessities wholesale industry, while running the bus operation, while doing the tourism catering industry. So, she saw the value of that wilderness beyond the hub, a few negotiations, disk that piece of wilderness land. Built up what kind of style catering, but also hemp sister has been thinking about the problem.

Stone house, the Miao people since ancient times on the ground masterpiece. Miao cottage, in addition to the mountain is the mountain, the mountain in addition to flowers and trees, on the number of stones, and these stones are all lapis lazuli. There are categories of green stone, some of the green stone any of your skilled craftsmen, but also do not hit the stone, some of the green stone to hit is flat and neat a large piece of a large piece of these commonly used by the Miao family paved in front of the home ping dam, paved in the sunshine ping sun paddy, corn, soybeans, peanuts and other food crops, both dry fast, and no dust. And hit out into a steelyard, Miao stonemasons will be slightly processed, used to build the foot of the house, it is heavy and stable, the foot of the good, the top of the piece of lapis lazuli pieces, thick about 3-10 centimeters or so built into a stone wall, or in the foot of the earth wall. Generally lime stone is mainly laid in the upper part.

Perhaps she also thought of "national is the world's" this concept, so she took the local materials, first take the back slope of the wilderness of the worthless green stone, and then to the mountains to buy some cheap wood, built this stone house restaurant. Stone house, so the name suggests, all is made of green blocks of stone, in accordance with the Miao traditional residential and built, very ethnic minority characteristics!

Hanging above the fire hall of bacon, stored in the refrigerator sausage, sour soup, social rice, rice fish, Yang Ho, pickled bean curd, shrimp, chicken ...... Hmong people love to eat home-cooked meals, by the Ma sister and villagers hardworking hands, into a long board table of authentic dishes, a meal, a dish, contains the warmth of the Miao hospitality.

When the season is over, the people will be able to enjoy the warm hospitality of the Miao.

Seasonal ingredients now pick now do, through the stone door in front of the stove to order, what vegetables in the garden to eat what vegetables. In the stone house, all the food is in season. Even quench the thirst of the tea with meals, also is the mountain spring water brewing local prickly pear fruit and become, sweet and sweet. When it comes to the meal time, the loud song of toast, hemp sister with a bowl of wine, on the table to greet the guests.

Thirty to forty dollars per person, can eat, eat well. Because of the honesty, the stone house guests are endless, old with new, repeat customers accounted for at least 70%, every day is the peak season. At most, a meal to receive more than 200 people at the same time.

Rice, vegetables, fruits and vegetables, fish and meat ...... hemp big sister contracted more than 380 acres of fields, please villagers to grow and raise. In addition to her own vegetable garden, at least half of the ingredients for Stone House come from the homes of villagers in her General Military Camp community. Ms. Ma signed a contract with the villagers for a fixed supply of local pork, and piglets are bought by Ms. Ma herself and handed over to the villagers' homes to raise. Every year, in the fall when the rice-fish harvest, Ma big sister to 2 high price to buy the villagers' home rice-fish.

With the hemp sister "stone house" as a leader, to drive and guide the development of nearby villagers in the Miao village ecological aquaculture industry. In order to solve the villagers' lack of technology and worries, she asked the farmers must use sweet potatoes, rice bran, corn and other grains to feed livestock, ask the technician to provide free technical services throughout the whole process, and to purchase at a higher price than the market price.

The waiters in her restaurant are also villagers who are idle at home in the neighborhood. Ms. Ma's stone house restaurant invited 18 neighboring Miao left behind the elderly, disabled and women villagers as helpers, so that these illiterate Miao women around the neighborhood, directly at home to work to earn money.

Dare to be the first sister Ma, adhere to the Hmong food culture and customs, while doing research, the Hmong flavor food to the world's customers, so that she became famous, but also let the stone house out of the mountains, to the outside world.

The daughter and son of the owner of the stone house, Ms. Ma, are my students. Now grown up, followed by his mother to run this Miao family characteristics of the farmhouse, mother and son to play this farmhouse, earning a lot of money.

In Lunar New Year, the stone house hemp sister's son made a special trip to the county, said he had taught several teachers and students, to participate in the patty cake festivities held by his organization, patty cake, write spring couplets, the site was distributed to the passing pedestrians and tourists, that day, wherever pedestrians and tourists come to his farmhouse, are as friends, invited the group to taste the long table feast of the Miao family, together with the drink of the Miao family rice wine, together with the eat the Miao family salted meat.

Patty cake is an important custom of the Miao people. Since the 18th day of the 12th lunar month, the Miao people have started to make patties. When we were children, whether we had a good New Year's Eve or not depended on how many buckets of rice we had made from the patties. When we went to our mother's and uncle's house to pay New Year's visit in the Spring Festival, picking up one or two quarts of patties was a great respect to our mother's and uncle's house. Especially the new daughter-in-law, the first Spring Festival back to his mother's home to pay tribute to the New Year, did not pick up two quarts full of patties, the Miao family will be judgmental, either the in-laws of the small family, can not afford; or in-laws of the family is really difficult, can not afford to play three or five buckets of patties.

On that day, my wife and I were invited to the Stone House to join our students in organizing a patty cake festival. At the long dragon feast in the stone house, we drank together Ma Daisy's own brewed bao gu yao and glutinous rice wine, and ate large pieces of her smoked bacon, preserved geese and preserved fish ......

The stone house, with its Miao specialties, had the flavor of our youth and the sweetness of our love... ...

That day, I was drunk. Drunk in the flavor of bacon, drunk in the mellow aroma of rice wine, drunk in the beautiful memories, drunk in the strong feelings of the countryside.

I think: the stone house and hemp sister and her children - our students, their heart and blood, sweet and bitter has melted into this stone house, became a bright landscape in the Miao village.