Why do Dulong women need tattoos?

Warm noodles, commonly known as "painting faces", is an ancient custom that the Dulong people who mainly live in Gongshan Dulong Nu Autonomous County in northwest Yunnan have followed for thousands of years. However, with the changes of the times and the replacement of civilizations, this ancient custom stopped 50 years ago. Up to now, there are only 62 tattooed women in this nation, the oldest is 108, and the youngest is 50. Therefore, their image and life are precious, and they are called the living fossils of Dulong. A few days ago, a female college student named Chen Muqiong from Jiangxi Normal University went in and out of northwest Yunnan alone, climbed Gaoligong Mountain, visited the little-known Dulong culture, and had face-to-face contact with the last tattooed girl.

After Chen Muqiong finished her trip to Dulong River, the reporter had a brief interview with her and wrote this manuscript in combination with her travel notes. Relying on these words and pictures, perhaps we can also satisfy a distant yearning and curiosity.

Dulong is a unique ethnic group in Yunnan and one of the least populous ethnic groups in China. At present, it has a population of more than 5,500 people, most of whom live in the narrow and closed canyon of Dulong River. Dulongjiang River is a river that originates in Chayu and flows southward between Gaoligong Mountain and Delika Mountain. For two-thirds of the year, the mountain is closed by heavy snow and completely isolated from the outside world. This is why this ancient and closed nation is curious. Expeditions, experts, scholars and tourists will keep coming here. In order to achieve their goals, they are not afraid of difficulties and dangers.

Gaoligong Mountain at an altitude of 5000 meters is the watershed between Nujiang River and Dulong River, and it is also the only place to go to Dulong River. 1999 After the completion of the highway from Gongshan to Dulongjiang, the 3-day hiking mileage of travelers has become an 8-hour drive. And this winding road is actually only 95 kilometers. "... away from the hustle and bustle of the city, there is a trace of peace and harmony, but in the calm, there is a steady stream of logistics going north to Dulong River.

It still performs the function of the northernmost distribution center in Yunnan and the ancient tea-horse road in Yunnan and Tibet. It is like an old woman coming from ancient times, but it has injected the vitality of a girl. She stands at the foot of Gaoligong Mountain, overlooking the southwest border of the motherland, listening to the voice of the Nujiang River, and doing her best for the cultural and economic exchanges between Tibet, Dulong, Nu and Han. In his travel notes, Chen Muqiong described Gongshan, a beautiful mountain city, which is located in the west of the World Natural Heritage Area, and the three rivers flow side by side.

Based on "a feeling for mountains in her bones", the girl took the train to the car for more than 70 hours and traveled more than 3,400 kilometers, reaching and successfully crossing Gongshan, which is adjacent to Myanmar in the west and * * * in the north. She went in and out of the dense forest and snowy areas in northwest Yunnan and the ancient tea-horse road alone, and "listened to the rainstorm all night until dawn" in Kongdang Town, Dulongjiang Township. With the continuous rain, Bryce William, an Australian next door, chose to sit on the floor of his room and read the Bible, while Chen Muqiong chose to look for the ancient Dulong along the dense forest path. Chen Muqiong checked the information and knew that it almost rains in Dulong River in summer.

After suffering from the continuous "harassment" of leeches, Chen Muqiong came to Xianjiudang village in the upper reaches of Dulong River, where the custom of tattooing was mainly concentrated. She was a little nervous and tired, sitting on the floor of a small shop by the road, chewing compressed biscuits. The host beckoned her to drink boiled water. Li Wenqing, a 26-year-old Dulong native, studied in a middle school in Gongshan, knows Chinese and can speak nonstandard Mandarin. They started talking.

Li Wenqing said that Dulong people belong to the ancient Qiang people, and their national language is Dulong language of the Sino-Tibetan Tibeto-Burman language family. In the past, Dulong was at the end of primitive society, and a paternal family was a natural village, moving freely and farming freely within the family society.

Till 2000, slash-and-burn was still the main method. Because there is too little flat land in the canyon, extensive agricultural farming is still used on most hillsides, and gathering and hunting are also the main production methods. The book "Dulong in China Today" says that this nation is "a nation that doesn't need to lock the door" and has always maintained the social atmosphere of "don't close the door if you don't pick up the road at night". Tradition, valuing credit and keeping promises are their moral traditions.

What attracts most attention from the outside world is the custom of tattooing. Tattoos are limited to women and are called "Baktu" in Dulong language. Dulong people believe that everything in the world has a soul, and the custom of tattooing stems from an ancient belief. There are different opinions about the source of tattoos, some say it is to avoid being taken away as slaves by foreigners, some say it is to distinguish between men and women, and some say it is the worship of butterflies.

The patterns on the tattooed women's faces are all deformed butterflies-this beautiful creature bears the Dulong people's imagination of beauty. Moreover, the Dulong people believe that the dead soul of human beings will eventually become a variant of "Eight Kuiyi"-a big and beautiful butterfly, which can only be recognized with its own soul after tattoo death. This is probably the most beautiful legend about the origin of tattoos.

Li Wenqing readily agreed to Chen Muqiong's request to meet the tattooed woman, and was willing to be a guide and interpreter for Chen Muqiong. Together, they climbed a few hundred meters of cornfield hillside and visited two surviving tattooed grandmothers of Qidang Group in Xianjiudang Village. One of them has a nice name "Nan". She is 67 years old. Her face is blue, tattooed, her chin is vertically arranged, and her face is evenly arranged in dots. Another grandmother is 75 years old, short, dark-skinned, but tough. There is a Han nationality named Yang Xiulian, tattooed 13 years old. "It means that the girl is old enough to marry, and it is also to prevent foreigners from plundering."

In the upper and middle reaches north of Dulong River, regardless of clan or family, women's tattoos are basically the same. Girls must get tattoos before they get married. When tattooing, the girl washes her face first and then lies straight on the ground. The woman draws a pattern on the girl's face with a bamboo stick dipped in pot smoke water, and constantly hits the hard thorn on the thorn with a small wooden stick, pricks her face from top to bottom according to the pattern, and then rubs the tattoo repeatedly with pot smoke or a dark grass juice to make it penetrate into the skin. After a week or so, the redness disappeared and the blue-green pattern remained on the face forever.

Tattooing custom is mainly popular in one, two and three villages near Huarong area in the north of Dulong River, namely Long Yuan, Dulang, Xianjiudang and Kongdang. Some experts believe that it can be inferred from the geographical distribution of facial tattoos that facial tattoos are used to better prevent foreign plunder in areas threatened by looting. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the social system changed, ethnic groups were equal, looting was prohibited, and the painful tattoo custom of the beautiful Dulong girl was eliminated.

"... the confusion and incomprehension of the past vanished, and I found what I had hoped to pursue in the gloom, that is, the experience of life and the publicity of life. When I integrate my body and mind into nature and simple mountain people, I feel that life is so beautiful ... "Chen Muqiong lamented in her travel notes.

Times have changed and ideas have changed. With the death of tattooed old people (it is said that only a 70-year-old man is still alive), there are fewer and fewer tattooed women. At present, there are only about 30 people in Dulongjiang, and there are only 20 people with tattoos in the north of Jiudang Village, most of whom are 60-70 years old. Tattooed woman is the symbol of Dulong, known as the living fossil of Dulong. Some experts in folklore research are trying to explore and protect this ancient culture. Some tattoo artists in China also tried to come to the scene to rescue and excavate the tattoo custom, so as to leave this precious history.