The train to Daliangshan

The green leather train carries the villagers in the depths of Liangshan Mountain and the chickens, ducks, geese, pigs, dogs and sheep under their feet, and takes them to a distant place in the secret world.

The 5634 train from Panzhihua to Puxiong via Xichang, the capital of Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture, is a green leather train painted dark green. The train window is not locked, so passengers can open and close it at will. )

The outside world's imagination of Daliangshan is steep terrain and barren and harsh natural environment. In this mountain, the mysterious and ancient Yi people lived in isolation for thousands of years. Not long ago, I finally had a chance to walk into this legendary secret place.

Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture is located at the junction of Sichuan and Yunnan in the southwest of Sichuan Province. Daliangshan is a branch of the Great Snow Mountain. The altitude of the mountain is not particularly high, generally two or three kilometers, and some peaks are nearly 4000 meters. During my visit to Meigu, Zhaojue and Butuo counties, I saw not only rolling hills, but also deep valleys and relatively flat mountains.

Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture is the largest Yi inhabited area in China. Regarding the ethnic origin of the Yi people, the mainstream view in academic circles is that the Yi people mainly originated from the ancient Qiang people. Yi nationality has a long history and is one of the oldest residents in southwest China. About 3000 years ago, Yi ancestors lived in Yunnan, Sichuan and Guizhou.

Sheep and shepherds returning at dusk in Mahong Village, Guluo Township, meigu county. )

The commercial exchanges between Liangshan and other regions can be traced back to the "Wuchi Road" built during the Warring States Period, which connects the Central Plains, Sichuan and Yunnan. Historically, Daliangshan, located in the hinterland of southwest mountainous areas, is a famous place, an important passage to Yunnan and Southeast Asia, and also the only place where the ancient "Southern Silk Road" passed.

Thousands of years have passed, and the ancient "Wuchi Road" has long been replaced by railways, national highways and expressways. The car is walking on the national highway, and you can see the high-speed railway under construction by the roadside.

Chengdu-kunming railway, which is rare in the world, meanders along the Dadu River, across Liangshan and in the deep valleys of the mountains. On the Chengdu-Kunming line, the two trains running between Puxiong Town, Yuexi County, Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture and Panzhihua, the "steel capital", are particularly different. The southbound 5633 train and the northbound 5634 train are all old-fashioned dark green painted green leather trains, connecting this ancient and mysterious world with the distance.

(In Jiagu Village, Tekou, Zhaojue County, villagers rushed cattle and sheep into the mountains in the morning. )

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I got on the green leather car from Mianning Station, walked between Mianning and Puxiong for more than 4 hours, and stopped at 14 station, many of which were small passing stations without grades. Hard-seat cars are crowded, so the seat number written on the ticket is naturally useless. There are people standing, squatting and sitting everywhere in train aisles, car joints and toilets.

This green leather train, which departs from Panzhihua and Puxiong every day, has the title of "poverty alleviation train". Yi folks from remote mountainous areas such as Zhaojue and Butuo boarded this low-priced local train with their chickens, ducks, geese, pigs, dogs and sheep, as well as small bags of potatoes, cabbages, fertilizers and other daily necessities. The railway authorities made an exception to allow these anomalous phenomenon, which are absolutely invisible on trains in other parts of China, to exist, and also made this green leather car a flowing corridor with Yi customs.

(The green leather trains that leave Panzhihua and Puxiong every day have the title of "poverty alleviation train". The Yi people in remote mountainous areas such as Zhaojue and Butuo use this low-priced local train to travel and purchase livestock, poultry and daily necessities. )

The train roared through long caves and tunnels. It was a Sunday afternoon and there were many young people on the bus. Those are students returning to school. Tired travelers don't seem to care much about cameras. I chatted with four junior high school girls. They are all in Grade One, and their home is in Xichang, but they go to school in Xide County, because their household registration is in Xide. I gave them two cans of yogurt, and the girl gave me a pack of oranges when I got off the bus.

In the crowded carriage, a boy carefully held his newly bought basketball shoes. A group of little boys are playing games and smoking at the junction of carriages. Three fifth-grade pupils look like junior high school students. One of them said to me, "Auntie, I haven't touched Apple (iPhone) 12 yet. Can I touch it? "

Walk to the front of the car, there are chickens and ducks on the floor, and there is a big bag of vegetables at the foot: zucchini, cabbage and broken ears. Vendors selling fruits, drinks and snacks pushed their way through the crowd with big baskets.

"Why go to Mianning to buy feed?" I asked an old lady with a basket of cocks. "The price there is good." She answered.

After the students got off at Xide Station, the carriage became a little empty, and I was finally able to find a seat. Opposite is a 28-year-old young mother who has three daughters. The eldest daughter goes to primary school in Xide.

"Still alive?" I asked her.

She hesitated for a moment. "We can't live without boys here."

(Mother and son of Modi village in Butuo county. )

There are two young people in the car who look like college students, sitting quietly watching the scenery. They come from Inner Mongolia and volunteer to teach at Puxiong Branch. Boys teach Chinese and girls teach art. They just got married last year.

When the bus arrived in Puxiong, it was completely dark, and the conductor was busy looking for someone to "pick up" the two sheep. At the front of this train, there is an animal-only carriage. Flight attendants of Chengdu Railway Bureau have been running this line for 20 years.

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Walking in Daliangshan, on the roadside of markets, villages and counties, you can often see some interesting scenes: "Bimo" and "Suni" are casting magic on customers. Bimo, instrument in hand, read aloud the sheepskin scriptures. Suni knocked an egg into a bowl and divined good or bad according to its special "image".

Liu Jie Town, Zhaojue County, is collected every eight days. The market is very lively, and people come from all directions to trade grain, pesticides, vegetables, corn seeds, fruits and clothing. Due to the scattered residence on weekdays, the market is also an important social place for local people. People came to the market wearing beautiful clothes, squatting and standing, chatting around the circle.

In front of a rooster stall, people buy a rooster home from time to time, probably to ask Bimo to do it. A young Jinyang Bimo told me that he earned 15 yuan, 150 yuan, 65438+100000 yuan at a time. I saw a bimo who had just put a spell on a client in Qiaotou, Butuo County, and politely declined the 50 yuan paid by the client.

("Bimo" dances with the long tune "Tianzun", knocking on the sheepskin tambourine and chanting scriptures. The background is a scripture written on parchment in Yi language. Some scholars have found that the ancient Yi language in China is the only surviving language among the six ancient Chinese characters in the world, and it is an important origin of world characters. )

Bimo is a priest in traditional Yi religion, and Suni is a wizard in Yi society. Suni's position in Yi society is not as good as Bimo's, and her income from religious activities is also lower than Bimo's.

Yi people believe in nature worship, totem worship, ancestor worship and animism. Bimo is also an intellectual among the Yi people, proficient in Yi language and classics, and also the inheritor and disseminator of Yi culture. Suni is for both men and women. They don't need to know the scriptures, and they don't have to recite the scriptures to host major sacrificial activities. Their main social functions are witchcraft, exorcism and healing.

The Yi people still retain many of their own cultural traditions, but these decades have witnessed more changes. At the end of 1950s, the Yi people in Xiaoliangshan, Sichuan and Yunnan completely destroyed slavery through the democratic reform movement, and the Yi society entered the socialist society "beyond the Millennium".

(Zhao Jue's way to Butuo, children on the way to school. )

When I visited the Yi area, I seldom saw people and animals living together. The original adobe house has been replaced by a neat brick house with an indigo steel roof. In Modi Township, Zhaojue County, villagers are planting corn with membrane technology. They hoe the furrows, sow seeds, water them and cover them with plastic film. Seeing me taking pictures, an old man came over and said in barely audible Mandarin, "Country, scientific development."

In Feitu Village, Butuo County, I visited the home of a Suni. She is cooking dinner, making a bowl of dough, cutting it into steamed bread slices with a knife and putting it in a big steamer. The villagers' houses are all decorated by the government, and the walls are plastered, painted and hung. Every family has exactly the same cabinets issued by the government. Although each family still has a fireplace, it has never been burned because there is a kitchen dedicated to cooking. You can see the flushing toilet in the toilet from the yard, and there are satellite dishes and solar water heaters on the roof.

(Tuojue Live Livestock Market in Butuo County is quite famous, with many vendors. )

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The peaks of Daliangshan Mountain are mostly round and flat, and there are few steep peaks. Pinus yunnanensis, Pinus massoniana, Picea, Abies and Pinus tabulaeformis grow on the mountain. Economic trees are planted in scattered flat land on the mountain, and the distant mountain is a terrace.

At the turn of winter and spring, the morning fog in Daliangshan is filled. In the fog, people wearing traditional Yi cloaks "Chalwa" are the most beautiful pictures.

Mahong Village in meigu county and Guluo Township is located in the depths of Daliangshan Mountain, with an altitude of 2,700 meters. Lush valleys are shrouded in mist all the year round, and undulating hillside terraces are dotted with cattle and sheep.

Early in the morning, people in twos and threes were carrying firewood and radishes. The radish harvested in autumn is hung on the characteristic "radish rack" in Daliangshan Mountain, dried in winter, taken home when it is green and yellow, and fed to cattle, sheep and pigs.

(In Mahong Village, Guluo Township, meigu county, a man tried to stand up with a radish on his back. )

The woman carrying the radish home only unloaded the radish and put it on the firewood shelf, and climbed to the mountain behind the village to cut firewood together. On the rocky loess mountain road filled with dense fog, men rushed cattle and sheep up the mountain, and flocks of cattle and sheep passed by. Standing on the top of the mountain, the neighing of cattle and horses came from the dense fog.

On the village road, four children skipped to school. Since the country began to get rid of poverty, it has invested heavily in building base stations in road networks, power grids, water networks, one village and one kindergarten, and the Yi people in Liangshan are getting closer and closer to the modern society.

The fields here are all open on the hillside, pieced together. In the strong midday sun, a young couple is pushing an electric plow to turn the ground, and their little daughter is playing in the field. The plow reached the edge of the terrace, and the young man almost died. He pushed the electric plow hard, and the woman pulled hard in front with a rope. On the rolling hillside, I was too busy taking pictures to stand still. The woman working on the terrace above reached out and pulled me up. That hand, very powerful.

(In Mahong Village, Guluo Township, meigu county, a young couple struggled to push an electric plow to turn over the ground, and their youngest daughter was playing in the field. )

In the village, you can see the red slogan "Green mountains and green waters, peace and prosperity", and there is a garbage collection room on the roadside, which is full of garbage. Solar street lamps are installed on the undulating village road, and there is a centralized recycling station for glass bottles at the entrance of the village, where the recycled bottles are neatly packed. The lifestyle of the mountain people in the depths of Daliangshan is undergoing profound changes.

There is a "cliff village" in Zhiermo Township, Zhaojue County. The village is built on the top of the mountain, with a vertical height of 800 meters. The villagers here have to climb ladders to keep in touch with the outside of the mountain for generations. A few years ago, after the villagers' travel difficulties were reported by the media, the local government funded the construction of a steel ladder leading to the top of the mountain, ending the history of Yi villagers climbing rattan ladders up and down the mountain, and many villagers easily moved to the county seat.

The steel ladder is solid, but the road of the steel ladder is still steep. Two steel pipes, slightly inclined inward, are steep and slippery to climb, and there are several sections of ladders that are almost 90 degrees vertical, which require both hands and feet to climb. I climbed for two hours, and it's still half way from the village. There is a couple on the steel ladder, with three children, big and small, carrying dozens of kilograms of drinks, food and sundries. When they walked for a while, they had to have a rest. Walking, the man is broadcasting live on his mobile phone.

At one time, the complex and steep terrain and traditional social concepts hindered the development here and isolated Daliangshan from the outside world. In today's Yi villages, people are exposed to many new things and concepts that have never been seen before through TV and mobile phones, and many dreams have also been born.

(The writer is Deputy Secretary-General of China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation. All the pictures in this article were taken by the author in Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province in March, 20021.