The Beijing Winter Olympics are being held, and the Chinese people's understanding of ice and snow sports has stepped onto a new level. However, few people know that human skiing started in China's Snow Capital and Xinjiang's Altay. The Dundeblak Ski Hunting Petroglyphs dating back 12,000 years reveal the "past life" of skiing in the Altai Mountains.
On February 5, more than 160 Chinese and foreign reporters from the 2022 Beijing News Center interviewed the important project of cultural activities of the Beijing Winter Olympics - "Chinese Treasures - Chinese Intangible Cultural Heritage and Arts and Crafts Exhibition". The author met The National Non-Hereditary Qiao Longbat Alexian, who showed the charm of the ancient vertical wind instrument of the Mongolian Khur, but also introduced his hometown of Altay as the "origin of human skiing".
The flames of the Beijing Winter Olympics lit up every snowflake that made up the torch stand, and also illuminated the eyes of Diniger Yilamujiang. As one of the two post-00 Chinese athletes who put the last torch directly on the main torchbearer, she has realized her Winter Olympic dream from the "birthplace of human skiing".
Diniger Yilamujiang, 20, is a Uighur girl born in the Altay region of Xinjiang in the northwest corner of her homeland. In 2005, a petroglyph of the Altai Mountains ancestors riding snowboards and holding a single pole ski hunt was discovered in her hometown, and experts speculate that it is about 10,000 years old, or even earlier. Since then, Altay's view of being the "birthplace of human skiing" has gained wider recognition.
This petroglyph, after years of erosion, has different shades of color, some red, some dark red, belongs to the painted petroglyph. Joron Barthes Alexian introduced that these painted petroglyphs were ground into powder by the ancestors of iron natural minerals, mixed with animal blood and plant juices, and then mixed with animal gelatinous adhesives, using fingers or animal hair as tools to paint directly on the rock surface. The stable chemical properties of iron ore powder pigments and the strong adhesion permeability of animal gelatin have preserved the color and image of painted petroglyphs to this day.
Pictured: Dundebulak ski hunting petroglyph in Altay Khan Degat Township, Xinjiang.
The "Ski Hunting Painted Rock Paintings" intuitively presents the real picture of the ancestors using snowboards to hunt. The Altay region has high mountains and thick snowfall, with snowfall of more than 6 months per year, and the unique geographical and climatic conditions make the life of the locals inseparable from skiing. The people of KhanDegat Township, where the petroglyphs are located, are the Wulianghai tribe, whose ancestors used a kind of "fur skis" to tie their feet and carry a single wooden stick through the snow-capped old forests to hunt wild animals. In other words, the earliest skis are actually "sheepskin".
After introducing his hometown, Qiao Long Bart Alexian also performed a unique national traditional art to Chinese and foreign journalists: blowing and playing The Earl. Mongolian Tuer is an ancient vertical wind instrument of the Mongolian Tuvan people in Xinjiang, one of the oldest art forms of the Mongolian people, which retains more of the elements of primitive singing, and is a long-standing echo from the depths of national memory, which is closely related to the history and culture of the Mongolian people.
The raw material of The Tyr, a local grass called Zanath, is hollow. Joron Barthes said that because of the hollow nature, the gas blown out of the pipe will come out through the chamber, which is difficult for ordinary people to grasp. The most difficult thing about blowing is that it can't blow, the biggest feature is harmony, you can blow out two or three tones at the same time, one tone and another tone come out at the same time, just like a mountain stream gushing spring, blocking can not be blocked, this is the most magical place of Qi'er, three holes, five tones, but can blow out the sound of nature.
Interestingly, the only way to make the Tyr is to use the Zanat grown in the Altai Mountains, and not anywhere else. "There used to be musicians who studied Tsuna, and asked me to help send some Zanath seeds, and the seeds were sent over, but the Zanat they planted was either solid, or because the fertilizer grew very high, or the pipe wall was particularly thick and could not be used." Joron Barthes said frankly.
Pictured: Beautiful Xinjiang Altay.
It is reported that the China Arts and Crafts Museum and the China Intangible Cultural Heritage Museum opened on February 5, and Qiao Longbart has nearly 10 performances here every day and receives nearly 2,000 visitors every day, which is very hard. At the entrance of the venue, there is a ski-themed sculpture that introduces the story of Xinjiang Altay as the "origin of human skiing". Joron Barthes said: "I didn't feel hard. With the help of the East Wind of the Beijing Winter Olympics, we hope that more people will know about the intangible cultural heritage of Qiu'er, and we also hope that more people will come to Altay to experience the most authentic skiing. ”
Column Editor-in-Chief: Chen Hua Text Editor: Chen Hua Title Image Source: Chen Hua
文内插图：新华社、阿勒泰新闻网、陈华 等 Source: Author: Chen Hua