In July 2018, Sobin, a deer Evenk man, used a "deer whistle" to summon a herd of deer.
In March 2021, Mani, a deer Evenk, and his daughter Ao Na's family searched for herding reindeer in the hinterland of Daxing'anling.
In October 2019, the Ewenke people of the deer were happy to feed the reindeer bean cake in the dense forest.
In July 2018, the Ancient Revolutionary Army of the Evenk people searched for reindeer scattered in the dense forest.
Aoluguya is an Evenk word meaning "a place where poplar trees flourish".
At the beginning of 2011, by chance, I came to Aoluguya Evenk Nationality Township in Inner Mongolia to conduct an interview and shoot. The Evenk are one of the 56 ethnic groups in China. Due to the differences in the natural environment and production practices, the Evenk people are divided into agricultural Evenk people, animal husbandry Evenk people, and Lu Lu Evenk people. In the middle of the 17th century, the Lu evenk migrated from the Baikal basin to the Erguna River Valley, and gradually settled in the dense forests of the Daxing'an Mountains.
I was moved by the primitive, mysterious and unique cultural atmosphere revealed in the production and life of the Lu evenk people. Over the next ten years, I traveled dozens of times to Aoluguya to document the only reindeer tribe in China.
One
Winters in Daxing'anling are long and cold, with minimum temperatures below minus 50 degrees Celsius and snow thicknesses often reaching more than 1 meter in mountain forests. In such a harsh natural environment, the Deer Evenk people rely on hunting and raising reindeer to live a self-sufficient mountain forest life. Eating animal meat, wearing animal skins, and living in the dense forest with traditional "plucked luozi", thus forming a unique national culture and way of life. Over the long course of history, the reindeer culture created by the Evenk people with wisdom and hands occupies a special place in the culture of the cold temperate region.
After the founding of New China, under the care of the party and the state, the living conditions of the Lu'ewenke people have been greatly improved. In 1965, the Evenk people ended thousands of years of nomadic and hunting production and began a settled production lifestyle.
With the acceleration of modern civilization, the population of the Lu evenk people and their living environment have undergone tremendous changes. In August 2003, the first batch of deer Evenk and their reindeer were relocated from the hinterland of Daxing'anling to a new site in Aoluguya Evenk Nationality Township on the outskirts of Genhe. However, the survival of reindeer has extremely special requirements for water quality and food, and cannot be grazed under the mountain. The Evenk people are faced with a choice between modern life and reindeer culture passed down from generation to generation.
Maria So was the one who stayed at that time. Now 101 years old, she is known as the "last chief" by her people and has lived in the forest for a lifetime. For her, the forest and the reindeer were her whole life and sustenance. She said that as long as there are tribal elders and reindeer in the Daxing'anling mountain forest, there will be an ancient reindeer civilization. After ecological migration in 2003, a small group of Evenk deer followed Maria So, who was in her 80s at the time, on the mountain.
In this way, the older generation made the deer Evenk people choose the mission, returning to the forest with an ancient hunting culture and reuniting with the reindeer, while the younger generation followed the trend and gradually integrated into modern life. Today, there are still a small number of deer Evenk who accompany reindeer to live in the dense forests of the hinterland of the Daxing'an Mountains and live a nomadic life. They have also become the only people in China to raise reindeer and preserve their reindeer culture.
Two
Reindeer is an animal that grows in harsh cold areas and is known as the "Boat of the Forest". In China, they mainly grow in the cold and moist places in the western foothills of the Daxing'an Mountains, mainly feeding on a kind of moss in the primeval forest. In order to solve the problem of foraging for reindeer, the deer Evenk people had to migrate frequently, and this is still the case today. During the alternating seasons of winter, spring and spring and autumn, they migrate along a fixed route, often in areas where reindeer eat moss abundant, surrounded by mountains, and distributed by rivers. Today, there are seven or eight "hunter points" on this route, which are the residences of the Evenk people who migrated.
The reindeer in the forest are free and unrestrained, sometimes running far away to forage for food and returning home for a few days. There are also those who are lost, or even trapped by hunting traps, and need to wade through mountains and waters to get them back. The road conditions in the hinterland of the Daxing'anling Primitive Forest are extremely poor and there is no communication signal, coupled with weather factors, it is not easy to find deer, but no matter how harsh the environment, the deer Evenk people will also go to look for it.
Reindeer are an important part of the world of faith and sacrifice of the Evenk people, and are also the main source of their production activities and source of income. Dawa is a major farmer here, and the couple has nearly 200 reindeer. For so many years, they had been in the forest, with reindeer, living a life of near isolation.
As an "outsider", in order to integrate into the daily life of a people, I realized that we must build enough trust in each other, from language translation to leading the way, I have the support of many local friends. When photographing portraits of the Lu Evenk people, He Xie often provides us with some help within our ability.
He Xie, 56, is the son of Maria So. He Xie is very industrious and capable, and is a leading figure among the hunters. He shared his mother's affection for the forest and reindeer. In his free time, he often picks up the harmonica he carries with him and plays a moving melody for us. Once, the shotgun and the harmonica were he Xie's two treasures, and after putting down the shotgun, the harmonica never left his side. I couldn't understand their language, but I could clearly feel his emotions from the sound of his harmonica. "Those fathers who resolutely returned to the mountains and forests for the survival of the reindeer made me unforgettable and touched." He Xie once said to me.
Three
In the early records of the Evenks, shotguns, wild deer whistles, and birch bark boats used to hunt the Evenks can be seen. Although they have all been dusted in history, understanding the national culture through images is intuitive, accurate and concrete, which can provide very good historical records and academic research materials for future generations. The hunting culture and shamanistic culture formed by the Lu evenk people in the production practice of thousands of years are extremely unique, and they are the brilliant treasures of the mainland national culture.
For me, a visit many years ago gave me the idea and opportunity to leave this precious cultural heritage in the medium of video. With the help of a large-format camera and classical wet plate craftsmanship, I took the portraits of the 34 most representative people who made the Evenk people, documenting the unique cultural and living traditions of the Evenk people. I hope that this image creation will contribute to the future research of anthropologists and historians and the inheritance and protection of intangible cultural heritage.
As of 2021, there are 316 Evenk people in Aoluguya Evenk Ethnic Township, 211 deer tribes, and more than 1,200 reindeer. Aoluguya Evenk Ethnic Township has also become a window for people to understand the Evenk people, and some of the Evenk people who live here have developed ethnic tourism to spread and continue national culture in another form.
In 2021, I came to Aoluguya again, this time, still in large black and white portraits, but the protagonist is "the new era of the deer Evenk people". From the primeval forest to modern life, from history to the contemporary, I want to use large-format portraits to present the inner changes that have made the Evenk people of Lu evenk for half a century.
Born in 1950, Mani was one of the earliest ethnic cadres in Aoluguya Evenk Nationality Township, and her son Sheluka, born in 1981 in Minzu Township, achieved excellent results from an early age, and after graduating from university, worked for a multinational enterprise in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, as a senior manager. At the same time as working, Sherouka will also work with her mother Mani to carry out conservation work such as the collection of basic vocabulary of the Aoluguya Evenk language.
There are many more young people like Sharuka. Unlike the older generation of evenks, these new generations of evenks are no longer associated with reindeer and forests, but they still have the cultural bloodline of the evenks.
(The photo taken in this article was taken from 2013 to 2021, and the shooting location is Daxinganling, Inner Mongolia)