In the 1970s, when the Moxi people were first discovered, the tribesmen did not know that the country they lived in was called Ethiopia, which was similar to the sentence in the "Peach Blossom Origin": "I don't know if there is a Han, no matter Wei and Jin."
According to statistics, there are only five or six thousand people left in the Mosi tribe, and they live by herding cattle. Livestock and food are the "hard currency" of the market, and sometimes they exchange guns, hides, ivory, bees and other items with the outside world. They have their own language, but no written language, so communicating with the outside world is difficult.
Legend has it that the Mosi woman holds a ceramic plate on her lower lip in order to turn herself into an ugly monster, and this method of "self-harm" is only to prevent other tribes from robbing female slaves. I'd rather live ugly than be a beautiful and melancholy slave.
Once the customs are formed, it is very difficult to change them. The huge ceramic plate is put on the lower lip, which can effectively protect their personal safety. Gradually, the aesthetic standards of the Mosi people changed, and the crossed lips became a symbol of bravery and beauty.
If you don't cross your lips, even the most beautiful girls can't get married, and they can't get a rich dowry, and a decent and happy married life is even more a fool's dream. Just like european women's corsets, in order to live a happy life in the future, "Moxi" girls have no choice but to endure huge psychological pressure and physical pain, starting from the age of 15 - cross lips.
Artificially changing the physiological structure is, of course, very painful. Refer to the ancient female foot binding on the mainland.
Moxi maidens "pan lips", first of all, you have to prepare a "lip plate", the plates are mostly pottery, different sizes. Girls must shed tears, penetrate the lower lip, bloody "meat hole" just to hold the plate, it depends on their ability to bear, if the scale of tolerance for pain is larger, then the plate can be one size larger.
If you can't stand it, you can only start with the small lip plate. As time passes, the lip disc can get bigger and bigger. It is said that the larger the lower lip is propped up, the more the girl's parents receive a bride price. Driven by interests, the girls have a little courage and comfort. In order to wear the lip plate, many young girls have paid for their precious lives, not only to endure a long ordeal, but also to carefully wipe the wound to avoid infection and ulceration.
The lip plate is alive, usually worn, and taken off when eating and drinking, similar to a pair of dentures. If you wear a plate, you look used to it, and suddenly remove it, just like losing your dentures in an instant. There was no plate support, and the soft collapsed lower lip, hunched over the chin, was even more frightening.
Of course, not all women in the tribe have the right to carry such a large plate, and only the daughters of prominent families are eligible to "cross their lips".