Original title: Approaching the "reindeer tribe"
Liu Xia feeds bean cakes to reindeer at her home in the Daxing'anling forest area. Photo by Wang Wei
Zhao Yilin grew up learning to herd reindeer from his parents, and now a postman in Beijing, he still insists on making traditional Evenki birch bark handicrafts in his spare time. Photo by Wang Wei
In the Daxing'anling forest area of Inner Mongolia, the Guge Army used trucks to "move" reindeer. Photo by Wang Wei
Anta Bu makes deerskin handicrafts in his residence at the new site of the Evenk Ethnic Township in Oluguya. Photo by Wang Wei
Suo Guoguang built the traditional residence of the Luowen people in the mountains and forests of the Daxing'an Ridge. Photo by Wang Wei
In the Aoluguya Evenk Ethnic Township, Suo Yulan makes the traditional delicacy "Leba" of the Luowen people in the "Puluozi". Photo by Wang Wei
In the Daxing'anling forest area of Inner Mongolia, Dawa draws water from under the ice. Photo by Wang Wei
In the Daxing'anling forest area of Inner Mongolia, Sobin uses "deer whistles" in the hinterland of the primeval forest to attract deer. Photo by Wang Wei
Mao Dun Literature Award-winning novel "The Right Bank of the Erguna River" tells the survival history of the Deer Evenk people in the Daxing'an Ridge in the voice of the last female chief of the tribe, bringing this primitive tribe who lives by hunting and herding reindeer into the field of vision of more people.
In 2011, I came to Genhe City, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region to interview and shoot, and was moved by the unique cultural atmosphere of the Lu Evenk people. Over the next 10 years, I used large-format cameras and classical wet-plate techniques to capture more than 30 representative portraits of the Evenks of the Deer, documenting the present and past of the only surviving reindeer tribe in China.
The Evenki are one of the 56 ethnic groups in China, making the Evenki a branch of the Evenki ethnic group named for the herding of reindeer. In the middle of the 17th century, the Evenks migrated from the Baikal basin to the Erguna River basin and gradually settled in the dense forests of the Greater Khingan Mountains. Winters in the Greater Khingan Mountains are long and cold, with minimum temperatures below minus 50 degrees Celsius, and snow in the mountains and forests often thick more than 1 meter. For many years, the Evenks lived a self-sufficient life by hunting and herding reindeer in such harsh natural conditions. They eat animal meat, wear animal skins, and live in traditional "punzi", forming a unique way of life and national culture.
Reindeer, also known as "forest boats", are an important part of the world of faith for the Evenki people and an indispensable "partner" in their production activities. In order to solve the problem of reindeer foraging, the reindeer that grow in the western foothills of the Greater Khingan Mountains mainly feed on a moss species in the primeval forest, and in the winter-spring and summer-autumn seasons every year, the Evenk people migrate along a fixed route rich in moss, surrounded by mountains and extensive rivers.
After the founding of New China, under the care of the party and the state, the living conditions of the Luevenk people were greatly improved. In 1965, after extensive consultation with hunters, the government built more than 30 "woodcarved" houses on the banks of the Aoluguya River, about 17 kilometers away from Mangui Town, Genhe City, which were provided to hunters for free to live in, and relevant service guarantee units were established in accordance with the township structure. It was mainly inhabited by the elderly, women and children, and hunters remained in the forest to hunt and herd reindeer. In 2003, Oluguya Evenk Ethnic Township moved to the western suburbs of Genhe City. With the repeated changes of the place of residence, this people, who used to be accompanied by reindeer in the mountains and lived by hunting, gradually integrated into modern society from a relatively primitive state of production and life.
In order to make the lives of hunters living in the mountains, the government has introduced a series of support policies. Especially since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, governments at all levels have focused on solving problems such as difficulty in eating, going to school, walking, housing, and seeing a doctor for Evenki hunters, and promoting industrial development and poverty alleviation. Today, there are still a few people who choose to stay in the mountains, and the younger generation is more likely to go to the city through education and employment.
In 2021, I set off again, still using photography, but the protagonist is "the Evenks of the new era", and the shooting locations have also expanded to Beijing, Suzhou, Shenyang and other places. From the primeval forest to the modern life, the gentle, warm, simple and enterprising personality of the Luevenk people, as well as the cultural habits of loving their homeland and guarding traditions, have never been extinguished by the passage of time.
(Author: Wang Wei, this group of works is the National Arts Foundation Young Art Creation Talent Funding Project "China's Last Reindeer Tribe - Ao Lu Guya") (Wang Wei)
Responsible editor: Xiaoyun