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Originally published in Rural Youth Magazine, Issue 10, 2023
The beautiful "Tibetan Peach Blossom Spring"
Text / Hou Chaoyang
Danba County is located in the western part of Sichuan Province and is the east gate of Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, with an altitude of 1,700-5,500 meters. Due to the large difference in terrain, it has formed a different style of "one mountain has four seasons, ten miles of different days".
Tibetan style
Diaolou: The way home when I was a child
The peaks and peaks in Danba County are stacked, and the Dadu River runs through the whole territory from north to south, gushing out a deep canyon.
The ancient watchtowers of Danba, which are praised by foreign media as the "Oriental Pyramid", are mainly concentrated on both sides of the river valley and are integrated with the Tibetan dwellings. According to statistics, there are 562 watchtowers in Danba, and since the Tang Dynasty, it has been known as the "country of a thousand towers".
From the 6th to the 7th century AD, Danba County was the capital of the prototype of the daughter country of "Journey to the West" - "East Female Country". The Dongnu Kingdom was a tribal regime that followed a matriarchal social system. The "Old Tang Book" records: "women are valued over husbands" here. The husband of the queen of the Eastern Woman Kingdom is not in power, but is only responsible for foreign wars; The ministers were all women, and men were not allowed to serve in the imperial court, but could only serve in the military outside. Among the hundreds of ancient watchtowers in Danba, there is no lack of ancient relics that have survived from the period of the East Women's Kingdom.
Ancient Danba watchtowers
The early morning in Danba County is cloudy and misty, and the distant mountains are hazy. When I came to Suopo Township, which has the most existing ancient watchtowers, I could hear the sound of clanging knocking from the Tibetan village in the depths of the valley. An old man is restoring an ancient block, an old man in his 70s, a well-known carpenter and stonemason. Usually, as long as it is not the busy farming season, he and his apprentices will carry mud buckets and hammers in their hands to repair the ancient watchwall day after day. "Since I was 19 years old, working with stones and mud has become my daily routine." Uncle Mibadan said with a kind smile. The old man also proudly introduced: "Under the big rivers and rivers, the most important thing is stones. As early as thousands of years ago, during the period of the Eastern Women's Kingdom, the ancestors of our Jiarong Tibetan people used amazing perseverance to stack hundreds of pounds of stones layer by layer and build watchtowers. "Nowadays, whether you walk in the deep mountains and valleys of Danba or in the idyllic forests, wherever there are Tibetan villages, there are ancient watchtowers dozens of meters higher than the cottages. Against the backdrop of white clouds, blue skies and mountain peaks, they look very quaint and spectacular.
The ancient watchtower that adopts the "stacked stone technique" is a masterpiece of architectural art of Jiarong Tibetan. For thousands of years, these ancient towers that have applied the principles of building mechanics have withstood the test of war, wind and rain erosion, and earthquakes, and are still standing majestically! There are various forms of building in Danba ancient watchtowers, there are four corners, five corners, eight corners, thirteen corners and other types, and the four corners are the most common. Although they are made of only natural stone, wood and clay, they are exceptionally thick and strong. These gray-black buildings are upright and straight, with corners like blades, towering into the sky, like giant exclamation marks that have stood for thousands of years, mysterious and ancient, and evoking imagination.
The existing Danba watchtowers are mainly divided into four kinds: to pass the watchtower, the beacon fire tower, the walled towers and the home tower. The height is generally about 10-30 meters, and the height can reach 60 meters, which is equivalent to 20 floors. The initial role of the Danba watchtower was not a dwelling, the old man Mibadan said: "Historically, the Tusi of the various tribes of Danba often fought battles, and the initial role of the watchtower was to defend against the enemy. As he spoke, he placed sleepers between the walls of the ancient tower, which would make the walls neat and beautiful, and cushion the pressure caused by the earthquake.
The local elders worship the ancient towers of Danba very much, and regard these thousand-year-old buildings as the pride of the nation. "When I was a child, my grandmother told us that as long as we saw the watchtowers in the village, we could find our way home. ”
Tibetan Village: Amazing Jiaju
Located in Danba Nie Xia, Jiaju Tibetan Village, 8 kilometers away from the county seat, has been rated as the first of the "six most beautiful rural ancient towns in China" by China National Geographic magazine. Jiaju means "hundred households" in Tibetan.
Jiaju Tibetan Village climbs up from the Dajin River valley and extends to the foot of the Kapama peaks. The whole cottage is continuous according to the undulating mountain terrain, and on the slope of the mountain with a drop of nearly a kilometer, Tibetan-style buildings are scattered among the green trees. They are scattered all over the place, or densely packed, or on the high mountain cliffs, or among the green fields of the river dams, from time to time, the smoke curls and clouds are swirling, and the valleys full of spiritual energy, clear streams, and snow-capped peaks show the idyllic picture scroll in front of people's eyes...... It is no wonder that some tourists who have come to Jiaju Tibetan Village exclaimed, "I have found the peach blossom source in my heart".
Jiaju Tibetan Village
Jiaju Tibetan Village has completely preserved the characteristics of Jiarong dwellings, each family lives in a wooden and stone structure of the walled building, and the building materials and skills are inherited from the ancient ancestors, so it maintains a traditional and simple style. Generally, the walled buildings sit in the north and face south, some are in groups of three or five and lean on each other, and some are far away from the group of buildings and are independent. Each walled building is 3-5 floors, covering an area of about 200 square meters and 15 meters high. The walls are white or earthy, and the timber frame and eaves are red.
Every year on the eve of the Spring Festival, the owners of the walled houses will also use plant dyes to turn the mud white according to traditional customs, and carefully paint the walls of their walled houses. Men, women and children worked together to dress up the entire Tibetan village in white costumes! The bottom house of the first house is the livestock pen, and the top is the pot room, the storage room, the living room, the scripture hall and the corner tower. The second and third floors have patios and open-air balconies respectively. Most of the dwellings are built on the back of the mountains and waters, and the sun is sheltered from the wind, and the independent courtyard is planted with apples, pomegranates, peppercorns and other trees. Outside the house, on the hillside and flat field, fruit trees and crops such as barley, rapeseed, corn, and potatoes are planted. In spring, rape flowers, peach blossoms, and pear blossoms will bloom in turn, and Jiaju Village is as beautiful as a picture scroll of Danqing under the changes of morning light, daylight, and sunset.
What is surprising is that the watchtower and the walled house were originally two different styles of architecture, but they can be integrated in Danba. Standing high and overlooking the distance, the green mountains are like daisies, the emerald grass, green trees and fields are hidden between the ancient towers and walled buildings, and the clear stream flows through the front and back of the house, which is amazingly beautiful.
Idyllic scenery and Tibetan dwellings
When I came, the weather was warm, the pear blossoms in Koju had already bloomed, and the apple blossoms were in full bloom all over the mountain. Under the apple tree in the collector's courtyard, an old man played the "Zha Mu Nian" (six-stringed harp), and several men and women sang and danced the "pot village", which made the children giggle. And in the mountain forest not far away, large fields of rhododendrons are blooming. Summer is its flowering season, and the fragrance of flowers is overflowing all the way. Rhododendrons, early cherry blossoms, pineapples, Ganoderma lucidum on the mountain, as well as countless strange flowers and plants compete for beauty, visitors all sigh "so beautiful"!
The people of Danba love flowers and beauty, and their yards and balconies are full of colorful flowers. Every year in June and July is the Jiarong Tibetan Flower Festival, which the locals call "Ruomuni", which means "to gather in the wild and enjoy the natural scenery" in Tibetan. The start time of the flower festival is different, and it is necessary to ask the monks to speculate and determine; While enjoying the flowers, people also have to worship the Murdo Sacred Mountain, which is more than 5,100 meters above sea level.
Beauty: The girl never applies powder
Legend has it that many years ago, a phoenix flew to the Murdo Sacred Mountain in Danba County and turned into thousands of charming beauties. Since then, the canyon village at the foot of Mount Murdo has become a place of beautiful women.
"Beauty Valley" is located in Badi Township, about 26 kilometers away from Danba County, and is famous for producing beautiful women. The local girls almost never use powder, nor do they use fancy clothes to dress up, but only a little grooming after farming and grazing. They are born with ice muscles and jade skin, and their slender bodies are tactful. The polishing of long-term labor did not make the girls rough, but gave them a healthy beauty full of charm.
A Danba girl who participates in the flower festival
The height of men in the "Beauty Valley" is generally more than 1.8 meters, and the height of girls is also about 1.7 meters, which is quite rare in Sichuan and even the whole country. Why is there a lot of tall, fair-skinned and beautiful girls here? According to expert research, after the Western Xia Kingdom was destroyed by Genghis Khan in 1227, a large number of imperial relatives and harem concubines fled from the northwest, and one of them crossed the Hexi Corridor of Gansu and flowed into the Danba area through the Aba grassland. The confrontation between the peaks and mountains of Badi Township, the vertical and horizontal silver waves, the pleasant climate, and the high mountains and deep valleys can also avoid disasters, so they stopped and multiplied here......
Born with "aristocratic blood", coupled with the fact that this side of the landscape is very nurturing, the local girls are dignified and elegant, slender and smart, and this place has become the famous "Beauty Valley".
It is worth mentioning that there are also natural hot springs scattered around the "Beauty Valley", which is connected by many Tibetan villages. These hot springs in the mountains and valleys are smoky all day long, and the water temperature is above 40°C. Because the spring water is rich in a variety of natural minerals, it has the effects of beauty and health care, blood circulation and blood stasis, which is also the reason why the local girls are like "water hibiscus".
During a trip to Beauty Valley, I once asked a beautiful girl reading a book on a hillside, "What is your name?" 'You are so beautiful' How do you say in Tibetan? "The beautiful woman blushed and told me that her name was Lausanne Meadow. Then, she bowed her head and reminded me, "Don't just praise a strange girl, you don't have to be shy (I don't know how shy)." Mei Duo shyly "educated" me and turned away. I looked at her back, and saw that she saw a broken piece of scripture blown down by the wind at the bottom of the hillside, and hurriedly bent down to pick it up, and then carefully pressed it with a stone. Spotting me staring at her from behind, she glared at me with a red face and quickly ran away.
In the afternoon of the same day, when I walked around the village to take pictures, I was fortunate to meet this simple and beautiful girl without makeup. When she came back from shopping, she jumped off the tractor and handed me a few unknown green fruits: "Here you go, tourists from afar." I was flattered, and while thanking her, I took out a small book of poems from my bag and gave it back to her. Can you write poetry? Meadow was pleasantly surprised.
I tasted the fruit given by the plum with a sweet heart, and I was so sour that I grinned. She didn't laugh like others, but rubbed her hands nervously and said, "Are you afraid of acid? I'm sorry, I didn't mean to. Why don't you have a cup of butter tea? In this way, I followed Mei Duo back to her home and tasted the cheese buns, yak yogurt and butter tea that she and my grandmother had brought out......
Magnificent natural scenery
When I left Danba, I was a little stunned to look at the pure sky and alpine meadows and the abundant sunshine; When I heard the love songs sung by men and women from the direction of the "Beauty Valley" and smelled the intoxicating aroma of barley wine, I didn't want to return to the noisy city and continue to live a "stressful" life.
"Go back and bring your family to Danba to experience the customs of ancient towers, Tibetan villages, and beauty valleys together!" I silently comforted myself in my heart and waved goodbye to this Tibetan peach blossom paradise.
Rural Youth Magazine
Source: Rural Youth Magazine, Issue 10, 2023
Final review: Lin Yuhong
Reviewer: Yang Ming, Liu Zhuying
Editor: Zhang Xiao