Your hat made of black lambs,
Can I wear it?
Your rose-like lips,
Can I kiss?
- Uyghur folk songs
Desert and roses seem to be two unrelated concepts, but in Xinjiang, you can see both the dead and silent Taklamakan Desert and the roses that bloom with vitality of life on the side - this is the special beauty of Hetian in southern Xinjiang, the beauty of the widening of heaven and earth, the beauty of time and space dislocation, and the beauty of contrast to the limit.
In Yutian County, on the southern edge of the Taklamakan Desert, growing roses has become an industry.
The abundant light and heat resources here provide excellent conditions for the growth of roses, and if you visit the Rose Village, you will definitely admire the wonderful creation of nature.
Fragrant rose bazaar
The famous British poet and writer Eliot famously said, "Roses will never fall from the sky, and if you want more roses, you must grow them yourself." ”
I don't know how the Wada people will feel when they see this sentence, and whether they will feel that "of course you have to plant it yourself!" ”
In the fields where roses are planted in Hotan, one blooming rose after another is hidden among the dense foliage, but no matter how lush the branches and leaves are, they cannot hide the dazzling red and overflowing fragrance of the roses. The girls put roses on their sideburns, carried a basket, and stood in the rose field picking roses, so the girl who picked the roses also became roses.
In the countryside of Hotan at the turn of spring and summer, it is often seen: girls holding roses, smelling as they walk, and young men and even white-bearded old men have bright roses in their ears and hats.
A peasant who was tired of work went to the rose garden next to him and picked a rose casually, put it under his nose and smelled it, as if he had regained his spirit, waved Kanturman and went to work again.
Every year in late May and early June, a grand rose bazaar appears in the folk of Hotan, Xinjiang.
The square of Noda, crowded, purple and red, the aroma is impressive, men, women and children are immersed in the sea of rose petals, very atmospheric.
In the rose bazaar, it will feel as if you have fallen into the world of flowers, and the enthusiasm of the roses is overwhelming.
Everyone in the bazaar, whether local residents or tourists from outside, do the same thing – holding one or two roses up to their noses and sniffing deeply.
They closed their eyes slightly, looking intoxicated. Don't think that only girls love roses, there are many old men, boys, little boys with white beards who hold roses and smell deeply...
Large flocks of roses paint the most intuitive field style painting of the monotonous and lonely Taklamakan Desert.
Who says roses can only be viewed?
Shakespeare once said, "The rose is beautiful, but we think that what makes it more beautiful is the fragrance it contains." ”
However, the Wada people are only satisfied with the beauty and fragrance of the rose, but want to occupy it all.
Flying to the left over a rose,
Flying to the right over a rose,
The nightingale in the two roses began to sing...
This is the flying rose and the dreamy rose in the Hetian folk song. But the biggest difference between Hetian people and outsiders treating roses is that outsiders like the fragrance and external charm of roses, but Hetian people like all of roses, from the inside to the outside, from the flowers to the roots, from the appearance to the essence.
The Hetian people plant roses, ornamentation is not the main purpose, the so-called "beautification of life" is also unconscious.
Li Yinping, an archaeologist living in Hotan, said that Uighurs grow roses mainly to "smell" and "eat," not to "see."
Can you still eat roses? Of course, in addition to loving to see flowers, Hotan people also love to eat flowers, drink flowers, and use flowers.
How to eat it?
One: pick fresh roses and make rose sauce to eat;
Second: made of roses to make wine, the taste is sweet, the aftertaste is endless;
Third: soak the rose in warm water for bathing;
Fourth: use the best fresh rose petals to process and extract rose essential oil, improve mood, regulate the body, and maintain the spleen and stomach;
Fifth: make rose sauce, rose pastries;
Sixth: use rose buds into medicine to replenish blood and nourish qi;
Seventh: brew tea with rose buds, Hetian rose tea, the color is positive and the taste is long, light and fragrant.
Among them, the use of roses to make wine is a major invention of the Hotan people, and it is also a clear proof of their imagination.
Wine and rose were originally two concepts, but in Hotan they achieved a perfect fusion. The rose into the wine began with the mussels, the most original wine in the Western Regions, which has a history of more than a thousand years.
A spice expert from Paris, France, came to Visit Hotan and was surprised when he learned that the local wine is made from roses: "Ah, it is too luxurious to use roses to make wine!" The local rose wine maker replied: "We just want to be so luxurious, because this is the Hotan where roses are produced!"
"Romantic to death"
The French poet Lamartine has a brilliant saying in his Butterfly: Born with spring light, dead like a rose.
Like French poets, after the death of the local Uyghur elderly in Hotan, they must also be cleaned with rose water before they can be buried, and I wonder if it is possible to use the popular "romantic to death" on the Internet to describe this Hetian-style romance.
This reminds me of a song that has been in the dust of memory for a long time, that is, Xu Song's "The Funeral of the Rose" released in July 2006, presumably this song has left a mark in many of the post-90s youth like me, and it is also one of the "non-mainstream" divine comedies of that year.
One of the choruses is
I don't know what kind of imagination and mood Li Yijie from Hong Kong (the songwriter) wrote this text, has he ever come to Hotan? And understand the burial customs here?
It's more likely to be just a romantic coincidence.
Part of the article is excerpted from:
"Hetian Rose" by Shen Wei
"Hotan Rose - The Romantic Flame of Desert Gas" by Quan Pengfei
"Rose Village on the Edge of the Desert" by Dai Jiangnan
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