On the winter night of Daxing'anling, the night is as deep as black ink, and everything is as calm as a mystery. In temperatures of more than 40 degrees below zero, everything seems to have been frozen into ice. When you see the dim light emitted from the Aoluguya Evenk Reindeer Culture Museum in the distance, it feels like you are about to walk into a warm hut deep in the forest.
Walking into the museum, the root carved reindeer stands quietly in front of you, the size of a real reindeer, and the long horns are like growing branches. It stares back, its eyes gentle and innocent, always giving people a faint sense of sadness, is it worried about the distant forest, or missing the days of running freely?
Speaking of museums, what does it feel like? It is a heritage, a preservation, and a memorial, and it is precisely because of this attribute that people feel that what can be placed in the museum is always related to the past — either has disappeared or is about to disappear. The Evenk, who originally migrated from Russia to the Daxing'an Mountains in order to survive, have changed over the course of more than 300 years, and now the former reindeer tribe is slowly disappearing.
The simulated scenes in the museum truly recreate the life of the Evenk people in the forest. More than 300 years ago, the Evenk people migrated from Siberia and lived on the banks of the Erguna River, in the northern part of the Daxing'an Mountains, shooting and hunting, wearing animal skin clothing, living in birch bark houses, and raising reindeer. The days are hard, but unrestrained.
Life in the forest makes the Evenk people simple and desireless, coexisting with nature and animals, guarding the same vibrant homeland.
Reindeer are an integral part of evenk life. Reindeer are known as "Oren" among the Evenk tribes, and they follow the Evenk through forests and swamps, are the main means of production and transportation, and are known as the "Boat of the Forest Sea". The Evenk people are always accompanied by reindeer, and regard it as a symbol of auspiciousness, happiness, and enterprising, as well as a symbol of the pursuit of beauty and lofty ideals.
The variety of hunting and living tools is eye-opening, and these hunting knives, tin cans, and leather bags, which are rarely found in modern cities, depict the daily life of the Evenk people. They are accompanied by forests, have no permanent residence, and migrate throughout the year in the mountains and forests; they make cups, chairs or boxes out of birch wood, all supplies are made from nature, life is monotonous but simple, and they have the freedom that urban people envy.
In 2003, for various reasons, the Evenk people began to emerge from the forest and moved into modern houses, the memory of the forest slowly disappeared. Since then, the spiritual world of the Evenk people has been divided into two halves. Half stayed on the mountain with the older generation, while the other half was submerged in the modern world of the Root River.
The days of the reindeer depicted on the animal skin and the reindeer are gradually drifting away. Modern people who have been domesticated by the city probably cannot understand the Evenk people's feelings for forests and mountains.
Chi Zijian said in "The Right Bank of the Erguna River": "When there is no road, we will get lost; when there is more road, we will also get lost, because we don't know where to go." There must always be an end to the story, but not everyone has an end. "For the Evenks, the epilogue may not yet be known, but for modern people, it may not be too late to get to know them now." (Welcome to like the comment area, more wonderful content, please pay attention to / fall into the list)