The ancient Wa people lived there.

The mountains are rolling and the clouds are flowing. In the mountains and forests of southwest Yunnan, there are hundreds of thousands of Wa people, a special ethnic group that has stepped into socialist society from tribal society. Say goodbye to slash-and-burn primitive farming methods and hunting life, and suddenly integrate into modern civilization, making everything that happened in Awa Mountain full of legend. "Every village is covered with gongs and drums, and the Wa people sing new songs ..." In the conflict between tradition and modern civilization, the Wa compatriots gradually adapt to the trend of the times with difficulty and determination. Thus, Ava Mountain left an epic and unforgettable story. Through the mountains and clouds in front of the mountain, the reporter came to Cangyuan Wa Autonomous County, one of the only two Wa autonomous counties in China. What he saw in front of him were comforting pictures and touching new songs sung by Wa people. The change of Lixin Village "It's not Wa men who can't hunt, and it's not Wa women who can't weave"-this is a deep impression people left on Wa Mountain in history. Sitting next to the fireplace of Ni Li's home of Wa nationality in Meng Jiao Rural Village, the 56-year-old "old hunter" was filled with emotion. "Wa men used to put their guns and hands on knives," said Li Ni, taking out a powder bag from his cosmetic bag. "Now, all our guns are handed over to the government, so we keep the powder bag as a souvenir." The cadre of Cangyuan County Cultural Bureau who accompanied us to visit Lixin Village took the lead and said, "Ni Li has three sons. In the past, he had to have three guns and give one to each son. Because guns are also the most important decorations for Wa men. " The cadre recalled that Wa men used to carry knives and guns for self-defense and hunting, mainly to prevent their heads from being cut off by other tribes to worship the valley. In the late 1950s, Cangyuan County had abolished the custom of headhunting to sacrifice to the valley, but one of his uncles was still beheaded overseas by a Wa tribe called Yeka. Headhunting sacrifice is the primitive custom of many nationalities in ancient society, including Han nationality. Due to the slow social development, until the early days of the founding of New China, some Wa areas still retained the legacy of "offering sacrifices to the valley for headhunting". According to local legend, Kong Ming deceived the Wa people with cooked grain seeds, saying that if there were no seedlings in the field, only people's heads would be cut off for sacrifice to get a bumper harvest. After cutting off his head, Kong Ming gave the Wa people good seeds, and sure enough, good crops grew. Therefore, the hungry Wa ancestors believed in the ignorance and deification of headhunting sacrifice. Anthropologists believe that this old custom is the helpless reaction of human beings when they encounter irresistible disasters because of their low productivity. Lixin village was originally built on a hill, and it was not until the late 1960s that it moved to Pingba. According to the old man in the stockade, there was a stockade in this place a long time ago, and it gradually became desolate because people were constantly poached by headhunters. After liberation, the Wa people themselves got rid of the custom of headhunting to sacrifice to the valley. Now, the younger generation of Lixin Village can only hear this terrible and absurd old story from their ancestors. In the past, Wa people never sold pigs and chickens. Once pigs were killed, all stockaded villagers were invited to enjoy them. When I was sick, I went to "Jasper" (equivalent to a wizard), and all the pigs and chickens were given to "Jasper". Men who want to eat meat go hunting in the mountains, and women go catching grasshoppers in the fields. In the distribution of prey, the hunter only gets one leg or liver, and the rest is shared by the whole stockade, otherwise the people with stockade at home will not come to help. In the late 1960s, there was not enough food in Lixin Village and it was always sold back. A village 10 took more than 10 to get two bags of rice, and the wild animals all over Awa Mountain became the best food for the villagers. Later, even the rabbits could not be caught, so the villagers had to dig wild vegetables to eat. At that time, the shotgun actually became the production tool of the Wa people. With the development of productive forces, hunting is gradually banned in Wa mountainous areas, and shotguns have gradually lost their practical value. Two years ago, Cangyuan County completely banned hunting, and nearly 20,000 powder guns and bronze guns were handed over to the government. At present, Ava Mountain is not rich. The per capita net income of farmers in Cangyuan County is only five or six hundred yuan per year, but the per capita grain has reached 356 Jin. Although most people in Lixin Village still live in thatched cottages, few people have household appliances, but after all, the days of starvation have become a distant nightmare. Li's 8 mu paddy field, the yield per mu increased from more than 200 kg to 800 kg. A family of seven people who sell grain, sugar cane and run with tractors can't earn 10 thousand yuan a year. The Wa man, who has experienced many vicissitudes, simply said, "If you want to eat meat now, go shopping to buy it." However, Chen Nijia, a well-off household in Zhaili, lives a happier life. All his 8 acres of paddy fields were rented out to outsiders, and he devoted himself to the small pig farm at home. He has sold 10 pigs this year, and there are more than 30 piglets barking happily in the pen. With black hair fluttering, the Wa people can sing and dance, and there are countless kinds of songs and dances of the Wa people. According to incomplete statistics, there are more than 200 kinds of Wa dances that only play Lusheng, and hundreds of dances that play wooden drums, manggongs and bronze drums. Wa people even think that they can't cry when their loved ones are dead, otherwise their loved ones will not be peaceful underground, and they must scare away "ghosts" with singing and dancing. A few years ago, literary and art workers in Awashan artistically processed a Wa dance, and created a kind of unrestrained and enthusiastic "hair-throwing dance": a group of Wa girls with bronzed skin and dressed in red and black, with the cheerful music rhythm, threw up their long black hair, which suddenly poured down like a waterfall, and suddenly flew back like a water column in a storm, free and easy. For a time, "hair-throwing dance" became the representative of Wa dance, which quickly swept the country. In many large-scale cultural activities and celebrations, the "black hair" of Wa girls floated. Cangyuan County Cultural and Art Troupe, which specializes in performing Wa dance, was also invited to perform in Europe and performed in France for more than 50 consecutive performances. Dancing into the world has become the dream of many Wa youth. Many young people have realized their dreams through diligent study and hard practice, and brought Wa songs and dances out of Wa mountainous areas and spread them at home and abroad. According to the incomplete statistics of Cangyuan County Cultural Bureau, at present, there are about 700 Wa youth from Awashan performing folk songs and dances in theaters, hotels and hotels in Kunming, Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong, Shandong, Liaoning and other provinces and regions. The wooden drum dance of Wa boys also jumped to Hong Kong and Macao, and the black hair of Wa girls "floated" to Russia, South Korea and other countries and regions. Cha Hongming, a 40-year-old Wa, is the founder of Sigangli Wa Art Troupe in Cangyuan County, which has performed in Japan and Singapore. So far, Cha Hongming has trained five groups of more than 300 Wa young men and women to learn folk dance. In the square in front of the county cultural palace, a group of young people from the countryside are practicing seriously under his guidance. Wa students dance lightly and move neatly, unlike "novices" who have only participated in training for one month. Many of them came from home to the city to learn to dance with rice on their backs, and some even danced barefoot on the concrete floor. "That's how he was trained." Cha Hongming's assistant, Wa boy Xiao Sanmubule, said. Five years ago, 22-year-old Xiao Bule came to Sigangli Wa Art Troupe from Baxu Village, Nuoliang Township, Cangyuan County for training. Three months later, he was sent to the Yunnan Ethnic Village Art Troupe in Kunming as an actor. Xiao Sanmu Buhler not only traveled across the ocean to perform Wa dance in Japan, but also played a supporting role in TV series and made commercial advertisements. "I want to go out and dance. I can stand it no matter how hard and tired I am." Tian Ai, a 24-year-old Wa boy in the training class, told us. Tian Ai said that five young people in their village are dancing folk dances in the parks of Guangdong and Guangxi, and some of them have already started sending money to their families. Cha Hongming is confident in the influence of Wa dance. He said humorously, "Wa is the black pearl of the East, the wild rose of China and the black peony of Yunnan." Cha Hongming believes that the "black peony" from Awa Mountain will bloom in China, which will not only make some Awa people rich through singing and dancing, but also let the outside world know about Awa Mountain. According to the Propaganda Department of Cangyuan County Committee, there are currently four dance training classes in Cangyuan County, mainly for rural youth. Groups of students came to the county town from the mountains, went to the inside and outside of the province, and then returned to Awa Mountain with new ideas, new concepts and the ability to make money, which made the once closed Awa Mountain increasingly keep up with the rhythm of modern society. The son of the tribal leader is a forest protection official. In an interview with Nangunhe Nature Reserve, a national nature reserve in the southwest of Cangyuan County, we met the stationmaster Bao of Banlao Management Station. His face is dark and shiny, and his eyes are bright. At first glance, it is a typical Wa man. Master Bao doesn't talk much, but he is concise. He has a sense of self-sufficiency and dignity, and his back is straight at all times, as if he were a martial artist. Unexpectedly, this management stationmaster is actually the eldest son of the late boss Bao. Half a century ago, in Washan, private ownership was not prominent. Mountain forests are public, and some good land belongs to tribal leaders "chiefs" and extended families. Tribal leaders are hereditary and have supreme power in the tribe. He has the right to dispose of the land and affairs of the tribe at will. Bao's father Bao is one of the four leaders of Ban Lao. 195 1 year, the central delegation came to Cangyuan, and the squad leader of Class Four found Comrade Zhang Chunya, secretary of the county working committee of the troops stationed in Cangyuan, and reiterated that Class Four was the land of China and asked for the title. Comrade Zhang Chunya felt very embarrassed. He used his quick wits and named the four leaders as defending the country, defending the people, defending the factory and protecting the country to show his loyalty to the motherland. Since then, the four leaders have taken this as their official name. Later, Comrade Bao served as the deputy director of the Standing Committee of Yunnan Provincial People's Congress. Bao's eldest son Bao was born in 1964. At this time, Ban Lao returned to the motherland for only three years, and the chief still enjoyed high prestige in Wacun. At that time, there were 36 guns in Ban Lao Zhai, of which 19 was for family protection. Bao still remembers his childhood. "At that time, after the people in the stockade hit their prey, the most tender tenderloin would definitely be sent to my house; The animal's heart and liver are also strung together with ropes and mentioned to my home. " Now he doesn't eat game. He vaguely remembers: "When I was a child, eating elephant meat was not delicious, just like buffalo." Bao's uncle Bao Hongxing is in his prime. He recalled that although the Wa nationality had the habit of hunting in history, in the past, there was an elephant day every month in Awang Mountain, and whoever hit the elephant would be punished. There is also a place to worship elephants in the stockade. Wa people believe that "where there are elephants, there will be no poverty." But during the Cultural Revolution, the superior organized a hunting party, and anyone who didn't want to attend was criticized as superstitious. 1969, the hunting party killed six elephants in three days and informed the whole town to eat elephant meat. "At that time, we didn't raise pigs or chickens, but only ate elephant meat. An elephant weighs several tons and can't be cooked in one day. " Bao's uncle recalled that the forest along the Nangunhe River on the south slope of Ban Lao Zhai was once a paradise for wild Asian elephants. In the 1950s, there were nearly a hundred elephants here. When elephants pass through the mountains, the rumbling footsteps often echo in the valleys far and near. However, during the Cultural Revolution, frightened elephants fled abroad along the Nanguan River, and some never came back. "The elephant is gone!" This fact makes Bao, who has never left Wa Mountain, feel extremely sad. 1987, he came to Kunming and studied at Southwest Forestry College. After finishing his studies, he immediately returned to Awa Mountain and became a ranger in Nangun River Nature Reserve. He said: "The mountains are the lifeblood of our Wa people, and I like this business!" There are only three employees in the old management station, and their daily work is to patrol the forest area. There is no transportation at the management station. Bao and others patrol on two legs. It is only 30 kilometers from the management station to the Nangun River on the edge of the reserve. If you want to enter the center of the reserve, the journey is longer. Day after day, year after year, Bao drilled through the thorny grassland and climbed the steep hillside, knowing the ravines and ridges of the reserve like the back of his hand. He and his colleagues stopped one incident after another and punished 1 1 hunters last year alone. Bao has been living in his hometown, the old village where he works, and many hunters are his neighbors. His colleagues said that the family background of stationmaster Bao still had a certain deterrent effect on the hunters in nearby Wazhai, but the most important thing was that he persuaded the offenders to accept the punishment, but he was convinced. The son of the last chieftain left a new legend and witnessed the changes of Nangun River Nature Reserve. According to the local government, under the persuasion and education of the rangers, the Wa people have completely given up their ancestral slash-and-burn farming methods, and the forest vegetation around Nangunhe Nature Reserve has been quickly restored. At present, the coverage rate of primary forest and secondary forest in Cangyuan County is about 30%, and miscellaneous forest covers most mountainous areas. Asian wild elephants who left their homes returned to Nangun River to settle down; Rare animals such as Bengal tiger, dolphin deer, clouded leopard, black bear and gibbon with white palm have also become "frequent visitors" here. "The number of Kono elephants in Nangun is not less than 18, and it will be more and more." Bao said excitedly. "The area of Nangun River Nature Reserve will be further expanded. My work is getting better and better! "