In order to keep things going smoothly, they burned dogs and sacrificed them to heaven. Women were not allowed to participate. That’s what happened now.

Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture is located in the southwest of Sichuan Province, bounded by the Jinsha River in the south, the Dadu River in the north, the Sichuan Basin in the east, and the Hengduan Mountains in the west. It is the area with the largest concentration of Yi people in China.

Here there is a hard-working and brave ethnic group called "Nuosu" - the Yi people, living in the Liangshan Mountains of more than 60,000 square kilometers. The Yi people have lived and thrived for generations in this land with a long history, ancient culture and magical legends, and they still retain the simplest, strongest and most unique cultural traditions.

According to research, the Yi people have a long history. They have appeared frequently in various historical records of our country since BC. Their ancestors are the "Kunming" people who are related to the Di and Qiang. In ancient times, the ancestors of the Yi people thrived in places such as Dianchi Lake and Gongdu (now southeast of Xichang, Sichuan).

As the ancient Qiang people moved south from Gansu, Ningxia, Qinghai and other places, they continued to merge with local indigenous tribes along the Jinsha River, gradually forming the ancestors of the Southwest Yi people.

It was the name given to the ancestors of the Yi people in southwest China at that time.

As early as the beginning of the Christian era, the residents of the Yi area were generally called "Yi", and their self-proclaimed names such as "Nuosupo" and "Nasu" all meant "Black people". The Yi people admire black.

In recent years, due to the acceleration of exchanges between Yi and Han, some living habits of the Yi people are slowly changing. Because Meigu County is located in the hinterland of the Daliang Mountains, it has less contact with the outside world and retains more of the traditional culture of the Yi people.

The more famous festivals of the Liangshan Yi people are the Torch Festival, the Yi Year and the Wool Festival. The Torch Festival, in particular, is very grand and is also used by the local government as an important promotional point for tourism development.

I have participated in it several times. It is very lively, and photography enthusiasts are also crowded together. On the contrary, there are some small festivals that are not known to outsiders. Just in time, I got a big surprise.

In 2017, I taught photography to children at a village-level teaching site in Dashan, Meigu County. One morning on the way to school, I saw several boys carrying schoolbags but instead of walking to school, they climbed up the mountain. I wonder, catching up with them.

My little classmate told me that today we will roast chicken and dog on the mountain, which is the Bimo way. The adults have already reached the top of the mountain, and they also want to have a look. Curiosity drove me to climb to the top of the mountain with them.

One of the older children said that girls cannot participate in this kind of thing. I asked why, but he couldn't tell. Later I asked other people and they said it would affect women’s fertility. But the man added, you are not Yi, it’s okay.

On the road, we often encounter chicken feathers stuck to branches and broken shoes hanging on them. A young classmate told me that this was left over from Bimo's practice and it has magical power. Don't touch it casually. They all hid themselves. The mountain is very big, with an altitude of more than 2,000. It was very difficult for me to climb up, but my little classmate jumped up and down on the grass and easily left me far behind.

When we reached the top of the mountain, the Bimo ceremony had been completed, and a group of men were roasting chicken and drinking beer on the flat grass full of rhododendrons. The Yi people's use of fire is simply superb. Whenever and wherever they want, they can pull a pile of branches to make a fire. When it's cold, light a fire to keep warm. When you're hungry, light a fire to cook potatoes. When you're happy, light a fire to cook chicken and pig...

Throw the whole chicken in the fire without losing its feathers, and keep turning it for more than ten minutes. Finally, the whole chicken turns black. The fragrance tickled everyone's nose, their patience was exhausted, and everyone started to take action.

A bit undercooked in my opinion, but they are used to grilled meats like this.

Soon not a single piece of chicken was left, everyone's mouth was black and greasy, and they were sitting or lying comfortably on the grass.

Only then did someone tell me that this activity was done by Bimo to pray for a good harvest.

After a short rest, people got up and picked up branches on the hillside. One of them erected a tree trunk on the top of the mountain and tied a puppy to the tree. People piled the collected firewood at the bottom of the trunk. Then the fire was lit, thick smoke billowed, and the puppy's screams gradually weakened from rapid to sharp.

When the fire burned out, people ran all the way down the mountain.

I searched for this activity on the Internet and found no relevant information.

Later, I asked a college student in the village for advice, and he told me that “burning dogs to offer sacrifices to heaven is to pray for blessings. To avoid disasters, we call it “Maha wash” here. “Maha” means “rain”. "Washing" is to avoid natural disasters, that is, to avoid heavy rains. It is held around May 10th every year. Only men in the village participate. If women go there, they will make the gods angry and the rainstorm will be heavier.

I don’t know which one is more accurate. It was just a coincidence that I caught up with him.