Into Xishuangbanna (5)

What I wrote yesterday was that I was locked up in Xishuangbanna (IV), inexplicably, and I was really speechless. I read the article from beginning to end and deleted passages that might be considered sensitive. I appealed once, but luckily they unlocked it for me and I was sure that that passage was not allowed to be written. That paragraph was what the female tour guide said. I wrote it from my memory. She was talking about the ethnic minorities knowing the three leaders and her words of thanks. I thought it was nothing, so why was it locked? If there were no other reasons why I had to write on this platform, I would consider leaving.

The above is off topic, so don’t mention it.

The next day, we were going to visit the Great Buddha Temple. Before we left, the tour guide told us to take us to see the Diaojiao Tower in the ancient Dai village. The Jinuo Village we visited yesterday was a scenic spot, and the Diaojiao Tower we were visiting today was the Manchu Temple. In Diucunzhai, the guides are selected by the village and can speak Mandarin well. When tourists come to visit, they are waiting for the arrival of tourists at the entrance of the village.

The person who received us was a tall and thin woman, about 1.68 meters tall. Her complexion is quite fair and she is somewhat pretty. She didn't hold the microphone, her tone was gentle and low, and she was eloquent and eloquent. She first introduced herself: "My name is Yuxiang, and I was selected from the village to receive you. The selection process is that we all go to the village committee, take a newspaper and read, as long as you can read Mandarin fluently without stuttering, I am one of them. One of them was selected. "

Yuxiang introduced us while leading us. I was attracted by the beautiful surroundings. I was a little far away from Yuxiang and did not fully hear her introduction. I took some photos and quickly caught up with them. Yuxiang was pointing at the Mandiu morning market and introducing: "In the morning market here, not all the villages come out to set up stalls, but they set up stalls in turns, and the stalls are also rotated and not fixed. In this way Fair."

Walking in Mandou Village, the sky was clear, the sun was high, and my back was sweating in the heat. I really regretted not wearing a hat, thinking that it didn’t take long, but I had to walk a lot under the dazzling light, and the gentle and low-key Yuxiang was still holding an umbrella for sun protection.

I remembered what the tour guide said in Shangri-La: "When you go back, you will all bring back a gift for free."

Everyone didn't understand what it meant, and they were all waiting for her to decipher it.

She burst into laughter: "Plateau red."

The ultraviolet rays here are very high, so we really need to take adequate precautions, not only sun protection, but also hydration.

Yuxiang led us to the exhibition hall, pointed to the Dai medicine, silver jewelry, looms, etc. on the wall and talked to us in a soft voice.

“Our Dai doctors are amazing. If someone has a headache or a fever, he will not go to the hospital. He will go to the mountains to collect medicine and give it to the patient.”

“I My grandpa is a Dai doctor. If you have a broken bone, you need to put a plaster on it. My grandpa pastes herbal medicine on the broken bone, fixes it with two boards, and chants the mantra, and it will be cured in a week. It’s so magical.”

"Unfortunately, my grandparents passed away unexpectedly the year before last." Yuxiang said in a very serious tone. Then, she changed her subject and mentioned silver jewelry again. She said: "Our Dai people are still a matrilineal society. When a woman marries a man, the man has to work as a coolie for the woman's family for three years before getting married. If he looks bad or is unwilling during the work, the woman will tell him not to force you or not to do so. Just go back.”

Yuxiang continued: “We are three brothers and sisters. I have a brother and a sister. My husband is Han, and my sister’s husband is Han and Dai. In comparison, Han husbands have a sense of responsibility for the family and are very hard-working.”

“After three years of working as a coolie, Dai men go from slaves to generals, eating, drinking, having fun, fighting cocks, etc. all day long, while women have to support the family. We women have to do everything by ourselves.”

“My husband worked as a coolie for four years, while others worked for three years, and he worked for one more year. He is Han and had to learn from scratch. He later did it for me. What do you think the four silver jewelry are?”

Everyone shook their heads and said they didn’t know.

Yuxiang pointed to the silver belt around her waist and the silver hairpin on her finger, and then took out a silver comb and a silver vegetable soup basin to show us, saying that these were made for her by her husband.

We watched it and sighed. It is not easy to be the husband of a Dai woman. I am puzzled again, why would a Han man be willing to marry a Dai woman? Would his family have agreed before? But I didn’t have the nerve to ask.

After Yuxiang finished speaking, she warmly invited us to her home for tea. We also happily agreed and came to the turret of her home.

Below the Diaojiaolou is the place where cattle, sheep, pigs and chickens are raised, and the second floor is where people live. I remembered the words of the female tour guide again: "There were no hospitals in the past. In very poor and backward times, there were no hospitals either. Women gave birth at home, and the births and confinement periods were all on the first floor."

"Why?"

"We ethnic minorities believe in Buddhism. We have Buddha statues upstairs and in the house, and no blood can be seen."

We went to the living room on the second floor. , the bedroom door was closed, Yuxiang said: "I can't show you the bedroom, and no one can come. This is our custom."

I looked at the living room. The decoration was simple, clean and cool. There is a big pillar in the living room, wrapped in red cloth. Yuxiang said it was a sacred pillar and asked us to hug it.

Then, everyone sat around a round table. There was a silver soup basin on the table with longevity fruit soaked in slices. She scooped out the longevity fruit water soaked in the silver bowl for us one by one. I drank it, there was no strange smell, and took another sip. Yuxiang said: "This longevity fruit water can cure three highs after three courses of treatment. We use silver soup bowls to fill the water. Silver is for detoxification. We are all The silver bowl was made by my husband."

Yuxiang glanced at everyone, took out a silver comb and said, "What do you think this can do?"

"Comb your hair." I rushed to say.

"What you are doing is combing, not combing your hair."

I was a little angry: "Then what do you mean by combing your hair?"

Yuxiang stood up, She said, "Let me show you what combing your hair is." She bent down again, made a motion to put her hair down and said, "First comb your hair forward, in the middle first, and then comb both sides." She stood up again, Then she made the combing back motion: "When combing back, I'd better comb the middle first and then the sides."

After she demonstrated, she asked us again: "Do you know why you comb like this?"

"Let the blood circulate." I interrupted again.

"Yes, it's blood circulation. Bend down and the blood will flow backwards, and then comb back to circulate the blood again."

"There is also a silver comb that is very useful. You can use the comb to Comb the hair slowly, and the pimples can be slowly eliminated. You can also use the comb to scrape the face, neck and other places, which has a beautifying effect."

Yuxiang is really good at talking about it. She said she wouldn't even drink water for several hours, and said we could stay at her house if we were not in a hurry.

She took out the home-brewed corn wine for us to taste. I took a sip. It was really spicy. It must be a high degree of alcohol. After one sip, I didn’t want to drink it anymore.

At eleven o'clock, Yuxiang was still chattering, and my wife and I quietly discussed that we didn't have time to go to the Grand Buddha Temple, and we had to catch a flight in the afternoon, so it was time to leave. My wife whispered to me: "I've been talking for a long time. Let's go buy some of her tea and leave."

We discussed it quietly and spoke it out. Yuxiang took out the longevity fruit tea from the big black bag, and my aunt and I bought two courses of tea respectively.

Yuxiang asked everyone again: "Which of you wants a silver comb?"

"How much does it cost?" asked my aunt.

"2280 yuan, I want it, but I don't have it at home. Let's go, I'll take you to the cooperative."

"What? More than 2,000 yuan? So expensive?" No one said it I thought that a small silver comb cost more than 2,000 yuan. Suddenly, I didn’t want to watch it anymore.

My wife advised me: "Let's go and have a look, just don't buy it."

The cooperative hall was crowded with people, there were many silver jewelry, a dazzling array, silver combs, I can't even look at the silver bowls, silver cups, etc. Yuxiang led us to a stall, and there were two little girls guarding it. They talked all over and tried to persuade us to buy it. We also took a look and saw that there were various prices for silver combs, but they were all too expensive. In the end, we didn’t buy them, so we just left.

Yuxiang didn’t see us off either, and there was no trace of her. We were sitting in the car and still discussing ethics. The silver comb cost more than 200, which is about the same. If it cost more than 200, we would buy it. Moreover, she sells it for the cooperative, and it is not from her family. You can just buy her tea.

The female tour guide remained silent for a long time. Seeing that we were silent, she persuaded us to go to the Big Buddha Temple. She said that the plane was not far from here and Jinghong City is not big, so we would finish it soon.