Baisha and Xuesong Villages: Rock, Paper, Honey!Laughing at Sisyphus, Yunnan by
Josephine2004, on Flickr
The environs of Lijiang hold promise for those seeking a glimpse of village life in Yunnan. While Yunnan remains one of the poorest provinces in China, strategies for development appear to be having an impact. As with everywhere we toured in China, much construction is underway. These men in Baisha, the traditional capital of the Naxi kingdom, seem undaunted by the scope of their task . . . but it is true (to fracture a proverb), that a city of a thousand stones begins with one tap of the sledgehammer.
Splitting Rock, Baisha, Yunnan by
Josephine2004, on Flickr
The dilapidated structures seen here show a level of decay that was typical of Lijiang's ancient quarters prior to restoration.
Restoration in Progress, Baisha by
Josephine2004, on Flickr
If the lively commerce going on just across the street from this shell is any indication, renewal is imminent for Baisha Old Town. Our travel leaders, Robert and Morrison, commented on the stark changes in Lijiang since their visit the previous spring, and predicted that next year, this Baisha street would be entirely restored and open for business.
Across the road, local women were selling indigo-dyed batik and artifacts of questionable authenticity, many of which we saw repeated in "antiques" markets across Yunnan. The draw of a flea market comes from its capacity to harness nostalgia, though in this case, one or two of the juxtapositions provoked more dissonance than yearning for days gone by.
Flea Market, Baisha, Yunnan by
Josephine2004, on Flickr
Pipesmoking Couple by
Josephine2004, on Flickr
Guanyin and the Chairman, Pourquoi Pas? by
Josephine2004, on Flickr
We were charmed by the exterior of the Baisha Times Restaurant/Country Road Cafe, with its flower boxes over a rushing waterway. Initially, however, we thought they were only serving coffee and a limited menu aimed at tourists.
Untitled by
Josephine2004, on Flickr
Untitled by
Josephine2004, on Flickr
We were glad that we thought to clarify the menu, because they offered us a pleasant table in a sunny interior courtyard and cooked us one of the very best meals we had on our trip.
Untitled by
Josephine2004, on Flickr
Here is what we ate, though I cannot remember the order of the dishes.
Crisp, deep-fried eggplant rounds:
Untitled by
Josephine2004, on Flickr
Beef with Mushrooms:
Beef with Mushrooms and Pickled Red Peppers by
Josephine2004, on Flickr
Yunnan Ham with Hot Hot Green Peppers- a dish that reminded me of one at Lao Hunan in Chicago:
Yunnan Ham and Hot Green Peppers by
Josephine2004, on Flickr
Lotus Root with Hot Pepper:
Lotus Root with Hot Pepper by
Josephine2004, on Flickr
Tofu with Chives and Hot Pepper:
Untitled by
Josephine2004, on Flickr
Pea Pods with Chicken:
Untitled by
Josephine2004, on Flickr
and the pinnacle of Naxi home cooking, Potatoes in the Naxi Style, with Pickled Vegetables, including Pickled Peppers:
Naxi Potatoes with Pickled Vegetables by
Josephine2004, on Flickr
The accommodating cooks allowed us to come into the kitchen and photograph their preparation of a second order of the dynamite potatoes they had served us. (Although I will leave it up to you to find a way to approximate the pickle that gave the dish its complexity, I did manage to jot down a recipe, which I will pass on in a separate post that will offer recipes from our trip.)
Yunnan Cook at Work by
Josephine2004, on Flickr
Kitchen Scene, Yunnan by
Josephine2004, on Flickr
While Naxi townspeople of Baisha are engaged in the transformation of rocks into dwellings, the history of the Naxi people is embedded in paper - papermaking to be exact.
Making Naxi Paper by
Josephine2004, on Flickr
This man is making paper the Naxi way. This ancient process of treating bark is associated with bark-clothing traditions that spread throughout the ancient world. According to our guide, a woman in her 20's, Naxi villages continue to harvest bark and make paper the traditional way. Some contemporary uses for bark cloth remain, as it has water-repellent properties. This photo shows pieces of the rustic material for sale at a roadside shop:
Untitled by
Josephine2004, on Flickr
In ancient times, perhaps as long ago as the 6th century BCE, the use of mulberry bark led to the discovery of sericulture and silk weaving. The Naxi made silk fabric and embroidered silk clothing for Chinese emperors, a role which contributed to their being seen as targets for persecution during the Cultural Revolution. In recent years, the government has supported attempts to revive Naxi crafts and preserve Naxi Dongba religious traditions and artifacts, including this manuscript. It is a narrative that, in its context, may be similar in significance to the
Bayeux Tapestry.
Naxi Manuscript, Dongba Culture Museum by
Josephine2004, on Flickr
After lunch, we made our way to the Dabaoji Palace and temple complex. Naxi religious frescoes painted on the stone walls of that temple were once saved by paper - that is, saved from destruction during the Cultural Revolution when a quick thinking Naxi resident covered them with propaganda posters containing images of Chairman Mao and revolutionary slogans. The Red Guards sent to destroy the frescoes did not dare risk censure by defacing images of Mao, so the frescoes survived intact. Seeing the wisteria in the courtyard of the temple made it hard to imagine that such a peaceful place was ever the scene of such dramatic upheaval.
Dongba Temple, Yunnan by
Josephine2004, on Flickr
However, Yunnan's history contains a great deal of upheaval. In the early part of the 20th century, a warlord ruled and gangs of brigands roamed the province. It was to this Yunnan that Joseph Rock, an Austrian-American botanist, adventurer and de-facto ethnographer, came in 1922. One of the first Westerners to visit Northwestern Yunnan and Tibet, Rock became well-known after he published an account of his travels in National Geographic (July 1931). (For a contemporary account of trip retracing Rock’s plant-seeking forays into Tibet, see this ambitious blog
In the Footsteps of Joseph Rock by Michael Woodhead, a British journalist.)
Untitled by
Josephine2004, on Flickr
In Xuesong Village, near Lijiang, the compound where Rock lived has been opened as a tourist attraction, and the town now offers amenities for tourists, such as guest houses and donkey rides. In spite of these changes, daily life retains its timeworn rhythms.
Xuesong Village by
Josephine2004, on Flickr
Smoking Break in Yunnan Village by
Josephine2004, on Flickr
Yunnan is a tobacco-growing province; in fact, tobacco is its biggest export crop. We noticed these leaves in Lijiang Market, but we didn't see anyone rolling their own smokes.
Tobacco, Yunnan by
Josephine2004, on Flickr
Although thousands of Naxi manuscripts were destroyed during the upheavals of the 20th century, Joseph Rock was personally responsible for saving one third of the nearly 22,000 Naxi manuscripts that survive worldwide. A number of these works survive in the
Naxi Manuscript Collection of the Library of Congress, which Rock sold to the library in the years before he was expelled from China, in 1949.
Leaving Xuesong, we came across a market near a temple complex where merchants had set up tables to sell devotional goods. Although we came as food-centric tourists, rather than pilgrims, our prayers were answered by this woman selling forest products.
Forest Foodstuffs, Yunnan by
Josephine2004, on Flickr
There were walnuts being shelled and spread out to dry and bags of dried mushrooms.
Walnuts Drying by
Josephine2004, on Flickr
I believe these were pine nuts, though I cannot be sure. The animal horns are also a mystery.
Pinenuts, Yunnan by
Josephine2004, on Flickr
Seed pods here, but what kind? I am pretty sure they are not opium pods. . .
Untitled by
Josephine2004, on Flickr
Also a mystery are these black nuggets. I originally thought they were beans.
Untitled by
Josephine2004, on Flickr
I confess to forgetting what these furry things are. We saw them in several markets, and I believe they are medicinal, like some of the other dried bundles in the background. All of these intrigued us.
Untitled by
Josephine2004, on Flickr
But the really astounding sight was the big, pitted orange rock at the end of the table. What was it? Old Honey, gathered in the forest from wild bees and aged for up to three years to dry it.
Old Honey, Yunnan by
Josephine2004, on Flickr
The woman weighed out a piece of it for us and we ate it on the spot.
Bounty of the Forest, Yunnan by
Josephine2004, on Flickr
Weighing the Honey by
Josephine2004, on Flickr
What is it like? A bit like Rock Candy and a bit like a Molasses Puff with the flavor of honey. It melts very slowly in the mouth, though.
Rock Honey by
Josephine2004, on Flickr
Oh yeah, and in case you are wondering, like almost everything else, Rock-Paper-Scissors originated in China. It
dates back to the Han Dynasty !
Last edited by
Josephine on March 24th, 2013, 1:28 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Man : I can't understand how a poet like you can eat that stuff.
T. S. Eliot: Ah, but you're not a poet.