Diversity in Xishuangbanna

2/25/10

(Cassie)

After a restful second night’s sleep at the Tai Garden Hotel, we rose for another day of travel, this time to the western part of Xishuangbanna. We headed out for about an hour before reaching our first destination – a marketplace full of colorful fruits and vegetables as well as every sort of meat or fish one could possibly want. Needless to say, the air was full of pungent smells and the open square rang with the sounds of haggling, laughter, and life in motion. Most of the sellers were Dai women, wearing their traditional long and brightly colored embroidered skirts. In particular we stopped to admire some unusual watermelons, which were a golden yellow on the inside rather than the usual pink. John told us they were simply called small watermelon, or xiao shuiguo. After perusing the aisles and asking questions of several friendly vendors, we piled back into the van to continue on our way.

On our way to our next destination, we passed field after field of crops – mainly sugar cane and rubber trees. As we approached Bulang Mountain, the taller crops flowed into row after row of tea bushes. When we finally arrived at the Bulang village, we were surprised to see tons of children peeking out from behind the houses. Apparently, the One Child Policy does not apply to the Bulang people, so families will often have three or four children. We walked through the village until we arrived at the home of a family that seemed to know John, and went inside. I can’t seem to get over the fact that villagers will welcome strangers into their homes to take pictures and explore their lifestyle. I can’t even imagine the looks on my family’s faces if absolute strangers knocked on our door and asked to look around our house! Needless to say, we’d be perturbed and a bit suspicious. The Bulang house was brick, unlike most of the wooden Dai houses we’d seen the day before. Yet John informed us that the Bulang are generally poorer than the average Dai person. After resting in the family’s living room and admiring some pieces of paper written in Bulang script that are supposed to ward off bad spirits, we thanked the family and left to continue meandering through the town. On the way, we stopped to chat with some of the villagers and got to practice our Chinese! The villagers were incredibly friendly, and talked to us for at least a half an hour. Again I was struck by a stark yet simple difference between Chinese and American culture. The Bulang women kept expressing their admiration for how glaringly pale Lauren, Alaina, and I are. When we expressed (through John) that most people prefer to be tan rather than pale back in the U.S. the women just shook their heads and laughed at the crazy Americans. Finally, we stopped to visit another home – this time of a family that John knew very well. The young couple living there had recently lost a six-month-old baby. The child was born with a cleft lip and other unidentifiable digestion issues. John had brought in a doctor from the Red Cross, but the baby was weak and passed away. The story was upsetting, but made the people’s kindness even more precious as they had faced such sadness. As we drove away, John told us another interesting tidbit about the Bulang people. The women are in charge of harvesting the tea and sugar cane as well as selling the goods in the market, while the men stay home to watch the children and do any work needed around the house. Both the men and women take care of dividing up the money for the household.

After the Bulang village came lunch. We ate on a stone patio that was open on three sides to a view of the nearby rice paddy and children taking turns to ride a bicycle. We sat on small stools around a table made of bamboo – our first without a lazy Susan.

Poor Alex was pretty uncomfortable as the stools are only about six inches high and made for people far shorter than him. The food, as usual, was delicious. Along with several other dishes we were served spicy snap peas, some very sticky rice, and a warm, light soup with carrot sprouts. We also had our first taste of “Wahaha Cola”, which is apparently a famous knock off of Coke in China.

Next, we proceeded to village number two for the day, a Dai village another 2 or so kilometers down the road. We did some more exploring of the village, but we were headed for a house in which two women were making paper by hand. The pulp for the paper they were making was tree bark, which is mashed to break down the cellulose then mixed with water until it has a soupy texture. Then, mesh frames are dipped into the water. Finally, the frames are put into the sun to dry. When the soupy pulp has dried it is peeled off the frame and voila! Paper. After watching, Sandy asked for a go (as she makes paper at home) and strapped on an apron to give it a try. It looked pretty good to me, but according to her it was too thin. We purchased some of the homemade paper, which had a rough yet soft texture, and after snapping a few pictures made our way back to the van.

Then we went to a Buddhist temple belonging to the Theravada branch of Buddhism. The monks there wear bright orangey-yellow robes. The site we visited was called the Octagonal Pavilion. We walked up some stairs lined with painted statues of monks cross-legged and at prayer on either side. The architecture of the temple building was beautiful, and fading, intricate murals decorated the outside. Near the building was a majestically towering and knarled Bodhi tree. Every Buddhist temple in China has an accompanying Bodhi tree nearby. The trees are supposed to provide shelter and are seen as protection for the temple. Bells on the edge of the roof of an altar tinkled in the breeze.

Finally, we came to our last village in Xishuangbanna. This time, it was an Aikha village. The village, while brightly lit by the sun and the colorful flowers near many of the homes, was ghostly in that almost everyone was out harvesting tea. We went to our third (for Lauren, Alex, and I as we went to one yesterday after exploring the night market) tea ceremony in the home of a local tea seller and harvester. It was probably the most bitter tea we have tried so far. The issue is that if you empty your glass (which is small and roughly the size of two tablespoons) it is customary for the host to refill your glass. We were all stuck in a tug of war between being tactful and giving our taste buds a break. Alex, however, greatly enjoyed the tea and managed to keep up with John as they both downed “tea shots” one after the other.

After a long day, we returned to the hotel to relax for a couple hours before dinner. We were in for a treat…dumplings! Our first since arriving in China as we’ve been in the south and dumplings are usually a northern food. We were each given a plate of pork and onion dumplings and a small dish of a light soy sauce. Mine happened to have carrots in it as well. After heartily enjoying our jiaozi dinner, we went in search of ice cream and found it in the freezer of a nearby convenience store. I can safely say we were all very happy. Ice cream in hand, we walked to a nearby street that contained many shops selling minority goods. At this time, I’d like to send a huge thank you to Mrs. Springett, who keeps managing to find amazing things for us to do in every city we visit. On her recommended, we picked up a couple little trinkets and gifts, before making our way back to the hotel.

Tomorrow we leave for Dali. I’m definitely going to miss the beautiful weather (it was sunny and at least eighty degrees today) as well as the friendly local people and the vast store of knowledge that John seems to have. That’s all for today!