Baisha

About 6 kms north of Shuhe is the old village, Baisha. It was once the capital of the Naxi Kingdom, one of the primary tribes in the area.  The small village of Baisha is nestled amongst fields and mountains and immediately appears untouched by the rest of the world.The small village of Baisha is nestled amongst fields and mountains and immediately appears untouched by the rest of the world.  Baisha is an extremely quiet village and is somewhat clear of the main tourist circuit.  The back-drop to this 6km walks is the beautiful Jade Dragon Snow mountain.  Baisha is the home of the Taoist physician in the Jade Dragon Mountains known as Dr. Ho.  If you are wondering who this Taoist Physician is - Dr. Ho is internationally known for his expertise in Chinese medicine.

The village of Baisha was once the capital of the Naxi kingdom is a fascinating place to watch the locals conducting their everyday life in the manner that they have lived it for centuries. Naxi culture is largely a mixture of Tibetan and Han Chinese influences, with some indigenous elements.

The Naxi have lived in this area for 1400 years.  Traditionally, it was a matriarchal society.  It is said that there were existing remnants of a matriarchal family structure evident until the beginning of democratic reform, when it changed to a patriarchal structure.

As the heads of the family, the women gave inheritance to the children either through the mother, or to her nephews through her brothers. This is called matrilineal decent, where one belongs to one's mother's lineage

Jade Dragon Snow mountain in all of its splendour

I read that all children belong to the women only and are not financially supported by the men once the relationship is over.

The Naxi language belongs to the Chinese-Tibetan language family. More than 1,000 years ago, the Naxi people had already created pictographic characters called the "Dongba" script and a syllabic writing known as the "Geba" script. With these scripts they recorded a lot of beautiful folklore, legends, poems and religious classics. However, they were difficult to master, and in 1957 the government helped the Naxi design an alphabetic script.  The Naxi still use this hieroglyphic language but more for tourism purposes.  The only language of its kind still in use today in the world. The whole area is covered in these symbols - all their buildings and of course many tourist souvenirs.



Over the past few hundred years, as the Naxi people have come into closer contact with the people in other parts of China politically, economically and culturally, the oral and written Chinese has become an important means of communication in Naxi society.

The Naxi women wear blue trousers and blouses covered by a black apron. They also wear a T shape heavily padded sheep skin cape which prevents their back baskets from chafing but also represents the heavens. Day and night are represented by the black and white colour and each cape has seven embroidered circles symbolize the stars.  On each shoulder many have embroidered frog eyes. Frogs were once important Naxi gods.

Most of the houses in Baisha and surrounding villages were made from mud and the streets were lined with water channels which the locals used to wash clothes, vegetables and themselves. 

Before the foundation of modern China in 1949, most of the Naxi held the faiths of Dongba Jiao, believing that all have spirits and those spirits could never die. When they encountered significant events such as marriage, death, festivals, or disasters, they would invite a wizard to chant. Although there was Buddhism, Taoism and Christianity being taught there, few Naxi people turned to those religions.