Jade Water Hide-Out (玉水寨)

Before seeing the Li-Jiang spectacle beneath the Jade Dragon Mountain, we had been brought by our local tour guide to another touristy place called Jade Water Hide-Out (玉水寨). It was supposed to a holy land to the Naxi People (納西族)  because it is the source of snow water which will eventually flow into the Li Jiang or Li River. The water is the snow melt from the Jade Dragon Mountain. 

There is a Dongba (東巴) college with three dongba masters there teaching a few students about the Dongba language, religion, music and culture. Dongba  culture is named after the word dongba, which is the name for a person who is a person learned in religion, language, culture, medicine etc and will serve part time as priest for the performance of religious ceremonies. The word dongba (東巴) is associated with first ancestor of Naxi people in Shangrila, called 丁巴什羅 , a indigenized version of a Tibetan word meaning "preacher" or "mentor". The dongba religion is a primitive polytheistic religion having elements of characteristic of such primitive religion like shamanism, called 苯教  including worship of various Nature gods and worship of ancestors showing strong Tibetan influence in their dress and their flags but has also incorporated some elements of Chinese Taoist worship with its own myths about the origin of heaven and earth and the origin of their people. Each year, they would hold religious ceremonies to worship Heaven, the Earth and each month there are ceremonies for ancestor worship, marriage, funeral, propitiating the gods about natural disasters like droughts, floods, earthquakes and plagues, fortune telling, name giving etc. The language of dongba is one of the few picture-text languages still surviving. They also have a special religious ceremony for paying respects to 7 beautiful wind goddesses every year and to pacify the souls of those who have died for love and in battles. The wind goddesses are believed to be responsible for young people committing suicides for love. However they do not have any professional priests nor do they have any special temples. The dongbas play a major role in Naxi culture. They believe in the harmony of man and Nature whom they conceive of as half brothers born of different mother but from the same father.  Man is supposed to treasure Nature and not deplete her resources excessively. On the third day of the third lunar month each year, all the Naxi people all come to the Jade Water Retreat for an annual worship of their common ancestor 丁巴什羅..

The entrance to the Jade Water Retreat

Dongba picture-text can be seen on this memorial plaque

The highest of the pools at the Retreat

Their god

Flanked on the right by the bear god

on the left by the frog god

And a god of tortoise to the right of the bear god

The middle pool with fishes everywhere

Water cascading down from the middle to the lower pool

Another view of the cascading water

The water of the lower pool was calm

Water weeds were growing everywhere in the clear water of the snow melt water feeding the pool

The fishes are all quite big

Some fishes around a small viewing platform

The water was quite clear

Fish swimming leisurely amongst the water weeds

Beautiful reflections and colors

It was quite cold that day, the water around the water wheel was all frozen

But the sun was melting down the ice.

A fortune pool

But man must eat! Piping hot food! at a stall at the side of the car park to the Retreat