We really liked the laid back, free spirited atmosphere when we walked through the streets of Dali, a small city in northwestern Yunnan. Less police authority and less permanent monitoring like in Beijing. Strolling around the old part of Dali we found a cozy corner pub and spent the evening chatting with the nice, open-minded pub owner, drunk home-brewed beer and Chinese Schnapps together, talked about Bruce Lee and Kung-Fu movies and that most Chinese people don’t like Jackie Chan.
And sometimes it just happened to be that you are at the right place at the right moment: close to Dali, in a small village was taking place a torch festival. Our hosts of the hostel asked if we wanted to join the ceremony. We were really lucky that we could experience this lively, atmospheric Bai Torch Festival in Zhoucheng.
We walked through the narrow streets of Zhoucheng with our own torches and gathered around the big tower made of pine tree at the market square. The tower is decorated with many colorful pennants symbolizing health, peace, prosperity, long life, abundant harvest…
The original Torch Festival, according to some scholars, was based on a calendar used by Bai and Yi people in ancient times. The calendar included 10 months, 36 days in a month, and two Star Returning Festivals in winter and summer respectively. The two Star Returning Festivals were both considered the New Year, and the one in summer was called the Torch Festival as people often lighted a torch on that day. There are also many other legends about the origin of the Torch Festival, yet all of them have the purpose of offering sacrifice to duties and dispelling ghosts, as a wish for a harvest. (Source: Wikipedia)
All people were dancing and in a cheerful mood. We danced hand in hand with the locals around the fireplaces, lighting tall torches, throw sawdust in the fire which shape up to huge shooting flames several meters in the air, watched adventurous locals who jumped through the flames. At some point young strangers came over to us and painted our faces with ashes. What an amazing experience being part of this festival.
Some random impressions from Dali…
