Nakhi People - Customs

Customs

Cremation has been a tradition since ancient times, although burial was adopted in most Nakhi areas during the late Qing Dynasty and remains the preferred method of disposing of the dead today. Religious scriptures are chanted at the funeral ceremony to expiate the sins of the dead.

Among the Nakhi in Yongning County in Yunnan and the Yanyuan County in Sichuan, existing remnants of the Mosuo matriarchal family structure which were vigorously but unsuccessfully eradicated during the Communist era.

As the heads of the family, a woman leaves her inheritance to her descendants either from the mother, or through her sisters and their offspring.

In Nakhi society, women do most the household and farm work, and while they keep to the kitchen when guests are present, they are essential to the household and are therefore influential in family decisions.

In 2005, Kuang Jianren, a famous Chinese film script writer produced "Snow Bracelet", a film based on the life of (Nakhi) Nakhi ethnic minorities in Yunnan.

A few Nakhi men carry on the ancient Chinese tradition of hunting with falcons. This practice is rarely found in other parts of China today.

Snow Bracelet Drawing on the originality and diversity of ethnic cultures and traditions, the film Snow Bracelet takes a closer look at the cross-cultural/racial/ethnical love in the larger context of contemporary China.

The love story begins when Aoxue, an urban girl of Han ethnicity living and studying in Beijing receives a snow bracelet sent from Lijiang, Yunnan Province. Aoxue becomes curious about the meaning of hieroglyphic carvings on the bracelet, as well as the Nakhi man who made this artwork. She embarks on a journey in search of love and discovers a culture unfamiliar yet endearing to her.

When Aoxue finally meets Mubai, the Nakhi man who hand carved the snow bracelet for her, she falls in love with both the man and the ethnic culture he represents. Mubai introduces to Aoxue his life as an artist among the Nakhi people who live on the slopes of Jade Dragon Snow Mountain. The Nakhi have their own writing, pictographs which have been compared to native Yi writing and native Pumi writing, a tradition taught by and used by Dongba (Nakhi shamans). Dongba writing is a complex hieroglyphic system made of phonetic and symbolic notations that have existed for over a thousand years (before the T’ang Dynasty). Dongba is one of only a few hieroglyphic system still in use today.

While Aoxue and Mubai become deeply in love with each other, the differences in their living style, cultural and ethnic background lead to inevitable conflicts. Aoxue and Mubai are forced to face these problems. Aoxue tries to convince Mubai to move to Beijing with her and open a small shop to sell his hand carved artworks. Mubai tries to convince Aoxue that he would lose his cultural and ethnic identity in Beijing, just as Aoxue is starting to lose hers as she living in Lijiang: “Snow bracelet would melt in Beijing.” He refuses to leave what he treasures: the culture and tradition he inherited and practices in everyday life. Aoxue leaves Lijiang, taking with her love and blessing from Mubai, leaving beautiful memories behind.

Lyrically composed, Snow Bracelet calls our attention to the inevitable conflict and harmony of different social, cultural, racial and ethnic groups in the 21st century. We are challenged by the question of how to inherit, save and continue the ethnic culture and tradition that are disappearing in the light of cultural and ethnic centralism. The beautiful composition of shots, the in depth description of Nakhi culture and the ethnic Nakhi music which is queer as a “living fossil,” are the highlights of this film.

The Director of this film, Kuang Jianren, 57, is a renowned playwright of films and television series in China. He lives in the United States. This is the first film he directed.

Length: 91 minutes Format: DVD, 1/2” PAL or NTSC videotape format