Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Yunnan Xishuangbanna Day 5 Hung Hai morning mkt

We are off this morning to a morning market. This village called Mung Hai is populated by the Hani ethnic minority. They, unlike the Dai wish to have sons. They will built a "son" house nearby. The Dai wish for daughters to take care of them in their old age. The Hani's daughters grow up and leave; it is the sons that stay to care for their parents. A Hani is not allowed to marry a Dai. The Dai have all of the best land (on the plain in the valley) and the Hani are mountain people. There have been many fights over the valley land.

The Hani in olden times would kill twins when they were born. They believed one was a ghost. The parents would live outside of the village for a month after the birth. Today they adopt the twins outside of the village.

The people practice animalism. They sacrifice animals at the gate of the village. Men and women have separate bedrooms. There are also two kitchen in the home. The men can boil water in theirs and the women do all of the cooking in theirs.

The Hani practice a "grab" wedding. A man will go to the home of his intended and ask for her hand. The parents say no. This happens three times and then the man will go and "grab" his girlfriend. The villagers all applaud.
Most of the people in China are of the Han descent. They are only allowed one child. The minorities are allowed two children. I believe because they are farmers and need the help. Sometimes a Han will marry a minority in order to have two children. Han people marry at about 17 or 18 years of age. Minority people marry at 13 or 14 yrs.
We stopped at a rubber tree plantation. Rubber trees grow in an altitude between 477 meters and 2000 meters. One rubber tree yields 1 yuan a day. The tapping occurs between 3 and 4 am. Most families keep a small house at the plantation.

One can enjoy breakfast at the market. People shop daily and only purchase food stuffs for two meals.

This is a wine shop. Just siphon out your favorite kind.

All kinds of noodles. Grains are in the background.

Yummy geese ready to cook. There were also ready cooked geese available. Around the corner were geese that were flattened breast side up. This must be easier and quicker to cook on a barbeque.

My favorite basket. It was too big to bring home. This basket hold young chickens. There is a stopper that goes in the top and the vendor just reaches in and takes out a chicken. Easy and portable, how cool.


This is baby ducks. So cute and fuzzy.


A beautiful selection of fresh vegetables. Notice all the bad stuff is picked off and thrown on the ground before it is weighed. Everything is bought by weight.

A late breakfast or early lunch?

My friend remembered sugar cane as a childhood treat. We ran back and she chose a stalk. The woman weighed it with a hand scale. She is shaving the outside. She used the side of the shaver to chop it into 10 inch pieces and we chewed it and sucked the sugar juice out. Yum!

This delightful fellow was just sitting there minding his own business when we wandered by. He enjoyed the pictures that we took and then showed him. He was certain to include his beloved dog in the photos. He is a potter and his son helps him. He asked where we were from and then offered to take us to his warehouse to show us more. We went and it was not very full of pottery. He explained that he had just sold most to those getting ready for the new year. Yes, he is smoking a water pipe. He made it himself.

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