The real history behind the myth of being locked up by mountains and rivers
From Lhasa to Qushui, if you keep speeding on National Highway 318, you will miss Junba. However, if you are approaching Qushui County, pass the Lhasa River Bridge in the south of the road, turn into the township road, and you will arrive at Junba Village, known as “the only fishing village in Tibet” in 15 minutes. Such a quick journey was unimaginable many years ago.
Junba used to be just a small village locked by mountains and rivers.
Junba Village is 60 kilometers away from Lhasa. It is located at the intersection of the Lhasa River and the Brahmaputra River. The village is surrounded by mountains on three sides and water on one side. But note that this is not a simple mountain and water, but the highest river and river in the world, surrounded by peaks ranging from 3,600 meters to more than 5,000 meters above sea level.
No one knows why the ancestors of the Junba people chose to settle in such a place. After all, Qushui County, where the village belongs, is mostly a flat river valley, and it is also a transportation hub connecting Lhasa with Shannan and Nyingchi. During the prosperous period of the Tubo regime, the Tubo royal family also built palaces here. Although it is surrounded by accessible and fertile land, before the modern bridges and roads connect, Junba Village is a typical “traffic block”.
As a fishing village, Junba Village is quite unique on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Although archaeologists have found traces of fishing and hunting by Tibetan ancestors at the Qugong site four thousand years ago, as well as in Gonggar County, which is about 40 kilometers away from Junba. But for a long time after that, the Tibetan people did not fish or eat fish. So people couldn’t help but wonder why Junba went against the common sense at the time.
Some origin myths and stories circulated in Junba can be regarded as the basis for the Junba people to “why fish for a living” in their village. There are two types of myths, one is the “fish disaster theory” and the other is the “fairy theory”.
01 Fish disaster says
According to legend, the geographical location where the rivers meet in Junba Village gathers the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, so the fish here reproduce very fast. Later, there were no more fish in the waters, so these fish gave birth to wings and flew to the sky, gradually The sun and the moon are covered, so that the life on the earth cannot be illuminated by the sun and the moon and slowly perish. The gods noticed this and ordered a saint who guarded the place to lead the Junba people to destroy these winged fish.
After fighting for nine days and nine nights, the people finally won and celebrated by eating fish and drinking. Thanks to God’s instruction and approval, the villagers of Junba Fishing Village can fish and eat fish.
02 Fairy says
Legend has it that a certain generation of Tibetan kings sent troops to besiege the village after learning that the villagers of Junba were fishing. In a desperate situation, a young man in the village came to the river to fish after worshiping the saint, but caught a beautiful fairy. The fairy invited him to live in wonderland with him. The young man refused this tempting offer and insisted on staying to fish in order to save the villagers who were about to starve to death.
So the fairy said to him: “You have a pure heart and moved the saint. Give me to the king of Tibet, and you can live a life like a paradise.” The young man did as the fairy said, and Zao agreed to allow the villagers of Junba to fish for generations.
No matter how beautiful a legend is, it is just a legend. In fact, the choice of fishing in Junba Village is determined by the environment. This is a land surrounded by mountains and rivers, with scarce arable land, lack of pastures, and inconvenient transportation. Fishing was actually the only way of survival for the Junba people thousands of years ago.
The once life of the secret code “water radish” was not a paradise
In the old society, the life of the villagers in Junba was not as “Xanadu” as mentioned in the myth. The fishermen live in poverty, and if they had a choice, they might not have been fishing for a living thousands of years ago. However, they have no other means of production and means of production to choose from.
Years ago, fishermen were considered “inferior”, and people from other professions did not even marry fishermen. Most of the time, only the families of cobblers, blacksmiths and hunters who belonged to the bottom of the society would intermarry with the families of fishermen. In Junba, if a family has two sons, one is often a fisherman and the other a cobbler. When the children grew up, they intermarryed with other fishermen’s families and cobbler families in the village. This form of marriage and family makes the family relationship and social division of labor closely integrated, so that the leather goods making and fishing techniques of Junba Village have been inherited.
The villagers of Junba do not only catch fish for their own consumption, but they also sell it. In the last century, the writer Mr. Yang Congbiao went to the local area to conduct field research and recorded a very interesting dialogue:
Yang Congbiao asked the village chief, “Solang, wasn’t it forbidden to fish before liberation? The common people don’t eat fish, so what’s the use of fishing?”
The village chief said, “The nobles and lords said they were not allowed to fish, but they quietly came to buy fish at night. They also knew that fish was delicious.”
In the memories of the old Junba, some Tibetans would buy fish to eat during times of food shortage. Especially when the highland barley is not mature and the beef and mutton stored in winter have been eaten, fish is a good food supplement.
At this time, the villagers of Junba would go to Lhasa to walk around the streets, but they did not shout “selling fish”, but “selling water radishes”. At this time, residents who know the code will come out to buy. As fishermen, they sometimes go to pastoral areas to sell their catches, and exchange highland barley, milk residue, salt and other materials needed for life with herdsmen. Customers who are familiar with each other can even take credit, and then pay off when the highland barley is mature.
Historically, the villagers of Junba had to bear heavy taxes and labor. Because of their humble status, they will consciously avoid many large-scale pujas. However, when it comes to festivals, Junba Village also has to send people to “office”. According to the old man in the village, it is “boating in the Dragon King Pool to relieve the boredom of the nobles.”
Before the founding of the People’s Republic of China, they were more of a free agent for long-distance water freight for the government at that time. The transportation range is from Lhasa to Shannan area, about two or three hundred kilometers of waterways. The cowhide boat carried the cargo down the river, but after reaching the destination, it could not go up the river. The boatman needs to dry the cowhide boat, then carry the boat weighing more than 80 pounds on his shoulders and carry it home on foot. There is no reward for such hard labor, except sometimes rations. For thousands of years, the ancestors of the Junba people have lived such a life. As a fisherman fighting against the river and a boatman sent by others, even if they try their best, they may still be unable to survive. On the hill behind Junba Village, there is a small temple dedicated to the protector of the village. Every time they return from fishing, the fishermen go to the temple to repay their vows.
With the founding of New China and the peaceful march of the People’s Liberation Army into Tibet, all these miserable lives have undergone earth-shaking changes. A reporter once interviewed an old man in Junba village at the beginning of this century, recalling the old days, the old man still can’t forget the scene when he first encountered the People’s Liberation Army when he was a teenager. After helping the People’s Liberation Army cross the river, the boatmen of Junba Village received generous remuneration for the first time in their lives.
The liberation of Tibet brought a new life to the Junba people. The villagers are freed from the hard work of their ancestors day after day, freed from the pressure of inferior life, have the right to develop the fishery and other industries in an upright manner, and have the opportunity to receive education. The villagers of Junba have gradually become richer. In the exclusive courtyard of ordinary people, there are not only traditional cowhide boats, but also bicycles. When farming is busy, they grow crops and fish during slack. The housewives also make cushions, quilts, and some traditional leather product.
The vicissitudes of life of the cowhide boat imitates the highland dance of the yak
More than 200 years ago, Zhou Ailian, an official of the Qianlong Dynasty, entered Tibet and traveled on the river in a cowhide boat. Like a barrel boat, it floats down like a fly on the big river, sitting in it, seeing the danger of the rapids of the river, can’t help but make people tremble in their thighs, and they are extremely frightened.”
The Lhasa River has an open surface and a large flow of water, not to mention the majestic and magnificent Brahmaputra. Riding a cowhide boat to the heart of the river, you will feel as small and fragile as falling leaves. It is hard to imagine how courageous people in Junba Village have needed to face such challenges every day for thousands of years.
Scholars have discovered that, during the Tubo Dynasty, cowhide boats were used to complete water transportation. As “professionals”, Junba people used to accompany leather boats every day. The old people in the village were once strong men. They “fished in the first half of their lives and built boats in the second.” In their opinion, fishing on the Shenjiang River on the plateau with high winds and high waves is the same as hunting on land, and the most important thing is to follow the trail of the prey. They are all skilled at judging the size and size of their prey based on hydrology and waves, as well as the speed of a school of fish. When fishing at night, take a torch into the water, and the fish will gather toward the light. This is a good time to cast the net.
The cowhide boat has been drifting on the Brahmaputra River for more than 2,000 years. It is not only a fishing tool and a means of transportation, but also a prop for the entertainment and dance of the villagers in Junba. The dance of Junba’s cowhide boat, Dunerzi, has been included in the national intangible cultural heritage list with its distinctive features.
“Dun” in Dunerzili refers to a cowhide boat, and “Zi” means dance. As the name suggests, it is a kind of boat dance.
It is usually performed by four men, two of whom are the lead dancers and the other two are the boat dancers.
As the lead dancer sang, the boat dancers danced on their backs. The lead dancer holds a prop stick with a Hada tied to it. The dancers carry a cowhide boat and play a pair of wild bulls. The female ox is called “Baden Ma Songjiebu”, which means auspicious heavenly mother, and the male ox is called “Damqing Qujijiebu”, which means the God of Yan Mo.
The lead dancer sings and dances, while the boat dancer carries a huge prop, inserts a rowing oar across the back and waist, and cooperates with the waist and hands to send the boat up, and when the boat falls, it hits the oar. Make a sound.
The peculiar percussion method produces a rhythmic sound that is deep, deep and enthusiastic, adding a special rhythm and sound effect to the dance, and all the viewers feel novel. The dancers are relaxed and graceful in their movements and full of enthusiasm. It is hard to imagine the props on the backs of the dancers—the cowhide boats, which weigh 70 to 80 pounds. After ten minutes of dancing, the people behind the boats are sweating profusely. under the rain.
When outsiders look at Dundze, they will always wonder how this peculiar dance came about. According to expert research, Dunerze originated from the yak dance in Tibet, and the reason why the boat is used to play the yak is the improvement of the fishing village people according to local conditions. In the old society, under the exploitation of the feudal lords, the Junba people lived a hard life, and they could only use the Dunerzi dance to relieve their distress; on auspicious days such as the “fishing festival”, the Junba people danced at the Dunerzi to entertain. God for peace. In the new society, the Junba people dance in Dundze again, and they are no longer burdened with heavy spiritual and economic pressure, but the inheritance and development of traditional folk customs.
The new era has already lifted the burden from the shoulders of the Junba people, so they will be more relaxed and happy when they pick up Dunerzi.
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