Terraced fields can be seen throughout those parts of southwest China’s Yunnan Province which are occupied by people of the Hani ethnic group. Most renowned of all is the Yuanyang Terrace.
Scholars say the success of terrace development brought an important change to the social and historical development of the Hani. Terraced fields helped this people settle down from their previously nomadic life. The terraced landscape provided a new basis for their cultural development and led them to evolve new life styles and adopt new values.
Zhu Yunkuan, Deputy Chief Editor of Yunnan Art & Literature Review wrote, “A nomadic tribe from the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau migrated to Ailao Mountain about 2,000 years ago. They created that magnificent sculpture of terraced fields, hailed as a model of perfection. Moreover, they were the people who passed on rice-farming technology to the nations of Southeast Asia.
Their rice-farming civilization founded of terraced fields can be seen as the crystallization of the wisdom of the Hani people in their long fight for survival. Wang Qinghua, a researcher with Yunnan Academy of Social Sciences summarized the personal characteristics of the Hani ethnic group as “gentle, straightforward and indomitable.” Their approach to nature is also very much in this vein.
Out of the need for survival and development, they created the terrace. Around this a series of cultural activities has sprung up. In a long process of social development, they have found their own approach to nature. This is to be grateful to nature, to conform to the ways of nature and to show respect for nature.
Amatu Festival is the most splendid of the year for Hani people. In observing the customs of this festival, sacrifices are offered to nature. Besides each Hani stockade is an area of woodland. Tradition requires that it should have one upright tree. Each spring, the religious leader of the stockade will offer sacrifices to the forest and this tree. He will pray for peace for the stockade, health for the people and a good harvest for the terraced fields. As he completes the sacrificial ceremony and returns to the stockade, people will bring wine and dishes of food to the front of his house or some other open place. The people will gather here. The elders will then be invited to sit in the middle. Younger members of the community will then propose toasts and offer them cigarettes and tea. In return they give their blessings. Amatu is an act of striving for harmony between man and nature.
Thirteen days after the Amatu Festival comes Cow Day. Dozens of Hani stockades around Luchun County will hold a large joint ceremony. Here sacrifice will be offered in a forest beside the county.
The forest was an enormous tree in legend. A Hani girl, after traveling around the world, came back tired and sat down at a spring. She put her hollow reed walking stick into the water. Having drunk to the full, she got up to find the land shrouded in darkness. It turned out that her walking stick had grown into a huge tree cutting out light from both sun and moon. The tree disturbed the normal life of Hani people. They were now in a world without day or night, without time itself. Therefore, the Hani people had to cut down the tree. After carefully studying its roots, stem, branches and leaves, they came to the conclusion that there were 365 days or 12 months in a year and 30 days in a month.
The legend is a good indication of the Hani calendar having been originally derived from nature. Similarly, the development and cultivation of terraced fields arose through learning from and overcoming the challenges of nature.
Most Hani people go to Luchun to worship each year. There they collect the bones of sacrificed animals. These are said to help ward off evil spirits and bring people good luck.
Respect for nature is at the core of terraced rice-farming culture and is a major principle of Hani culture. It not only satisfies the religious beliefs of the Hani people, but also brings them tangible benefits.
In Yuanyang County there are two Guanyin (Bodhisattva) Mountains. Each has a Hani stockade at its foot. Solemn rituals are held there each year and sacrifices are offered. The people who live at the foot of Amu Mountain in Honghe County and Huanglian Mountain in Luchun County also observe this ancient custom.
(China.org.cn by Li Jinhui, July 12, 2002)
