Shangri-La (Zhondian County)

When I decided to go to China, one thing I wanted to do was visit a western province to see the contrast with eastern China. While I was trying to decide what province to tour, Yan, one of my friends in China suggested Yunnan. Her description of the province pretty much persuaded me to go there. Then when I was researching Yunnan I noticed an area call Shangri-La in the northern corner of Yunnan and I was hooked.

The name Shangri-La conjures up idealized, somewhat magical images from James Hilton's book, Lost Horizons, a place of eternal youth and tranquility. During my research though, I found out that there are many places in the Himalayans that claim this title, mainly for tourism reasons. The original name of this Shangri-La is Zhingdain County; see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shangri-La But my imagination was already engaged, I didn't care if there were other Shangri-La's out there. This would be mine.

Well I don't know if I found Shangri-La or not but I did have a very good time. It also changed my concept of what Tibetan people are like. My view had been of a very austere people who dressed in layers of plain somewhat drab clothing and did a lot chanting with Buddhist monks. What I found in Shangr-La was historically and currently Tibetans are very diverse. The Tibetans here presented a nomadic culture, rich in song and dance. The traditional costumes were made of brightly colored silk and animal hides.

The highlight of my stay here was dinner at a common house. We had roast Yak, Yak tea and other local foods. Along with the food was a lot of traditional singing and dancing by local performers usually followed by the cheer "yasoo yasoo ya ya yasoo, yasoo yasoo yeah!!!" and the downing of a jigger of "wine". Actually the "wine" was 80 to 100 proof barley whiskey. Also as the singers sang, people would take these thin silk like scarves and place them around the singers neck.

The signing and was great as in much of Asian signing they would reach the upper reaches of the vocal range but their middle and low range was very melodic. The following link is of a Naxi singer but the singing is very similar http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-b7heJYFpc&feature=related. The dancing was also fun. Here is a Youtube video I found if the same group http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvDrqVi9WpI&feature=related If the guy in the red coat looks like he is saving his energy, he is, in a solo performance he started doing barrle turns around the pole and went around the pole three timed doing these turns.

I even danced a couple of times during the group dances. During the last group dance I noticed another tour bus pushing their tour guide over towards me. So I took the hint and started dancing with her. She was a good dancer and I was having a great time until I noticed everyone had stopped dancing was watching us dance. Then I got really self conscious and stopped. I should have just kept on going.

There are some photos still to come.