There are only 2000 people in the world who have their own culture and language

At the harvest festival celebration held in Weixi, Yunnan Province, Yufan saw the legendary Mary masas for the first time. They are an ethnic group living in Tacheng Town, Weixi County, Diqing Prefecture, Yunnan Province. There are about 2000 people. They have their own language and culture. However, in the ethnic identification in the 1950s, the Mary Masa people were classified as the Naxi branch and concentrated in Weixi County Gaogu, haini and other natural villages in haini administrative village of Tacheng Town, and guanliluo, Xincun and ruke natural villages of Kona administrative village. "Mary Martha" means "if the prey is not thrown, the hunter will not die." it is a blessing given to Mary Massa people when they go hunting away from their parents. Mary Masa is a minority group in the border areas, which has gradually attracted the attention of the outside world in recent years.

On the day of the celebration, Mary masas performed two performances: one was the Mary Martha song "making heaven and earth" sung with Minghui and Mu Liying, and the other was "Mary Masa dance" organized by haini village of Tacheng town

After the ceremony, Yu Fan had a brief chat with the famous singer and Minghui of Mary Masa. He explained to me some basic information of Mary Masa people. He said that the areas where they lived lived were Lisu, Tibetan, Naxi, Yi and Han nationalities. Because of the need of communication, each of them can speak four or five different languages. When communicating with Lisu People, they can speak Lisu language; when communicating with Tibetans, they speak Tibetan; when communicating with Yi people, they speak Yi language; when communicating with Han people, they can also speak Chinese; But when they communicate internally, they also speak their own marimartha language.

The origin of the "Mary Martha people" is still a mystery. Some scholars think they belong to the Naxi ethnic group because of their language and customs. Most of them are named "harmony", a large family name of Naxi nationality. Registered residence statistics also include them in Naxi nationality.

However, some people think that they are descendants of Mosuo people, because the homonym of "Mary Masa" is "Mosuo people between heaven and earth";

Some people even think that they are descended from Qiang nationality and migrated from Western Sichuan

It is said that the "Mary Martha" Association for the aged in Kona village has also studied its own origin, and has compiled materials according to folklore. According to legend, the ancestors of the "marimartha" were the grandsons of the Arctic birthday star. They came to Weixi to hunt and live in the "ape man cave" on the cliff beside the lapu river.

The name of the "ape man cave" in archaeology is the Gordon site, which proves that there was human reproduction in Diqing during the Neolithic period. It is of great value to study the relationship between the Neolithic culture in the three parallel rivers basin and the culture of the same period in other parts of China.

In the long-term worship of Yushun, they not only pray for their own religious and religious life, but also make their own religious life. They also have their own "Masa Festival". In the first month and June of the lunar calendar, they put on clothes with Tibetan and Naxi characteristics, dance and expel ghosts, and offer food made of medicinal materials, fish, rice and milk, so as to have a healthy, long life and abundant grain.

In addition to their own festivals, due to the coexistence and integration of different ethnic groups, there are many festivals and sacrificial activities of "marymasa" which are rare among other ethnic groups. Tibetan Buddhism, Dongba religion of Naxi people and primitive religion of "Mary Masa" coexist harmoniously in their villages: the flags of Tibetan Buddhism flutter in the wind, "marymasa" burn incense in front of manidui; they also carry out religious activities such as "sin" and "chongbabe" of Naxi people, and "torch Festival" of Yi people.

Li Jiansheng, director of Weixi Tourism Bureau, introduced to us that "marymasa people" are industrious and enthusiastic. Their main source of income is growing corn and rice. Some young people also go out to work. In addition, the villagers from the mountains to dig wild orchids well known, some orchids can be sold for tens of thousands of yuan a plant. In recent years, with the help of the government, their living standards have been greatly improved. Their water, electricity, roads, communications and other infrastructure have been improved. They enjoy rural cooperative medical care, pension, free compulsory education and subsidy policies for plateau farmers and herdsmen.

Director Li said that Mary masas are good at singing and dancing. Their singing and dancing have two sources: one is from imitating birds and animals; the other is from production labor. In the lapu river area, some animals in the breeding season often show their beauty with pleasant sounds and beautiful body movements to please the opposite sex. When hunting in the forest, the ancestors of marimartha were often attracted by the beautiful sounds and postures of these animals, so they tried to imitate them and had the rudiments of early marimartha singing and dancing.

Mary Martha's early form of singing and dancing originated from her ancestors' imitation of animal sounds and postures, while the modern meaning of Mary Martha's song and dance originated more from production labor. In the process of rhythm changing, in order to coordinate the body movements and the speed of work, the former Mary masas usually worked together. In order to coordinate the movement of the body and the speed of the work, people gradually experienced the beauty of dance and music, and began to consciously create songs and dances.

With the development of society, the way of living of Mary Masa changed from hunting to planting and breeding. Some songs reflecting the food production and harvest came into being, such as plowing songs, planting Yangko songs, cutting firewood songs, playing grain songs, harvest songs and so on.

Mary masas, who almost became the 57th ethnic group in China, were classified as a branch of Naxi because they were similar in many aspects to the Naxi people. In the past, little was known about them. Later, they gradually attracted the attention of the society. Their culture, song and dance gradually came into people's view. The last question comes. Have you ever heard of the Mary masas?