"Little girl, you are so beautiful!"
"Old Wang next door" parked the car in front of a small fork in the road, and across the passenger seat, I stared straight at the big-eyed girl of fifteen or sixteen who was leaning on the big stone at the intersection outside the car window. Send compliments.
I quickly added: "He said you three are beautiful!"
The three little girls laughed but didn't speak.
"Excuse me, is this Azheko?"
"Yes, just go down from here."
"Is this the only road? Can the car drive in?"
"Yes, there is a parking lot inside!"
The Azheke we are looking for is a village recommended by a tourist yesterday. He said: Go and see! You will regret it if you don't go.
After filming the sunrise of Duoyishu's terraced fields, the scene just now appeared on the side of the road at a kilometer distance.
This is an asphalt path only half a foot wider than the car, winding down. There is a parking lot after 10 meters. Stop and walk and continue down. The excitement begins here.
Going down from the parking lot, there is a road paved with round and large stones under your feet, with forests and terraced fields beside the road. There are very few tourists, and some Hani people in the village pass by carrying baskets or leading oxen.
Ailao Mountain, Red River, Hani people, terraced fields, mushroom houses, red rice... The picture outlined by these words together is like a distant country, which is simple and mysterious, where some people's food, rice, oil and salt are. Utopia in our hearts.
After driving for an hour from Kunming, we broke into the mountainside of Ailao in the vast clouds and mist. Here, the world-famous Hani Yuanyang terraced fields tested people's physical strength and character (discontinuous fog, visibility is only meters). How many people come here, either to pursue the ultimate contrast of light and shadow, or to see the contest between man and nature. The scenery in our eyes is actually the food of others. In the face of mountains and rivers, there are scenery and helplessness.
Compared with terraced fields, Azheke is a model of active life. They live in the mountains, but they are not bound by the terrain. On the one hand, the stretching mountains and barren land make their survival more difficult; on the other hand, they keep the rare beauty in the world in their daily life. Because they seldom communicate with the outside world, most of the people here have cultivated a peaceful mind that is not surprised by favor or humiliation. Those who are "congenitally deficient" do not complain, and those "imported things" do not envy. The world is as simple as a village, and there are too many sorrows and joys Rainy and sunny, good years and famines.
Entering the village gate of Azheke for the first time - a small plaque, turning a bend in the road, Azheke Village is presented in front of us - surrounded by distant mountains, terraced fields descending from the mountains, buffaloes leisurely in the courtyard, and mountain springs rushing do. Before I had time to adjust my breathing, the legendary mushroom house suddenly appeared in front of my eyes.
Mushroom houses are the most distinctive residential form of the Hani people. It is said that the Hani people used to live in Tuzhang houses. After moving to the humid and rainy Honghe area, they used thatch to pave a four-slope roof with a slope of about ° on the stone Tuzhang houses, like a mushroom. There is no courtyard in Hani folk houses, and they are all single buildings, usually two or three floors. The bottom floor is for raising livestock and storing agricultural tools, the second floor is for living, and the third floor is a granary. Part of the space on the second floor is an extended balcony, which can also be used as an important social space. Azheke is now the best-preserved small Hani village, and the one with the most mushroom houses.
The color of Azheke is rich. Blue sky, white clouds, red soil, green trees, yellow walls, brown roofs, dark buffaloes and dark faces of villagers, all the pictures as far as the eye can see are like bright colors with the saturation of the camera turned up. People, animals, houses, and crops are the most basic factors of production for farmers. They are so harmoniously combined here. They are willing to "carve mountains" for their lives. What else can't be integrated into their minds!
As the saying goes, "After the rain, the sky is clear and the clouds are broken, and the setting sun suddenly turns green into haze." Thanks to my character, the majestic Azheke welcomes us with the warmth of the sun. The mushroom houses are scattered and dotted according to the mountain, like a mushroom valley on a terraced field. At the end of the "valley" is a suspended terrace viewing platform, which is different from the Duoyi tree for watching the sunrise and the Laohuzui terrace for watching the sunset. , I believe it will be more colorful when the light is suitable. It is a pity that at noon, the top light is brilliant, and the water vapor in the terraced fields and gullies loses its luster, which is a pity.
Looking around on this viewing platform, you will see the classic culmination of the so-called "rice farming" culture - the "four elements" of terraced fields, forests, water systems, and villages have formed a perfect fusion. Just imagine, facing the living space of mountains and valleys for thousands of years, the industrious Hani people built embankments and ridges according to different terrains and soil properties, and used the natural law of "how high the mountain is, how high the water is" to create terraced fields on the clouds. People in the clouds. Looking at the primitive tranquility of the village, the simplicity of the countryside, and the unique houses, you will marvel at the ingenious and poetic combination of culture and nature. It is no exaggeration to say that Azheke is an idyllic poem where the Hani people and nature are interdependent.
The center of the village is a relatively flat square. At noon, there are tourists in twos and threes. Most of the villagers are eating or basking in the sun at the door of the mushroom house.
In front of a mushroom house in a corner, several girls are grilling potatoes and tofu buns, which should be of a commercial nature. I was a little hungry, and there were no restaurants in the village. When I took a closer look, I saw a familiar face. The "Old Wang next door" and I looked at each other. Isn't this the girl with big eyes I met at the gate of the village? So I sat down, asked for two servings of each item, and chatted with the big-eyed girl.
The girl is 20 years old, and she is in the second grade of junior high school in a town a few kilometers away from the village. It's a holiday now, and the little sisters are playing around in the village without anything to do. Now they are helping to sell baked potatoes at a classmate's house. This small stall is the bottom floor of the mushroom house. It used to raise livestock, but now it has become a food stall for tourists.
Sitting on a small wooden stool, eating delicious baked tofu and baked potatoes, surrounded by old grandmas with braids, old men basking in the sun, little girls fighting, gabby boys running and jumping in the street, village women weaving baskets... ...a piece of blissful pastoral life.
"Let's go to eat at home?" The little girl with big eyes threw away the things in her hand and stood up and said to us.
"Go to your house for dinner?"
"Is it appropriate?" We were a little confused.
"It's okay to come to my house for dinner." The little girl's attitude was straightforward and determined.
Although I politely rejected it, I was still secretly happy, because I knew that this was a rare experience to go deep into the life of Hani's family.
In fact, it's very close. You get on a high platform and you're there just by turning a corner. "Hey", that formation really scared me. I thought that going to the girl's house to eat was my family, sitting around a round table and eating a potluck meal. Unexpectedly, what caught my eye was forty or fifty people eating around four open-air tables, serving food, serving rice, and delivering soup. It was so lively. The little girl arranged us at a table close to the gate, and the person at the same table greeted us politely and showed us two vacant seats. At this time, two small stools were handed over, we sat down unceremoniously, and started chatting, eating and taking pictures during the banquet without any sense of disobedience.
Through difficult communication, I realized that this is a gathering of a big family. All the people here are uncles, brothers, cousins, etc. There is no reason or topic. It is just a habitual gathering for dinner. Today is our luck and caught up.
During the banquet, I had many opportunities to carefully observe the appearance of the Hani people. I found that the Hani people seem to have big noses and big eyes. They are generally not tall. They all have dark faces, thin bodies, and are not good at talking, but you can definitely feel them. The simplicity and sincerity exuded from the bones.
The food is three kinds of meat—chicken, beef, and pig. It seems to be stewed, and there are chili noodles dipped in water. I don’t know the wild vegetables, and I can’t understand them after asking. During the meal, the cousins were neither humble nor overbearing and unrestrained towards our two "others", as if they were used to it.
This scene is more like a long street banquet of the Hani people. Each family contributes one or two tables, and all the guests sit down regardless of where they came from. Every family worked hard to prepare, no one cares about more or less, whether the taste is better or not, get together happily, eat and drink while talking, talking about the past and the present, passing on the achievements of the ancestors in choosing and building villages, and at the same time Pray for the village god "Angma" to bless the people and animals in the village with safety and good weather. In a village, there are no strangers, those who are familiar are the hosts, and those who come are the guests. A street and a village are full of happiness, even if they eat bran and swallow vegetables, life is exaggerated to be happy.
We were deeply moved by this innocence. In the "big city" we live in, one door can "not communicate with each other forever". All the people rushing on the street are strangers, the joys and sorrows of a person are so insignificant that they are not worth mentioning, and if they merge into the flow of people, no one is a passerby in the bustling.
In this "small place", it is the living individuals who are truly respected. Their sorrows and joys are defined by the heavens, inspired by their families and clansmen, their vision is narrow, their hearts are wide enough to smile at every stranger , wide enough to tolerate all cultures and customs, and laugh at the differences in the world with an undefended attitude.
At the end of the story, the "Old Wang next door" graciously left a business card for the little girl, saying, when you come to our place in the future, just ask me for anything, you are welcome, and in the end, he was reluctantly pulled away by me.