The car was driving in the direction of Yuxi, and there was a road sign for Xingmeng Township on the side of the road. Entering the boundary of Baige Village, you can see women in Mongolian costumes along the way. Here, even the restaurants on the side of the road are bilingual, with Chinese characters written on the left and Mongolian written on the right. The closer you get to Baige Village, the more abrupt Mongolian style becomes.
There is a monument at the entrance of Baige Village. The inscription records the origin of the Mongolian people in Baige Village. Behind the monument is written 20 big gilt characters: "The southern frontier is bitter, and the loyal bones are buried in the Yunnan area. Soil.” Baige Village is thousands of miles away from the grassland, and the Mongolian people here are nostalgic for their hometown.
On the top of the monument, there is a fine horse galloping up and looking up to the north. The elders in the village said that the horses facing north once again represented their longing for the northern grasslands. After the Ming Dynasty, with the arrival of a large number of Han immigrants, they absorbed the culture of the Han nationality. Until now, these Mongolians still speak a language with a peculiar pronunciation, which is not easy to understand, somewhat like the accent of the local Yi people.
There is another important factor for the Mongolian people to settle down and continue on the bank of Tonghai Qilu Lake. There were a large number of Yi people living around Qutuoguan where the Yuan army was stationed at that time. Because there were few women in the army, most Mongolian soldiers married local Yi women. These Yi women brought their own language, singing and dancing, and costumes to the Mongolian people, allowing the Mongolian people to easily localize when they changed dynasties and escaped the disaster of genocide.
In terms of appearance, they are no different from the aborigines in Yunnan. Typical Mongolians with wide faces, thin eyes and single eyelids are rare. It is more difficult to find the breath of the Mongolian grassland here than to find the breath of the sea in the mountains.
Women's clothing is very distinctive, a set of 3 tops with different colors and alternate lengths, commonly known as "three folds of water", with a cloth belt tied around the waist. Many details and lace patterns of the clothing still retain the characteristics of northern Mongolian clothing. The headgear is the phoenix crown before marriage and the "Congwusi" Baotou used after marriage. This headgear is influenced by ethnic minorities in Yunnan.
"Sansheng Palace" is located on the mountainside between Baige Village and Xiacun, facing Luofeng in the south and leaning against the left wing of Fenghuang Mountain in the north. It was built during the Tongzhi period of the Qing Dynasty, with red tiles and red walls. The "Three Saints Palace" enshrines the statues of Genghis Khan and his descendants Meng Ge and Kublai Khan.
The first floor of the "Sansheng Palace" is the "Marshal's Mansion", and there are dozens of steles inside. Some of these inscriptions, which have experienced the baptism of time, record the migration history of this nation from the grassland to the plateau; some record the deeds of the first Marshal Ala Timur and Marshal Zhantan. The second floor is where the "Three Saints" are worshipped. Genghis Khan is in the middle, Meng Ge is on the left, and Kublai Khan is on the right.
Every year on the 20th day of the sixth lunar month, the village celebrates the "Ancestor Remembrance Festival". All men, women and children will gather at the "Sansheng Palace" to worship their ancestors. The respected old man presides over the ceremony and traces the history of the Mongolian nationality in Tonghai. Through this way of remembering ancestors, it is passed down from generation to generation.
Although it has been away from the grassland for hundreds of years and is far away from thousands of mountains and rivers, Baige Village still maintains the traditional festivals of the Mongolian grassland. The most lively is the "Nadam Festival", which is the oldest traditional festival of the Mongolian people. The Mongolian language means entertainment or games. This is a cultural, sports and entertainment event held by people to celebrate the harvest.
From entering as a conqueror at the beginning to becoming the ruled later, the role change in the middle, and the various adaptations in the middle must be a wonderful story for a minority who has become a community. They can survive and develop as Mongolians, which seems to prove the kindness and tolerance of Yunnan people from one angle.