Western Sichuan 8: Danba to Tagong - Hongshi

The Red Rocks of Hongshi 红石 ©Ingrid Booz Morejohn

Heading from Danba up to Tagong through Bamei you pass through a tight passage  where the road runs close to the river. All the rocks are red, not from a geological coloring but from a kind of fungus or lichen that grows on the rocks. 

Western Sichuan 7: Danba area, map and make-up

Danba area and confluence of five rivers ©Google Earth/IBM          Click to enlarge!

The Region of Danba forms a county within Ganzi Prefecture. It has a total area of 5649 sq km and a population of about 60,000 people. Danba Town itself is located in a very interesting position where five great rivers flow together, forming the mightly Dadu River which is a tributary of the Yantgse.

Danba is a transitional zone, both geographically and culturally, between two very different areas: Tibet and China. The human makeup of Danba is very complicated with at least five different, mutually unintelligible languages and several dialects spoken in a relatively small area. Situated at the southern end of a region called Gyarong, the people of Danba have historically been known to be fiercely independent, mentally belonging neither to Tibet nor China. Buddhism and pre-Buddhist Bön are the predominant religions in the area. In this area you will find about 49% Danba Tibetans and 50% Han Chinese with a remaining 1% made up of the Qiang minority of Nothern Sichuan. Although located quite close (as the crow flies) to the area of the May 12, 2008 Wenchuan Earthquake, Danba and its ancient towers were purportedly relatively unaffected.

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Bodybuilder at the local gym, Xian, Shaanxi ©Ingrid Booz Morejohn

The Knife Sharpener

Chengdu 090219 ©Ingrid Booz Morejohn

The street we live on is full of wonders. It's not particularly beautiful, it's actually quite ugly. But local life here is rich. Hardly a day passes without something interesting happening, and if you are content with experiencing the little things in life you will not be disappointed. On Thursday the itinerant Knife Sharpener set up office outside the front gate. He charges 2 yuan (c:a 2 kr) per knife and has all his tools with him in little baskets and bags carried in his three-wheeled bicycle cart. He has several whetstones of varying surface texture and coarseness at his disposal and little sponges and water to clean off the blade surface. He spent 30 minutes sharpening six of my knifes of different sizes, now they cut as swift and deep as a cruel word from a loved one.

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Råån, Skåne ©Ingrid Booz Morejohn

What to do on a rainy day

Lotus pods 090221 ©IBM

All was not lost when we visited the Art Museum on Saturday. On the ground floor is a cheap and quite large (albeit very musty-dusty) selection of artist materials in a lobby shop, so we bought some watercolor paper etc and spent the rest of the day painting to loud music. Lot's of fun and a great way to spend a rainy day. 

To the right of the entrance to the Art Museum is another much better, not at all decrepit, art material shop that was buzzing with activity and bohemian looking artist types with long beards and berets. This is a great place to shop for equipment and supplies, very affordable. Let those creative juices flow! 

Sichuan Art Museum and Funny Hat Day

Photographer Tianfu Square, Chengdu 090221 ©Ingrid Booz Morejohn

Yesterday was a grey,  rainy day (yes the rains have begun) so we decided to go to Sichuan Art Museum just west of Tianfu Square here in Chengdu. Lo and behold, upon arriving at the Art Museum there was no more museum left. The building looked completely abandoned inside, all the exhibition halls were chained shut and everything was dusty and depressing. Are they between exhibitions or is this it? Nada mas, meiyou, inget mer?? Couldn't get an answer out of anyone. 

If someone can tell me what has happened to the Art Museum and if it will ever open up again please post a comment. If you at the same time can also tell me when the Sichuan Provincial Museum will open up I'd be most interested. It's been years now since they tore down the old one and the new building next to Dufu Cottage looks promising from the outside but it looks like nothing is happening on the inside. I think that a city like Chengdu, with a population of over ten million people and a provincial capital to boot, doesn't have a proper art museum and and an open and functioning provincial museum is quite pathetic. Look at the vibrant art scene and all the museums and galleries in Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou and even Guangzhou. Come on Chengdu, we can do better!

Around the corner from the Art Museum however was a gallery with Russian art. Very nice, well lit and interesting. After visiting this we walked over to Tianfu Square to watch the musical fountains (Emy said the pattern the water made "looks like onions"). We came across this smart photographer in his "anti-drizzle hat". I like the "camo-pattern" on the underside. Very chic!

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Chinese Blue Qing Dynasty and modern © Ingrid Booz Morejohn

Western Sichuan 6 Danba: Zhonglu and Suopo

Zhonglu and Suopu July 26, 2007, Sichuan All photos ©Ingrid Booz Morejohn

This is a continuation of several postings about Western Sichuan and the Danba area. 

Twenty odd years ago when I first started travelling in Sichuan I became fascinated with the towers of northwestern Sichuan. I first saw them on trips through Maowen and Wenchuan County on the way up to Songpan or Maerkang. I never got close to one, however, as they were usually located on the other side of a river or other obstacle. Later in the mid-90s I encountered them again, with my husband, in the Kongpo area of Eastern Tibet TAR and could walk and climb inside a few. On this trip to Danba in 2007 we saw them in many places, some villages had only one or two, others like Suopo (last image above) several. In this area most are four-sided but there are a few rare ones that are eight-sided. All in all they total around 100 in the Danba area. According to historical research most were probably built before the 16th century, with many of the original towers being destroyed in the wars of the 18th century during the Qing Dynasty. There is much speculation as to what the original purpose of the towers actually was. A general conclusion is that they were used as both forts and defense towers, storehouses, beacons and landmarks (just like some Chinese pagodas) and also as status symbols (local tradition say they were sometimes built to commemorate the birth of a son).  

Some of the towers we visited had the first entrance window placed so high off the ground (several meters) that they could impossibly have been used as a storage area, it was just too impractical. This kind was maybe used as a place to escape to in times of trouble with a ladder up to the entrance that could be withdrawn into the interior of the tower when beseiged. Most of the towers in the area look locked up, surely both for protection of the tower and also for safety from accidents. 

Anyone wishing to know more about the towers can read Frederique Darragon’s Secret Towers of the Himalayas, which can be bought at the Foreign Language Bookstore in Chengdu. ISBN: 7-80709-043-X/K.2 Price 160 yuan. Darragon heads a drive to protect the towers under the Unesco World Heritage program.

Note: All of the pictures above are of the village of Zhonglu, located in a parallel valley to Jiaju. Zhonglu is famous for its Sichuan pepper (huajiao) which was being harvested when we visited. What a wonderful smell there was in the air around us! You can read more about my infatuation with huajiao on my posting from Feb 05, 2008: Red chilis and Sichuan Pepper: A match made in Heaven or Hell? The last image is from the village of Suopo. Both Zhonglu and Suopo have several towers but Suopo has a very old (700-800 yr old) star-shaped tower.

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The Sunday Bazaar, Kashgar, Xinjiang ©Ingrid Booz Morejohn