Sanduo Festival
01 · Historical Records
The origin of the Sanduo Festival is connected with a hero named Sanduo. Sanduo is a transliterated Naxi personal name; in legend he was valiant in battle and aided those in distress, and he is also the incarnation of Yulong Snow Mountain, the sacred mountain in the eyes of the Naxi — hence Sanduo is both a personal name and a mountain name, and a regional tutelary deity believed in by the Naxi and by the Bai, Tibetan, and other ethnic groups. The customs observed on the eighth day of the second lunar month each year have been passed down year by year through the tradition of entertaining gods and people, with offerings, song and dance, flower viewing, and picnics accumulating one by one over the years, until it finally became the emblematic folk festival of the Naxi people.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The Sanduo Festival, held on the eighth day of the second lunar month each year, is a traditional cultural activity formed by the Naxi people through long-standing pastoral and farming customs; it aims at entertaining gods and people, takes offerings, song and dance, flower viewing, and picnics as its vehicles, contains much cultural content including history, folklore, art, handicraft, and temple fairs, and is the emblematic folk festival of the Naxi people. Yulong Naxi Autonomous County lies in the northwest of Yunnan and is home to the Naxi, Han, Bai, Tibetan, and other ethnic groups. Its highest point is the main peak of Yulong Snow Mountain, Shanzi Duo, which is covered in snow all year round. The region sits at a transport crossroads of Yunnan, Sichuan, and Tibet; it is a necessary passage and hub of the Tea-Horse Road in northwest Yunnan, a corridor of economic and cultural exchange among the ethnic groups of southwest China, and a zone of blending among Naxi, Tibetan, and Bai cultures, with transport extending in all directions and a distinctive cultural character. Every year on the eighth day of the second lunar month, people of the Naxi, Bai, Tibetan, and other ethnic groups living around Yulong Snow Mountain dress in festive attire, invite one another, and, carrying offerings, food, and cooking utensils, go spontaneously to the Sanduo Temple to celebrate the Sanduo Festival. Naxi villages far from the Sanduo Temple also prepare full offerings on that day and offer them to the god Sanduo in the wild or before and behind their houses, each expressing the wishes in their hearts. The Sanduo Festival has a relatively fixed ritual process: first a senior dongba (ritual specialist) presides over the ceremony, chanting the Scripture of Offerings to Sanduo and the Scripture of Offerings to the Sacred Day; then the people burn incense and make wishes, praying for the protection of Sanduo. After the offerings, people gather in groups and go to the Wan Duo Camellia Garden of Yufeng Temple to view the flowers. All along the way, on the roadsides and in the woods, there are everywhere people singing antiphonal songs, dancing the dajiao, and picnicking. The Sanduo Temple square stages performances of traditional ethnic songs, dances, and music, and hosts temple-fair activities featuring ethnic handicrafts, tools of production and daily life, flowers and plants, and ethnic costumes. At night, bonfires are lit in the streets and squares of Lijiang and in every mountain village, and people sing and dance in rich and varied celebrations. The traditional sacrifices and rituals of the Sanduo Festival highlight the idea of the unity of heaven and humanity — that “nature nurtures humanity” and that “humanity and nature are brothers” — as well as the concept of the equality of all things, embodying the Naxi people's ecological view of being grateful to nature, cherishing nature, and protecting nature. Through this festival, people continually recount the historical traditions of harmony between humanity and nature and amity among people, convey a positive and upward spirit, and express their pursuit and yearning for a better life.
The rite at the temple of Sanduo
On the eighth day of the second lunar month people in their best dress walk to the temple with offerings and cooking gear, while those far away lay their own offerings in the fields or before their doors.
The dongba priest presiding
A senior dongba priest presides, chanting the rites of Sanduo and of the sacred day, after which the people offer incense and make their wishes.
Offering incense and wishes
After the offering each visitor lights incense and quietly states a wish, from a good harvest to a family’s health, no reckoning afterwards.
Admiring blossoms at the camellia court
After the rite people walk in groups to the camellia court at Yufeng temple, where February blossoms make a year’s earliest promise of colour.
Singing on the path and dancing in the open
Along the way people sing in pairs and dance in the open, cooking where they sit, and the square at the temple fills with music and a market.
Bonfires after dark
At night bonfires are lit in the streets and squares and in every mountain village, and the celebration goes on wherever people gather.
A god in kinship with nature
The rite expresses the belief that nature nourishes people and that people and nature are siblings, an ethic in which the hero, the sacred mountain and the guardian are one.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
“Sanduo” is a transliterated Naxi personal name, that of a hero who in legend was valiant in battle and aided those in distress, the incarnation of Yulong Snow Mountain, the sacred mountain in the eyes of the Naxi, and a regional tutelary deity believed in by the Naxi and the Bai, Tibetan, and other ethnic groups. The Sanduo Festival custom is distributed in Naxi settlements in the basins of the Lancang River, the Jinsha River, and their tributary the Wuliang River, around Yulong Snow Mountain where Yunnan, Sichuan, and Tibet meet. The Sanduo Festival comprehensively encompasses the achievements of the plural cultures of the Naxi and the other ethnic groups of the region; it presents a vivid scene of interethnic harmony among the Naxi, Bai, and Tibetan peoples of the region, promotes exchange and interaction among the ethnic groups, serves as a vehicle for strengthening ethnic unity, building a beautiful homeland, and constructing a harmonious society, and accords with the requirements of sustainable development.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The Sanduo Festival has been passed down from generation to generation through the spontaneous participation of dongba ritual specialists, inheritors of song, dance, music, and handicraft, and the general public, and it has a broad mass base.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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