Our first stop - Zhang Yun's mum's grave
For our fifth Qingming Jie (tomb-sweeping festival) in China we were honoured to be invited to Mohei by our good friend Zhang Yun, to visit her family, both living and deceased. Qingming is a time for remembering ancestors, visiting and cleaning the graves of departed relatives, placing flowers on tombs and burning ghost money. Getting to Mohei was the hardest part, as the rest of Simao was also on the move for this 3-day holiday. Mohei, an old village of wood-fronted houses, lies in a fertile valley half an hour north of Ning'er and is renowned for its salt mining, sausages and location on the Ancient Tea Horse Trail. It's about to find itself positioned once more on a major trade route as the new Kunming-Xishuangbanna expressway blasts through the outskirts of town.
After a quick lunch - including the best nimeng huang gua (lemon cucumber) I've ever had - we set off for the hills, stopping off briefly to buy all the necessary decorations and offerings. These included tinsel flowers, fake money and gold paper ingots. We also carried a large kettle of boiled spring water, food offerings and peach leaves, to ward off the ghosts (not the mosquitos, as Sue had us believe for a while!).
After a quick lunch - including the best nimeng huang gua (lemon cucumber) I've ever had - we set off for the hills, stopping off briefly to buy all the necessary decorations and offerings. These included tinsel flowers, fake money and gold paper ingots. We also carried a large kettle of boiled spring water, food offerings and peach leaves, to ward off the ghosts (not the mosquitos, as Sue had us believe for a while!).
Zhang Yun burns 'ghost money'
While Zhang Yun burned the money and the incense smouldered around the tomb, the men (Zhang Yun's uncles and boyfriend) smoked cigarettes, which they stubbed out on the ground and placed on the tomb's mantel. These weren't the only forms of litter we saw left at the tombs on the hillsides. Other graves were littered with plastic bags, paper cups, water melon peel, chopsticks and scraps of food. The first time we saw this, a few years back, we felt somewhat surprised that a tomb-cleaning ritual should end with the discarding of so much rubbish. This year I found myself reappraising the significance of this apparent disregard for aesthetics and the environment. Now I wonder if this litter is left as a mark of rememberance - clear evidence that relatives have paid a visit and the deceased was loved. As we left Zhang Yun's mum, her uncle called towards the tomb: "So, we all came to visit and we'll come again next year. We'll come again next year." The same ritual was carried out at each grave we visited.
Ali hanging out with "First Uncle", "Fifth Aunt" and "Seventh Aunt", at the old family home in Mohei. At 5pm all five living siblings and their mother (Zhang Yun's grandfather's "number two wife", now 86 years old) gathered with their families for a banquet. There were over 30 people there, including us, and all the dishes were prepared on a single solid-fuel-fired wok in a tiny kitchen. Our efforts to help were firmly refused but we did manage to contribute some watermelon and local sausage.
Sue taking a break at Mohei's temple, which we visited later in the day.
Resisting the temptation of the healing waters at Shui Jing Gong (Crystal Spring Temple). Ali, on the other hand, glugged down a ladleful and we're awaiting the side effects - good or bad.
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