Harmony rules among religious in Shangri-La
Print Edition
ZHANG Yongzheng and his wife He Axiang used to pray to different deities.
Zhang, a Tibetan ethnic, would go to a Catholic church near their home in southwest China’s Yunnan Province, while his wife, from the Naxi ethnic group, would go to a Buddhist lamasery.
“We believed in what we believed,” Zhang said. “Many of our neighbors are like us, family members believing in different religions.”
Zhang, 54, runs an inn and grows grapes in Cizhong Village in the hilly plateau of the Tibetan autonomous prefecture of Deqen in Yunnan.
Some guidebooks call Deqen a “fairytale wonderland” and many locals believe the Shangri-La described by British novelist James Hilton in his “Lost Horizon” is Deqen.
And in 2002, Zhongdian County in Deqen was authorized by the State Council to rename itself Shangri-La.
What makes Cizhong different is the Catholic church built by a French missionary 150 years ago. Today, most villagers describe themselves as Catholics, while others stick to Tibetan Buddhism.
The signs of peaceful religious and ethnic coexistence are also obvious in the town of Shengping, where a mosque’s green dome rises beside a white Buddhist pagoda.
Dozens of steps away from the mosque lies the home of Li Zhongyi, 63, whose two-story house tells of cultural blending. On the first floor are two living rooms decorated with different religious symbols. One in the Tibetan style has an incense burner, a butter lamp and a statue of the Buddha for his 90-year-old mother Drolma Lhatse, devout Buddhist and lifelong Deqen resident. She would chant sutra, burn incense and serve the living Buddha. The Hui-style room has Arabic tapestries where Li entertains his Muslim friends.
“We have different beliefs in our family,” Li said. “We tolerate and respect each other as part of our daily lives.”
Atheist Li has been a member of the Communist Party for 31 years. His eldest daughter and son-in-law are also Party members. His brothers and sisters are Muslims.
Such diverse faiths under the same roof are mainly due to the cosmopolitanism tradition and what Li described as “complex” ethnic composition of the family.
Li’s ancestors had a Han bloodline. His mother and wife are Tibetans, his brothers and sisters Hui, his brothers-in-law Han, Yi and Bai.
In Deqen, the 400,000 population is made up of 26 ethnic groups — a third Tibetan, a quarter Lisu ethnic, a fifth Han, a 10th Naxi, and the rest Yi, Hui, Bai, Miao and others.
Buddhism, Taoism, Christianity and Islam have a combined 141,000 followers in the hilly prefecture.
“In Deqen, all ethnic groups are united and religions are in peace and harmony,” said Xiao Wu, head of the local Ethnic and Religious Affairs Committee.
The prefecture has never experienced major problems between religions. Staff of different religions learn from one another and the local government treats them equally, Xiao said.
When they celebrated their 10th wedding anniversary in 1998, Zhang and He agreed to just one religion. She became a Catholic.
To avoid being buried separately, many couples in Cizhong convert before the time comes.
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