Advanced Search

The story appears on

Page A6

April 1, 2010

GET this page in PDF

Free for subscribers

View shopping cart

Related News

Home » Opinion » Chinese Views

Yunnan's plight raises questions over water festival tradition

Source: Xinhua | April 1, 2010, Thursday | Print Edition

A government decision to allow a traditional Water Sprinkling Festival to go ahead in spite of the prolonged severe drought in southwest China has sparked controversy.

Duan Jinhua, head of the information office in Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province, confirmed in his microblog that celebrations for the New Year in the ethnic Dai calendar, featuring the sprinkling spree, would not be canceled despite the drought that is ravaging most parts of the province and has left tens of millions of people thirsty for water and crops withered.

An online survey on Sina.com, showed that 52.3 percent of respondents backed the celebrations while 40 percent regarded it as a waste of water. However, the government of the Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture has decided to cancel official celebrations for the Water Sprinkling Festival, and leave local people free to choose how to celebrate themselves.

The Water Sprinkling Festival, also observed by several other ethnic groups in addition to Dai in Yunnan, is on April 15. The festival was listed a state intangible heritage in 2006.

The official celebration in Xishuangbanna is being cut to two hours, three hours shorter than in previous years, and people are being encouraged to splash less water, according to Duan.

Luxury

But this has not satisfied some critics as the worst drought in a century has increasingly become a major national concern.

"Look at the huge cracks on the land and withered crops," Xishuang Xingzhe said on a www.news.cn forum. "The drought is so severe, but they will still sprinkle water that is now as precious as life. It is a bit too brutal and the celebration is too big a luxury."

Another post, by Huiwen, said: "On the one hand water is as precious as oil, but on the other, water is regarded as nothing. Maybe such a sharp contrast could only arouse people's alertness in such a disaster year."

The drought has lingered in southwest China for months, affecting 61.3 million residents and 5 million hectares of crops in Guizhou, Yunnan, Sichuan, Chongqing, and Guangxi, the Ministry of Civil Affairs said recently.

The dry weather has left 18 million residents and 11.7 million head of livestock thirsty for water and caused direct economic losses of 23.7 billion yuan (US$3.5 billion).

In hardest-hit Yunnan province, direct agricultural economic losses are estimated at 17 billion yuan. The drought has forced many villagers to sell their cattle for very low prices and has left their cropland infertile.

Dry weather has affected over 80 percent of all planting areas in Yunnan, a region producing fresh flowers, rapeseed, sugar cane, tobacco and tea.

Passion

Many people in remote mountainous areas have to walk long distances to fetch water. In addition, 8.2 million people in Yunnan are short of food. Some meteorological experts say the drought is likely to continue to worsen until May, when the rainy season starts.

The drought, however, would never dry up ethnic Dai's passion for their most important traditional festival. "Water sprinkling is an indispensable part of our new year celebrations," said 60-year-old Yannuo in Menghan township in the less-affected tropical prefecture. "We should not lose our tradition."

Wang Jinhan, a Dai girl in Manzha village, said: "Those who oppose the celebrations are neither Dai people nor from an ethnic group that observes the tradition. They don't understand how important the festival is to us."

Indeed, there is no reason to deprive the Dai people's rights to celebrate the Water Sprinkling Festival, which has a history of about 1,000 years. It is as important to them as Spring Festival is to the Han people, said a post from NMGV.

Liyimen96 called on critics to respect ethnic culture and tradition, saying the spree should not be canceled because of the drought.

Zheng Peng, a Dai folklore expert, suggested that people splash water in a symbolic way. He said: "Actually the traditional way was a kind of symbolic sprinkling. In tradition, people just dip tree branches into water and sprinkle it onto others."


Chinese Views


 

Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.

沪公网安备 31010602000204号

Email this to your friend