SiChuan - Tibetan Village, Qiang Village 藏家 （东藏），羌族

7/1/2014 Sichuan, Tibetan Village (藏家), Qiang Village (羌寨)

our pretty Qiang Village tour guide in traditional Qiang cloth



Aaron:

Tibetan village

While we were coming back to Chengdu, we stopped at East Tibetan  Village. A guide welcomed us. She invited us to visit her house. It was a traditional Tibetan style house. We had hot tea over there.  While we had tea, we learned that the wall paintings were handmade by the guide’s family. We also learned that it is a tradition, before the East Tibetan people get married, the groom needs to hand make a beautiful silver belt for his bride. If the bride decides its not pretty, the groom had to wait another year and redo the belt.



Qiang way of characters

When we finish touring the  house, we went to the ancient Qiang Village. We climbed lots of stairs to the top of the village. On the rail there were image of written symbols, the Qiang way of characters. A fact is that the Qiang people don’t have any texts so they use drawings instead.

leader of Qiang village in a meeting

The Qiang City Wall was very high. The village was well defended. We saw the leader of Qiang Village (羌寨吐司) in a meeting. After that, we saw a fake person and a real blacksmith.

Qiang flute

Qiang sewing

There were some decorations, a bank, sewing room, bedroom, and a stage. On the stage, a person performed with a Qiang Flute. We even got on a second floor patio. It had a great view of the whole Qiang Village.



maca

Later, we saw a medicinal plant called maca being sold. It is very rare because it needs specific heights and temperature in order to thrive. East Tibet Village and Qiang Village are fun to see.





Gordon:

flower dance at Tibetan village

On the way back to Chengdu, we went to visit East Tibetan village.  The people gave us a beautiful flower dance to welcome us. They carried and swung the flower vases and danced in a circle. Our guide took us around her house. We drank the special Horse Tea (马茶). It tasted good. My brother and I finished 8 cups.



Qiang village
a big castle

After that, another guide took us to visit Qiang village. We climbed up the high stairs to the top and saw a big castle.  Our guide showed us the king of the castle. The king and his soldiers sang a welcome song. We came to a stage where a pretty girl played a double pipe instrument, Qiang Flute. It is a very rare technique. If they didn’t find a right person to play, Qiang Flute technique would become extinct. There were some wine stuff that could make our body warm. But we didn’t dare to drink it. It was great to learn different cultures.