Mystery Unsolved: The Last Matrilineal Tribe

Author: Li Dazhu, Li Gengdong
Publisher:
Publish Date: 1999-12-01
Features: Where did the beautiful lake come from? The Mosuo people have a moving story. According to legend, the revered Goddess Gemo is not only beautiful but also very charming and never content with solitude. She had a long-term Ashuo relationship with the male mountain god "Wayoubula" within the boundaries of Lugu Lake, but also established temporary Ashuo relationships with the surrounding "Waha," "Aná," "Zézhi," "Houlong," and the male-female mountains within Yanyuan County. When Goddess Gemo met the male mountain god, she could only do so after dark and before the rooster crowed at dawn, otherwise she would suffer the wrath of the gods. Once, while Goddess Gemo was temporarily staying with the male mountain god Zézhi, her long-term Ashuo, Wayoubula, discovered them. Enraged, Wayoubula chopped off Zézhi's reproductive organs with a knife. It is said that a long hill in the southeastern part of the Yongning Basin today is the severed reproductive organ of Zézhi. Goddess Gemo and the mountain god Houlong were even more deeply in love, often secretly meeting behind Wayoubula's back. One night, the singing and dancing Goddess Gemo and Houlong met and reveled in their passion, forgetting everything around them. Just as they were deeply connected, they suddenly heard the distant crow of a rooster. Houlong hastily mounted his horse, urging it forward with a whip. Unbeknownst to him, the horse stumbled, leaving a deep hoof print on the ground below. Unwilling to break their tender connection, Goddess Gemo called out to Houlong and ran after him. By the time she reached the hoof print, dawn had begun to break. The goddess stood by the print, grieving and weeping for seven days and nights. Her torrential tears filled the print, transforming it into a "Xianami" shaped like a horse's hoof—the Lugu Lake. Some of her tears overflowed eastward, forming the Grass Sea. Hearing her cries, Houlong looked back with deep affection, reluctantly throwing off the pearl necklace he wore, giving it to his beloved as a keepsake. Unfortunatly, the string broke, and some pearls fell into the tears, turning into the small islands in the lake. P2-3