Thousands celebrate Munao Zongge in Yunnan

The Munao Zongge festival popular among Jingpo people was held in Longchuan county, west Yunnan’s Dehong Dai and Jingpo prefecture from Feb 4 to 6.

Thousands of people's dance. (Photo by Yunnan Daily)

In the Jingpo language, Munao Zongge means folks dance together to celebrate with their best wishes for harvest and happiness. Longchuan is praised as the hometown of Munao Zongge. It is the most important and biggest festival of the year for the Jingpo folks.

Jingpo folks are dancing. (Photo by Yunnan Daily)

In the celebration, history, culture and art of Jingpo will be showed. It is one of the national-level intangible cultural heritages. As there are many people join the celebration each year, and there are many legends behind this festival, Munao Zongge is also praised as “thousands of people’s dance”.

Foreign friends in the celebration. (Photo by Yunnan Daily)

Longchuan county has the largest population of Jingpo folks in China. The culture of Munao Zongge here is well-reserved. This is also the most representative place for Jingpo folks. When the festival falls around the 15th day of the first lunar month each year, all the villages will celebrate it.

 

This year’s pageant includes the welcome party, outdoor movie, Munao Zongge carnival, elephant-foot drum performance, folk cultural show and Jingpo music and dance performance. Meanwhile, visitors can try the snacks of Jingpo style.

Reporting by Zi Jianfei, Guan Yushu and Wang Yi with Yunnan Daily; Trans-editing by Wang Yunya