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Beautiful Blue Peacocks |
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Jinghong city is the capital city of Xishuangbanna Dai Minority Autonomous State, and the origin of its name is well known to many people. The story goes: once upon a time, the Chief of the Dai folks chased a golden deer; in one morning, he lost the golden deer in the forests of the present Jinghong. The Chief found that the land in this part was quite flat and fertile, so the took his tribesmen there. "Jing" means "city", and "Hong" means "Dawn"; therefore, the name Jinghong means "the city of dawn". However, the ancient name of Jingyong is less known to people today; "yong" means peacocks, i.e. "the city of peacocks". There is also a story about this. At the time when the ancestors of the Dai people migrated to Jinghong, there were a lot of peacocks in the place; the Chief told his tribesmen that peacocks were auspicious birds; no one was allowed to kill peacocks; more, all his tribesmen must love and protect peacocks. Therefore, peacocks became more and more, and the name of the place also became "Jingyong". The people in the neighboring Laos, Burma and Thailand are not familiar with the name Jinghong, but if you mention Jingyong to them, most of them know the name and place. In history, there were also records about peacocks in this part in the Chinese documents; for example, in a book named "Records of the Uncivilized Tribes", it recorded that "peacocks have their nets on the trees in people's yards"; and the "green feathers" used by royal families of all dynasties in China are actually peacock feathers contributed by the headmen of Xishuangbanan. However, nowadays, we can seldom see any peacock in the rain forests, and it has become a key protection animal of the national level because of abused hunting and killing.
Peacocks are beautiful birds, particularly the tale of male peacocks; they will walk around and raise their heads when they are seeking for spouses, and will continue to display their pride. In the eyes of the Dai folks, peacocks not only symbolize beauty, they also symbolize nicety, luckiness, and holiness. In their literary works, peacocks are important descriptive and praising subjects. The famous Dai poem "Zhao Shu Tun" describes a love story of the peacock princess, Nan Wu Nuo Na, and the prince, Zhao Shu Tun. The story has been edited into movies and TV plays, which are loved by many. Peacock dance is one of the most popular folk dances in Xishuangbanan; according to traditional customs, peacock dance is the dance of men; the dancers would wear masks, peacock gowns and wings, and would imitate the behaviors of peacocks during performance. Nowadays, the dancers are mostly women; they wear peacock skirts, through performance of all parts of the body, they can recur the elegant poises of the peacocks vividly. A famous peacock dance performer, Yang Liping, is in a high degree of professional proficiency in performing peacock dances. She went out from Xishuangbanna to Beijing with her peacock dances; and then from Beijing to Europe and America; and she won applaud from people everywhere and did a lot in preaching for Xishuangbanna. Nowadays, the lovely artful images of peacocks are commonly seen on decoration patterns on the Dai folks' houses, on the textiles, bags, tight skirts of young Dai girls, frescoes of temples, city sculptures, and even the planes of Yunnan Airline.
What is quite regretful is that, because of abused hunting and the reduction of the forest areas, peacocks in Xishuangbanna are becoming fewer and fewer. It is very difficult for people to find their fond images in the existing tropical rain forests. In the "city of peacocks", Jinghong, we can only see some home raised peacocks today.
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