Architecture on the Road
BASHA VILLAGE, HOME OF THE LAST GUNMEN OF CHINA
The hills of Guizhou province in Congjian county are home to a special place, unique in all of China: the village of Basha (岜沙苗寨). This village is the homeland of the Basha people, a special tribe belonging to the Miao Ethnic Minority, which has maintained its unique cultural heritage and beliefs for centuries.
The Basha tribe belongs to the Miao ethnic minority group. The remoteness and isolation the village has faced for centuries has developed a closeness within the memebers of the tribe, allowing the preservation of local costumes, traditions, and lifestyle, which are truly unique and peculiar when compared to other tribes.
What immediately stands for the Basha tribe are their distinctive hairstyles and traditional garments.
The hairstyle is an important feature, especially for men. During childhood, girls and boys grow their hair, but at the age of 16 every boy must perform a coming of age ritual that where the sides of his scalp is shaved with a sickle without the use of any shaving cream or water. The top part of his hair is kept long and tied into a bun.
The traditional clothes are another defining feature of the Basha tribe. Villagers use to dye and sew their own garments, using the Liàng bù (亮布) fabric, a special textile of the Ethnic Minorities of Guizhou Province. The Liàng bù is usually made by dyeing the fabric in a natural indigo color over 40 times, before beating it with a hammer. Sometimes other ingredients are added to the dye, such as pig blood or raw egg whites to give the cloth a glossy, shiny look and make it water-proof. Liàng bù literally means ‘gloss cloth.’
The traditional outfit also includes a rifle, carried in the past for hunting and personal defense. The Basha people are the last “real gun men” of China, as carrying a gun is allowed by the government because it is recognized as part of their traditional costumes.
Nowadays, the Basha still fire their guns, but mostly just as a way to welcome visitors to their village.
Another uniqueness of the Basha tribe is their practice of worshipping trees. Trees are in fact considered sacred and cutting ancient trees is forbidden around the village.
The Basha have a particular custom of planting trees when a baby is born, which will be used to make a coffin at the end of his life.
The village of Basha perfectly retains its vernacular architectural character, as the inhabitants still live in the Diaojiaolou, the traditional Miao dwellings of Guizhou Province.
The main characteristics of these rural wooden buildings are the complete use of joints for construction and assembly, and the structure is built on stilts.
The absence of nails during construction makes it possible to disassemble, replace, or reuse some of the building parts.
The use of silts is a major feature of the Diaojiaolou, due to the condition it’s terrain and local climate. Stilts in fact allow the building of sturdy foundations on hilly and mountainous slopes, without blocking the heavy rain runoff that occurs in the wet season.
As already mentioned, due to the special character of its costumes and cultural heritage, the village of a Basha is one of a kind in the South of China, as it has almost entirely retained the same lifestyle, beliefs, and cultural practices for centuries.
Of course in recent years modernization has arrived to Basha too. The village, even if still pretty remote, is opening to tourism. The Ethnic minority tourism trend is thriving in Guizhou Province, which makes Basha one of the most interesting spots to visit while in the Congjian county.
Once arrived at the proximity of the village, a gigantic tourist center, only partially in use, welcomes visitors at the ticket counter.
With ticket in hand (60rmb +20 for the shuttle bus), a 20 minutes minibus ride drops the visitors at the actual village entrance, perched on the hills and surrounded by rice paddies and vegetation.
A few times a day, the villagers, dressed in their local garments, perform a welcome show for the visitors, playing their wind instruments and firing their guns into the sky.
In the same style of many other minority villages, Basha village holds cultural shows with dancing and singing performed by the villagers, which is included in the entrance ticket price.
The aim of these shows is to display the culture of the minority, miming some of the moments of their daily lives, as well as their important life events like marriages and cultural celebrations.
The climax of the show is the moment one of the villagers perform the traditional haircut on another one, perfectly shaving his head with the use of just a sickle.
I had seen a few of these cultural shows already, and I personally found this whole performance thing a little cheesy. In contrast, the Basha show was quite entertaining. A mixture of villagers of every age were part of the performance and I had the impression that they were actually (hopefully) having a fun time dancing and singing!
In the village, there is a small museum showcasing the Basha culture with a few reconstructions of daily life scenes and house interiors. The entrance is included in the ticket, and from the terrace of the building it is possible to admire an enchanting view over the village. Unfortunately, most of the museum captions are in Chinese, but it’s still interesting to have a look.
The village is not very big and quite homogenous in its look.
Simply strolling around the path, it is possible to admire the Diaojiaolou on their stilts, immersed in bamboo forest and rich vegetation.
Around the village, it is also possible to find several wooden constructions meant to dry the harvested corn.
In the main square of the village, there are a few souvenir shops and street food stalls. Seems that Basha is aiming to become an increasingly popular tourist attraction, judging from the over-scaled tourist center to access the village.
During our trip, there was definitely a few tourists, as this village is advertised as one of the special attractions of Liping county. The atmosphere of the village though, is still quite authentic despite the growing tourism, not yet spoiled by commercial developments (compared to other Ethnic Minorities villages nowadays overrun by tourism).
The local men seemed to be well versed towards visitors, proudly posing for pictures holding their guns and wearing their costumes, giving the tourists what they came for.
In total, we dedicated a whole afternoon for the excursion to the village: over one hour on the road to go and come back, and a couple of hours wandering around and watching the show.
The village of Basha is nestled amongst the hills of Liping County, in the Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture in Eatern Guizhou Province.
The closest town to Basha village is Congjian Town (从江县 Cóng jiāng xiàn), only 5km far.
The main tourist and transport hubs of Liping County are Zhaoxing Dong village (肇兴乡) and Congjian Railway Station (从江站), which are just approximately 40km from Basha.
The easier and better way to get to the village is to take a taxi or rent a driver from there.
From these two spots it takes approximately 1h drive to get to Basha.
Once arrived at the proximity of the village, visitors must stop at the Tourist center, to purchase the entrance ticket (60rmb, which includes the ethnic minority show).
From the tourist center is possible to take a shuttle bus to the actual village gate (20 rmb to be paid separately from the entrance ticket).
This last bus ride to Basha takes approximately 20 minutes.
The Basha village can definitely be regarded as unique because of its cultural heritage costumes and the preservation of them through centuries. From merely an architectural point of view, I believe that a visit to the village can be really interesting and worth the time.
When heading to Basha, it is important to bear in mind that the village is clearly aiming to become a more popular tourist destination, trying to gather more and more visitors by offering some kind of guided Basha experience.
Personally I found it interesting to witness how this Minority cultural tourism and all its related activities have been recently appearing in the life of these Ethnic groups, right next to more traditional activities like embroidery, handicraft, farming, and land working.
Whether these new trends are a benefit for the village income or harmful to the local culture, I am not in the position to judge.
When visiting Basha, a little bit of Chinese language skill is useful to better understand the experience that the village has to offer, and to interact with the locals, as some of them are there to show and explain the interesting things of their land and lifestyle.
Chinese skills or not, I found Basha an enchanting place to spend a few hours when exploring the Congjian county. I was surprised by the openness of its inhabitants, eager to use their unique vernacular culture as a way of promoting their village in the modern tourism industry.
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