"Mystery of Wengding - China's Last Primitive Tribe"

During the Spring Festival in 2021, a shocking and regrettable news quickly spread: Wengding Village, China's last primitive tribe, was basically burnt down by a big fire. What is the current state of the Wengding tribe? Is it still a burnt ruin, or has it risen from the ashes like a phoenix? On the morning of December 24, the sky was gloomy, and the weather forecast predicted long periods of moderate rain, but we still insisted on going to Wengding. Wengding is about 25 kilometers away from Cangyuan County, with excellent road conditions. After passing through a newly built tunnel about 2 kilometers long, we saw a large stone tablet at the intersection: "Wengding Primitive Tribe", and one of the 'A' characters in the 4A scenic spot logo below was chiseled off. We felt a chill in our hearts, could it be that Wengding has not been successfully rebuilt? We parked the car in the parking lot outside the scenic area, got off the car, and changed to the scenic area's electric car. The car drove on the three-kilometer mountain road, the mountain wind was biting, and we were shivering with cold. At the entrance of the scenic area, the stone tablets of "Wengding - China's Last Primitive Tribe" and "Wengding Wa Ethnic Traditional Residential Buildings" were prominently displayed. Wa men and women in ethnic costumes welcomed us with songs and dances. We met an old man who was walking briskly. Upon asking, he was already 85 years old and happily took a photo with us. We walked through the village entrance shaded by huge trees, passed the wooden stakes hanging with cow skull, entered the village gate, and saw a square. At this time, we could see clearly that Wengding Village was surrounded by mountains on all sides, and it was almost isolated from the outside world without the tunnel. On the top of the eastern mountain, a ray of sunlight broke through the clouds and shone into the village, warming our bodies instantly. We saw hundreds of stilted thatched houses of different sizes with '人' shaped roofs, distributed along the mountain and the path, arranged in a staggered manner, which was very beautiful. Except for the lack of smoke marks from cooking on the thatched roofs, it was almost identical to the photos before the fire. The stilted thatched houses are generally used for stacking firewood or raising livestock on the lower level, and people live on the upper level, cooking and sleeping around the fire pit. But now no one lives in them. Most of the tribal residents moved into the new village as early as 2018, and only a few villagers were unwilling to move into the new houses, so there was a fire caused by an eight-year-old child playing with fire. The scenes of men farming and women weaving that can be seen everywhere in the tribe are all reenacted by Wa villagers for tourists, even if there are few tourists. Around the tribe, ancient trees tower into the sky, the vegetation is lush, the mountains are clear and the water is beautiful, giving a sense of paradise. Mountain springs are led into the village through bamboo pipe water troughs, and the water in the pond is deep and clear. Climbing up to the high platform of the Wa King's Mansion, you can overlook the tribe. Below the tribe's mountain are terraced fields, and the red rice and corn that are planted have been harvested. Every October, the tribe holds a New Rice Festival, where people dress up and sing and dance, creating a lively atmosphere. The so-called primitive refers to the primitive nature of dwellings, production, lifestyle, and social structure. Today's Wengding tribe, apart from the architectural group after the reconstruction of the old village still maintaining the primitive appearance, the actual production and lifestyle of the tribal residents have been modernized. But when we see the primitive life scenes performed by the Wa villagers in the tribe, we are still full of interest and feel a strong sense of time travel and curiosity. On the way back, we passed by the new village of Wengding. We saw clean and flat roads, two or even three-story new houses with black tiles in every household, small courtyards decorated with flowers, and many electric cars, farm vehicles or even cars parked at the door. We casually walked into a house, and the host enthusiastically invited us in for tea. Is this a "primitive tribe"? It's clearly a new socialist countryside!