Most likely heavily infused with my own prejudice. Minimal organized notes + translation. More work needed. Time? Space?
Location: village a, Mianning, Liangshan, Sichuan
The first Suni I encountered, who lives in deep mountain, can only be reached by foot. It was January, confronted with the very real fieldwork possibility: He was not at home. I found him via via. The young Yi brother who had heard of him brought me into the dark mountain, rocks, dried leaves creaking under my feet. I was struggling to keep up with his pace. The little torch light from my cell seemed child-play in front of the deep darkness of a mountain. Winding roads, rising smoke, if not were because of the cutting wind, I could fully indulge in the romantic country vibe. The Yi brother went ahead to call for the Suni, quickly disappeared behind twisty barks and ramped earth houses scattering along the winding paths opened by repeated stamping. His voice echoed for a bit and completely dissipated, hijacked by the wind. “Come! He is visiting neighbors!” A couple of house and big rocks away. A wooden door opens into a concrete courtyard. Empty for now, the dried corn skins have already been collected and piled up on the side. Rolls of corn husks hanging from the roof of the main house. Entered, dimly lit by one bulb slanted hanging at the corner of the room near the door. A couple of people gathered around the fire pit deeper in the house. The other two corners wrapped in darkness. I guess the young Yi brother had announced my coming and my unsolicited interest. Even the village party official was there. Supposedly for translation purpose.
Some theatrics of hierarchy and (party) respect later.
I sat next to 英古书不. Who has 150 thousand followers on Kuaishou (tiktok competitor). Communication was difficult. His son could speak a few words of Mandarin, who insisted with a bookish manner that I should just follow and watch his videos if I’m interested in Suni practice. Persistence, annoyingly has always been my preferred mode of conduct, I shamelessly asked the party official to translate for me, inquiring about his life story. Unsurprisingly, he claimed to have been sick for 10 years, without the ability to walk. One day, he received his grandfather in his dream, telling him he has to become a Suni. The next day he could walk again, and assumed the practice of Suni. According to Han Chinese sources, Suni can not be taught, can only be “chosen”. Suni’s spells and mantras differ from person to person, because they are more “heart-felt calling” than written scriptures to follow. Suni’s primary function was to cure ill spirit related matters: sickness, madness, bad harvest, prone to accident, pest infection etc. Occasionally, Suni engages in ghost-busting business too. Legend goes a prolific Suni can locate and hunt ill-intended ghostly spirit for “三天三夜”(lit. three days and three nights). Putting them to rest will ensure the peace of host family again. Rituals require various levels of preparations and offerings, can last between hours and days depending on the difficulty of the task.
I asked 英古书不 if he was still practicing curing ill-spirits or if he was mainly focusing on performing on Kuaishou. He nodded, ambiguously, without saying anything. I took a quick scan of the Kuaishou profile on his son’s phone (a typical poorly made low-cost smartphone targeting mainly farmers who sell on markets that need access to Wechat Pay or AliPay). I noticed many snapshots include him smiling into the camera, holding a fanned out 100 Yuan bucks—a typical display of wealth, proliferating a populated corner of the internet, from rural China to rural Turkey to rural U.S.A. I can’t help wondering about the whereabouts of those bucks. They definitely didn’t spend on furniture, we were all sitting on tiny wooden stools just big enough to hold both my butt cheeks, while he sits on a log, his younger children on the ramped earth floor. Only the courtyard was flat and smooth with concrete. Ensuring effective drying of farmed goods. If he was not earning that well as those short-videos were to portrait, how does he come to have the cleanest smile and clearest of eyes?
Back to the DaQiao village center where paved roads are often intercepted by crumbling bits. The region has a big water reservoir built in the 2000s, and logs were planted and cut-down with various scales since the 70s. Large transportation, heavy truck tires, the only smooth state road in the region is the one meant for transporting rockets to the nearby rocket-launch experiment ground. Were Suni to be asked to heal the broken land, where and how long would they locate and hunt down the ill-intended spirit? Now my field visit a public knowledge, the Yi party official of the town told me there are one Bimo and another Suni in town. He made the decision to summon the Bimo to the courtyard of one of his subordinates where we gathered. While the subordinate works with his wife to prepare a meal for everyone. The Bimo walked in and went straight to attend to the fire pit where we sat around for some warmth. He sat at the “high” place, back to the kitchen door, facing the courtyard, centering himself. He told me Suni know nothing, only Bimo were proper carrier of the Yi knowledge and tradition. He was performing the “尼木措毕”（Yi for “to surpass, to transcend, the grandest Yi ceremonies for honoring and seeking protection from the ancestors) some days ago, and the selection period of offerings (black sheep and black pigs, one white sheep, many chickens, all without a single strand of hair that is “impure”—different color) took a year since the amount was grand and “pure” haired animals are hard to find. I can sense he embodied a learnt habit of “demanding” respect. Since Bimo’s naturally assumed position were interrupted during the “破四旧” (lit. getting rid of four olds)period. Practices were halted, ceremonial instruments and books were destroyed, many Bimo and Yi people revolted, subsequently killed and de-armed. (complicated history that these words don’t do enough justice)Bimo was the highest leader for Yi people. Carrier of Yi culture. Now all surviving and “contaminated” cultural practices engage in a complex and continuous negotiation with Han culture, communist party politics and capitalistic modernization. Though the deep despite he showed towards Suni was not echoed by others, who did not have much knowledge about the meaning and value of their respective practices.
In “New” Liangshan area, many young Yi people have no or low regard towards Bimo and Suni practices. They have more open attitude and cultural affinity towards “modern Han” city lifestyles. Next post: Different encounters with Suni from both old and new Liangshan region.
Permenant and Pertinent Resi(st)dance 