March 20, 2007
Bai
Every Monday morning the Bai people who live in Dali around Erhai Lake (ear-shaped) hold a market, actually two. One takes place in a town square, and contiguous streets in front of established stores, - the other, up in the hills of Shaping (ironically pronounced shop-ping). These markets are distinct from thedaily downtown, old town Dali street market which caters primarily to Chinese tourists, in that (mainly) local folks are buying and selling local goods to one another. I happened to land in Dali on the right day.
It's hard to imagine just how many tons of produce are hauled in for the occasion, much of it on the backs of women. If you examine the Bai headresses carefully, you can see that they easliy accommodate a head rope for hauling heavy loads. Notice that the woman below in native dress, is hooked up to a closed sack, and the woman to her right , in jeans, has a basket of produce that she's carrying with a headstrap. The Bai's neighbors to the north, the Naxi, have cross-the-chest straps designed into their native dresses for easy hook ups. You'll see that later.
Most of the ladies have a wide straw hat to pop on over their headdresses when they need a little shade.
I don't know whether I've said this, but I found photographing on this trip a bit stressful. There was so much visual richness that it was hard to focus. I just kept pressing the button. I prefer to take a little time to contemplate my subject. I also found that I was embarrassed to take pictures of people, particularly without their permission. Although I'm sure some of them would have gladly posed, I was too shy to ask, then felt terrible sticking my camera intrusively into places and faces. As a consequence, I have lots of shots of people's backs. I have clickied in some of R. Todd King's beautiful photographs of the area, so you can get a fuller sense of the experience.
This is the long view of the market in the square as seen from the from the butcher shop.
The produce section was abundant. There were recognizable veggies like eggplant, scallions, spinach, peppers , daikon radishes baby bok choy (which I saw for the first time at the Farmer's Market back home). There were some greens I couldn't identify.
The same could be said for the display of the pickle peddlers. I did recognize the Asian pears.
In the poultry section the fuzzy little duckies would have been adorable, if we didn't know so much.
The mushrooms were spectacular.
and the palm sugar unrefined and sold in little domes.
Of course there were all manner of household decorations and necessities available as well, but I'm photoposted out for the day, and only slightly demoralized ` by R. Todd's photos.
