Gengma and surounding

On the evening at 1988 November 6th, an Richter 7.6 earthqueak hit Gengma, killed more than 700 people and injuried about 8000 citizen. But look at Gengma town today, you wouldn't find any trace of that deadly disaster, only the memorial tower erected in the middle of the Baima Plaza reminded people of the event. At the back of the Plaza is the rebuilt Gengma Tusi mansion, in fact, almost all the historial relics had been destroy by the earthqueak, one more deadly blow after the culture revolution.
Gengma(@1100m) is a small town with the bus station stood near the beautiful built Jingge White Stupa could dated back 220 years hidden on top of a small hill behind the local high school, the Stupa was dedicated to the people of Burma and China after many year of war and conflicted, and finally both country could live in peaceful and friendly environment. The Stupa had been rebuilt at 1992 according to the original main tower, and 12 smaller stupa had been add around the main tower, each stupa stood for a month of the year.
Gengma is a friendly and welcoming town, so infomation for the surrounding could easily obtained. Not far from the Baima Plaza is Zongfosi Temple. Buddhism not coming into Gengma before the year 1473. Couples of traders went to Kengtong in Burma, and impressed by the faith and custom of Buddhism, and when the monk in Kengtong find out they had never heard of Buddhism and had no temple in Gengma, the monk presented the traders with a buddha statue and send 2 monks go back to Gengma with them, Buddhism spread the first time and Zongfosi Temple was built to took charge of all the other temples. Inside the main temple hall you could see a long banner depicted the whole life's story of Buddha.
25km outside of Gengma on the road to Shuangjiang, a huge cave on the side of the hill where they had find some relics could dated back 3000 years ago, said sthere was sign of building construction mean...there could be human activies in the pre-history time. they also suspected the tunnel inside the cave could lead all the way to Shuangjiang about 100km away, of course...no one ever made it that far. anyways...you could walk about one kilometer deep into the cave if you dare to, altough not hot but it was dark and humid, and many insects swarm around your headlight torch...annoying! They call the cave Shifodong - the stone buddha cave, as some stalactites inside the cave look like a buddha. In the old day people would take refuge here when natural disaster appeared, so it said to be a blessed heaven from the deity. every year during Water Festival thousand of people will come here to pay their respect to Buddha. and together of course...eat, drink and fun fair....a men-made disaster to the cave I would say!
Markets around Gengma area was a surprised as I didn't expected to find anything dressed tribal or something new. The less interest was Mengsheng market right inside Cangyuan region, a huge market hall but without much business. "normally I do business until 3pm" one vendor said by 1pm when we were waiting for the minibus to depart. seem like most of people were busy in harvest pineapple. In Mengsheng still could see some Wa in costume, and they wear thick round neck ring and ear-ring in disc and square shape. Batuan market further down from Mengsa was busy inside the small town. First I was attracted by the huge rugby turban. plain colour knee lenght long sleeve jacket open from the right and long trouser. Happily identified themselve "we are Han" when asked. Then I spot some dressed in a little bit more colour, long sleeve robe open in the middle, knot by a single silver button. the sleeve were in blue while the main body in black, there were pattern in lapel and cuff area, they wear baggy trouser and legging, most of them didn't speak Chinese. After enquired I find out they were Lahu. The closer Lahu village is about 15km further up the mountain, and they celebrate Torch festival, " a big event in their village" a local told me. I made a mental note of this. The majority are Dai in the market, the plain tight long sleeve shirt and the salong skirt was easy to identified. The Gengma market was also busy, although it all set inside the huge market hall, still...there are great atmosphere as the area was big enough to creat a market scene inside. Here you could see Dai of course, then there are Lahu but without costume, only could identified by their shoulder bag, you also could see Wa with simple costume, typical Wa skirt and a plain jacket, no headdress was in sight. In the market I also find couple of Lisu women, although no costume dress only an front apron and a shoulder bag, local told me they are Lisu. But the surprised was the Yi, I didn't know they had Yi in Gengma, they call themselve Mula Yi, they live near Mengsa area. they wear their headdress in a rectangular shape, and dress similar to the Dai but they wear legging.
I quite like Gengma, not only it is small enough to walk around, people were just nice and friendly. the only disappointed thing was I couldn't find a decent bakery for bread and cookie, and...a new bus station had been ready about 1 kilometer at the edge of town. I really wonder why a small town like this with tiny bus traffic, there not even a chaos scene during peak hour on market day, why you need a bus station a long way from town center????

note
bus Mengyong to Gengma 21 yuan
minibus Gengma to Mengsa 15 yuan
minibus Gengma to Mengsheng 15 yuan
minibus Gengma to Shifodong 15 yuan
entrance fee to Shifodong 15 yuan
There are more photos at the bottom of this page

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