Flutists

First of the cruise‘s shore excursions was south of the Three Gorges Dam to a “village” of the Tujia people (eighth largest of China’s fifty plus ethnic minorities.)  I was particularly intrigued because their name written in Chinese is 土家 which literally translates to “Earth family.”

These two Tujia are acting out a boy on shore playing a flute to woo a girl standing on a boat.
The playacting and the set design reminded me of the Moari village experience I went to in New Zealand.  Nestled between the steep mountains, the land was truly beautiful.
These are (supposedly) cormorants trained to hunt fish for the Tujia, as seen in BBC’s Wild China series.Something tells me this laundry never actually gets clean.
Boy wooing a girl with a flute on a bridge.  I feel like the Tujia have some sort of flute-based mating pattern.
And now, beloved readers, more of my famous terrible wildlife photography!  Macaques with motion blur!  First up, a play in three acts:

Act IAct II
Act III

Baby macaque, nestled in bamboo so no one steals its food.
  
  
  Once again, I’ve found myself chasing waterfalls.
  The Tujia bury their honored dead by placing them in “hanging coffins,” caskets in nooks & caves high up the valley walls (well above any rising floodwaters.)  An idiosyncratic mix of sky & earth burial.
Finally, one of the Americans from the cruise ship’s tour group was picked to reenact a traditional Tujia wedding ceremony.  
In front of the Tujia village stands a huge statue of a geologist of some importance to the area.  Naturally.