Learning about the Culture of the Mao Nan People at the Museum

Sunday

We went to the museum by public bus.

We were down at the hotel lobby at 10 a.m and Sophia, the English teacher from the school was already there waiting to escort us to our tour of a couple of the famous landmarks in town.

We hopped on the city bus at the bus stop located only a stone throw away from our hotel.

The bus ride was cheap and comfortable

The city bus was only 1 Yuen per person; it was clean, comfortable and came with air conditioning! It was a treat;  I was impressed.

A museum dedicated to the Mao Nan people, Guangix, China

We visited the museum, a beautiful spacious building dedicated to the culture and customs of the people of the Mao Nan tribe.

The Mao Nan tribe is one of the fifty plus minority groups in China.

The various masks of the Mao Nan tribe people

When I was a kid, I used to watch some shows where people changed themselves into various roles in the theatre through changing their masks in no time at all on stage.

I never knew where this culture came from. At the museum, we saw the display of the masks of the Mao Nan tribe each representing a pious character.  I realized these masks came from the Mao Nan tribe.

The Mao Nan people have very elaborate ceremonial clothes for various occasions in their lives.

A scene of welcoming guests to a Mao Nan house

A Mao Nan sports game

They also have a lot of fun games and sports activities; one of which is when team players play soccer while walking on stilts.

We saw the various types of chess games played by the Mao Nan people displayed in the museum.

We saw a picture of the Mao Nan people enjoying their festival banquet with over a thousand people attending in their town square. It seemed that the Mao Nan people know how to have fun and enjoy themselves.

I liked the hands on part of the display in the museum too.

 After visiting the museum, we climbed over 150 stairs to get to the top of the pagoda right next door.

After climbing the stairs to the bottom of the pagoda, we had many more stairs to climb once inside the pagoda tower.

Illustrations and legends lined the walls inside the pagoda tower

It was quite a climb. But what made it easier was all the art work and illustrations of some famous legends on the wall and paintings on the ceiling. We were able to take our time to pause, rest and read about these stories.

We had an excellent view of the town from the top of the pagoda tower.

Once we got to the top of the tower, we had an excellent 360 degree view of the entire city.
We could locate the school where we taught last week.

We went for lunch at the restaurant near the hotel. Then Hombria made arrangement to go for KTV. We rented a room for 168 yuens, 11 students came from our class. Lots of fun!

After shopping for some baby clothes at the shops nearby our hotel, we went to school for the movie night and watched the Lion King with our students. It was a nice show.

We talked to J. via what’s hap. Happy to know that he sold most of this stuff and would see him back home on 21. Pray that he would be able to get all his documents smoothly. Amen.

R.T.
Guangxi, China