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Talbiuq: A Naxi Holiday by Jacqueline Pinson

"What'sTalbiuq?”

“ I guess we’ll find out tomorrow,” I answered. We accepted Weceiqgai’s invitation to lunch and went back
inside. Later, I asked another neighbor, “What’s Talbiuq anyway?”

“Talbiuq is a Naxi holiday, but I don’t know why we celebrate it. Tomorrow, the first day of the sixth month of the lunar calendar, is the first day of Talbiuq. Depending on a person’s last name and the village they live in, Talbiuq is celebrated sometime in the next two weeks according to a cycle that was established many years ago. Everyone in our village has the surname Hoq, and we will all celebrate tomorrow. But some families with the surname Hoq in other villages celebrate on a later date. The next village up has a lot of people with the surname Muf; they are the last Naxi to host Talbiuq feasts - on the sixteenth day of the sixth month.”

Naxi
A Naxi man with his buffalo in Lijiang

Yunnan Province

We stepped into Weceiqgai’s family’s courtyard a few hours later. The children raced off to the animal pens while Tom and I found a seat on the porch.

“Niainiai, Eseeqseef,” Weceiqgai’s father crossed the porch to us. “Have some sunflower seeds and pine nuts.”

“Is Weceiqgai’s mother cooking?” I asked. “I’ll go help.”

“You don’t have to do that. Sit and rest awhile.”

“Me ner. ‘Never mind.’ I don’t need to rest,” I answered as I moved towards the kitchen.

“Dalmo,” I called out. “Can I help?”

“Niainiai,” she answered. “So you’ve come. It’s almost time to eat. Would you wash these mushrooms for me?”

I sat on a low bench in the kitchen. I swished the coffee-brown mushrooms with long, twisted stems through the water, rubbing the dirt off with my fingers and breaking off the hard stem bottoms. “Where’s Weceiqgai?” I asked.

“He’s taking tests today. Middle school students haven’t finished their exams yet. Niainiai, how’s that bag of flour I sold you? Is it tasty? Our flour is some of the best in the village.”

“Yes, your flour is very tasty. Oh, Dalmo, there’s a caterpillar on those mushrooms I just washed. Hope I didn’t miss any others.”

Weceiqgai’s mother laughed. “Never mind that. We have a saying: ‘What you can’t see is medicine.’”

I chuckled with her. “We have a similar one in English, ‘What you don’t know won’t hurt you.’”


Excerpt from “What you can’t see is medicine: Naxi culture through American eyes”, by Jacqueline S. Pinson, Nationalities Publishing House of Yunan, 2006.