Basha Miao Village.

On the morning of September 6, 2024, we set off from Zhaoxing Dong Village to Congjiang Basha Miao Village, a 47-kilometer journey that took just over an hour. Basha Miao Village is located in the hinterland of Moon Mountain, a branch of the Jiwan Mountains, on the banks of the Du Liu River, 7 kilometers from Congjiang County. It is composed of five natural villages and has a total of 422 households. It is known as the "living fossil of Miao culture". It is said that the ancestors of the Basha Miao were the vanguard of the great migration. For thousands of years, the men here have kept the custom of long hair and braids, and they carry bird guns, gourds, horns, and machetes around their waists all year round, and carry gunpowder guns on their shoulders; women wear side buns, insert wooden combs, and wear Miao king square printed triangle skirts. The people of Basha worship trees and cherish every tree as if it were their own life. Here, every time a person is born, a tree is planted. After death, the bark of this tree is wrapped and buried in the ground, and another tree is planted on it. They never build graves or make tombstones. People are trees, and trees are people. They truly return to nature and return to the world.