The Mosos and his goddesses

The Moso believe in numerous goddesses and gods. For them most of the phenomena of the nature have their own spirit, and this way they venerate the Goddess of the Mountain and the Goddess of the Water like principal deities. Certainly that they consider that the deities that the mountain they are always feminine. The Goddess Mountain there are no only phenomenon of the Moso, but it is an important part of the religious cult of the India, and it is common also to many other minorities of China. Possibly this cult to the mountains existed in China of from immemorial time. Nowadays they are still venerated to the sacred mountains, which although at present they are considered to be masculine, in ancient times should have been feminine.

The Moso believe also that the sky and the ground, the sun and the moon, the stars, the wind and the rain, the lightnings and the beams, the fire and many other natural phenomena also have his spirit. They consider as well as the people, on having died, transform in a bogey. That has led some to saying that they believe in "800 gods and 3.000 devils". It is for it therefore often they realize actions in honor of his gods. They think that the 1st and 15th of every lunar month, or in some cases on the 5th and 25th, are the favorite days of the gods to go out to do his activities, it is for it for those who usually choose these days to venerate us.

The most common activities to venerate his gods are the calls "to surround the mountains" and "to surround the lake". So much for one as for another ceremony, they choose these propitious considered days mentioned previously.

For the holiday of "surrounding to the mountain" every family Suokuaku goes away to a fixed place in the forest, since every family has one of such places, called, in the skirt of the mountain. There they burn pine sheets and realize reverences or koutou in honor of the goddesses of the mountain, while they say the opportune prayers. They remain there until the incense is finished, then they extinguish the fire and return to house.

The activity of "surrounding the lake", or to venerate the Mother Lake, is an activity in honor to the Goddess of the Lake. On having surrounded the lake, also they have fixed places where they usually stop to burn incense and to do the reverences. Generally they spend approximately 10 hours in the beltway of the lake, half of the time venerating the goddess and another half amusing itself.

Of between the mountains, the most important is called Gemu, who would be translated like the Mountain of the Girl of the Sacred Eagle, or the Mountain Mother, or for the form that it has, the Mountain of Le�n.

As for the origin of this cult one tells that it does a lot of, a lot of time, there was living between the Moso a girl called Gemu, famous by his beauty, and especially for his aptitude to embroider. It is said that scarcely it saw a bird of the sky, a flower, a butterfly, at once it was embroidering it exactly. Such age his reputation that had numerous claimants who were coming every day at the edge of his house requesting his love. But she was not agreeing to be with any. His reputation grew in such a way that it came up to the sky, and there a god also took a fancy of her and down to the ground mounted in the wind, taking with him the girl to the sky. The people in the ground, surprised, asked him to liberate it. But the god demanded that he should sacrifice by 9.000 couples of white goats and other 9.000 of black goats. We see here the simbolog�a of the numbers, since the masculine number is nine, and is the gift that this god demands. While seven this feminine number. The people agree to do this gift, but they discover that the god has cheated them and Gemu does not turn the ground. His body remains in the Mountain of Le�n and his soul turns into a goddess. The people, to remember it, call to the Mountain of Le�n, since then the Gemu mountain, and the shell, especially when it does the ceremony of surrounding the mountain. Some of them say that sometimes she turns out to be mounted in a white horse.

Traditionally the lake was surrounding itself on foot or on horseback, but at present some of them do it on a bicycle or on a motorbike.

Of the ceremonies of surrounding the most important mountain it is the one that celebrates July 25 of the lunar calendar, to venerate to the mountain Gemu. This day, on all the parts of the mountain numerous Mosos dressed in holiday are seen and going I obtain food to realize a banquet. Some of them are walking, others on horseback. After surrounding the mountain, each one goes to his place Suokuaku where it will burn the incense and they will realize reverences to the mountain, they will hang a picture of the Goddess of the Mountain, and it will say the goddess Gemu so that it liberates them of any misfortune, so that his cereals prosper, so that you present yourself and cattle bloom. Also they venerate the Goddess of the Mountain offering him fruit, water cleans, wine, meat etc.

When the cult to the mountain is finished, it begins a big banquet in which men and women, children and major they meet and dance the Dance of Le�n, that of the jiachati, (a type of treadmill in which everything is pushed like the guitom�s), horse racings, in happy and festive ambience, of which some of them make use to meet new couples, with which then they will support an Azhu relation.

The holiday continues that several days, during which it is common to find the people of the village that goes out in groups it was doing the mountains, generally dressed in holiday, and accompanied of his you were giving and his muds, and whenever they come some place of the cult or Suokuaku they realize some reverence to his goddesses, burning incense, sheets of pine and interspersing for the goddess water, milk and little meat and wine. On the branch of a tree they will hang some image of his totem pole and some cloths and roles. The daba will recite poems and singings to the Goddess of Mountain, and the Mud I will read also writing to the mountain, touching the drum with a hand and the small bell with other one, while some lads make to dream the conch.

All the music mixes in a festive air. Men and women must realize koutou (typical inclination of China) to four directions and to eight directions. When they have done this ceremony from each of the places where cult or Soukuaku gives up, they return to his houses.

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