2013 Niuwang Festival Journey in Northern Shaanxi: The Last Loess Plateau

Yulin has been a transitional zone between nomadic culture and farming culture since ancient times, and even more so a military stronghold for Central Plains regimes defending against northern nomadic peoples. There is a ci poem line: "Pitiful are the bones by the Wuding River, still the people in spring boudoir dreams," and the Wuding River is right here, changing its course with the rainy season; when its water flow is insufficient, it disappears into the loess land.

On February 21, 2013, the twelfth day of the first lunar month, in the afternoon, I got off the bus at Yulin Town and continued by taking an unlicensed taxi, crossing the Wuding River northward, arriving at Mafang Village in Hengshan County, south of Yulin City in northern Shaanxi.

(In the final preparation stage of the Niuwang Festival, an elder in the village reverently invites the statue of Niuwang Bodhisattva. Photo by Lin Jiyang)

That inner civilizational force that harmonizes the order of heaven, earth, and humanity is suffering severe impact and challenges from modernization. The uncontrollable desire for development, doing whatever one wants, "making money depends on each person's own ability," supreme self-regard, in the name of science and with profit as commander........ heaven and earth are utterly gone.

I think it is necessary to re-explore the spirit of the countryside and recover the core of this civilization, so that this society can achieve true "harmony."

(The author received the Haoran Foundation's "International Volunteer Program" from 2012.10 to 2013.12 and went to serve at a Chinese environmental organization. This article is a note from a visit to the Loess Plateau during the 2013 Spring Festival; the first draft was completed on February 27, 2013.)