What is so mysterious about Daliang Mountain, the prototype of "In the Octagonal Cage"?

The film "In the Octagonal Cage" tells the story of a protagonist who devotes his heart and soul to nurturing poor children in the closed and impoverished Dalongshan area and helping them find a way out in life. The prototype of Dalongshan in the film is the Daliangshan in Sichuan, and the content is based on the Liangshan "Fighting Orphans" incident that shocked the country in 2017.

Poster of "Octagonal Cage" (Source: China Film and Television Network)

If it weren't for "In the Octagonal Cage", people would only know some rumors about Daliangshan from the news or the Internet, and feel that it is remote and mysterious, like a forgotten paradise.

In fact, apart from the harsh environment, closedness and poverty as shown in the film, Daliang Mountain is also a place with beautiful scenery and mysterious customs. It is a "seriously underestimated tourist treasure" in the eyes of many travelers.

Mysterious landforms restrict development

The Hengduan Mountains are the longest, widest and most typical north-south mountain range in China, named after the fact that it "cuts across the east-west traffic". The main mountain range in the east, the Daxue Mountain , is composed of mountains with an altitude of more than 4,000 meters. Starting from June 1935, the Red Army successively crossed the Jiajin Mountain, Xiaoxue Mountain, Yulong Mountain and other snow-capped mountains where the Daxue Mountain is located.

There is a yellow-green branch mountain range (referred to as "branch") in the southeast of Daxue Mountain . It is called "Liangshan" because of its cold climate. In the middle of Liangshan lies a mountain range with an altitude of nearly 4,000 meters, called Huangmaogen. In the past, people called the mountains to the northeast of Huangmaogen the Xiaoliangshan Mountains and the mountains to the southwest the Daliangshan Mountains. In recent years, with the continuous division of administrative regions, the distinction between Daliangshan and Xiaoliangshan has become controversial, and more people tend to call Daliangshan and Xiaoliangshan "Daliangshan" (see "Sichuan Province (1949-1981)").

Daliangshan topographic map (Source: China Railway Network)

Daliang Mountain is close to the Chengdu Plain, located between the Sichuan Basin and the plateau in central Yunnan. It is a typical high-altitude mountainous area in southwest China .

The limestone, metamorphic rock and other rocks on the surface have been eroded for many years, forming a special landform. There are two main manifestations. First, there are many types of landforms, including plains, basins, hills, mountains, plateaus, canyons, etc.; second, the terrain is rugged, belonging to complex anticline fold mountains. Fold mountains refer to wavy curved mountains caused by strong compression caused by crustal movement and deformation of rock layers.

As the name suggests, the academic community calls the mysterious landform of Daliang Mountain, which has a height difference of several hundred meters and gives people the feeling of gentle undulations, the "Liangshan Plateau", which means the combination of mountains and plateaus.

**High and numerous mountains are the main features of the Daliangshan landform. The Daliangshan Mountains stretch from north to south for hundreds of kilometers, and there are more than 20 mountains with an altitude of more than 4,000 meters, such as Xiaoxiangling, Dafengding and Luoji Mountain. The geographical barriers between the mountains make it very inconvenient for local people to "hear each other's voices from opposite sides, but it takes several days to see each other",** and transportation is extremely inconvenient.

The complex and ever-changing landforms are the main factors that restrict human life. Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture (abbreviated as "Liangshan Prefecture" or "Liangshan"), where Daliangshan is located , is located in the southwest of Sichuan Province, with Xichang City as its capital. The Xichang Launch Center, known as the "Houston of China", is built in the city . The center has successively launched the "Chang'e 1, 2, and 3" spacecrafts.

Map of Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture (Source: China City and County Map Network)

Due to the high mountains and dangerous terrain, Liangshan Prefecture has formed a relatively independent and closed geographical unit. There are more than 2 million Yi people living here,** the largest Yi ethnic group settlement in China . ** Affected by factors such as the natural environment, cultural differences, and social structure, the Yi people have lived a poor and hard life for a long time. As shown in "In the Octagonal Cage", before 2020, the local villages were inaccessible, the soil was poor, and only one crop could be grown a year; the villagers mainly ate boiled potatoes and rarely ate meat, and children aged five or six had to take care of their younger brothers and sisters or work in the fields.

What's more, Atulier Village in Guli Town, Zhaojue County, Liangshan Prefecture, was renamed Cliff Village in 2021. The 1,700 people in the village need to climb a cliff with a drop of 800 meters and cross hundreds of steps of vine ladders to enter and exit the village. This road is also known as the most dangerous mountain road in the world.

Beautiful scenery and mysterious customs

The unique and mysterious topography and remote and closed geographical location give Daliang Mountain unique resource advantages and unparalleled beautiful scenery, while maintaining the "green waters and green mountains" most needed in the new era.

**The beauty of Daliang Mountain lies in its landscape. The representative mountain is Luoji Mountain, located 30 kilometers south of Xichang City .** It is named because its peak looks like a green snail bun on a girl's head. This mountain is the world's largest primitive ancient glacier groove site and is known as the Quaternary ancient glacier natural museum that is well preserved in the mountains of China. The mountain has not only magnificent glacier horns and ridges, but also colorful glacier lakes and the Dacao River Hot Spring Waterfall, which is known as the "Water Curtain Cave".

**The representative of water is Lugu Lake located on the border of Sichuan and Yunnan. **This lake is the third largest deep-water lake in my country. Its name is more commonly known as part of the tourism promotion of Lijiang, Yunnan. Lugu Lake, located in Yanyuan County, Xichang City, is as clear as a gemstone, with an underwater transparency of 12 meters. Every summer and autumn, the lake is full of "water lilies", which is very stunning.

Lugu Lake filled with poplar flowers (Photo source: "Smart Travel Tianfu" WeChat account)

**The beauty of Daliang Mountain lies in its mysterious customs. More than 8,000 Mosuo people live in the isolated Daliang Mountain . **The Mosuo people are a unique ethnic group in southern China, a branch of the Naxi people, and their place of residence is known as the "beautiful oriental daughter country". Like the Mosuo people in other places, the Mosuo people living in the hinterland of Daliang Mountain not only follow the primitive customs of "matrilineal family" and "walking marriage", but some of them also maintain the rare polygamy or polyandry. These customs make the locals more united and have a higher degree of social trust.

The "walking marriage" custom of the Mosuo people in Daliangshan (Photo source: China National Geographic Magazine)

**The Torch Festival of the Yi Nationality is the most mysterious custom in Daliang Mountain. **The ancestors of the Yi Nationality used fire to drive away insects and evil spirits and look forward to a good harvest. Over the course of thousands of years, it has gradually evolved into the oldest and grandest traditional festival of the Yi Nationality.

The Torch Festival has been held for more than a thousand years since the Han Dynasty. It begins on the 24th day of the sixth lunar month and lasts for three days. During the festival, unique folk activities such as beauty pageants, wrestling, bullfighting, horse racing, and archery are held during the day, and torches are lit in the wilderness at night, creating a spectacular scene. Yang Shen, the top scholar in the Ming Dynasty (the lyricist of the theme song "Linjiangxian: The Rolling Yangtze River Flows East" in the CCTV version of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms"), stayed overnight by Lugu Lake in Daliang Mountain during the Torch Festival, and wrote the famous line "Who smashed the night sky to pieces, and the stars fell on the earth", which has been passed down to this day.

The Yi Torch Festival is packed with people (Photo source: "Smart Travel Tianfu" WeChat account)

The burning flames illuminated the Daliang Mountain with a fiery red glow. Elders dressed in traditional Yi costumes chanted the ancient fire-making sutra, and under the blue sky and white clouds, the melodious melody resounded through the mountains. Yi girls holding yellow umbrellas and wearing pleated skirts danced lightly and formed circles on the green lawn. They interpreted the mystery and elegance of the Daliang Mountain, the prototype of "In the Octagonal Cage", with their beauty and liveliness!

References:

1. Report, "The walking marriage custom of the Mosuo people in Yunnan: men do not marry, women do not marry, and children born are raised by their uncles", "Eagle Eye Documentary" website

2. Paper "Research on Folk Tourism in Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture", Anhui Agricultural Sciences, No. 12, 2012

3. The paper "The Influence of Liangshan's Natural Geographical Environment on Liangshan Yi Folk Customs", author Chen Xiaoli, "Science and Technology Vision" 2013 No. 33

Author: Wei Deyong, member of Shenzhen Writers Association, Guangdong

Editor: Guru