The most beautiful living artwork you’ve ever seen: Thousands take part in spectacular song and dance festival beneath 18,300ft peak of China’s mystical Jade Dragon Snow Mountain
Worldwide, Daily news | ankakh | April 1, 2013 16:55A spectacular performance unfolds underneath one of China’s most mystical mountain ranges.
This is the Impression Lijiang, the highest altitude production in the world.
It is a daily performance of song, dance, horse riding and story beneath the 18,300ft peak of Jade Dragon Snow Mountain in China’s south-western Yunnan province.
The show is put on by performers from the Naxi, Yi and Bai ethnic minorities near Lijiang. Created by internationally-acclaimed Chinese film director Zhang Yimou, it is performed at 10,800ft above sea level.
Among the performers are members of the Naxi Ancient Music Orchestra who played on a specially-constructed on stage.
According to the orchestra’s director, 84-year-old Professor Xuanke, Naxi music was born between 1382 and 1383, during the Ming Dynasty when soldiers were sent Yunnan province and subsequently decided to bring their families and lay down their roots.
With less than 100 musicians still able to play, and most of them above 60 years of age, the ancient Naxi music faces extinction.
Estimates suggest unless the younger generation, now more interested in pop than traditional music, decides to keep this tradition alive, the ancient Naxi music will disappear within 40 years.
The Jade Dragon Snow Mountain – otherwise known as Yulong Mountain – is the southernmost glacier in the Northern Hemisphere. It is a sanctuary for rare animals and wild plants.
The mountain is a holy place for the local Naxi people not only because of the legend, but also because it was a place for young lovers to sacrifice themselves in honour of true love and to escape from the arranged marriages and feudal ethics.
Nowadays, Jade Dragon Snow Mountain is a favourite spot for tourists who go sightseeing, mountaineering and skiing.
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