Slideshows Yunnan
Puer Prefecture 普洱市

A Lahu minority Christian service in a hill village near Menglian.

Tying a thread between the relatives and villagers and the newly-weds is an important Dai wedding custom.

Ritual masks used in the Sacred Bird Dance 神鸟舞 of the Dai people in Menglian county 孟连县.

Another one of those crazy festivals in the mysterious province of Yunnan. Just before Dai New Year the people of Menglian celebrate the Holy Fish Festival, a part religious event with the illumination of Menglian's Golden Pagoda, part entertainment with a mass fishing event in the Nanlei River. And if you then do not have enough, the festival is immediately followed by the Watersplashing Festival.

To see the old year out, for three days before their New Year, the Dai of Mangxin, a small township near Menglian, pay their respects to the old year by travelling to three temples in the vicinity. At each temple they celebrate with dance, food, offerings and just a little bit of watersplashing.

The Dai Watersplashing Festival in Yongping is one of the most traditional in Yunnan. Not much throwing water, but lots of worship at the temples.

Menglian, on the border to Burma, has one of Yunnan's most interesting ethnic mixes. This slideshow shows some details of the Akha, Lahu and Dai in the county.