At that time, there was no shuttle bus from Kangding to Waze. We spent 100 yuan to find a tractor to take us there. We also bought some food before going, such as biscuits and instant noodles.
Sitting on the tractor, Brother Yu looked at the sky and said, "Yunfeng, what do you think that cloud looks like? I think it looks like a Buddha's head."
"Isn't it a Buddha's head?" I looked up and said, "It looks like a dustpan."
Xiaoxuan said it looked like a lipstick.
Dou Sprouts said it looked like a piece of gold nugget.
This year, the local government began to pay attention to the tourism industry. Since we arrived just before and after the Buddha Festival, some villagers here were already doing B&B business. We arrived in Waze that night and stayed in a B&B hotel. The owner was The Han nationality’s name is Zhang Xinsheng, and his wife is a Tibetan, whose name I have forgotten.
I got up in the middle of the night and saw that the light was still on in Tou Tou's room, so I went over to take a look. He was wearing glasses and still frowning at the parchment picture.
"Not sleeping?"
"I'm asleep. I woke up. What do you see in this picture?"
"Yunfeng, come here and take a closer look at these towers. Are they square or round?"
"It's round," I said.
The head said: "This is a bit strange. According to my previous investigation, as early as the last century, some scholars discovered a strange stone tower complex in the mountains near Muya. However, they were all square. It is piled up with pieces of stone, a bit like a small pyramid, but I have never heard of anyone discovering a round stone tower."
I pointed at the parchment picture: "Botou, this picture is at least over 800 years old. After so many years, the stone buildings painted on it may have collapsed long ago. Naturally, no one has seen them after they collapsed."
He shook his head, picked up the picture and looked at the lamp. He frowned and said, "I always feel...that some details have been missed."
"Bang! Bang!"
Suddenly someone knocked on the door twice, and he quickly put the parchment in his arms.
"Who?"
"I, Lao Zhang, saw that you guys haven't rested at this late hour, so I brought you a pot of tea."
He motioned with his head for me to open the door.
After Lao Zhang, the owner of the B&B, came in, he put down the teapot and said with a smile: "This is our Kangding specialty, plateau snow tea. My wife made it. How about you guys try it?"
I don’t even understand. I feel that there is no difference between jasmine tea priced at RMB 50 and Longjing tea priced at RMB 100, but I am a master of tea tasting.
After tasting the tea, his eyes lit up and he said, "I have never drunk this kind of tea. It is slightly bitter and has a fragrant aroma on the back of the tongue. It has great staying power. It is truly a divine product."
"Haha, of course!" Lao Zhang said with a smile: "The snow tea from the snow mountains is a rare treasure here. You can only drink the authentic tea locally. Those bought from other places are all fake."
He immediately took out a big bag from his arms and said, "This bag weighs a pound and a half. If you want it, give me 888."
Before he could speak, he kept taking things out of his arms and putting them on the table.
“This is our Kangding snow-covered ginseng fruit, this is snow-capped mountain pepper, this is snow-capped mountain premium dried yak, and this is Kangding rhodiola rosea.”
He stood up, took something out of his pants and said, "This is polar matsutake, this is Kangding deer antler slices, this is snow mountain soybean, this is..."
"stop!"
Damn it, I said you are a magician, right? Where do you put all this on your body?
"Wait a minute, it'll be over soon."
"These are wild scallops, these are Kangding dried apples, and these are vacuum-packed wozi oil cakes. Let's see what you want. If you want to take them all, I'll give you a discount price of 2888."
Looking at the things on the table, I said speechlessly: "You are a genius."
"It's really good when the guests say yes."
He smiled and said: "This snow tea is really good, Yunfeng, give me some money and buy a bag."
"Head! This is too expensive! 888 per bag! You can buy a ton of Monkey Ace Jasmine Tea!"
Complaints are complaints, but I reluctantly gave the money.
He smiled and said: "Lao Zhang, I think you have a van. Can you take us to Pomegranate Village tomorrow? We want to go there to watch the Buddha Festival."
"No problem! I will send you there after breakfast tomorrow. I have lived here for twenty years. If you don't understand anything, you can ask me!" He promised, patting his chest.
I know, it’s true that Tou’s excuse to buy tea is false, but asking him to help as a guide is true.
Setting off on time the next day, Lao Zhang introduced while driving:
"The Buddha Festival is about showing thangkas. There are two large thangkas in Shiliu Village. One is modern and the other is said to be from the Tang Dynasty. Today, every household will take a small thangka and put it next to the big thangka to bask in the sun. When the time comes, you must pay attention to the rules, don't step on them, don't spit, and when you see older women, you must take off your hat and talk to them."
My brows jumped when I heard it, a big thangka from the Tang Dynasty?
Is it genuine? If it is true or exceeds two meters in length, it will be a national treasure-level cultural relic!
Little Pomegranate Village, would there be such a thing?
I couldn't believe it until I saw it with my own eyes.
Dou Sprout said in shock: "I'll go! It's from the Tang Dynasty! If it's true! It can't be sold for hundreds of thousands!"
"Of course it's true!" Lao Zhang said: "In the past two years, experts from the county came to evaluate it. It was true. They also wanted to confiscate it to the museum, but they were strongly rejected by the villagers, and finally nothing happened."
I asked: "What if it's a real cultural relic from the Tang Dynasty? No one stole it?"
"Someone stole it! My wife said that the thangka was stolen seven times in total! As a result, everyone who stole it died violently, including falling to death, drowning, being hit by a car, etc."
"This is very evil. Don't believe it. Do you know what pattern is painted on that big thang card?"
I guessed: "Dolma (Tara)? Auspicious Heavenly Mother? Yamantaka? Or Padmasambhava?"
"No, neither."
Lao Zhang told me seriously, "It's the lion-headed Virgin who worships Yama."
I was surprised. The Lion-headed Virgin did not know, but I knew about Yama, the God of Death in Tibetan areas, which represents death.
When we arrived at Shiliu Village, we saw thick smoke coming from a distance and many people gathered there.
Many men and women were wearing long aprons and pleated clothes, and women had blue cloths wrapped around their heads. Someone squeezed out of the crowd, holding a strange black stone in his hand.
"Old Zhang, what are you doing?"
Lao Zhang said: "This is burning stones. Every year at the beginning of the Buddha Festival, Tibetans will move a white stone, burn it black with fire here, and then take it home and put it under the bed. It is said that it can ward off disasters."
I squeezed over to watch the fun.
I saw an old woman squatting next to the fire. She was wearing a shabby brown pleated coat, with a few strings of beads hanging around her neck, her head lowered.
The person would first hand the stone to her, and then she would throw the stone into the fire and burn it.
The fire crackled, suddenly.
Perhaps because the stone was too heavy, a few pieces of dry firewood fell out.
The dry firewood was still smoking.
Inadvertently, an upside-down triangle was built on the ground.
