Lisu Spring Bath - Dengeng Bathhouse

　　Dengeng Hot Spring is the site of the famous Bathhouse Fair. It is located 12 kilometers from Liuku and at an altitude of 950 meters. For over a hundred years, the Lisu people have followed their traditional customs by coming here for the "Spring Bath," also known as the Bathhouse Fair, every year from the second to the sixth day of the Lunar New Year. The Bathhouse Fair is a traditional festival of the Lisu people in Lushui. It had already reached a considerable scale during the second year of the Yongli era in the Ming Dynasty and serves as an important way to preserve and continue Lisu traditional culture. During the festival, Lisu people from both sides of the river bring along luggage, food, and cooking utensils to set up tents or bamboo sheds near the hot springs. They engage in antiphonal singing, archery, performances such as "climbing the blade mountain" and "walking through the fire sea," as well as trade and exchange activities. Every morning and evening, they soak in the hot springs to eliminate ailments and fatigue, cleanse the dirt and grime accumulated over the year, and welcome the new year with abundant energy and high spirits.

　　Regarding the origin of the Dengeng Bathhouse Fair, there is a beautiful legend among the Lisu people in Nujiang. It is said that long ago, on the Biluo Snow Mountain, there lived an orphan whose parents had both passed away. Since childhood, he made a living by herding cattle and sheep for a landlord. However, the landlord treated him very harshly—giving him only one meal a day and often beating and scolding him. Sometimes, he couldn’t even get enough to eat, so the orphan had to beg for meals from one household to another. More than ten years passed in the blink of an eye. The orphan grew into a handsome, upright, and talented young man. He decided to stop herding for the landlord and set out to seek his own happiness. He bid farewell to his fellow villagers, crossed ninety-nine high mountains and ninety-nine large rivers, and arrived at a place covered with blooming red cotton flowers. The air was fragrant with blossoms, birds sang ceaselessly, rare birds and beasts roamed freely through the forest, and fish swam leisurely in the water. It turned out to be the bathing place of the most beautiful and kind-hearted princess of the Dragon King. The moment the orphan saw the beautiful and kind-hearted dragon maiden, he knew she was the girl of his dreams. So he sang love songs to his beloved by the hot spring for three days and three nights, expressing his deep affection. The dragon maiden was captivated by the orphan’s songs and moved by his unfortunate past, and she agreed to marry him. They met in the season of spring blossoms, which happened to be the time when the Lisu people on both sides of the Nujiang River celebrated the Lunar New Year. Thus, the tradition was passed down from generation to generation and became today’s "Bathhouse Fair." By the second year of the Yongli era in the Ming Dynasty, the government built two simple bathhouses here to promote ethnic culture. In the Qing Dynasty, the Dengeng Tusi further developed the site and organized large-scale Bathhouse Fairs, attracting Lisu people from all over Nujiang to participate. During the "Bathhouse Fair," singers from a hundred villages would gather to compete in singing, enjoy the fine wines they brought, and exchange experiences in production and daily life. Often, the singing, storytelling, and sharing would go on for three days and three nights without end. In the past, due to the isolation caused by the mountains, it was difficult for young men and women to meet and interact. The annual "Bathhouse Fair" became a festival for Lisu youths to socialize and "fall in love." Many young people got to know each other, connected, fell in love, and eventually formed lifelong partnerships through the songs sung at the Bathhouse Fair. (Ancient Bathhouse Love Songs: Male: Oh my maiden, our fathers did not give birth to us in the same place, nor did our mothers raise us together. You live on one mountain, I on another; you dwell in one valley, I in another. We are people of seven mountaintops, people of nine valleys. Were it not for coming to the hot spring, we would rarely meet; were it not for coming to the clear spring, we would seldom see each other. Female: From seven mountaintops to the hot spring, from nine valleys to the clear spring. Today, we who rarely meet have finally met; tonight, we who seldom encounter have finally come together.)