Today, the Mosuo people are known as “the last rose of Eastern matriarchal culture.”
In Yunnan and Sichuan, China, where the Mosuo tribe resides, there are unique sexual customs. Here, when girls reach puberty, their parents hand over the house keys, allowing them to freely choose partners until they find someone suitable for marriage.
The Mosuo are an ancient Buddhist tribe in Yunnan Province, located in the southwestern valley of China, near the eastern foothills of the Himalayas. The people here follow a matriarchal system, meaning that men are not valued as highly as women, who are the heads of the family. Both men and women are allowed to have as many partners as they wish without worrying about social judgment.
Mosuo girls of marriageable age are free to choose their partners.
In this tribe, there are no fathers, husbands, or boyfriends living together. Instead, when a girl reaches maturity, her mother gives her a key to her own home.
The people here follow a matriarchal system.
Men still play an important role in society; they often leave the village to join large trading caravans to sell local products. They are also responsible for building houses, fishing, and butchering livestock. Although they have no paternal responsibilities, they take on the role of uncles to their sisters’ children, making decisions in accordance with the “tribal matriarch” and caring for their nieces and nephews.
The Mosuo population is approximately 50,000, and they have their own indigenous language, but no written form. The Mosuo are a branch of the Naxi ethnic group. Mosuo women are the backbone of the family, responsible not only for caring for children at home but also for working in the fields and spinning thread to earn money for the family.
The Mosuo people living by Lugu Lake are very open, partly influenced by the practice of walking marriage. Walking marriage is an important aspect of matriarchal society. Young men and women primarily socialize during the day, expressing their feelings for their partners through singing and dancing, and only after establishing emotional connections do they engage in walking marriage.
Men may sneak into women’s rooms only after nightfall and must leave before dawn. This style of marriage is based solely on feelings, unrelated to other conditions such as economic status or social standing…
The Mosuo believe that mothers must be respected and that mothers govern everything.
The Mosuo take pride in birthing daughters. Children born from a walking marriage are raised by the woman’s family, and the man is not held responsible, while the child grows up knowing who their father is. After a walking marriage ends, both parties are free to pursue other walking marriages.
It is known that in Mosuo families, there are no fathers, but there are uncles. These uncles participate in all family activities, raising their sisters’ or brothers’ children, and together they maintain the order of the matriarchal society.
The economic aspect of these uncles is still governed by their matriarchal family. In their old age, these uncles are cared for by their nieces and nephews. They go out at night to seek walking marriages and return in the morning to work for the family.
The Mosuo believe that mothers must be respected and that mothers govern everything. Mothers are the pillars and support of Mosuo life. All family members are descendants of the mother or grandmother. Women in the family live with their mothers for their entire lives. In their hearts, only their maternal home is their true and eternal homeland, always welcoming.
Entering the 21st century, the Mosuo people by Lugu Lake still maintain their ancient matriarchal system, living harmoniously and peacefully. For the Mosuo, walking marriage allows them to love and be romantic for a lifetime, writing the purest emotional stories. Today, the Mosuo are dubbed the “last rose of Eastern matriarchal culture.”
Mosuo women primarily make a living through weaving.
They live together in picturesque villages with rustic wooden houses. At an altitude of 2,700 meters above sea level, the nearest city is a six-hour drive away, and Lugu Lake is a remote area where the unique customs of the Mosuo are preserved.
Since the 1990s, the Mosuo tribe has undergone many changes. Tourists have come, and many investors have built roads, airports, and hotels, creating jobs for the Mosuo, leading to a gradual disconnection from the traditional lifestyle among the younger generation. Girls have begun to marry outside the tribe, living with their husbands and children, rather than staying in their maternal homes as before.
Photographer Karolin Klüppel, who spent some time living with the Mosuo, told National Geographic, “Life is more affluent due to tourism, but the eldest members of this tribe also feel genuinely sad about the changes.”
While the younger Mosuo have become more integrated, many girls are marrying outside the tribe and moving to larger cities for employment, the older women become the remaining generation preserving the ancient culture.
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