Mosuo people belong to Naxi nationality, mainly living in ninglang county, Yunnan Province and Yanyuan, Muli and other counties in Sichuan Province, with a population of about 40,000. The population of Ninglang Mosuo is 1.5 million, mainly living in Yongningbazi near Lugu Lake. The language, dress and marriage customs of Mosuo people are different from those of Naxi people west of Jinsha River.
Mosuo people are used to living by mountains and rivers, and their houses are all made of wood, commonly known as "wooden houses" in the local area. Traditional flavor foods include pork belly, pickled fish, Surima wine and so on. The traditional festivals of Mosuo people include Spring Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, Chaoshan Festival, ancestor worship festival, animal husbandry festival and land worship festival, among which the Spring Festival and Chaoshan Festival are the most grand. Every year on July 25th of the lunar calendar, Mosuo people in Yongning will dress up to walk or ride to worship the Goddess Mountain beside Lugu Lake, which is called "Zhunv Mountain". In the meantime, there will be horse racing, wrestling, duets and picnics in the mountains. Young Mosuo men and women will take the opportunity to make friends with xia.
The primitive religion of Mosuo people is called "Daba religion", which is closely related to Dongba religion of Naxi people in Lijiang. However, the development of Daba religion is slower than Dongba religion, and its form is more primitive than Dongba religion, which basically maintains the characteristics of primitive tribal religion. Dabaism is named after the wizard Daba. It has no systematic teachings and scriptures, no religious organizations and temples, only dozens of chanting, and another kind of divination (commonly known as the book of days), written in 32 different forms of original pictures and characters.
Mosuo people are good at singing and dancing, and the popular dance is "Jiaju Dance" (commonly known as jumping). "A" means beauty, "Ju" means dancing, which means dancing at a beautiful time. The folk music and dance of Mosuo people are part of traditional culture. The music of Mosuo people, except the funeral lyrics, is generally loud and unconstrained. Fixed music tunes include Ahabara, Madadah, Beating Wheat, Performing Hemp, Funeral Melody, Lullaby, Gem Goddess Hymn and Gacuokuo, that is, Dapaoqu.
Mosuo people's musical instruments include flute, cucurbit silk, suona, drum, cymbal, violin drum, hand-cranked brass bell, oral string and so on. Among the above-mentioned musical instruments, the most commonly used instrument is the flute, which can be played by men and shepherds aged seven or eight. The flute is also a close partner to dispel loneliness in Yongning's horse-driving journey. Hulusheng is an instrument that a few people can use when they jump. Other musical instruments mainly include the instruments used by priests' buses and lamas during sacrificial ceremonies.
Mosuo dance is colorful and rich in content, with distinctive Mosuo dance color and strong national characteristics. There is a saying that Mosuo people can dance 72 kinds of dances, which shows that Mosuo people have rich kinds of dances.