In Wa ethnic villages of Lincang, it is a normal but unique scene that most women smoke as men do. A variety of hand-made smoking pipes impress lots of visitors who try to unveil the mysteries of the Wa tribes.

Smoking pipes, which are among the favourite utensils of Wa ethnic ladies, are never weird for Wa ethnic lasses to wear though remain a big fuss for visitors. Traditionally, a Wa ethnic girl also presents a smoking pipe to a boy as a token of love.

Villagers prepare masks for the Guansuo play in Xiaotun village, Chengjiang county in Yunnan province. The play is a ceremony to pray for good weather and a bumper grain harvest. [China News Service]

National legislators and political advisers have called for improved efforts to protect the unique heritage in Yunnan province, where the language and culture of some of its 25 ethnic groups are in danger of dying out.

National People's Congress deputy Bao Hongyi, from the Va ethnic group and a primary school teacher in Cangyuan county in southern Yunnan, said: "Many children can't speak the Va language or write its characters. I can just speak a few simple phrases, but cannot write in the language."

She said her family usually speaks Mandarin at home. "Before my 9-year-old son was 6, he could not speak the Va language, so we have been teaching him our language since then. Now he can use the Va language in daily conversation," she said.

In the past, Va people were so poor that many families could not afford tuition fees, leading many of their children to drop out of school, she said.

Thanks to the introduction of free education, Va children are able to attend school, but their native language faces a crisis, she said.

Qi Dechuan, a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference National Committee from Yunnan, suggested that a museum should be built as soon as possible for the Jingpo ethnic group to step up the protection of its intangible heritage.

"By constructing such a museum, we can utilize and protect the rich resources of the group by developing tourism, a move that can also promote the local economy, culture and education."

Rongba Shena, an NPC deputy and a performer in the native cultural troupe of Nujiang Lisu autonomous prefecture in Yunnan, submitted a proposal calling for greater efforts to preserve the cultures of ethnic groups.

She said a database should be constructed to ensure the long-term preservation of ethnic culture.

In 2009, 17,200 locals took part in the grand left-foot dance of the Yi people, creating the Guinness World Record: the grandest dance in the world.

The left-foot dance
With a history of more than 1,000 years, Mouding County's Yi ethnic left-foot dance is a living fossil of the ancient art, and it embodies the cultural elements of the Yis, such as tone of folk songs, dancing art, and traditional music.

The tune
Called "gu zhe min" in the Yi ethnic dialect, it's the dominating singing style for most of the mass activities. There is no restriction on the age or gender, and the way of singing varies from solo, chorus, and antiphon to accompaniment.

It offers audience feelings of roughness, earnestness, and wildness. What the left-foot songs expresses includes love, eulogy, narration, scorching, humour, exhorting, educating, and wine etiquettes etc. The number of songs totals at least 300 in the whole county of Mouding, and these folk songs are deemed the quintessence of the Yi ethnic culture.

The dance
The left-foot dance is highlighted by those of two Yi ethnic branches: Lipo and Luoluopo.

Locally called "ma gu" by the Lipos, the dance is most of the time staged by people aged between 40 and 80; and as its name implies, "ma gu” is the “dance for the old". The "ma gu" is always accompanied by Sanhu (three-stringed instrument similar to a Chinese fiddle).

The dance is quaint, elegant, and serene, and it has its own rules: young people dance only after old people kick off, and the Yueqin instrument is played only after the Sanhu is played. In other words, the merit of filial piety of the Yis has been imperceptibly kept by staging the dance.

For the Luoluopo, however, the dance is called "gu zhe" in the Yi ethnic dialect, meaning "dancing". It is staged at celebrations, festivals, weddings, and as entertaining events in the slack season of farming.

Generally speaking, the steps of left-foot dance change to the tone of the songs, "one tone, one style of dancing". Since Mouding has at least 300 tones for left-foot dance, there should be equivalently 300 dancing styles, abundant enough for people to master for decades.