Where Did the Mosuo Come From? A 1,600-Year Migration Story

The Mosuo (摩梭) did not simply "appear out of nowhere" as the inhabitants of a Kingdom of Women. Written sources and the oral chants of the Mosuo Daba (达巴) give two clues that confirm each other: they were originally descendants of the ancient Qiang people of the Hehuang region in Qinghai, who, driven by war, migrated south along the western Sichuan corridor and finally settled around Lugu Lake — a documented settlement history of more than 1,600 years.

1,600 Years at Yongning: A Time Coordinate in the Yuan History

To ask how long the Mosuo have been here, begin with Yongning (永宁). Yongning is the Mosuo heartland beside Lugu Lake and, historically, long the seat of the Mosuo chieftains. When the Yuan History's Geography Treatise was compiled, it set down a dedicated entry for Yongning Prefecture:

"Yongning Prefecture, formerly called Loudandian, bordering the eastern frontier of Tibet; the place name was Dalan. Niyuewu, chief of the Moxie barbarians, drove out the Tibetans and settled in this land, which for generations belonged to Dali. In the third year of Xianzong, his 31st-generation descendant Henei submitted."

In other words: Yongning was once called Loudandian; the Mosuo (Moxie) chief Niyuewu drove out the Tibetans, settled there, and owed generations of allegiance to the Dali Kingdom. In the third year of Xianzong (1253), the 31st-generation descendant Henei submitted to Kublai Khan's southern army.

This passage lets us reckon the time: before 1253 there had already been 31 generations of Mosuo here; at 25 years per generation, that is about 775 years, which pushes us back to the turn of the Western Jin and the Northern and Southern dynasties. In other words, the Mosuo have been settled around Yongning for more than 1,600 years. This is the hardest time evidence we have: the Mosuo are not "outsiders" but the masters of this land, settled longer than most migrants from the Chinese heartland.

The 4th Century BC: The Start of the Qiang Southward Migration

The Mosuo's ancestors go back even further. In the 4th century BC, the state of Qin grew powerful and forced the Qiang tribes of the Hehuang region southward. They moved down the western Sichuan corridor; some entered the land south of the Dadu River and north of the Jinsha River, and the histories called these people the "yak Qiang" (maoniu Qiang, also called yuexi Qiang). Kindred branches included the Bailang Qiang and the Zuo Qiang.

Why "yak Qiang"? Because this branch of the Qiang revered the yak and kept the customs of cremation and of sending the soul back to the ancestral homeland — two things that match today's Mosuo exactly: Mosuo women still decorate their headwear with yak parts; at a funeral the slaughter of a yak is the highest honour; and the Daba chants the soul back to the ancestral land. The "yak-tail hat" mentioned in the Zhengde Yunnan Annals, "Yongning Prefecture," is regarded as a surviving trace of the yak Qiang.

The "Moshan Yi": Mosuo Already in the Han Dynasty at Yanyuan

At the end of the Han dynasty, a branch called "Moxie" (the old name for the Mosuo) split off from the yak Qiang. The Records of the Huayang Kingdom, "Shu Records," notes that within Dingzuo County, west of Yuexi Commandery, there were "Moshan barbarians."

Dingzuo is today's Yanyuan County, right beside the Sichuan side of Lugu Lake. That means that as early as the Han dynasty, the forebears of the Mosuo already lived around Lugu Lake. The very name "Moshan" (or "Moxie") tells the identity: the former derives from the character for "yak," the latter means "people" — together, "yak people," in direct descent from the "yak Qiang."

The Migration Route: Memory Preserved in the Daba Scriptures

The oral chants of the Mosuo Daba (traditional priests) preserve the memory of this migration: the ancestors first herded yaks on the grasslands of Hehuang in Qinghai; later the grasslands were destroyed, and they gave up nomadism and moved south along the Yalong River into the Liangshan prefecture and northwest Yunnan.

This oral route matches exactly the one deduced from the written sources: Hehuang in Qinghai → Garze in Sichuan → south through the gorges → Liangshan → Lugu Lake (northwest Yunnan). To this day, when a Mosuo person dies, the Daba still recites a "migration scripture," sending the soul, stage by stage along the ancestors' southward route, back to the ancestral paradise — remembering the road they came by in the most ancient of rites.

Mosuo Today: More Than Just Lugu Lake

Many people think "Mosuo = Lugu Lake." In fact the Mosuo are more widely scattered: some live around the lake (the ones visitors see); some live in the farming plains, keeping an agrarian culture; and about seven or eight thousand live in the Jinsha River valley, building earthen flat-roofed houses, log houses and fortified dwellings against the mountain and facing the river, known for a fierce and loyal temperament. There lie the "Taiziguan" and "Mongol Ferry," where Kublai Khan crossed the river on skin rafts, still standing amid the vast mountains.

So Lugu Lake is only one stop in the long history of the Mosuo — but it is the stop where their life is best preserved, and closest to how their ancestors lived. The matrilineal family, the fire hearth, Walking Marriage — these "living fossils" that astonish outsiders — rest on a migration and endurance unbroken for more than 1,600 years.

*Sources: the Geography Treatise of the Yuan History, the "Shu Records" of the Records of the Huayang Kingdom, and the oral chants of the Mosuo Daba.*