To this day, there is still a legend among Anung people: Long ago, the various religions practiced by the Anungs were of one family which had four children, two brothers and two sisters, who did not get along with each other. The older son went to Jinsha River (upper stream of Yangtze river) and became Buddhism (Chinese Buddhism); the younger son stayed in Tibet and became Lamaism. The two daughters were disobedient and were punished by their mother. The first daughter was put into a leather pouch and thrown into Lancang River and floated to a place called France; the second one was thrown into Nujiang River and ended up in England. After some time, both daughters came back. One claimed to be Catholicism named Mary who was later saved by a group of Tibetan horsemen which was why Catholicism was first diffused among Tibetans and then among the Anungs. The other sister became Protestantism and floated to Lisu territory; therefore, Protestantism was first introduced to Lisu people and then to the Anung region......
    The legend of the sibling rivalry etched deeply into Anung people&'s memories and made them realize the need to always strive for harmony. Once, a documentary photographer who was interested in conflict issues came to Bingzhongluo area to film the coexistence of multi-religions among multi-ethnic people. He eventually left with disappointment. He claimed Anung’s world is a wasteland for making a documentary film because it is almost impossible to detect conflicts among them. While an outsider finds it odd, a world without conflicts is exactly what people everywhere long for just as the Anungs.
    Children of the Sun(mother) and the Moon(father)
    Regardless of religious differences, all Anungs claim to be children of Mother Sun and Father Moon.
    Searching for the essence of Anung culture, I tried to find out about their concerns and to have a better understanding of their thinking procesesses.  Luckily I found Banju, one of the seven ancient endangered folk songs.  Since the Anungs have no written language, their arts, systems and technics are passed to a new generation verbally.  But nowadays almost no one can sing Banju completely because its prolix and singing rules are so complicated.  Zhao Guoqiang, my host, is a registered folk artist in Gongshan county government.  He collected and organized a part of Banju twenty years ago which became my main source.  According to Zhao, he was told by his elders that singing the whole piece takes many hours, from dusk when the first star appears in the evening sky to dawn when the last star shinning on fish in Nujiang river.  The rules are very strict as well:  those who cannot sing it completely are not allowed to sing; only multi-married couples who are already grandparents or great grandparents can sing with each other; widows or widowers are not allowed to sing; married couples are not allowed to listen to or sing with their own parents.
    Banju starts like this: “......the sun is our mother, without the Sun, Anung is without our golden pillar; ......there are no two moon, there are no two fathers, we share the Moon as one father......”.  Anung people believe: the Moon uses dew to water crops so they can grow, the Moon represents father as head of a family and also the bread winner; the Sun gives people warmth and represents mother, she takes care of children’s daily lives and they feel closest to her.  There is an old Anung saying that a child without a father is pitiful, but without a mother a child is an orphan.  The seven stars in the night sky are children of the Sun and the Moon; men and women are children of a father and a mother.  Just like the Moon and the Sun taking care of the stars, a mother and a father should both take care of their children as heads of a family.  It is also said that children eventually leave their parents to live independently or to get married. When the time comes, parents will give their children working tools and teach them to remember that although living apart, they should be tight as a rope working together as one while the oldest sibling shoulders fatherly responsibilities.
    Later, Anung people also use the seven stars to describe different ethnic nationalities, Han, Bai, Zang, Naxi, Lisu, Nu(Anung), and Dulong, because harmonious coexistance is what they strive for continiously.  In their legend, Anung is the sixth of the siblings and is a daughter while Dulong is the youngest and a son.  Unfortunatly, the brothers could not get along, so the parents left them which made the Anungs very sad.  But they believe their sibling relationship will improve despite their past mistakes.  They constantly remind themselves not to repeat history.
    If the Sun and the Moon are parents of the stars and the sky is their house, then houses with parents and children on earth are homes for the Anungs.  In their dialect, home means house, both are called Gim and serve as the center of Anung peoples’ lives.  An Anung house is like a person with two windows as its eyes and a door as its mouth.  The window facing the north is used to look at guests and fortune while the one facing Nujiang river is used to watch for ghosts.  The door facing the south is generally diagonal to the barn.  In practical terms, there are two types of houses for Anung people, a kitchen and a barn; while architectually speaking, they are called log house (xionglan gim) and board house (dablan gim).  Some are also built with mud along the river at the foot of hills.  Approximatly one square meter of the floor leans on the hillside while the part on the riverside is suspended on stilts; the lower level is used for livestock and storage.  The rooms are also independent from each other with no partitions.  Entering from the door on the southside, from left to right there is a bed, a bench, a bureau, a triangle shaped fire pit, a dinning area, and a pigs trough, then to the door again.  The fire pit is at the north corner near the river, and is the center of a home.  The elders and the guests usually sit on the opposite sides of the fire pit, while others sit with their backs facing the hillside.  The bureau on the riverside and is reserved for deities; therefore, no one is allowed to sit there.  There is always a pillar (yingdulong in Anung) in the middle of the main room which represents the mother as the center of an Anung home.  When the house is near completion, the carpenter will place some money in the pillar, and dresses it up with colored threads and new pine branches, meaning to dress the mother with new clothes and head ornaments.  Kernels of grain are also displayed to indicated good harvest in the coming year.  Many older houses have a beam (pal in Anung) over the pillar, painted with images of the Sun, the Moon and stars.  When a house is completed, the owner invites friends, relatives, and helpers over to celebrate.  They dance and party around the certer pillar all night long.  On the eve of Chinese New Year, the center pillar is redecorated with fresh pine branches.
    All Anung houses, no matter built with logs, boards, mud, or even the latest flat bungalows, share one common characteristic.  The roof is always made of longbula (slate tiles); therefore, all Anung houses are called Longbula Gim.  Longbula is a type of decomposed shale which can easily be made into slate tiles with gentle hammering.  From Qiunatong Village in Bingzhongluo to Shuangla village along Nujiang river, there are many slate minning factories operating all year long to produce tiles, except on heavy rainy days in the summer.
    Just as people having names, all Anung house have names as well.  If you ask where one lives, you will be told names like Gongse or Maliding.  Those names generally come from names of places which can be based on location, landscape, or historical events.  Once a name is selected, not only will all future houses built on that piece of land carry it, the family residing in the houses carries the name as well.  When a location is selected, people start building their house.  Upon completion, the owner invites respected elders from the village to join the wine and dance celebration and to name the house.  Zhao Guoqiang, my host has a house called Longreng (meaning master of stones in Anung), and the house of the village head person, Li xin, is called Garqiou (meaning a land looking like a cocktail in Anung).
    Building a house is the most honorable thing for an Anung man to do.  It not only indicates his capability and wealth, but also represents contributions he makes towards Anung social relations.  When an Anung man builds his house, not much cash is required and he can utilize free local materials such as stone, wood and slate; needs just enough grain food, homemade corn wine, and pork to feed the neighbours, relatives and friends who come to help him build the house.It is just under these simple slate roofs, Anung people make their life, worship their primitive gods and deities, and welcome and worship various gods from afar.
    Different Religions Coexist as Siblings in the Same Longbla Gim
    Amongst the Anungs, to this day, the legend still has it that all their various religions were members of one family.  This family had four children, two sons and two daughters, who did not get along.  The older son went to Jinsha River (upper stream of the Yangtze river) and became Buddhism (Chinese Buddhism); the younger son stayed in Tibet and became Lamaism.  The two daughters were punished by their mother for their disobiendiance. The first daughter was put into a leather pouch and thrown into Lancang River and floated to a place called France; the second one was thrown into Nu River and ended up in England.  After some time, both daughters came back.  One claimed to be Catholicism named Maria who was later saved by a group of Tibetan horsemen which was why Catholic religion was first worshipped by the Tibetan and then the Anungs.  The other sister became Protistantism and floated to Lisu territory; therefore, Protestant religion was first introduced to Lisu people and then to the Anungs.
    We are not going to judge the scientific value of this legend, but it does indicate Anung peopleÕs attitude towards religionÑÑnatural emotional relations, and their wish for a harmonious coexistance of various religions.  They are living in that realized dream in today’s Bingzhongluo region.
    Tuesday is a street day for Bingzhongluo village.  The market is extremely active and bustling.  People communicate in various dialects, Anung, Lisu, Tibetan or Han Chinese while they trade, chat, eat and drink, just like the way they work, socialize, and help each other in their village.  The Anungs have come from nearby villages.  While their costumes look identical, it is easy to detect the difference of one’s religion:  those who wear a red or multi-colored knitted neck piece will tell you they worship Lamaism; those with a neck piece but holding a pipe in the mouth or drinking watery wine might be Catholic regardless of gender; Protestants do not smoke or drink liquor, only sodas and have neat but simple costumes......
    Whatever marks or symbols they wear, they are Anungs foremost.

Separate in Religion, United as Anungs

As siblings who have once walked away from each other, Lamaism, Catholicism, and Protestantism nowadays do not even recognize one another’s presence when they meet at the same occasion; but the Anungs have no difficulty socializing among themselves or with other ethnic groups. A newcomer always finds it difficult to understand how people who worship three vastly different religions can coexist in harmony, since Catholicism and Protestantism have little in common in their religious ceremonies. In the four months I have spent in the Bingzhongluo region, I had never seen a Catholic or a Protestant entering one anotherÕs church. Of course neither Catholics nor Protestants were found participating in Lamaist praying and ghost-driving rites either. Both Gu Layei, head of Chala Catholic Church, and Mapa of the village Protestant Church concede that they have no religious affiliation, not even when they celebrate Christmas. The only exception was when construction of the village Catholic Church was finished in 1996, a congratulatory gift was presented by a representative from the Protestant Church. That’s a customary practice amongst the Anungs when they want to help or to congratulate their friends, relatives and neighbors.
    When religion is put aside, Anung people are simply farming folks who get along with each other as genuine siblings of one family.  In their legend,  their chief desire and expectation is for more harmony. There’s an Anung saying: Be a proper worshipper if one believes in religion, live a proper life as a good person anyway.