Li

Tea

水满茶 shuǐmǎn chá — tea from the wild Hainan large-leaf tree 海南大叶种 hǎinán dàyèzhǒng in the Wuzhishan rainforest: trunks over ten meters tall, leaves only begin to stir by Qingming. Ming-era accounts already call Wuzhishan tea the best on the island; in 1816, the Li of Shuiman presented it to the newly appointed Ding’an county magistrate. Picking ran ten days before and ten days after Qingming: a work gang of over a hundred people slept in the mountains and judged leaf tenderness by smell. Shuiman Township of Wuzhishan City and Baisha.

Growth on the crown

Fruit of the tea tree: a large three-valved woody capsule from the ten-meter wild trees of Wuzhishan; the valves have parted slightly, and the outline at 6 mm remains rounded but is cut by THREE narrow dark slits along the seams — in one slit a round seed is visible, and at the stem sits a dry sepal. Differing from the Hui bud in that there the rim is finely serrated all around, while here the rim is smooth and the pattern is carried by three deep slits converging toward the stem; differing from the Tajik bubble pair in that the body is single and the seams are cut into the interior.

Headdress

A panel of dark homespun cloth with two strips of unbleached thread in a warm linen tone along each side above the forehead (Meifu branch styling: 头系黑布交扎于脑后 — black cloth tied and crossed at the back of the head): the crown is covered completely and smoothly, and both ends, crossed at the nape, are led downward, wrapped around the neck in two even turns, and tucked in — this way the cloth does not billow and shields the neck from the sun. The slot for the capsule sits at the crown, the edge sewn threefold. The beaten bast 树皮布 has moved from the head to the clothing: the shoulder patch is sewn from it.

Outline at 6 mm. Head and neck form a single column: the cloth covers the crown smoothly and the same piece is wrapped around the neck in two turns, so at 6 mm the neck disappears and the head sits on the shoulders as a straight column with no waist. Nothing is gathered at the back — no knot, no pouch; a rear cone with a knot is the Tatar’s mark. Differing from the Lisu in the absence of a sharp angle at the back of the head, and from the Bao’an in that the crown is covered and the mass runs in a ring around the neck rather than standing as a shell behind the head.

Clothing

Short sleeveless jacket and 筒裙, a patch of beaten bast on the shoulder, a bundle of bamboo water tubes at the waist.

Palette

Indigo and black cloth, two white stripes above the forehead, warm ochre bast, greenish-brown capsule.