格姆女神山

This guide to Gemu Goddess Mountain above Lugu Lake in Lijiang follows the Mosuo legend of a village girl carried off by a mountain god, her body fused into the rock face and her spirit rising as the mountain itself. It centers on Gemu Gua, the walking-the-goddess festival held once a year on the twenty-fifth day of the seventh lunar month, when lion dancers, singers trading verses, archers, and horse riders fill the slope. Incense smoke drifts up from the crowd toward the cave near the summit where her statue waits.