"The package has been sent out, please keep an eye out for it." On September 19th, Mosuo person La Jianying sent a WeChat message to a tourist from Guangzhou. A few days earlier, the tourist had come to Lugu Lake in Sichuan to participate in the Mountain and Lake Circumambulation Festival, purchased Duoshe tea and floral waistbands at the Mosuo Intangible Cultural Heritage Experience Center, and asked La Jianying to ship them out. "More and more visitors are coming to our workshop for visits and to learn traditional skills."
La Jianying is the head of the Lugu Lake Duoshe Tea Industry Intangible Heritage Workshop, an outstanding heritage workshop in Sichuan Province, and also a representative inheritor of the county-level intangible heritage project of Mosuo medicinal tea-making techniques. The Mosuo Intangible Cultural Heritage Experience Center is also La Jianying's home, where she, her sister La Jianli, and their father La Pinde are all representative inheritors of intangible cultural heritage.
In recent years, the Mosuo Intangible Cultural Heritage Experience Center has focused on "integrating heritage techniques and supporting rural prosperity," deeply cultivating Mosuo cultural inheritance. The content covers Mosuo tea, Mosuo clothing, medicine, and other aspects of Mosuo culture.
That day, reporters visited La Jianying's home and happened to encounter the sisters and their father preparing to go up the mountain to collect medicinal herbs, so they joined them. "This one is scientifically called Viola yedoensis, which can stop bleeding and can also be used for venomous snake bites. This is Potentilla discolor, and this is Scrophularia..." The father collected herbs while teaching his two daughters about medicinal knowledge.
La Pinde is 74 years old and a representative inheritor of the state-level intangible heritage project of Mosuo traditional medicine. Over the years, he has carried a basket on his back and held a hoe, traveling through the mountains and villages around Lugu Lake. "Mosuo medicine has no written records and relies on oral transmission, now facing the risk of being lost." His two daughters understand their father's concerns and often follow him to collect herbs, listening to him tell stories about the medicinal plants and their effects.
La Jianying has been passionate about tea drinking and tea making since childhood. Combined with her father's status as a representative inheritor of Mosuo traditional medicine, she grew up integrating traditional medicine with tea-making techniques. In 2007, La Jianying began entering the tea industry, and in 2011 she obtained a tea master qualification certificate. In 2014, La Jianying opened a tea shop in Luguhu Town, and "Duoshe Tea" gradually came into people's view. In 2024, the Lugu Lake Duoshe Tea Industry Intangible Heritage Workshop was selected as an outstanding heritage workshop in Sichuan Province.
"With the development of Lugu Lake tourism, more and more tourists come here for free experiences of tea ceremony, weaving, and other activities," La Jianying said.
Mosuo clothing was included in the Sichuan Provincial Intangible Cultural Heritage Representative Project List in 2014 and successfully became a "Intangible Heritage Sichuan · Hundred Cities, Hundred Arts" brand in 2025. Its production is represented by weaving hemp cloth and making hemp clothing. Sister La Jianli is a representative inheritor of this project.
Mosuo clothing has many styles with rich ethnic characteristics, deeply loved by tourists. La Jianli said: "In the future, we will expand the heritage workshop further to allow more tourist friends to have immersive experiences of intangible heritage charm."
Leaving the Mosuo Intangible Cultural Heritage Experience Center, reporters visited the Mosuo Museum, which uses physical objects, pictures, and multimedia means to comprehensively introduce Mosuo history, production and daily life, traditional culture, and ethnic customs. "These cultures are both the cultural heritage of the Mosuo people and their real-life practices," explained a museum official.
Currently, there are 45 intangible heritage representative projects along Lugu Lake in Sichuan, including 1 national-level project (Jiacao Dance) and 11 provincial-level projects. These unique ethnic cultures, together with the stunning natural scenery of Lugu Lake, attract increasing numbers of tourists from various regions.
To promote the protection and development of traditional culture, Yanyuan County in Liangshan Prefecture relies on Mosuo Cultural Learning Centers and intangible heritage protection and inheritance bases to regularly carry out heritage learning and experience activities such as Jiacao Dance. At the same time, the annual Lugu Lake Mountain and Lake Circumambulation Festival is held regularly to promote the inheritance and development of traditional culture, guiding tourists to transform from observers to participants and promoters.