Nadun Festival

Nadun is a traditional festival of the Sanchuan Mangghuer (Tu) people. During this annual period, Mangghuer dance and perform in order to thank their deities for the harvest. About 40,000 Mangghuer from 70 villages perform Nadun on a village by village basis during a 63-day period from the seventh to ninth lunar months. The length of this festival, large number of participants and exceptional mask performances make this festival unique. Nadun is held in southern Minhe Hui and Tu Autonomous County, Haidong Region, Qinghai Province, PR China. See this page for photographs and further description of the Nadun, and click here to download the 1993 article by Kevin Stuart and Hu Jun. ‘That All May Prosper’: The Monguor Nadun of the Guanting/Sanchuan Region. Anthropos. 88: 15-27.

The Nadun festival in Wushi Valley with Puba Village, Guanting Town, Minhe Hui and Tu Autonomous County, was filmed on 20 October 2001 (the fourth day of the ninth lunar month) by Zhu Jinliang and edited by Wen Xiangcheng.

Please click on the image below to play the film (341 MB) or click here to download the film as an MP4 file.