Yu Mengga – Representative Inheritor of Dai Handmade Paper Project in Gengma County, Lincang
Personal Profile
Yu Mengga(玉勐嘎), female, Dai nationality,was born in 1945,in Zaha Village(遮哈村), Mengding Town(孟定镇), Gengma Dai and Wa Autonomous County(耿马傣族佤族自治县), Lincang City(临沧市),who is one of the representative inheritors of Dai and Naxi handmade paper Project in Gengma County, Lincang .
Yu Mengga and Dai Handmade Paper Project
Dai handmade paper can be called “the living fossil of primitive paper-making in China”, Mengding Town Mangtuan Village is the most complete preservation of this skill. When Yu Mengga was young, she married from Menga in Jinggu County to Mangtuan, and learned from the village’s old paper-making artist, Piaoye Mengke(扒叶勐剋). After more than 40 years of practice, she has mastered the paper-making technology skillfully. She has grasped the key links of paper-making, such as picking time, ash content, cooking temperature, rinsing and pouring. She has a comprehensive grasp of the original Dai hand-made papermaking process, the paper produced by high quality, fair price is widely praised by customers.There are more than 30 farmers engaged in papermaking all the year round in Mangtuan Village, but the Yumenga family is the largest and the best in quality.
Social Influence
At present, Yu Mengga has passed on the technology to his daughter-in-law Binghe Neighbor(丙贺邻) and granddaughter Yinggong(巩英), actively inheriting Dai’s handmade paper-making skills, becoming the leader of Mangtuan Village, so that Dai’s handmade paper-making skills have been inherited and developed.
Chinese Version: http://www.ynich.cn/view.php?id=3021&cat_id=13110
Translated by Winnie/张赢
