I find that fascinating. Do you think that is a Ming-era influence,  
or earlier?

As for the furnace figure --does that seem like a local custom to  
you, or is it Mongol to have an installation that size?

On Jun 4, 2006, at 8:42 AM, David Holm wrote:

> Dear Pamela and others,
>
> New Year customs that could well be labelled 'fire worship' are  
> found widely in the northwest marches of China, along the Great  
> Wall. In many parts of Shanxi, local people used to build large  
> pagodas or other structures out of enormous blocks of coal, and  
> then set them alight for the Shangyuan festival on the 15th of the  
> first month. The custom is also found in contiguous parts of  
> northern Shaanxi (the Jin dialect-speaking areas). When I was doing  
> fieldwork in Shaanbei during the 1980s, I made a visit to the  
> former prefectural city of Yulin in the far north of the province.  
> This was in 1986, and Yulin was still a closed area. I was  
> astonished to see, on the outskirts of the city, a huge pottery  
> furnace in the crude likeness of an open-mouthed semi-human  
> monster, standing in the middle of a large open area. About 12 feet  
> high, this was meant to be packed with coal, which was set alight  
> for the 15th of the first month. When I visited Yulin again in  
> 1990, this strange device had disappeared.
>
> There is plenty of evidence of Mongol cultural influence among the  
> local Han Chinese in the country outside Yulin - they drink their  
> tea in the Mongol style and live in tiny scattered settlements  
> called huochang. Yulin used to be a major entrepot for the central  
> Asian trade, with three drumtowers and a main street (shopping  
> street that is) some 5 li from north to south.
>
> David Holm
> University of Melbourne
>