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A History of horse breeding
When wars in its northern territories denied the 12th century
Song Dynasty of it usual horse breeding grounds, it was to
Yunnan that the Emperor looked. Animals prized for their size
and endurance had been bred in the province for centuries,
and soon the Kingdom of Dali was trading 1,500 horses a year
to the Song.
In all the Kingdom the Dali flourished for three centuries
from 937AD until it fell to the hordes of Kublai Khan in 1253.
The powerful Nanzhou kingdom that had conquered much of Burma,
Laos and Thailand, as well as attacking Sichuan in Southern
China, preceded it for two centuries.
At the heart of this region are the Bai people - one of Yunnan's
largest ethnic minorities - who have prospered on this fertile
land and fish the abundantly stocked Erhai Lake - part of
the Mekong system - where 40 different varieties of fish grow
fat.
The Bai are also great horse traders and every April for
over a thousand years they have held a huge fair on the plain
outside of Dali that attracts people from the mountain tribes
and many areas of China for five days of festivities, games
and horse-racing. Stall and booths spring up across the plain
with every type of livestock and foodstuff on offer. Most
popular are the traditional herbal medicines brought down
to the plains by the Tibetans and hilltribes, but this is
a more recent development, and what interests many who attend
are the sales of fine Bai horses.
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