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2025.07.19 22:56 GMT+8

Light it up! Torch carnival hails unique ethnic culture in SW China

Updated 2025.07.19 22:56 GMT+8
CGTN

Opening ceremony of the Liangshan Yi Torch Festival, Xichang City, Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, southwest China, July 18, 2025.

Tourists gather to celebrate the Liangshan Yi Torch Festival, July 18, 2025.

A view of the Liangshan Yi Torch Festival, July 18, 2025.

Tourists hold up torches during the Liangshan Yi Torch Festival, July 18, 2025.

Tourists gather by bonfire during the Liangshan Yi Torch Festival, July 18, 2025.

Tourists light up torches during the Liangshan Yi Torch Festival, July 18, 2025.

Torches are lit up during the Liangshan Yi Torch Festival, July 18, 2025.

Yi people perform traditional dance during the Liangshan Yi Torch Festival, July 18, 2025.

Yi people dance during the Liangshan Yi Torch Festival, July 18, 2025.

A quarter of a million people! That's about how many people rallied to celebrate the annual Liangshan Yi Torch Festival which kicked off on Friday night in Xichang City, Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture, southwest China's Sichuan Province.

The three-day celebration was opened by traditional Yi ethnic song-and-dance performances and intangible cultural heritage displays, showcasing the Yi people's reverence for fire and highlighting the charm of their unique culture.

The grand event was brought to its climax when an avenue stretching over 4.8 kilometers was lit up with 88 bonfires and tens of thousands of tourists joined the Yi people dressed in traditional costumes and danced to Yi folk songs around the bonfires.

Liangshan is home to the majority of the Yi people, who consider fire as the symbol of their culture. The torch festival, which usually falls on the 24th or 25th day of the sixth lunar month , is the biggest holiday of the Yi ethnic group.

Recognized as a national intangible cultural heritage in 2006, the fete also carries Yi people's prayers for safety, bountiful harvests and harmony between communities and nature.

(All photos courtesy of Xichang Integrated Media Center)

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