Leaving Mother Lake : A Girlhood at the Edge of the World

In the remote Himalayas, on the shores of magnificent Lake Lugu, there is a place the Chinese call "the Country of Daughters." This is the home of the Moso, a remarkable society in which women rule men. In the Moso tradition, marriage is considered a backward practice, and property is passed from mother to daughter. Every household has a matriarch who oversees the family's customs, rituals, and economics. Daughters are prized above sons, and both live their entire lives in the house where they were born.
In the extraordinary story of Yang Erche Namu, life among the Moso is revealed for the first time in fascinating, intimate detail. Leaving Mother Lake is the story of one girl's coming-of-age in a world of women. From Namu we learn of a young girl's "skirt ceremony," of how courtship is conducted through dance and song, and of the private "flower chambers" where young women consort with their lovers. Despite the freedoms Namu enjoys, they aren't the freedoms she desires. Her impulsive, restless nature drives her to leave her mother's house, defying the tradition that holds Moso culture together. She learns she must venture out into the larger world to see better the one she leaves behind.

Yang Erche Namu is a professor of anthropology at St. Mary's College of California.