Duan Chicheng, the Python-Slayer
Bai · deity · Bai traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
Duan Chicheng is a hero-type benzhu of the Bai, the patron god enshrined at the Erhe memorial temple in Heyicheng village near Xizhou. By legend a monstrous python infested the Erhe River that feeds Erhai Lake, devouring people and livestock and flooding the crops, until the youth Duan Chicheng slew it and perished in the deed; he was thereupon deified as the god of Erhai. His sacrifice is commemorated at the Sea-Playing (Shuahai) festival, and he is among the chief benzhu welcomed during the Raosanling pilgrimage.
Domains
- lake guardianship
- heroic protection
Powers
- to slay the man-eating python and so calm the waters of Erhai
Epithets
- 洱海之神Megan Bryson, Goddess on the Frontier: Religion, Ethnicity, and Gender in Southwest China (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2017). (secondary)
Sources
- Duan Chicheng is a heroic benzhu of the Bai, a youth who died slaying the man-eating python of the Erhe River and is thereafter venerated as the god of Erhai Lake at the Erhe memorial temple.: Megan Bryson, Goddess on the Frontier: Religion, Ethnicity, and Gender in Southwest China (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2017). (secondary); C. P. FitzGerald, The Tower of Five Glories: A Study of the Min Chia of Ta Li, Yunnan (London: The Cresset Press, 1941). (secondary)