Mopa Mipa

Mopa Mipa (Mo Pa Mi Pa in Chinese) is a long literary piece of epic of creation myth that is most widely transmitted among the folk of the Lahu ethnic group.

The whole poem comprises 17 chapters with 2,300 lines,which narrates the creation of heaven,earth,the sun and the moon,the creation of other objects,the creation of human beings,and the surviving conditions at the initial stage of human beings.

It is said that in the remote times,there is nothing in the universe so Esa creates the earth and the natural surroundings in the universe but he does not create human beings.Esa feels lonely and he grows a gourd.After the gourd ripens,a millet finch and a mouse together open it and out of the gourd come a boy named“Zhadi”and a girl named“Nadi”.(https://www.daowen.com)

After Zhadi and Nadi grow up,they are married.After ten months in conception,Nadi bears 13 pairs of children.Esa asks twelve animals such as dog,pig,ox,and tiger to help Nadi raise the children.After the children grow up,they are named after the twelve animals.Since then,human beings start to multiply.

The epic not only reflects the social conditions of the Lahu ethnic group in remote times,but is a splendid work of oral literature that is transmitted for a long time in history among the Lahu ethnic people.