The Nujiang River churns brown and is swollen with monsoon rain, thundering past the village of Lazhudi in Fugong county, Nujiang Lisu autonomous prefecture, Southwest China's Yunnan province.
On the riverbank, tucked against the steep valley slopes, stands a cluster of traditional Lisu wooden houses. From inside, the sound of ancient Lisu folk tunes drifts through the damp air, mingling with the scent of wood smoke from a fire that has never been allowed to die.
In Lisu tradition, the hearth is "the heart of the house". But as modern homes replaced the old bamboo-and-wood houses, most of these fires have died. At Akeji Mountain Homestay, one still burns.
Inside a building, behind an unassuming door, lies a museum that preserves more than 1,300 objects, ranging from bamboo rice boxes, wooden crossbows, and hemp blankets, to tools that most young Lisu people today can no longer name.
For nearly three decades, Cui Huanyue, a woman in her 50s, has been walking the remote mountain villages of the river valley, knocking on doors, asking elders what they still have in their storehouses, and buying up the discarded tools of a dying way of life.
Today, scholars believe her collection is the most comprehensive private assembly of Lisu material culture anywhere in the world.
"If you want to understand Lisu culture, you have to come here," Cui says, gesturing at shelves packed with bamboo rice boxes, wooden walnut crushers and crossbows.
