March Street is the venue of the largest traditional gathering of the Bai people in Dali. The festival starts from 15th of lunar March and lasts seven days. In the past, the gathering was called Avalokitesvara Fair. During the Yonghui Period of the Tang Dynasty, tradition has it that Avalokitesvara gives Buddhist lectures to 17 believers in Bai oral language, surrounded by listeners in crowds. Gradually, the place becomes a market. In Xu Xiake's Dairy of the Tour of Yunnan, he said, "booths are linked one by one into a market. To north is a horse ground, gathering thousand of horses… Men and women are crowded in the market, making it hard to distinguish from whose hands meeting with others'. Nowadays, March Street has become a traditional trade fair, where people are busy in trading, racing, playing lion dance, appreciating flower exhibitions, and enjoying cultural and sports activities." |