The Mosuo people of southwestern China’s Yunnan province have been described as “the mysterious kingdom of women.” A strong matriarchal family structure remains in place among the Mosuo who live near Lugo Lake.

Chinese and foreign scholars and tourists have long been fascinated by the ethnic group’s matriarchal system. Females enjoy high status in Mosuo villages. In the Mosuo culture, no man takes a wife. Women live with their mothers their entire lives. Instead of matrimony, the Mosuo have what’s known as a “walking marriage”. After dark, if she agrees, a man can walk into the private bedroom of a woman. He returns to his mother’s home in the morning.

In Mosuo families, it is the maternal blood line through which property is inherited and family members are defined. The children of sisters are especially close. Children call their mother’s sisters their mothers, too, and they call their father their uncle.