Kam

The worship of Sa Sui centres on the most important deity of the Kam, the Dong of eastern Guizhou, western Hunan and northern Guangxi, a woman ancestor who drives off evil and protects the village. Every traditional village keeps an altar to her, a small walled courtyard near the drum tower.

Legend says she was a girl, Xingni, who led the villagers against a landlord and then against the troops of his official son, until she fell from a cliff in a struggle with the official. When the villagers called her name, echoes answered through the forest.

Around her stand other powers: village-gate and bridge goddesses, land gods, and turtles, snakes and dragons as totems. Kam rebellions broke out under the Ming and Qing, among them Wu Mian's of 1378 and Wu Jinyin's of 1740.