A stunning mountain road leads to the partially forested home of the Mosuo peoples, beside Lake Lagu on the border with Sichuan province.

The Mosuo are a sub-clan of the Naxi and like them they are a matriarchal society. Somewhat fittingly then, the horseshoe-shaped Lugu is known, to them, as ‘Mother Lake'.

Yet this peaceful location has seen turmoil in the past - some Mosuo continued to be slave-owners until well into the 1950s, with raiding parties scouring the lowlands for slaves.