Unique Letters

People of the Jingpo minority in Yunan Province in south China are well known for their cleverness at writing letters in objects rather than ink.

To show that one misses a relative, or a friend who is far away, one will send a unique letter composed of a root plus a few grains of sesame. The root represents "miss" while the sesame means "very much." If one receives a piece of beef or pork from someone, the sender is saying that, "Someone in the family died the other day, but I am sorry that we did not inform you to attend the funeral because of the long distance."

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