Moso

Moso is a name that can refer to two unrelated topics: a widely cultivated bamboo species and an ethnic group native to southwest China. In English usage, “Moso” often appears as the common name for the bamboo Phyllostachys edulis, also known as Moso bamboo or timber bamboo. It is a major commercial species in China and other parts of Asia, valued for its tall, sturdy culms and rapid growth. Moso bamboo is used for timber, furniture, flooring, scaffolding, and paper, and its edible shoots are a common ingredient in East Asian cuisine. The plant thrives in subtropical climates and can reach substantial heights, with large-diameter culms that support a range of industrial and culinary applications.

The Mosuo people, sometimes spelled Moso in older sources, are an ethnic group living around Lugu Lake on the border of Yunnan and Sichuan provinces in China. They number in the tens of thousands and are noted for a distinctive social system centered on matrilineal kinship. In traditional Mosuo society, lineage and inheritance pass through the female line, and households are typically headed by women. Romantic relationships have historically been described as “walking marriages,” in which partners do not co-reside or formalize marriage in the way common in many other cultures. The Mosuo language, also called Na, is spoken by the community and is part of the Tibeto-Burman language family; many Mosuo people are bilingual in Mandarin Chinese.

Both uses of Moso reflect different cultural and economic contexts: one as a key timber and food resource, the other as a distinct ethnic group with a unique social structure and language.