'Last matriarch in China' passes away at age 101

(ECNS) -- The "last matriarch in China" Maria Suo passed away beside her beloved reindeer at the age of 101 at 02:27 on August 20, 2022.

Maria Suo, an Ewenki born in 1921, led her people to raise the only reindeer population in China in the deep mountains and forests of the Greater Khingan Mountains.

As the prototype of the leading character in the novel The Last Quarter of the Moon, she was known as the "last matriarch in China".