Ethnic groups in China

Chinese Kyrgyz People

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The Kyrgyz are a ethnic group found primarily in Kyrgyzstan.

Etymology

There are several etymological theories on the name "Kyrgyz." First, the name Kyrgyz may mean "forty girls" , a reference to the . This is symbolized by the yellow sun in the center of the flag of Kyrgyzstan, which has 40 rays referring to forty Kyrgyz tribes. Next, a meaning of "forty tribes" which makes more direct sense. Finally, a meaning , meaning "imperishable", "inextinguishable" or "undying". This version has an obvious popular appreciation. Historical evidence for many conflicts with other peoples also supports this theory.

The Chinese transcription ''"Tse-gu" '' allows to restore the pronunciation of the ethnonym as ''Kirkut '' and ''Kirkur ''. Both forms go back to the earliest variation ''Kirkün'' of the term "Kyrgyz" meaning "Field People", "Field Huns". The term ''Kirkün'' went through a notable evolution: ''Kirkün = Kirkut = Kirkur = Kyrkyz ''. The evolution is traced well chronologically. The semantic connection between ''kün '' and ''gür'' is obvious, chronologically consecutive development of the concept ''kün = "female progenitor" = her offsprings = "tribe" = "a people"'' at the last stage coincides with the ''gür = "people"'', like in the Khitan title Gurkhan. Application of affixes of plurality "t" - "r" - "z" in the ethnonym ''Kirkun'' shaded the initial sound, and then also the meaning, making its roots enigmatic. By the Mongol epoch, the initial meaning of the word ''Kirkun'' was already lost, evidenced by differing readings of the earlier reductions of the Uanshi. The change of ethnonym produced a new version of an origin, and the memory about their steppe motherland, recorded in Uanshi, survived only as a recollection of the initial birthplace of forty women. Subsequently, however, that recollection was also lost.

Origins

The early Kyrgyz people, known as Yenisei Kyrgyz or Xiajiasi, first appear in written records in the Chinese annals of the Sima Qian's ''Records of the Grand Historian'' , as ''Gekun'' or ''Jiankun'' . The Middle Age Chinese composition ''"Tanghuiyao"'' of the 8-10th century transcribed the name "Kyrgyz" Tsze-gu , and their tamga was depicted identical with the tamga of present day Kyrgyz tribes Azyk, Bugu, Cherik, Sary Bagysh and few others. According to recent historical findings, Kyrgyz history dates back to 201 BC. The Yenisei Kyrgyz lived in the upper Yenisey River valley, central Siberia. Yenisei Kyrgyzes in the Late Antique times were a part of the tribes. Later, in the Early Middle Age, Yenisei Kyrgyzes were under the rule of Kaganate and Kaganate. In 840 a revolt led by Yenisei Kyrgyzes brought down the Uigur Kaganate, and brought the Yenisei Kyrgyzes to a dominating position in the former Turkic Kaganate. With the rise to power, the center of the Kyrgyz Kaganate moved to Jeti-su, and brought about a spread south of the Kyrgyz people, to reach Tian Shan mountains and Eastern Turkestan, bringing them immediately to the borders of China and Tibet. By the 16th century the carriers of the ethnonym ''"Kirgiz"'' lived in South Siberia, Eastern Turkestan, Tian Shan, , Middle Asia, Urals , in Kazakhstan. In the Tian Shan and Eastern Turkestan area, the term ''"Kyrgyz"'' retained its unifying political designation, and became a general ethnonym for the Yenisei Kirgizes and aboriginal Turkic tribes that presently constitute the Kyrgyz population. Though it is obviously impossible to directly identify the Yenisei and Tien Shan Kyrgyzes, a trace of their ethnogenetical connections is apparent in archaeology, history, language and ethnography. Majority of modern researchers came to a conclusion that the ancestors of the southern Kyrgyz tribes had their origin in the most ancient tribal unions of Sakas and , Dinlins and Huns. Approximately 300,000 Yenisei Kyrgyzes survived in the Tuva depression until present.

Chinese and Muslim sources of the 7th–12th centuries AD describe the Kyrgyz as red-haired with fair complexion and green eyes.

The descent of the Kyrgyz from the autochthonous Siberian population is confirmed by recent genetic studies. Remarkably, 63% of modern Kyrgyz men share Haplogroup R1a1 with Tajiks , Ukrainians , Poles and Hungarians , and even Icelanders . Haplogroup R1a1 is variously believed to be a marker of the Proto-Indo-European language and Turkic speakers.

Political development

The Kyrgyz state reached its greatest expansion after defeating the Kaganate in 840 AD. Then Kyrgyz quickly moved as far as the Tian Shan range and maintained their dominance over this territory for about 200 years. In the 12th century, however, the Kyrgyz domination had shrunk to the Range and the Sayan Mountains as a result of the rising Mongol expansion. With the rise of the Mongol Empire in the 13th century, the Kyrgyz migrated south. In 1207, after the establishment of Yekhe Mongol Ulus , Genghis Khan's oldest son Jochi occupied Kyrgyzstan without resistance. They remained a Mongol vassal until the late of 14th century.

Various Turkic peoples ruled them until 1685, when they came under the control of the Kalmyks .

Religion

Kyrgyz are predominantly Muslims. was first introduced by Arab traders who travelled along the Silk Road in the seventh and eight century.

In the 8th century, orthodox Islam reached the Fergana valley with the . Atheism, on the other hand, took some following in the northern regions under Russian communist influence. As of today, few cultural rituals of Shamanism are still practiced alongside with Islam particularly in Central Kyrgyzstan. During a July 2007 interview, Bermet Akayeva, the daughter of Askar Akayev, the former President of Kyrgyzstan, stated that Islam is increasingly taking root even in the northern portion which came under communist influence. She emphasized that many mosques have been built and that the Kyrgyz are increasingly devoting themselves to Islam, which she noted was "not a bad thing in itself. It keeps our society more moral, cleaner."

The Kyrgyz in China

The Kyrgyz form one of the officially recognized by the People's Republic of China. There are more than 145,000 Kyrgyz in China. They are known in China as ''Kēěrkèzī zú'' .

They are found mainly in the Kizilsu Kirghiz Autonomous Prefecture in the southwestern part of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, with a smaller remainder found in the neighboring Wushi , , Shache , Yingisar, and Pishan , and in Tekes, Zhaosu , Emin , Bole , Jinghev and Gonliu in northern Xinjiang. Several hundred Kyrgyz whose forefathers emigrated to Northeast China more than 200 years ago now live in Wujiazi Village in Fuyu County, Heilongjiang Province.

Certain segments of the Kyrgyz in China are followers of Tibetan Buddhism.

Notable Kyrgyz people

*Chinghiz Aitmatov - author
*Askar Akayev - politician, scientist, first President of Kyrgyzstan
*Kurmanbek Bakiyev - politician, current President of Kyrgyzstan
*Kurmanjan Datka - politician, former stateswoman
*Felix Kulov - politician, former Prime Minister of Kyrgyzstan
*Abdylas Maldybaev - actor/musician
*Zamira Sydykova - journalist/ambassador
*Omurbek Tekebayev - politician, speaker of the
*Kasym Tynystanov - a prominent Kyrgyz scientist, politician and poet, first minister of education
*Nasirdin Isanov - politician, first Prime Minister of Kyrgyzstan
*Orzubek Nazarov - former World Boxing Association lightweight boxing champion

References and further reading

* Abramzon, S.M. ''"Kirgizes and their ethnogenetical historical and cultural connections"'', Moscow, 1971, ISBN 5-655-00518-2 ''''.
* Kyzlasov, L.R.''"Mutual relationship of terms ''Khakas'' and ''Kyrgyz'' in written sources of 6-12th centuries"''. Peoples of Asia and Africa, 1968, ''''.
* Zuev, Yu.A. ''"Kirgiz - Buruts". Soviet Ethnography, 1970, No 4, ''''.
* Shahrani, M. Nazif. ''The Kirghiz and Wakhi of Afghanistan: Adaptation to Closed Frontiers and War''. University of Washington Press. 1st paperback edition with new preface and epilogue . ISBN 0-295-98262-4.
* ''Kyrgyz Republic'', by Rowan Stewart and Susie Steldon, by Odyssey publications.
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Chinese Taiwanese People

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Taiwanese aborigines is the term commonly applied in reference to the indigenous peoples of Taiwan. Although Taiwanese indigenous groups hold a variety of , recent research suggests their ancestors may have been living on the islands for approximately 8000 years before major Han Chinese immigration began in the 17th century . The Taiwanese Aborigines are Austronesian peoples, with linguistic and genetic ties to other Austronesian ethnic groups, such as peoples of the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Madagascar and Oceania . The issue of an unconnected to the Asian mainland has become one thread in the discourse regarding the political status of Taiwan.

For centuries, Taiwan’s aboriginal peoples experienced economic competition and military conflict with a series of colonizing peoples. Centralized government policies designed to foster language shift and cultural assimilation, as well as continued contact with the colonizers through trade, intermarriage and other dispassionate intercultural processes, have resulted in varying degrees of language death and loss of original cultural identity. For example, of the approximately 26 known languages of the Taiwanese Aborigines , at least ten are , five are and several are to some degree . These languages are of unique historical significance, since most consider Taiwan to be the original homeland of the language family .

Taiwan’s Austronesian speakers were formerly distributed over much of the island’s rugged central mountain range and were concentrated in villages along the alluvial plains. As of January 2006, their total population is around 458,000 . The bulk of contemporary Taiwanese Aborigines reside in the mountains and the cities .

The indigenous peoples of Taiwan face economic and social barriers, including a high unemployment rate and substandard education. Many Aboriginal groups have been actively seeking a higher degree of political self-determination and economic development since the early 1980s . A revival of ethnic pride is expressed in many ways by Aborigines, including incorporating elements of their culture into commercially successful pop music. Efforts are underway in indigenous communities to revive traditional cultural practices and preserve their traditional languages. Several Aboriginal tribes are becoming extensively involved in the tourism and ecotourism industries to achieve increased economic self-reliance from the state .

Plains, Mountains and Tribal definitions

For most of their recorded history, Taiwanese Aborigines have been defined by the agents of different Confucian, Christian, and Nationalist “civilizing” projects, with a variety of aims. Each “civilizing” project defined the Aborigines based on the “civilizer’s” cultural understandings of difference and similarity, behavior, location, appearance and prior contact with other groups of people . Taxonomies imposed by colonizing forces divided the Aborigines into named subgroups, referred to as “tribes”. These divisions did not always correspond to distinctions drawn by the Aborigines themselves. However, the categories have become so firmly established in government and popular discourse over time that they have become de facto distinctions, serving to shape in part today’s political discourse within the Republic of China , and affecting Taiwan’s policies regarding indigenous peoples.

The Han sailor, Chen Di, in his ''Record of the Eastern Seas'' , identifies the indigenous people of Taiwan as simply 東番, or “Eastern Savage”, while the Dutch referred to Taiwan’s original inhabitants as ''“Indians”'' or ''“blacks”'', based on their prior colonial experience in what is currently Indonesia .

Beginning nearly a century later, as the rule of the expanded over wider groups of people, writers and gazetteers recast their descriptions away from reflecting degree of acculturation, and toward a system that defined the Aborigines relative to their submission or hostility to Qing rule. Qing literati used the term "raw/wild" to define those people who had not submitted to Qing rule, and "cooked/tame" for those who had pledged their allegiance through their payment of a head tax. According to the standards of the Qianlong Emperor and successive regimes, “cooked” was synonymous with having assimilated to Han cultural norms, and living as a subject of the Empire, but retained a pejorative designation to signify the perceived cultural lacking of the non-Han people , . This designation reflected the prevailing idea that anyone could be civilized/tamed by adopting Confucian social norms .

As the Qing consolidated their power over the plains and struggled to enter the mountains in the late 19th century, the terms “Plains tribes” Pepo or Pingpu zu 平埔族 and “High Mountain tribes” Gao shan zu 高山族 were used interchangeably with the terms “Raw” and “Cooked” . During the 50 years of Japanese colonial rule , anthropologists from Japan maintained the binary classification. In 1900 they incorporated it into their own colonial project by employing the term Peipo for the “cooked tribes”, and creating a category of “recognized tribes” for the Aborigines who had formerly been called “raw”. They referred to them as ''takasagozoku'' . The latter group included the , , , , , , and peoples. The and were added later, for a total of nine recognized tribes . During the early period of Chinese Nationalist Kuomintang rule the terms Shandi Tongbao 山地同胞 “mountain compatriots” and Pingdi Tongbao 平地同胞 “plains compatriots” were invented, to remove the presumed taint of Japanese influence and reflect the place of Taiwan’s indigenous people in the Chinese Nationalist state . The KMT later adopted the use of all the earlier Japanese groupings except “Peipo”.

Despite recent changes in the field of anthropology and a shift in Taiwanese government objectives, the Gaoshan and Pingpu labels in use today maintain the form given by the Qing to reflect Aborigines’ acculturation to Han culture. The current recognized Aborigines are all regarded as Gaoshan, though the divisions are not and have never been based strictly on geographical location. The Amis, Saisiat, Tao and Kavalan are all traditionally eastern plains cultures . The distinction between Plains and Gaoshan people continues to affect Taiwan’s policies regarding indigenous peoples, and their ability to participate effectively in government .

Although the ROC’s Government Information Office officially lists 13 major groupings as “tribes” the consensus among scholars maintains that these 13 groupings do not reflect any social entities, political collectives, or self-identified alliances dating from pre-modern Taiwan . The earliest detailed records, dating from the Dutch arrival in 1624, describe the Aborigines as living in independent villages of varying size. Between these villages there was frequent trade, intermarriage, warfare and alliances against common enemies. Using contemporary ethnographic and linguistic criteria, these villages have been classed by anthropologists into more than 20 broad ethnic groupings , which were never united under a common polity, kingdom or “tribe” .

Recognized peoples

The government on Taiwan officially recognizes distinct tribes among the indigenous community based upon the qualifications drawn up by the Council of Indigenous Peoples . To gain this recognition, tribes must gather a number of signatures and a body of supportive evidence in order to successfully petition the CIP. Formal recognition confers certain legal benefits and rights upon a group, as well as providing them with the satisfaction of recovering their separate identity as a tribe. As of May 2008, 14 tribes have been recognized.

The Council of Indigenous Peoples consider several limited factors in a successful formal petition. The determining factors include collecting member genealogies, group histories and evidence of a continued linguistic and cultural identity . The lack of documentation and the extinction of many indigenous languages as the result of colonial cultural and language policies have made the prospect of official recognition of many tribes a remote possibility. Current trends in ethno-tourism have led many former plains Aborigines to continue to seek cultural revival .

Among the plains Aboriginal groups that have petitioned for tribal status, only the and have been officially recognized. The remaining twelve recognized tribes are traditionally regarded as mountain Aboriginals.

Other tribal groups or subgroups that have pressed for recovery of legal Aboriginal status include the Chimo the Kakabu, Makatao, Pazeh, and Siraya . The act of petitioning for recognized status, however, does not always reflect any consensus view among scholars that the relevant group should in fact be categorized as a separate tribe.

There is discussion among both scholars and political groups regarding the best or most appropriate name to use for many of the tribes and their languages, as well as the proper romanization of that name. Commonly cited examples of this ambiguity include and .

Nine of the tribes were originally recognized prior to 1945 by the Japanese government . The Thao, Kavalan and Truku were recognized by Taiwan’s government in 2001, 2002 and 2004 respectively. The Sakizaya were recognized as a 13th tribe on January 172007 , and on April 23 2008 the Sediq were recognized as Taiwan's 14th official tribe . Previously the Sakizaya had been listed as Amis and the Sediq as Atayal. A full list of the recognized tribes of Taiwan, as well as some of the more commonly cited unrecognized tribal groups, is as follows:

:* Recognized: , , , , , , , , , , , , , and .

:* Unrecognized: , , , , Luilang, /, , Qauqaut, , , Trobiawan.

Taiwanese Aborigines in the People's Republic of China

The Taiwanese Aborigines in the People's Republic of China are collectively known as the “Gaoshan” and are one of the officially recognized by the PRC. They are descendants of the indigenous peoples of Taiwan who were in China at the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949 . According to the 2000 Census, 4,461 people were identified as Gaoshan.
Some surveys indicate that of the 4,461 “Gaoshan” recorded in the 2000 Census, it is estimated that there are 1,500 Amis, 1,300 Bunun, 510 Paiwan, and the remainder belonging to other tribes .

Assimilation and acculturation

Archaeological, linguistic and anecdotal evidence suggests that Taiwan’s indigenous peoples have undergone a series of cultural shifts to meet the pressures of contact with other societies and new technologies . Beginning in the early 17th century, Taiwanese Aborigines faced broad cultural change as the island became incorporated into the wider global economy by a succession of competing colonial regimes from Europe and Asia . In some cases groups of Aborigines resisted colonial influence, but other groups and individuals readily aligned with the colonial powers. This alignment could be leveraged to achieve personal or collective economic gain, collective power over neighboring villages or freedom from unfavorable societal customs and taboos involving marriage, age-grade and child birth .

Particularly among the Pingpu, as the degree of the “civilizing projects” increased during each successive regime, the Aborigines found themselves in greater contact with outside cultures. The process of acculturation and sometimes followed gradually in the wake of broad social currents, particularly the removal of ethnic markers , which had formerly distinguished ethnic groups on Taiwan . The removal or replacement of these brought about an incremental transformation from “Fan” to the dominant Confucian “Han” culture . During the Japanese and KMT periods centralized modernist government policies, rooted in ideas of Social Darwinism and culturalism directed education, genealogical customs and other traditions toward ethnic assimilation , . Ethnic shift among the Gaoshan, who had less contact with outsiders due to the inaccessibility of their lands, was more the result of centralized assimilative pressures than gradual social change. Nonetheless, the cultures and languages of most of the recognized tribes remain resilient today. Multicultural policies have contributed to ethnic pride in those communities.

Many of these forms of assimilation are still at work today. For example, when a central authority s one language, that attaches economic and social advantages to the prestige language. As generations pass, use of the indigenous language often fades or disappears, and linguistic and cultural identity recede as well. However, some groups are seeking to revive their indigenous identities . One important political aspect of this pursuit is petitioning the government for official recognition as a separate and distinct tribe.

The complexity and scope of Aboriginal assimilation and acculturation on Taiwan has led to three general narratives of Taiwanese ethnic change. The oldest narrative holds that Han migration from Fujian and Guangdong in the 17th Century pushed the plains Aborigines into the mountains, where they became the highland tribes of today . A relatively newer view asserts that through widespread intermarriage between Han and Aborigines between the 17th and 19th centuries, the Aborigines were completely sinicized . Finally, modern and studies have shown a pattern of cultural shift mutually experienced by both Han and Plains Aborigines, resulting in a hybrid culture. Today people who comprise Taiwan’s ethnic Han demonstrate major cultural differences from Han elsewhere .

Surnames and identity

Several factors encouraged the assimilation of the plains tribes. Taking a Han name was a necessary step in instilling Confucian values in the Aborigines . Confucian values were necessary to be recognized as a full person and to operate within the Confucian Qing state . A surname in Han society was viewed as the most prominent legitimizing marker of a patrilineal ancestral link to the Yellow Emperor and the of Han mythology . Possession of a Han surname, then, could confer a broad range of significant economic and social benefits upon Aborigines, despite a prior non-Han identity or mixed parentage. In some cases, members of plains tribes adopted the Han surname Pan as a modification of their designated status as Fan . One family of Pazih became members of the local gentry complete with a lineage to . In other cases, plains Aborigine families adopted common Han surnames, but traced their earliest ancestor to their locality in Taiwan.

In many cases, large groups of immigrant Han would unite under a common surname to form a brotherhood. Brotherhoods were used as a form of defense, as each sworn brother was bound by an oath of blood to assist a brother in need. The brotherhood groups would link their names to a family tree, in essence manufacturing a genealogy based on names rather than blood, and taking the place of the kinship organizations commonly found in China. The practice was so widespread that today’s family books are largely unreliable . Many plains aborigines joined the brotherhoods to gain protection of the collective as a type of insurance policy against regional strife, and through these groups they took on a Han identity with a Han lineage.

The degree to which any one of these forces held sway over others is unclear. Preference for one explanation over another is sometimes predicated upon a given political viewpoint. The cumulative effect of these dynamics is that by the beginning of the twentieth century the plains tribes were almost completely acculturated into the larger ethnic Han group, and had experienced nearly total language shift from their respective Formosan languages to . In addition, legal barriers to the use of traditional surnames persisted until recently, and cultural barriers remain. Aborigines were not permitted to use their traditional names on official identification cards until 1995 when a ban on using Aboriginal names dating from 1946 was finally lifted. One obstacle is that household registration forms allow a maximum of 15 characters for personal names. However, aboriginal names are still phonetically translated into Chinese characters, and many names require more than the allotted space .

History of the Aboriginal Peoples

Chipped-pebble tools dating from perhaps as early as 15,000 years ago suggest that the initial human inhabitants of Taiwan were Paleolithic cultures of the Pleistocene era. These people survived by eating marine life. Archaeological evidence points to an abrupt change to the Neolithic era around 6000 years ago, with the advent of agriculture, domestic animals, polished stone adzes and pottery. The stone adzes were mass-produced on Penghu and nearby islands, from the volcanic rock found there. This suggests heavy sea traffic took place between these islands and Taiwan at this time .

Recorded history of the Aborigines on Taiwan began around the seventeenth century, and has often been dominated by the views and policies of foreign powers and non-Aborigines. Beginning with the arrival of Dutch merchants in 1624, the traditional lands of the aborigines have been successively colonized by , , , , and rulers. Each of these successive “civilizing” cultural centers participated in violent conflict and peaceful economic interaction with both the Plains and Mountain tribal groups. To varying degrees, they influenced or transformed the culture and language of the indigenous peoples.

Four centuries of non-indigenous rule can be viewed through several changing periods of governing power and shifting official policy toward aborigines. From the seventeenth century until the early twentieth, the impact of the foreign settlers — the Dutch, Spanish and Han — was more extensive on the Plains tribes. The latter were far more geographically accessible, and thus had more dealings with the foreign powers. By the beginning of the twentieth century, the Plains tribes had largely been assimilated into contemporary Taiwanese culture as a result of European and Han colonial rule. Until the latter half of the Japanese colonial era the Mountain tribes were not entirely governed by any non-tribal polity. However, the mid-1930’s marked a shift in the intercultural dynamic, as the Japanese began to play a far more dominant role in the culture of the highland groups. This increased degree of control over the Mountain tribes continued during Kuomintang rule.

Within these two broad eras, there were many differences in the individual and regional impact of the colonizers and their “civilizing projects”. At times the foreign powers were accepted readily, as some tribes adopted foreign clothing styles and cultural practices , and engaged in cooperative trade in goods such as camphor, deer hides, sugar, tea and rice . At numerous other times changes from the outside world were forcibly imposed.

Much of the historical information regarding Taiwan’s Aborigines was collected by these regimes in the form of administrative reports and gazettes as part of greater “civilizing” projects. The collection of information aided in the consolidation of administrative control.

Plains Aboriginals

The Plains Aborigines mainly lived in stationary village sites surrounded by defensive walls of bamboo. The village sites in southern Taiwan were more populated than other locations. Some villages supported a population of more than 1500 people, surrounded by smaller satellite villages . villages were constructed of dwellings made of thatch and bamboo, raised 2 from the ground on stilts, with each household having a barn for livestock. A watchtower was located in the village to look out for headhunting parties from the highland tribes. The concept of property was often communal, with a series of conceptualized concentric rings around each village. The innermost ring was used for gardens and orchards that followed a fallowing cycle around the ring. The second ring was used to cultivate plants and natural fibers for the exclusive use of the tribe. The third ring was for exclusive hunting and deer fields for tribal use. The plains people hunted herds of spotted deer and muntjak as well as conducting light millet farming. Sugar and rice were grown as well, but mostly for use in preparing wine .

Many of the plains peoples were matrilineal/matrifocal societies. Men married into a woman’s family after a courtship period where the woman was free to reject as many men as she wished before marriage. In the age-grade communities, couples entered into marriage in their mid-30s when a man would no longer be required to perform military service or hunt heads on the battle-field. In the matriarchal system of the Siraya, it was also necessary for couples to abstain from marriage until their mid-thirties, when the bride’s father would be in his declining years and would not pose a challenge to the new male member of the household. It was not until the arrival of the Dutch Reformed Church in the 17th Century, that the marriage and child-birth taboos were abolished. There is some indication that many of the younger members of Sirayan society embraced the Dutch marriage customs as a means to circumvent the age-grade system in a push for greater village power . Almost all indigenous peoples in Taiwan have traditionally had a custom of sexual division of labor. Women did the sewing, cooking and farming, while the men hunted and prepared for military activity and securing enemy heads in headhunting raids, which was a common practice in early Taiwan. Women were also often found in the office of priestess or medium to the gods.

The European period

During the European period soldiers and traders representing the Dutch East India Company maintained a colony in southwestern Taiwan near present-day Tainan City. This established an Asian base for triangular trade between the company, the Qing Dynasty and Japan, with the hope of interrupting Portuguese and Spanish trading alliances. The Spanish also maintained a colony in northern Taiwan in present-day Keelung. However, Spanish influence wavered almost from the beginning, so that by the late 1630s they had already withdrawn most of their troops . After they were driven out of Taiwan by a combined Dutch and Aboriginal force in 1642, the Spanish “had little effect on Taiwan’s history” . Dutch influence was far more significant: expanding to the southwest and north of the island, they set up a tax system and established schools and churches in many villages.

When the arrived in 1624 at Tayouan Harbor, Siraya-speaking representatives from nearby Saccam village soon appeared at the Dutch stockade to barter and trade; an overture which was readily welcomed by the Dutch. The Sirayan villages were, however, divided into warring factions: the village of Sinckan was at war with Mattau and its ally Baccluan, while the village of maintained uneasy neutrality. In 1629 a Dutch expeditionary force searching for Han pirates, was massacred by warriors from Mattau, and the victory inspired other villages to rebel . In 1635, with reinforcements having arrived from , the Dutch subjugated and burned Mattau. Since Mattau was the most powerful village in the area, the victory brought a spate of peace offerings from other nearby villages, many of which were outside the Siraya area. This was the beginning of Dutch consolidation over large parts of Taiwan, which brought an end to centuries of inter-village warfare . The new period of peace allowed the Dutch to construct schools and churches aimed to acculturate and convert the indigenous population . Dutch schools taught a romanized script , which the Siraya language. This script maintained occasional use through the 18th century . Today only fragments survive, in documents and stone stele markers. The schools also served to maintain alliances and open aboriginal areas for Dutch enterprise and commerce.

The Dutch soon found trade in deerskins and venison in the East Asian market to be a lucrative endeavor , and recruited plains Aborigines to procure the hides. The deer trade attracted the first Han traders to Aboriginal villages, but as early as 1642 the demand for deer greatly diminished the deer stocks. This drop significantly reduced the prosperity of Aboriginal tribes , forcing many Aborigines to take up farming to counter the economic impact of losing their most vital food source.

As the Dutch began subjugating Aboriginal villages in the south and west of Taiwan, increasing numbers of Han immigrants looked to exploit areas that were fertile and rich in game. The Dutch initially encouraged this, since the Han were skilled in agriculture and large-scale hunting. Several Han took up residence in Siraya villages. The Dutch used Han agents to collect taxes, hunting license fees and other income. This set up a society in which “... many of the colonists were Han Chinese but the military and the administrative structures were Dutch” . Despite this, local alliances transcended ethnicity during the Dutch period. For example, the Kuo Huai-i Rebellion in 1652, a Han farmers’ uprising, was defeated by an alliance of 120 Dutch musketeers with the aid of Han loyalists and 600 Aboriginal braves .

The Dutch period ended in 1662 when loyalist forces of Zheng Chenggong drove out the Dutch and established the short-lived on Taiwan. The Zhengs brought 70,000 soldiers to Taiwan and immediately began clearing large tracts of land to support its forces. Despite the preoccupation with fighting the Qing, the Zheng family was concerned with Aboriginal welfare on Taiwan. The Zhengs built alliances, collected taxes and erected Aboriginal schools, where Taiwan’s Aborigines were first introduced to the Confucian Classics and Chinese writing . However, the impact of the Dutch was deeply ingrained in Aboriginal society. In the 19th and 20th century, European explorers wrote of being welcomed as kin by the aborigines who thought they were the Dutch, who had promised to return .

Qing rule

After the Qing government defeated the Ming loyalist forces maintained by the Zheng family in 1683, parts of Taiwan became increasingly integrated into the Qing Empire . Qing forces ruled areas of Taiwan’s highly populated western plain for nearly two centuries, until 1895. This era was characterized by a marked increase in the number of Han Chinese on Taiwan, continued social unrest, the piecemeal transfer of large amounts of land from the aborigines to the Han, and the nearly complete acculturation of the western plains Aborigines to Taiwanese Han customs.

During the Qing Dynasty’s two-century rule over Taiwan, the population of Han on the island increased dramatically. However, it is not clear to what extent this was due to an influx of Han settlers, who were predominantly displaced young men from Zhangzhou and Quanzhou in or from a variety of other factors, including: frequent intermarriage between Han and Aborigines, the replacement of aboriginal marriage and abortion taboos, and the widespread adoption of the Han agricultural lifestyle due to the depletion of traditional game stocks, which may have led to increased birth rates and population growth. Moreover, the acculturation of Aborigines in increased numbers may have intensified the perception of a swell in the number of Han.

The Qing government officially sanctioned controlled Han settlement, but sought to manage tensions between the various regional and ethnic groups. Therefore it often recognized the plains tribes’ claims to deer fields and traditional territory . The Qing authorities hoped to turn the plains tribes into loyal subjects, and adopted the head and corveé taxes on the Aborigines, which made the plains aborigines directly responsible for payment to the government yamen. The attention paid by the Qing authorities to aboriginal land rights was part of a larger administrative goal to maintain a level of peace on the turbulent Taiwan frontier, which was often marred by ethnic and regional conflict. The frequency of rebellions, riots, and civil strife in Qing Dynasty Taiwan is often encapsulated in the saying “every three years an uprising; every five years a rebellion” . Aboriginal participation in a number of major revolts during the Qing era, including the Taokas-led Ta-Chia-hsi revolt of 1731–1732, ensured the plains tribes would remain an important factor in crafting Qing frontier policy until the end of Qing rule in 1895 .

The struggle over land resources was one source of conflict. Large areas of the western plain were subject to large land rents called ''Huan Da Zu'' , a category which remained until the period of Japanese colonization. The large tracts of deer field, guaranteed by the Qing, were owned by the tribes and their individual members. The tribes would commonly offer Han farmers a permanent patent for use, while maintaining ownership of the subsoil , which was called “two lords to a field” . The plains tribes were often cheated out of land or pressured to sell at unfavorable rates. Some disaffected subgroups moved to central or eastern Taiwan, but most remained in their ancestral locations and acculturated or assimilated into Han society .

Migration to Highlands

One popular narrative holds that all of the Gaoshan tribes were originally plains tribes, which fled to the mountains under pressure from Han encroachment. This strong version of the “migration” theory has been largely discounted by contemporary research as the Gaoshan people demonstrate a physiology, material cultures and customs that have been adapted for life at higher elevations. Linguistic, archaeological, and recorded anecdotal evidence also suggests there has been island-wide migration of indigenous peoples for over 3000 years.

Small sub-groups of plains Aborigines may have occasionally fled to the mountains, foothills or eastern plain to escape hostile groups of Han or other Aborigines .
The “displacement scenario” is more likely rooted in the older customs of many plains groups to withdraw into the foothills during headhunting season or when threatened by a neighboring village as observed by the Dutch during their punitive campaign of Mattou in 1636 when the bulk of the village retreated to Tevoraan .
The “displacement scenario” may also stem from the inland migrations of plains aborigine subgroups, who were displaced by either Han or other plains aborigines and chose to move to the Iilan plain in 1804, the Puli basin in 1823 and another Puli migration in 1875. Each migration consisted of a number of families and totaled hundreds of people, not entire tribes . There are also recorded oral histories that recall some Plains aborigines were sometimes captured and killed by highlands tribes while relocating through the mountains . However, as explained in detail, documented evidence shows that the majority of plains people remained on the plains, intermarried immigrants from Fujian, and adopted a Han identity, where they remain today.

Highland tribes

Imperial Chinese and European societies had little contact with the Highland Aborigines until expeditions to the region by European and American explorers and missionaries commenced in the 19th and early 20th centuries . The lack of data before this was primarily the result of a Qing quarantine on the region to the east of the “earth oxen” border, which ran along the eastern edge of the western plain. Han contact with the mountain tribes was usually associated with the enterprise of gathering and extracting camphor from Camphor Laurel trees , native to the island and in particular the mountainous areas. The production and shipment of camphor was then a significant industry on the island, lasting up to and including the period of Japanese rule . These early encounters often involved headhunting parties from the highland tribes, who sought out and raided unprotected Han forest workers. Together with traditional Han concepts of Taiwanese behavior, these raiding incidents helped to promote the Qing-era popular image of the “violent” aborigine .

Plains aborigines were often employed and dispatched as interpreters to assist in the trade of goods between Han merchants and highlands Aborigines. The Aborigines traded cloth, pelts and meat for iron and matchlock rifles. Iron was a necessary material for the fabrication of hunting knives —long, curved sabers that were generally used as a forest tool. These blades became notorious among Han settlers, given their alternative use to decapitate highland tribal enemies in customary headhunting expeditions.

Headhunting

The highland tribes were renowned for their skill in headhunting, which was a symbol of bravery and valor . Almost every tribe except the Yami practiced headhunting. Once the victims had been dispatched the heads were taken then boiled and left to dry, often hanging from trees or shelves constructed for the purpose. A party returning with a head was cause for celebration, as it would bring good luck. The Bunun people would often take prisoners and inscribe prayers or messages to their dead on arrows, then shoot their prisoner with the hope their prayers would be carried to the dead. Han settlers were often the victims of headhunting raids as they were considered by the Aborigines to be liars and enemies. A headhunting raid would often strike at workers in the fields, or employ the ruse of setting a dwelling alight and then decapitating the inhabitants as they fled the burning structure. It was also customary to later raise the victim’s surviving children as full members of the tribe. Often the heads themselves were ceremonially ‘invited’ to join the tribe as members, where they were supposed to watch over the tribe and keep them safe. The indigenous inhabitants of Taiwan accepted the convention and practice of headhunting as one of the calculated risks of tribal life. The last groups to practice headhunting were the Paiwan, Bunun, and Atayal groups . Japanese rule ended the practice by 1930, but some elder Taiwanese can recall the practice .

Japanese rule

When the Treaty of Shimonoseki was finalized on April 17, 1895, Taiwan was ceded by the Qing Empire to Japan, which sought to transform Taiwan into the supply-end of an extremely unequal flow of assets . Taiwan’s incorporation into the Japanese political orbit brought Taiwanese Aborigines into contact with a new colonial structure, determined to define and locate indigenous people within the framework of a new, multi-ethnic empire . The means of accomplishing this goal took three main forms: anthropological study of the natives of Taiwan, attempts to reshape the Aborigines in the mould of the Japanese, and military suppression.

Japan’s sentiment regarding indigenous peoples was crafted around the memory of the Mudan Incident, when, in 1871, a group of shipwrecked Okinawan fishermen was massacred by a Paiwan group from the village of Mudan in southern Taiwan. The resulting Japanese policy, published twenty years before the onset of their rule on Taiwan, cast Taiwanese Aborigines as “vicious, violent and cruel” and concluded “this is a pitfall of the world; we must get rid of them all” . Japanese campaigns to gain aboriginal submission were often brutal, as evidenced in the desire of Japan’s first Governor General, Kabayama Sukenori, to “...conquer the barbarians” . In the Wushe Incident, for example, a Seediq group was decimated by artillery and supplanted by the Taroko tribe, which had sustained periods of bombardment from naval ships and airplanes dropping mustard gas. A quarantine was placed around the mountain areas enforced by armed guard stations and electrified fence until the most remote high mountain villages could be relocated closer to administrative control .

Beginning in the first year of Japanese rule, the colonial government embarked on a mission to study the Aborigines so they could be classified, located and “civilized”. The Japanese “civilizing project”, partially fueled by public demand in Japan to know more about the empire, would be used to benefit the Imperial government by consolidating administrative control over the entire island, opening up vast tracts of land for exploitation . To satisfy these needs, “the Japanese portrayed and catalogued Taiwan’s indigenous peoples in a welter of statistical tables, magazine and newspaper articles, photograph albums for popular consumption” . The Japanese based much of their information and terminology on prior Qing era narratives concerning degrees of “civilization” .

Japanese ethnographer Ino Kanari was charged with the task of surveying the entire population of Taiwanese Aborigines, applying the first systematic study of Aborigines on Taiwan. Ino’s research is best known for his formalization of eight tribes of Taiwanese Aborigines: Atayal, Bunun, Saisiat, Tsou, Paiwan, Puyuma, Ami and Pepo . This is the direct antecedent of the taxonomy used today to distinguish tribes that are officially recognized by the government.

Tribal life under the Japanese changed rapidly as many of the traditional structures were replaced by a military power. Aborigines who wished to improve their status looked to education rather than headhunting as the new form of power. Those who learned to work with the Japanese and follow their customs would be better suited to lead villages. The Japanese encouraged Aborigines to maintain traditional costumes and selected customs that were not considered detrimental to society, but invested much time and money in efforts to eliminate traditions deemed unsavory by Japanese culture, including tattooing . By the mid-1930s as Japan’s empire was reaching its zenith, the colonial government began a political socialization program designed to enforce Japanese customs, rituals and a loyal Japanese identity upon the aborigines. By the end of World War II, Aborigines whose fathers had been killed in pacification campaigns were volunteering to die for the Emperor of Japan . The Japanese colonial experience left an indelible mark on many older aborigines who maintained an admiration for the Japanese long after their departure in 1945 .

Aborigines under the Kuomintang

Japanese rule of Taiwan ended in 1945, following the on September 2 and the subsequent appropriation of the island by Chinese Nationalist Party on October 25. In 1949, on losing the Chinese Civil War to the Communist Party of China, Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek led the Kuomintang in a retreat from Mainland China, withdrawing its government and 1.3 million refugees to Taiwan. The KMT installed an authoritarian form of government, and shortly thereafter inaugurated a number of political socialization programs aimed at nationalizing Taiwanese people as citizens of a Chinese nation and eradicating Japanese influence . The KMT pursued highly centralized political and cultural policies rooted in the party’s decades-long history of fighting warlordism in China and opposing competing concepts of a loose federation following the demise of the imperial Qing . The project was designed to create a strong national Chinese cultural identity at the expense of local cultures .

Taiwanese Aborigines first encountered the Nationalist government in 1946, when the Japanese village schools were replaced by schools of the KMT. Documents from the Education Office show an emphasis on Chinese language, and citizenship — with a curriculum steeped in pro-KMT ideology. Some elements of the curriculum, such as the Wu Feng Legend, are currently considered offensive to Aborigines . Much of the burden of educating the Aborigines was undertaken by unqualified teachers, who could, at best, speak Mandarin and teach basic ideology . In 1951 a major political socialization campaign was launched to change the lifestyle of many aborigines, to adopt Han Chinese customs. A 1953 government report on mountain areas stated that its aims were chiefly to promote Mandarin in order to strengthen a national outlook and create good customs. This was included in the Shandi Pingdi Hua policy to “make the mountains like the plains” . Critics of the KMT’s program for a centralized national culture regard it as institutionalized ethnic discrimination, and point to the loss of several indigenous languages and a perpetuation of shame for being an Aborigine as the direct result of what has been referred to as Han chauvinism.

The pattern of intermarriage continued, as many KMT soldiers married Aboriginal women who were from poorer areas and could be easily bought as wives . Modern studies show a high degree of genetic intermixing. Despite this, many contemporary Taiwanese are unwilling to entertain the idea of having an Aboriginal heritage. In a 1994 study, it was found that 71% of the families surveyed would object to their daughter marrying an Aboriginal man. For much of the KMT era, the official government definition of Aboriginal identity had been 100% Aboriginal parentage, leaving any intermarriage resulting in a non-Aboriginal child. Later the policy was adjusted to the ethnic status of the father determining the status of the child .

Transition to democracy

Authoritarian rule under the Kuomintang ended gradually through a transition to democracy, which was marked by the lifting of martial law in 1987. Soon after, the KMT transitioned to being merely one party within a democratic system, though maintaining a high degree of power in aboriginal districts through an established system of patronage networks . The KMT continued to hold the reins of power for another decade under President Lee Teng-hui. However, they did so as an elected government rather than a dictatorial power. The elected KMT government supported many of the bills that had been promoted by Aboriginal groups. The tenth amendment to the Constitution of the Republic of China also stipulates that the government would protect and preserve aborigine culture and languages and also encourage them to participate in politics.

During the period of political liberalization, which preceded the end of martial law, academic interest in the plains aborigines surged as amateur and professional historians sought to rediscover Taiwan’s past. The opposition tang wai activists seized upon the new image of the plains aborigines as a means to directly challenge the KMT’s official narrative of Taiwan as a historical part of China, and the government’s assertion that Taiwanese were “pure” Han Chinese . Many ''tang wai'' activists framed the plains aboriginal experience in the existing anti-colonialism/victimization Taiwanese nationalist narrative, which positioned the speaking Taiwanese in the role of indigenous people and the victims of successive foreign rulers . By the late 1980s many Hoklo and speaking people began identifying themselves as plains Aborigines, though any initial shift in ethnic consciousness from Hakka or Hoklo people was minor.
Despite the politicized dramatization of the plains aborigines, their “rediscovery” as a matter of public discourse has had a lasting effect on the increased socio-political reconceptualization of Taiwan — emerging from the a Han Chinese dominant perspective into a wider acceptance of Taiwan as a multi-cultural and multi-ethnic community.

In many districts Taiwanese Aborigines tend to vote for the Kuomintang, to the point that the legislative seats allocated to the aborigines are popularly described as ''iron votes'' for the pan-blue coalition. This may seem surprising in light of the focus of the pan-green coalition on promoting aboriginal culture as part of the Taiwanese nationalist discourse against the KMT. However, this voting pattern can be explained on economic grounds, and as part of an inter-ethnic power struggle waged in the electorate. Some Aborigines see the rhetoric of Taiwan nationalism as favoring the majority Hoklo speakers rather than themselves. Aboriginal areas also tend to be poor and their economic vitality tied to the entrenched patronage networks established by the Kuomintang over the course of its fifty-five year reign.

Contemporary Aborigines

The democratic era is a time of great change, both constructive and destructive, for the Aborigines of Taiwan. Since the 1980s, increased political and public attention has been paid to the rights and social issues of the indigenous tribes of Taiwan. Aborigines have realized gains in both the political and economic spheres. Though progress is ongoing, there remains a number of still unrealized goals within the framework of the : “although certainly more ‘equal’ than they were 20, or even 10, years ago, the indigenous inhabitants in Taiwan still remain on the lowest rungs of the legal and socioeconomic ladders” . On the other hand, bright spots are not hard to find. A resurgence in ethnic pride has accompanied the Aboriginal cultural renaissance, which is exemplified by the increased popularity of Aboriginal music and greater public interest in aboriginal culture .

Aboriginal political movement

The movement for indigenous cultural and political resurgence in Taiwan traces its roots to the ideals outlined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights . Although the Republic of China on Taiwan was a UN member and signatory to the original UN Charter, four decades of martial law controlled the discourse of culture and politics on Taiwan. The political liberalization Taiwan experienced leading up to the official end of martial law on July 15, 1987, opened a new public arena for dissenting voices and political movements against the centralized policy of the KMT.

In December 1984, the Taiwan Aboriginal People’s Movement was launched when a group of Aboriginal political activists, aided by the progressive Presbyterian Church in Taiwan , established the Alliance of Taiwan Aborigines to highlight the problems experienced by indigenous communities all over Taiwan, including: prostitution, economic disparity, land rights and official discrimination in the form of naming rights .

In 1988, amid the ATA’s Return Our Land Movement, in which Aborigines demanded the return of lands to the original inhabitants, the ATA sent its first representative to the United Nations Working Group on Indigenous Populations . Following the success in addressing the UN, the “Return Our Land” movement evolved into the Aboriginal Constitution Movement, in which the Aboriginal representatives demanded appropriate wording in the ROC Constitution to ensure indigenous Taiwanese, “dignity and justice” in the form of enhanced legal protection, government assistance to improve living standards in indigenous communities, and the right to identify themselves as “''yuan chu min''” . The KMT government initially opposed the term, due to its implication that other people on Taiwan, including the KMT government, were newcomers and not entitled to the island. The KMT preferred ''hsien chu min'' 先住民 First people, or ''tsao chu min'' 早住民, Early People to evoke a sense of general historical immigration to Taiwan .

To some degree the movement has been successful. Beginning in 1998, the official curriculum in Taiwan schools has been changed to contain more frequent and favorable mention of Aborigines. In 1996 the Council of Indigenous Peoples was promoted to a ministry-level rank within the Executive Yuan. The central government has taken steps to allow romanized spellings of aboriginal names on official documents, offsetting the long held policy of forcing a Han Chinese name on an aborigine. A relaxed policy on identification now allows a child to choose their official designation if they are born to mixed aboriginal/Han parents.

The present political leaders in the Aboriginal community, led mostly by Aboriginal elites born after 1949, have been effective in leveraging their ethnic identity and socio-linguistic acculturation into contemporary Taiwanese society against the political backdrop of a changing Taiwan. This has allowed indigenous people a means to push for greater political space, including the still unrealized prospect of s within Taiwan . Though in recent years the drive by the "ethnic elites" to promote Aboriginal particularity has run in contrast to ordinary Aborigines who wish to assimilate into contemporary social norms.

Aboriginal political representation

Aborigines are currently represented by eight members out of 225 seats in the Legislative Yuan. In 2008, the number of legislative seats was cut in half to 113, of which Taiwanese Aborigines are represented by six members. The tendency of Taiwanese Aborigines to vote for members of the pan-blue coalition, has been cited as having the potential to change the balance of the legislature. Citing these six seats in addition with five seats from smaller counties that also tend to vote pan-blue, has been seen as giving the pan-blue coalition 11 seats before the first vote is counted http://taiwanreview.nat.gov.tw/ct.asp?xItem=24034&CtNode=128

Economic issues

Many indigenous communities did not evenly share in the benefits of the economic boom Taiwan experienced during the last quarter of the 20th century. They often lacked satisfactory educational resources on their reservations, undermining their pursuit of marketable skills. The economic disparity between the village and urban schools resulted in imposing many social barriers on Aborigines, which prevent many from moving beyond vocational training. Students transplanted into urban schools face adversity, including isolation, culture shock, and discrimination from their peers . The cultural impact of poverty and economic marginalization has led to an increase in alcoholism and prostitution among Aborigines .

The economic boom resulted in drawing large numbers of Aborigines out of their villages and into the unskilled or low-skilled sector of the urban workforce . Manufacturing and construction jobs were generally available for low wages. The Aborigines quickly formed bonds with other tribes as they all had similar political motives to protect their collective needs as part of the labor force. The Aborigines became the most skilled iron-workers and construction teams on the island often selected to work on the most difficult projects. The result was a mass exodus of tribal members from their traditional lands and the cultural alienation of young people in the villages, who could not learn their languages or customs while employed. Often, young Aborigines in the cities fell into gangs aligned with the construction trade. Recent laws governing the employment of laborers from Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines has led to an increased atmosphere among urban Aborigines of xenophobia and encouraged the formulation of a pan-indigenous consciousness in the pursuit of political representation and protection .

Parks, tourism and commercialization

Aboriginal groups are seeking to preserve their folkways and languages as well as to return to, or remain on, their traditional lands. Eco-tourism, sewing and selling tribal carvings, jewelry and music has become a viable area of economic opportunity. However, tourism-based commercial development, such as the creation of Taiwan Aboriginal Culture Park, is not a panacea. Although these create new jobs, Aborigines are seldom given management positions. Moreover, some national parks have been built on Aboriginal lands against the wishes of the local tribes, prompting one Taroko activist to label the Taroko National Park as a form of “environmental colonialism” . At times in the past, the creation of national parks has resulted in forced resettlement of the Aborigines .

Due to the close proximity of Aboriginal land to the mountains, many tribes have hoped to cash in on hot spring ventures and hotels, where they offer singing and dancing to add to the ambiance. The Wulai Atayal in particular have been active in this area. Considerable government funding has been allocated to museums and culture centers focusing on Taiwan’s Aboriginal heritage. Critics often call the ventures exploitative and “superficial portrayals” of Aboriginal culture, which distract attention from the real problems of substandard education . Proponents of ethno-tourism suggest that such projects can positively impact the public image and economic prospects of the indigenous community.

Religion

Of the current population of Taiwanese Aborigines, roughly 70% identify themselves as Christian. Moreover, many of the Pingpu groups have mobilized their members around predominantly Christian organizations; most notably the Taiwan Presbyterian Church and various denominations of Catholicism .

Before contact with Christian missionaries during both the Dutch and Qing periods, Taiwanese Aborigines held a variety of beliefs in spirits, gods, sacred symbols and myths that helped their societies find meaning and order. Although there is no evidence of a unified belief system shared among the various indigenous groups, there is evidence that several groups held supernatural beliefs in certain birds and bird behavior. The Siraya were reported by Dutch sources, to incorporate bird imagery into their material culture. Other reports describe animal skulls and the use of human heads in societal beliefs. The Paiwan and other southern groups worship the snake and use the diamond patterns on its back in many tribal designs . In many plains societies, the power to communicate with the supernatural world was exclusively held by women called ''Inibs''. During the period of Dutch colonization, the ''Inibs'' were removed from the villages to eliminate their influence and pave the way for Dutch missionary work .

During the Zheng and Qing eras, Han immigrants brought Confucianized beliefs of Taoism and Buddhism to Taiwan’s indigenous people. Many plains Aborigines adopted Han religious practices, though there is evidence that many Aboriginal customs were transformed into local Taiwanese Han beliefs. In some parts of Taiwan the Siraya spirit of fertility, Ali-zu has become assimilated into the Han . The use of female spirit mediums can also be traced to the earlier matrilineal ''Inibs''.

Although many Aborigines assumed Han religious practices, several sub-groups sought protection from the European missionaries, who had started arriving in the 1860’s. Many of the early Christian converts were displaced Pingpu groups that sought protection from the oppressive Han. The missionaries, under the articles of extraterritoriality, offered a form of power against the Qing establishment and could thus make demands on the government to provide redress for Pingpu complaints . Many of these early congregations have served to maintain Aboriginal identity, language and cultures.

The influence of 19th and 20th Century missionaries has both transformed and maintained Aboriginal integration. Many of the churches have replaced earlier tribal functions, but continue to retain a sense of continuity and community that unites members of Aboriginal societies against the pressures of modernity. Several church leaders have emerged from within the tribes to take on leadership positions in petitioning the government in the interest of indigenous peoples and seeking a balance between the interests of the communities and economic vitality.

Music

A full-time Aboriginal radio station, “Ho-hi-yan”, was launched in 2005 with the help of the Executive Yuan, to focus on issues of interest to the indigenous community. [Listen to ''''; requires Windows Media Player 9]. This came on the heels of a “New wave of Indigenous Pop”, , as Aboriginal artists, such as A-mei , , Pur-dur and Samingad , and Landy Wen became international pop-stars. The rock musician Chang Chen-yue is a member of the tribe. Music has given Aborigines both a sense of pride and a sense of cultural ownership. The issue of ownership was exemplified when the musical project used an Ami chant in their song “Return to Innocence”, which was selected as the official theme of the . The main chorus was sung by Difang and his wife, Igay. The Amis couple successfully sued Enigma’s record label, which had paid royalties to the French museum that held the master recordings of the traditional songs, but the original artists, who had been unaware of the Enigma project, remained uncompensated. The Enigma suit raised serious issues regarding indigenous people’s participation and compensation in the commoditizing of their cultures and traditions .

Ecological issues

The indigenous tribes of Taiwan are closely linked with ecological awareness and issues on the island, as many of the environmental issues are spearheaded by aborigines. Political activism and sizable public protests regarding the logging of the Chilan Formosan Cypress, as well as efforts by an member of the Legislative Yuan, “...focused debate on natural resource management and specifically on the involvement of Aboriginal people therein” . Another high-profile case is the nuclear waste storage facility on Orchid Island, a small tropical island 60 km off the southeast coast of Taiwan. The inhabitants are the 4000 members of the Tao tribe. In the 1970s the island was designated as a possible site to store low and medium grade nuclear waste. The island was selected on the grounds that it would be cheaper to build the necessary infrastructure for storage and it was thought that the population would not cause trouble . Large-scale construction began in 1978 on a site 100 m from the Immorod fishing fields. The Tao tribe alleges that government sources at the time described the site as a ‘factory’ or a ‘fish cannery’, intended to bring “jobs home of the Tao/Yami, one of the least economically integrated areas in Taiwan” . When the facility was completed in 1982, however, it was in fact a storage facility for “97,000 barrels of low-radiation nuclear waste from Taiwan’s three nuclear power plants”. . The Tao have since stood at the forefront of the anti-nuclear movement and launched several exorcisms and protests to remove the waste they claim has resulted in deaths and sickness . The lease on the land has expired, and an alternative site has yet to be selected.

Chinese Mulao People

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The Mulao people are an ethnic group. They form one of the officially recognized by the People's Republic of China. In their name, ''Mulam'', ''mu''⁶ is a classifier for human beings and ''lam''¹ is another form of the name used by the , to whom the Mulam people are ethnically related. A large portion of the Mulam in Guangxi live in Luocheng Mulao Autonomous County of Hechi, Guangxi.

History

It is believed that the Mulam are the descendants of the ancient ''Ling'' and ''Liao'' tribes that inhabited the region during the time of the . During the Yuan dynasty, the Mulam lived in a feudal society and they paid a series of tributes twice a year to the emperor.

During the Qing dynasty, their territories suffered an administrative division; their lands wre divided into ''dongs'', which were composed of units for 10 dwellings. Each ''dong'' had its own local leader, responsible for maintaining the order and of collecting the taxes. Each ''dong'' was generally formed by families that shared the same surname.

Language

The Mulam speak the Mulam language, a language. The Mulam language, like that of the Dong, does not have voiced stops; however, it does contain unvoiced and voiced nasals and laterals. Its vowel system contains eleven vowels. It is a tonal language with ten tones and 65% of their vocabulary is shared with the Zhuang and Dong languages.

Since the Ming dynasty, Chinese characters have been utilized to read and write the Mulam language. The majority of the Mulam also speak Chinese as well as the Zhuang and Dong languages.

Culture

Traditionally, the marriages among the Mulao were arranged by the parents and traditionally, new wives did not live together with their new husbands until the birth of their first son.

Their homes are made out of clay with brick roofs and are composed of three rooms. The animals are maintained far away of the family dwellings.

The traditional clothing of the men consists of a jacket of large buttons, wide pants and sandal. The single women arranged their hair into two tresses that becomes a tuft when they are married.

Religion

Although the religion no longer plays a main role in the daily life, traditionally the Mulao have been mostly animists. Each month they celebrated diverse festivals. The most important one of them was the festival ''Yifan'', where diverse sacrifices of animals were carried out.

Another one of their festivals was the dragon boat festival that was celebrated on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month. During this celebration, the shamans carried out ceremonies to assure good crop harvests and to expel harmful insects.

References

* Ramsey, S. Robert. 1987. The Languages of China. Princeton University Press, Princeton New Jersey ISBN 0-691-06694-9

Chinese Lhoba People

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The Lhoba is currently the smallest officially recognized in China. They are divided between the Yidu , which is classified as one of the three sub-tribes of the Mishmi, and the Boga'er , a sub-tribe of the . Both groups, also found in the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, collectively form a population of around 10,500. The term "Lhoba", however, is only limited to these groups living on the Chinese side of the Indo-Chinese border.

The Lhoba live in southeastern Tibet, notably in Mainling, Medog, Lhunze and Nangxian counties of Nyingchi Prefecture in southeastern Tibet. Additionally, a small number live in Luoyu, southern Tibet. Many more live in south of the Tibetan border in Dibang Valley in Arunachal Pradesh, where they engage in traditional agriculture and hunting. Until the , the Lhoba had no written language. Even though a romanized alphabet was developed for them, there are many elderly Lhoba who can neither read or even count. The occupation of Tibet also brought many changes to traditional Lhoba culture. Most significantly, it helped to integrate the Lhoba with the dominant Tibetan culture and began to put an end to the rigid class system, by which the Lhoba were divided into two distinct castes – aristocrat and peasant – which were not allowed to intermix.

Customs and dress

Many customs, habits and dress of different clan members may vary. The Lhoba men in Luoyu wear knee-length black jackets without sleeves and buttons made out of sheep's wool. They wear helmet-like hats either made from bearskin or woven from bamboo stripes or rattan laced with bearskin. They also wear ornaments that include earrings, necklaces made of beads, and bamboo plugs inserted into the ear lobe. The Lhoba women wear narrow-sleeved blouses and skirts of sheep's wool. The weight of the ornaments the womenfolk wear is a symbol of their wealth, which includes shells, silver coins, iron chains bells, silver and brass earrings. Both sexes usually go barefooted. Their dress are quite similar to the Tibetan costume. The Idu men wear a sword and waterproof cane helmet, and a chignon on their hair and shields made of buffalo hide. Yidu weaponry includes straight Tibetan sword, dagger, bow and poisoned arrows.

Among the Yidu Lhoba , one of the sub-tribe is the Bebejia Mishmi. Female members of Bebejia Mishmi are expert weavers and make excellent coats and blouses.

The Idu houses are divided into a number of rooms for use of every married person. Unmarried girls and boys sleep in separate rooms. A fireplace occupies the centre of the room, round which the inmates sleep. The Idus are polygamous and each wife has their own rooms in the house. The family is organised in patriarchal principles. Inheritance of widows are exceptional as compared to a mother.

The wooden pillow of the master of the house is considered taboo to the inmates of the house as it is considered improper to sit upon it. Guests are not allowed to enter the room of the master of the house. The animal skulls preserved in the house are considered to be sacred.

The slash and burn method of cultivation, known as Jhum, is the main stay of the Idus, and clearing of land is carried for every three to five years. The important crops they raised are paddy, arum, tapioca, millet and maize. Rice is the staple food supplemented by millet maize and tapioca. They also take leafy vegetables, beans, gourd, sweet potato etc. Animal flesh is considered taboo to Idu woman. The Yidu also consume "Yu", a locally brewed rice beer, and rice beer prepared by a woman during her period is taboo to a priest.

The Idu calendar was based upon the menstrual period of the women and dating is done by untying one each from a number of knots put on a piece of string. Traditional village panchayat settles all internal disputes among the tribe.

Culture and religion

Few Lhoba know the Tibetan language. In the past, when there was no writing, the Lhobas kept track of history through telling their descendants and tying knot codes about their past. Their literature also poses a significant influence on their Tibetan counterparts.

They engage in barter trade in the Tibetan, trading goods like animal hides, musk, bear paws, dye and captured game for farm tools, salt, wool, clothing, grain and tea from Tibetan traders. As a result of constant trading with the , they have been increasingly influenced by the Tibetans in their dress. Many Lhobas have converted to Tibetan Buddhism in the recent years as they traded in the monasteries, thus frequently mixing with their indigenous Animist beliefs, which had traditionally deep roots in the tiger. Others remain Animistic, more commonly among those in Arunachal Pradesh, and their pilgrim centre of the community lies at Atho-Popu in Dibang valley. The stories about immigration mentioned is along the banks of twelve rivers in Dibang Valley, the clustered area known as Cheithu-Huluni. Among the Yidu, they traditionally believed that "Inni" is their supreme god.

Festivals such as Reh are celebrated to control the peace and prosperity of the people. This is meant to appease the deities, who were traditionally believed to control the peace and prosperity of the people, which is the thought behind the celebration of the Reh festival. The celebration with great fan-fare and the performance of priest dance marks the ending of the festival.

There are four variants of funerals among the Yidu Lhoba , and people of different social status would choose to conduct either of the four different variants. In all variants, the ''Igu'' priest would recite mourning songs for the dead. Mithuns are being sacrificed in the ''Yah'' variant of the funeral, which lasts for three to four days.

The young boys are trained to hunt at an early age. However, women had low status in society and had no inheritance rights from their husbands or fathers. The Lhoba also enjoy a subtropical/warm temperate climate.

Cuisine

Lhoba cuisine varies across regions. Staple foods are dumplings made of maize or millet flour, rice or buckwheat. In places near Tibetan communities people have tsampa, potatoes, buttered tea and spicy food. Being heavy drinkers and smokers, at celebrations the Lhobas enjoy wine and singing to observe good harvests and good luck. The buttered tea is their favourite drink. However, due to the lack of salt, they had suffered endemic , caused by poor living conditions. Many were either born deaf or mute. Their population went down in decline until recent years due to this disease. Due to their low population, many of them either intermarried with the Tibetans or with the tribal groups of Arunachal Pradesh, notably the Monpa.

History

The area which the modern Lhoba lived today was known as Luoyu in medieval texts. Luoyu came under the control of Tibet from the 7th century onwards and came under frequent subjugation from the Tibetans.

Since the coming of liberation , followed by the Tibetan rebellion in 1959, the Chinese government has significantly improved their living condition. Since then, they were treated as equals by society. Now they are well represented in government at regional, county, district and township levels. Production was boosted and people's living standards and general health improved with loans and relief extended by the government. Previously were serfs, the Lhoba received land, farm implements and draught animals.

Notes

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Chinese Nanai People

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The Nanai people are a Tungusic people of the Far East, who have traditionally lived along Heilongjiang , and Ussuri rivers on the Middle Amur Basin. The ancestors of the Nanais were the Jurchens of northernmost Manchuria.

The belongs to the .

Culture

The traditional clothing was made out of fish skins. These skins were left to dry. Once dry, they were struck repeatedly with a mallet to leave them completely smooth. Finally they were sewn together. The fish chosen to be used were those weighing more than 50 kilograms.

Nanais in Russia

In Russia the Nanais live on the Sea of Okhotsk, on the Amur River, downstream from Khabarovsk, on both sides of Komsomolsk-on-Amur, as well as on the banks of the and the rivers . The Russians formerly called them Goldi, after a Nanai clan name. According to the 2002 census, there were 12,160 Nanais in Russia.

In the Soviet Union, a written standard of the Nanai language was created by Valentin Avrorin and others. It is still taught today in 13 schools in Khabarovsk.

Nanais in China

The Nanais are one of the officially recognized by the People's Republic of China where they are known as "Hezhe" . During the Manchukuo period, the Nanais were practically wiped out in China by the Japanese. They had been confined to prisoner camps and in 1949 they numbered about 300 in China. According to the last census of 2004, they numbered 4,640 in China . Chinese Nanais speak the Hezhen dialect of . They also have a rich oral literature known as the Yimakan. The dialect does not have a written system in China and Nanais usually write in Chinese. However as of 2005 teachers have recently finished compiling probably the first Hezhe language textbook.

Religion

The Nanais are mainly Shamanist, with a great reverence for the bear. They consider that the shamans have the power to expel bad spirits by means of prayers to the gods. During the centuries they have been worshipers of the spirits of the sun, the moon, the mountains, the water and the trees. According to their beliefs, the land was once flat until great serpents gouged out the river valleys. They consider that all the things of the universe possess their own spirit and that these spirits wander independently throughout the world. In the Nanai religion, inanimate objects were often personified. Fire, for example, was personified as an elderly woman whom the Nanai referred to as Fadzya Mama. Young children were not allowed to run up to the fire, since they might startle Fadzya Mama, and men always were courteous in the presence of a fire.

Nanai shamans, like other Tungusic peoples of the region, had characteristic clothing, consisting of a skirt and jacket; a leather belt with conical metal pendants; mittens with figures of serpents, lizards or frogs; and hats with branching horns or bear, wolf, or fox fur attached to it. Bits of Chinese mirrors were also sometimes incorporated into the costume.

The deceased were normally buried in the ground with the exception of children who died prior to the first birthday; in this case the child's body was wrapped in a cloth or birchbark covering and buried in the tree branches as a "wind burial". Many Nanai are also Tibetan Buddhist.

Famous Nanais

*Japanese director Akira Kurosawa's 1975 film Dersu Uzala, based on a book by Russian explorer Vladimir Arsenyev, describes the friendship of a pre-revolution Russian military officer and a Nanai man named Dersu Uzala.
*Nanai female shaman Tchotghtguerele Chalchin performed an incantation recorded in Siberia for the song "The Lighthouse" on French producer Hector Zazou's 1994 album ''Chansons des mers froides'' . Lead vocals were performed by Siouxsie Sioux and background music included performances by the Sakharine Percussion Group and the Sissimut Dance Drummers.
*Kola Beldy was a popular singer in Soviet Union and Russia, particularly known for his rendition of "Увезу тебя я в тундру" .
*Han Geng is a member of Korean boy band Super Junior.

Endonyms

Own names in the , , and .

Encyclopedia Britannica on ''Golds''

:In physique they are typically Mongolic. Like the they wear a pigtail, and from them, too, have learnt the art of silk embroidery. The Golds live almost entirely on fish, and are excellent boatmen. They keep large herds of swine and dogs, which live, like themselves, on fish. Geese, wild duck, eagles, bears, wolves and foxes are also kept in menageries. There is much reverence paid to the eagles, and hence the Manchus call the Golds "Eaglets". Their religion is Shamanism.

Autonomous Areas designated for Nanai

External links

* by Tatyana Sem

Chinese Tatars People

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Tatars , sometimes spelled Tartar, are a -speaking ethnic group or multiple ethnic groups. For more about the etymology and usage of the name, see .

Most current day Tatars live all over Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Moldova, Lithuania, Belarus, Bulgaria, China, Kazakhstan, Romania, Turkey, and Uzbekistan. They collectively numbered more than 10 million in the late 20th century.

The original Ta-ta inhabited the north-eastern Gobi in the 5th century and, after subjugation in the 9th century by the , migrated southward. In the 12th century, they were subjugated by the Mongol Empire under Genghis Khan. Under the leadership of his grandson Batu Khan, they moved westwards, driving with them many stems of the ans towards the plains of Russia.

In Europe, they were assimilated by the local Turkic populations or their name spread to the conquered peoples: Kipchaks, Volga Bulgars, Alans, Kimaks and others; and elsewhere with speaking peoples, as well as with remnants of the ancient Greek colonies in the Crimea and Caucasians in the Caucasus.

Tatars of Siberia are survivors of the population of the - region, mixed to some extent with the speakers of Uralic languages, as well as with Mongols. Later, each group adopted Turkic languages and many adopted Islam. At the beginning of 20th century, most of those groups, except the Volga Tatars and Crimean Tatars adopted their own ethnic names and now are not referred to as Tatars, being ''Tatars'' or ''Tartars'' only in historical context. Now the name ''Tatars'' is generally applied to two ethnic groups: Volga Tatars and Crimean Tatars. However, some indigenous peoples of Siberia are also traditionally named ''Tatars'', such as Chulym Tatars.

The present Tatar inhabitants of Eurasia form three large groups:
* those of Crimea, Bulgaria, European Russia and Western Siberia, Lithuania, Moldova, Belarus, Poland, Romania and Turkey.
* those of the Caucasus ,
* and those of Eastern Siberia .

Due to the vast movements and intermingling of peoples along with the very loose utilization of the name Tatar, current day Tatars comprise a spectrum of physical appearance. As to the original Tatars from Mongolia, they most likely shared characteristics with the Turkic invaders from Central Asia.

Name

The name "Tatar" initially appeared amongst the nomadic Turkic peoples of northeastern Mongolia in the region around Lake Baikal in the beginning of the 5th century. the Greek name for the underworld; this belief led to the frequent spelling and pronunciation of the name with an extra "r", to conform with the classical Greek word. However, this provenance is unlikely since the Tatars use this name for themselves, spelling it without ''r'' .

Historically, the term Tatar has been ambiguously used by Europeans to refer to many different peoples of and . For example, the Russians referred to various peoples they came into contact with on the Eurasian steppes as Tatars yet the and generally referred to the Manchu and related peoples as Tatars when they first arrived in China. The old language designation is now regarded as , although the meaning is preserved in the name of the Strait of Tartary that separates the island of Sakhalin from mainland Asia. Today, the word is generally confined to meaning one of the following:

Historical meaning of ''Tatars''

* Ta-ta Mongols
* multi-ethnical population of Mongol Empire
* of late Golden Horde
* Turkic Muslim population and some pagan Turkic and Mongolian peoples in the Russian Empire
* Russian term for some peoples, incorporated into the Muslim nation of Russia in the late 19th century
* Some ethnic groups in the Soviet Union after the policy of Furkinland, such as the Volga Tatars , Crimean Tatars, Chulym Tatars, and groups such as the Lipka Tatars .

Tatars

The discrimination of the separate stems included under the name is still far from complete. The following subdivisions, however, may be regarded as established:

Tatars - ''Tatarlar'' or ''Татарлар''. In modern English only ''Tatar'' is used to refer to Eurasian Tatars; ''Tartar'' has offensive connotations as a confusion with the Tartarus of Greek mythology, due in part to the popular association of the ferocity of the Mongol tribes with the Greek sub-underworld. In Europe the term ''Tartar'' is generally only used in the historical context for ''Mongolian'' people who appeared in the 13th century and assimilated into the local population later.

Volga Tatars

Volga Tatars live in the central and eastern parts of european Russia and in western Siberia. In today's Russia the term Tatars is used to describe Volga Tatars only. During the census of 2002, Tatars, or Volga Tatars, were officially divided into common Tatars, Astrakhan Tatars, Keräşen Tatars, and Siberian Tatars. Other ethnic groups, such as Crimean Tatars and Chulyms, were not officially recognized as a part of the multi-ethnic Tatar group and were counted separately.Anthropologically 38,2% of Volga Tatars belongs to Southern Caucasoid, 22,9% to Lapponoid, 19,5% to Mongoloid and 19,4% to Northern Caucasoid.

Kazan Tatars

During the 11-16th centuries, most tribes lived in what is now Russia and Kazakhstan. The present territory of Tatarstan was inhabited by the who settled on the Volga in the 8th century and converted to Islam in 922 during the missionary work of Ahmad ibn Fadlan. On the Volga, the Bulgars mingled with Scythian and Finno-Ugric speaking peoples. After the , Bulgaria was defeated, ruined and incorporated in the Golden Horde. Much of the population survived, and there was a certain degree of mixing between it and the Kipchak Tatars of the Horde during the ensuing period. The group as a whole accepted the ethnonym "Tatars" and the language of the Kipchaks; on the other hand, the invaders eventually converted to Islam. As the Horde disintegrated in the 15th century, the area became the territory of the Kazan khanate, which was in the 16th century.

There is some debate among scholars about the extent of that mixing and the "share" of each group as progenitors of the modern Kazan Tatars. It is relatively accepted that demographically, most of the population was directly descended from the Bulgars. Nevertheless, some emphasize the contribution of the Kipchaks on the basis of the ethnonym and the language, and consider that the modern Tatar ethnogenesis was only completed upon their arrival. Others prefer to stress the Bulgar heritage, sometimes to degree of equating modern Kazan Tatars with Bulgars. They argue that although the Volga Bulgars had not kept their language and their name, their old culture and religion - Islam - have been preserved. According to scholars who espouse this view, there was very little mixing with Mongol and Turkic aliens after the conquest of Volga Bulgaria, especially in the northern regions that ultimately became Tatarstan. Some voices even advocate the change of the ethnonym from "Tatars" to "Bulgars" - a movement known as Bulgarism.

In the 1910s they numbered about half a million in the Kazan Governorate , about 400,000 in each of the governments of Ufa, 100,000 in and Simbirsk, and about 30,000 in Vyatka, Saratov, Tambov, Penza, Nizhny Novgorod, Perm and Orenburg. Some 15,000 belonging to the same stem had migrated to Ryazan, or had been settled as prisoners in the 16th and 17th centuries in Lithuania . Some 2000 resided in , where they were mostly employed as coachmen and waiters in restaurants. In Poland they constituted 1% of the population of the district of P&. Later they wer never counted as separate group of the Tatars.

The Kazan Tatars speak a language . They have been described as generally middle-sized, broad-shouldered, and the majority have brown and green eyes, a straight nose and salient cheek bones. Because their ancestors number not only Turkic peoples, but Finno-Ugric and as well, many Kazan Tatars tend to have Caucasoid faces. Around 33.5% belong to Southern Caucasoid, 27.5% to Northern Caucasoid, 24.5% to Lapponoid and 14.5% to Mongoloid . Most Kazan Tatars practice Sunni Islam.

Before 1917 in Russia, polygamy was practised only by the wealthier classes and was a waning institution. The Bashkirs who live between the and speak the Bashkir language, which is similar to Tatar, and have converted to Sunni Islam.

Because it is understandable to all groups of Russian Tatars, as well as to the Chuvash and Bashkirs, the language of the Volga Tatars became a literary one in the 15th century . . The old literary language included a lot of Arabic and Persian words. Nowadays the literary language includes European and Russian words instead of Arabic.

Volga Tatars number nearly 8 millions, mostly in Russia and the republics of the former Soviet Union. While the bulk of the population is to be found in Tatarstan and neighbouring regions, significant numbers of Kazan Tatars live in Central Asia, Siberia and the Caucasus. Outside of Tatarstan, urban Tatars usually speak as their first language and other languages in a worldwide diaspora.

A significant number of Tatars emigrated during the Russian Civil War, mostly to Turkey and Harbin, China, but resettled to European countries later. Some of them speak Turkish at home. , there are still 51,000 Tatars living in Xinjiang province .

See also: Tatar language

Noqrat Tatars

Tatars live in Russia's Kirov Oblast.

Perm Tatars

Tatars live in Russia's Perm Krai. Some of them also have an admixture of blood.

Keräşen Tatars

Some Tatars were forcibly Christianized by during the 16th century and later in the 18th century.

Some scientists suppose that Suars were ancestors of the Keräşen Tatars, and they had been converted to Christianity by Armenians in the 6th century, while they lived in the Caucasus. Suars, like other tribes became Volga Bulgars and later the modern Chuvash and Tatars .

Keräşen Tatars live all over Tatarstan. Now they tend to be assimilated among Russians, Chuvash and Tatars with Sunni Muslim self-identification. Eighty years of ic Soviet rule made Tatars of both confessions not as religious as they were. As such, differences between Tatars and Keräşen Tatars now is only that Keräşens have Russian names.

Some Turkic tribes in Golden Horde were converted to Christianity in the 13th and 14th centuries . Some prayers, written in that time in the ''Codex Cumanicus'', sound like modern Keräşen prayers, but there is no information about the connection between Christian Kumans and modern Keräşens.

Nağaybäks

Tatars who became Cossacks and converted to Russian Orthodoxy. They live in the Urals, the Russian border with Kazakhstan during the 17th-18th century.

The biggest Nağaybäk village is Parizh, Russia, named after French capital Paris, due Nağaybäk's participation in Napoleonic wars.

Tiptär Tatars

Like Noğaybaqs, although they are Sunni Muslims. Some Tiptär Tatars speak Russian or . According to some scientists, Tiptärs are part of the Mişärs.

Tatar language dialects

There are 3 dialects: Eastern, Central, Western.

The Western dialect is spoken mostly by Mishärs, the Middle dialect is spoken by Kazan and Astrakhan Tatars, and the Eastern dialect is spoken by some groups of Tatars in western Siberia.

Middle Tatar is the base of literary Tatar Language. The Middle dialect also has subdivisions.

Mişär Tatars

Mişär Tatars are a group of Tatars speaking a dialect of the Tatar language. They are descendants of Kipchaks in the Middle Oka River area and Meschiora where they mixed with the local Finno-Ugric tribes. Nowadays they live in , , , Nizhegorodskaya oblasts of Russia and in Bashkortostan and Mordovia. They lived near and along the Volga River, in Tatarstan.

Qasím Tatars

The Western Tatars have their capital in the town of Qasím in Ryazan Oblast, with a Tatar population of 500. See "Qasim Khanate" for their history.

Astrakhan Tatars

The Astrakhan Tatars are a group of Tatars, descendants of the Astrakhan Khanate's agricultural population, who live mostly in Astrakhan Oblast. For the 2000 Russian census 2000, most Astrakhan Tatars declared themselves simply as Tatars and few declared themselves as Astrakhan Tatars. A large number of Volga Tatars live in Astrakhan Oblast and differences between them have been disappearing.

The Astrakhan Tatars are further divided into the Kundrov Tatars and the Karagash Tatars. The latter are also at times called the Karashi Tatars.

Text from Britannica 1911:
:The Astrakhan Tatars number about 10,000 and are, with the Kalmyks, all that now remains of the once so powerful Astrakhan empire. They also are agriculturists and gardeners; while some 12,000 Kundrovsk Tatars still continue the nomadic life of their ancestors.

While Astrakhan Tatar is a mixed dialect, around 43,000 have assimilated to the Middle dialect. Their ancestors are Khazars, Kipchaks and some Volga Bulgars.

The Astrakhan Tatars also assimilated the Agrzhan.

Volga Tatars in the world

Places where Volga Tatars live include:
* and Upper Kama 15th century - colonization, 16th - 17th century - re-settled by Russians, 17th - 19th century - exploring of Ural, working in the plants
* West Siberia : 16th - from Russian repressions after conquering of Khanate of Kazan by Russians, 17th - 19th century - exploring of West Siberia, end of 19th - first half of 20th - industrialization, railways constructing, 1930s - Stalin's repressions, 1970s - 1990s oil workers
* Moscow : Tatar feudals in the service of Russia, tradesmen, since 18th - Saint-Petersburg
* Kazakhstan : 18th – 19th centuries - Russian army officers and soldiers, 1930s – industrialization, since 1950s - settlers on virgin lands - re-emigration in 1990s
* Finland : - 19th - from a group of some 20 villages in the Sergach region on the Volga River. See Finnish Tatars.
* Central Asia - 19th Russian officers and soldiers, tradesmen, religious emigrants, 1920-1930s - industrialization, Soviet education program for Central Asia peoples, 1948, 1960 - help for Ashgabat and Tashkent ruined by earthquakes - re-emigration in 1980s
* Caucasus, especially Azerbaijan - oil workers , bread tradesmen
* Northern China - railway builders - re-emigrated in 1950s
* East Siberia - resettled farmers , railroad builders , exiled by the Soviet government in 1930s
* Germany and Austria - 1914, 1941 - prisoners of war, 1990s - emigration
* Turkey, Japan, Iran, China, Egypt - emigration
* UK, USA, Australia, Canada, Argentina, Mexico - re-emigration from Germany, Turkey, Japan, China and others. 1950s - prisoners of war from Germany, which did not go back to the USSR, 1990s - emigration after the break up of USSR
* Sakhalin, Kaliningrad, Belarus, Ukraine, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Karelia - after 1944-45 builders, Soviet military personnel
* Murmansk Oblast, Khabarovsk Krai, Northern Poland and Northern Germany - Soviet military personnel
* Israel - wives or husbands of Jews

Tatars of East Europe

Crimean Tatars

The Crimean Tatars constituted the Crimean Khanate which was annexed by Russia in 1783. The war of 1853 and the laws of 1860-63 and 1874 caused an exodus of the Crimean Tatars.

Those of the south coast, mixed with Scyth, Greeks and Italians, were well known for their skill in gardening, their honesty, and their work habits, as well as for their fine features. The mountain Tatars closely resemble those of Caucasus, while those of the steppes - the Nogais - are decidedly of a mixed origin with Turks and Mongols.

During World War II, the entire Tatar population in Crimea fell victims to Stalin's oppressive policies. In 1944 they were accused of being Nazi collaborators and deported en masse to Central Asia and other lands of the Soviet Union. Many died of disease and malnutrition. Since the 1980s late, about 250,000 Crimean Tatars have returned to their homeland in the Crimea .

Lithuanian Tatars

After Tokhtamysh was defeated by Tamerlane, some of his clan sought refuge in Grand Duchy of Lithuania. They were given land and nobility in return for military service and were known as Lipka Tatars. They are known to have taken part in the Battle of Grunwald.

Another group appeared in Jagoldai Duchy near modern Kursk in 1437 and disappeared later.

Belarusian Tatars

Islam spread in Belarus from the 14th to the 16th century. The process was encouraged by the Lithuanian princes, who invited Tatar Muslims from the Crimea and the Golden Horde as guards of state borders. Already in the 14th century the Tatars had been offered a settled way of life, state posts and service positions. By the end of the 16th century over 100,000 Tatars settled in Belarus and Lithuania, including those hired to government service, those who moved there voluntarily, prisoners of war, etc.

Tatars in Belarus generally follow Sunni Hanafi Islam. Some groups have accepted Christianity and been assimilated, but most adhere to Muslim religious traditions, which ensures their definite endogamy and preservation of ethnic features. Interethnic marriages with representatives of Belarusian, Polish, Lithuanian, Russian nationalities are not rare, but do not result in total assimilation.

Originating from different ethnic associations, Belarusian Tatars back in ancient days lost their native language and adopted Belarusian, Polish and Russian. However, the liturgy is conducted in the Arabic language, which is known by the clergymen. There are an estimated 20,000 Tatars in Belarus.

Polish Tatars

:''Main articles: Lipka Tatars and Islam in Poland''

From the 13th to 17th centuries various groups of Tatars settled and/or found refuge within the Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth.
This was promoted especially by the Grand Dukes of Lithuania, because of their deserved reputation as skilled warriors. The Tatar settlers were all granted with szlachta status, a tradition that was preserved until the end of the Commonwealth in the 18th century. They included the Lipka Tatars as well as Crimean and Tatars , all of which were noticeable in Polish military history, as well as Volga Tatars . They all mostly settled in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, lands that are now in Lithuania and Belarus.

Various estimates of the number of Tatars in the Commonwealth in the 17th century range from 15,000 persons to 60 villages with mosques. Numerous royal privileges, as well as internal autonomy granted by the monarchs allowed the Tatars to preserve their religion, traditions and culture over the centuries. The Tatars were allowed to intermarry with Christians, a thing uncommon in Europe at the time. The May Constitution of 1791 gave the Tatars representation in the Polish Sejm.

Although by the 18th century the Tatars adopted the local language, the Islamic religion and many Tatar traditions were preserved. This led to formation of a distinctive Muslim culture, in which the elements of Muslim orthodoxy mixed with religious tolerance and a relatively liberal society. For instance, the women in Lipka Tatar society traditionally had the same rights and status as men, and could attend non-segregated schools.

About 5,500 Tatars lived within the inter-war boundaries of Poland , and a Tatar cavalry unit had fought for the country's independence. The Tatars had preserved their cultural identity and sustained a number of Tatar organisations, including a Tatar archives, and a museum in Wilno .

The Tatars suffered serious losses during World War II and furthermore, after the border change in 1945 a large part of them found themselves in the Soviet Union. It is estimated that about 3000 Tatars live in present-day Poland, of which about 500 declared Tatar nationality in the 2002 census. There are two Tatar villages in the north-east of present-day Poland, as well as urban Tatar communities in Warsaw, Gdańsk, Bia&, and Gorzów Wielkopolski. Tatars in Poland sometimes have a Muslim surname with a Polish ending: ''Ryzwanowicz, Jakubowicz''.

The Tatars were relatively very noticeable in the Commonwealth military as well as in Polish and Lithuanian political and intellectual life for such a small community. In modern-day Poland, their presence is also widely known, due in part to their noticeable role in the historical novels of Henryk Sienkiewicz, which are universally recognized in Poland. A number of Polish intellectual figures have also been Tatars, e.g. the prominent historian Jerzy Łojek.

A small community of Polish speaking Tatars settled in Brooklyn, New York City in the early 1900s. They established a mosque that is still in use today.

Dobruja Tatars

In Dobruja, Romania, there is today a community of about 25,000 Crimean Tatars, which were colonized there by the Ottoman Empire beginning with the 17'th Century

Caucasian Tatars

These are Tatars who inhabit the upper , the steppes of the lower and the Kura, and the Araks. In the 19th century they numbered about 1,350,000. This number includes a number of Tatar oil workers who came to the Caucasus from the Middle Volga in the end of the 19th century.

Now this term is used to describe Tatars, settled in Caucasus. Other explanations, like followers, can be found only in historical context.

Nogais on the Kuma

The on the show traces of a mixture with Kalmyks. They are nomads, supporting themselves by cattle-breeding and fishing; a few are agriculturists.

Today Nogais is an independent ethnos, living in the North of Dagestan, where they lived after Nogai Horde's defeating in was against Russia and settling Kalmyks in their lands in 17th century. Nogais was replaced to ''Black Lands'' in the North of Daghestan. Another part merged with Kazakhs.

In 16th century Nogais supported Crimean Khanate and Ottoman Empire, but sometimes robbed Crimean, Tatar and Bashkir lands, although their rulers supported them. In 16th-17th century some defensive walls was constructed in modern Tatarstan and Samara Oblast.

One of the Tatar national heroes, S&, was Nogai.

Qundra Tatars

Some groups of Nogais emigrated to Middle Volga, where were assimilated by Volga Tatars .

Karachays

The Karachays who number 18,500 in the upper valleys about Elburz live by agriculture.

Today Karachays are the independent ethnos, one of the main nation in Karachay-Cherkessia.

Siberian Tatars

The Siberian Tatars were estimated at 80,000 of Turkic stock, and about 40,000 had Uralic or Ugric ancestry. They occupy three distinct regions—a strip running west to east from Tobolsk to Tomsk—the and its spurs—and South Yeniseisk. They originated in the agglomerations of Turkic stems that, in the region north of the Altay, reached some degree of culture between the 4th and the 5th centuries, but were subdued and enslaved by the Mongols.

Baraba Tatars

Sometimes Siberian Tatars refers only to Baraba Tatar, as a part of Tatar nation, a Muslim people that speak dialects of Tatar language, but not another.

The Baraba Tatars take their name from one of their stems and number about 50,000 in the government of Tobolsk and about 5000 in Tomsk. After a strenuous resistance to Russian conquest, and much suffering at a later period from Kyrgyz and Kalmyk raids, they now live by agriculture—either in separate villages or along with Russians.

After colonisation of Siberia by Russian and Volga Tatars, Baraba Tatars used to call themselves ''people of Tomsk'', later ''Moslems'', and came to call themselves ''Tatars'' only in 20th century.

Chulym Tatars

The Chulym, or Cholym Tatars live on the , and both of the rivers . They speak a Turkic language with many Mongol and Yakut words and are more like Mongols than . In the 19th century they paid a tribute for 2550 arbaletes, but they now are rapidly becoming fused with Russians.

See: Chulym language

Abakan Tatars

The occupied the steppes on the and in the 17th century, after the withdrawal of the Kyrgyz, and represent a mixture with Kaibals and Beltirs—also of origin. Their language is also mixed. They are known under the name of Sagais, who numbered 11,720 in 1864, and are the purer Turkic stem of the Minusinsk Tatars, Kaibals, and . Formerly shamanists, they now are, nominally at least, adherents of the Russian Orthodox Church and support themselves mostly by cattle-breeding. Agriculture is spreading, but slowly, among them. They still prefer to plunder the stores of bulbs of ''Lilium martagon, Paeonia'', and ''Erythronium dens-canis'' laid up by the steppe mouse . The , of the Sayan mountains , who are mixed with ; the Uryankhes of north-west Mongolia, who are of Turkic origin but follow Buddhism; and the Karagasses, also of Turkic origin and much like the Kyrgyz, but reduced now to a few hundreds, are akin to the above.

Today ''Abakan Tatars'' of ''Kirghiz'' terms are extinct, used own names only.

See more: Khakass, Tuvans,

Northern Altay Tatars

The Tatars of the northern slopes of the are of Finnish origin. They comprise some hundreds of Kumandintses, the Lebed Tatars, the Chernevyie or Black-Forest Tatars and the Shors , descendants of the Kuznetsk or Iron-Smith Tatars. They are chiefly hunters, passionately loving their taiga, or wild forests, and have maintained their shaman religion and tribal organization into suoks. They also live partly on pine nuts and honey collected in the forests. Their traditional dress is that of their former rulers, the Kalmucks, and their language contains many Mongol words.

Altayans

The Altay Tatars, or ''Altayans'', comprise
* the ''Mountain Kalmyks'' , to whom this name has been given by mistake, and who have nothing in common with the Kalmyks except their dress and mode of life. They speak a Turkic dialect.
* the ''Teleutes'', or ''Telenghites'' , a remainder of a formerly numerous and warlike nation, who have migrated from the mountains to the lowlands where they now live along with Russian peasants.

Term ''Tatars'' is extinct for this peoples.

Although Turkestan and Central Asia were formerly known as Independent Tartary, it is not now usual to call the Sarts, Kyrgyz and other inhabitants of those countries Tatars, nor is the name usually given to the Yakuts of Eastern Siberia.

Generic meaning

The name Tatars was originally applied to both the Turkic and Mongol tribes which invaded Europe six centuries ago, and gradually extended to the Turkic tribes mixed with Mongolian or Uralic-speaking peoples in Siberia. It is used at present in two senses:
* Quite loosely, to designate any of the Muslim tribes whose ancestors may have spoken Uralic or Altaic languages. Thus some writers talk of the Manchu Tatars.
* In a more restricted sense, to designate Muslim Turkic-speaking tribes, especially in Russia, who never formed part of the Seljuk or Ottoman Empire, but made independent settlements and remained more or less cut off from the politics and civilization of the rest of the Islamic world.

* Linguistically, Tatars are closely related to the Bashkirs and other Turkic peoples. Tatars are the direct descendants of the Volga Bulgars. Volga Bulgars were a mixed people, whose ancestors may have included speakers of Scythian, Turkic and Finno-Ugric languages. . After coming to the Middle Volga, Bulgars mixed with Finno-Ugric speaking tribes.
* Bashkirs speak a language very similar to Tatar language. Nowadays, Bashkortostan's officials pursue a policy of forced "Bashkirization" of Tatars. However, the number of Tatars in Bashkortostan is almost as high as the number of Bashkirs in their own republic.

Authorities

Bibliographical indexes may be found in the Geographical Dictionary of P. Semenov, appended to the articles devoted respectively to the names given above, as also in the yearly Indexes by M. Mezhov and the Oriental Bibliography of Lucian Scherman. Besides the well-known works of Castren, which are a very rich source of information on the subject, Schiefner , Donner, Ahlqvist and other explorers of the Uralic and Altaic languages and peoples, as also those of the Russian historians , , Bestuzhev-Ryumin, Schapov, and , the following containing valuable information may be mentioned:
* the publications of the Russian Geographical Society and its branches;
* the Russian Etnographicheskiy Sbornik;
* the Izvestia of the Moscow society of the amateurs of natural science;
* the works of the Russian ethnographical congresses;
* Kostrov's researches on the Siberian Tatars in the memoirs of the Siberian branch of the geographical society; 's Reise durch den Altay, Aus Sibirien', "Picturesque Russia" ;
* Semenov's and Potanin's " Supplements " to Ritter's Asien; Harkavi's report to the congress at Kazan;
* Hartakhai's "Hist, of Crimean Tatars", in Vyestnik Evropy, 1866 and 1867;
* "Katchinsk Tatars", in Izvestia Russ. Geogr. Soc., xx., 1884.

Various scattered articles on Tatars will be found in the Revue orientale pour les Etudes Oural-Altaïques, and in the publications of the . See also E. H. Parker, A Thousand Years of the Tartars, 1895 , and Skrine and Ross, Heart of Asia .

References and notes

Chinese Derung People

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The Derung people are an ethnic group. They form one of the officially recognized by the People's Republic of China. Their population of 6,000 is found in Yunnan province. Another 600 can be found along the Nu Jiang in the northern County.

Language

The Derung speak the Derung language, a Sino-Tibetan language. Their language is unwritten; in the past the Derung have transmitted messages and have made records by making notchs in trunks of wood.

History

There are few documents about the origins of the Derung. It is known, nevertheless, that during the period of the Tang dynasty, the Derung were under the jurisdiction of the kingdoms of Nanzhao and .
Later on, from the Yuan dynasty to the Qing dynasty, the Derung were governed by the local heads of the Naxi. In 1913, the Derung helped to repel a British attack in the area.
Until 1949 there were several names used for this ethnic group; they received names as ''Qiao'' during the Yuan dynasty and ''Qiu'' and ''Qu'' during the Qing dynasty.

Culture

Prior to the formation of the People's Republic, Derung society was based on a system of clans. A total of 15 clans existed, called ''nile''; each one of them was formed by diverse familiar communities. Each clan divided itself in ''ke'eng'', towns in which the Derung lived in common houses. The marriages between clans were prohibited.
The typical dress of the women consists of a dress made in fabric lined on colors black and white. Formerly, the women used to tattoo their faces, when they reached the age of twelve or thirteen. The tattoos of some women resembled masculine moustaches.
The houses are usually constructed out of wood. They are two stories in height; the second floor is designed as the living quarters for the family whereas the first level serves as a barn and stable. When a male member of the family is married, a new section is added to the family's house where he and his new wife will live in.

Religion

Although some Derung have converted to Christianity, the vast majority continue to believe in their animist native religion. There is a belief that all the creatures have their own souls. Usually diverse sacrifices are made in order to calm down the malignant spirits.
The role of the shaman is of great importance since they are the ones in charge of the rituals. During the celebrations of the Derung New Year, which is celebrated in the month of December of the lunar calendar, diverse animal sacrifices are celebrated to make an offering to the sky.

Chinese Oroqen People

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:''Not to be confused with the Oroch and Oroks of Russia.''

The Oroqen people are an ethnic group in northern China. They form one of the officially recognized by the People's Republic of China. According to the 2000 Census, 44.54% live in Inner Mongolia and 51.52% along the Heilongjiang River in the province of Heilongjiang. The Oroqin Autonomous Banner is also located in Inner Mongolia.

The Oroqens are mainly hunters and it is customary of them to use animal fur and skins for clothing. Many of them have given up hunting and adhered to laws that aimed to protect wildlife in the People's Republic of China. The government is said to have provided modern dwellings for those who have left behind the traditional way of life. The Oroqen are represented in the People's Congress by their own delegate and they are a recognized ethnic minority.

Language

The Oroqen language is a language. Their language is very similar to the Evenki language and it is believed that speakers of these two languages can understand 70% of the other language. Their language is still unwritten; however, the majority of the Oroqen are capable of reading and writing and some can also speak the language.

History

The Oroqen ethnic group is one of the oldest ethnic groups in northeast China. Their name Oroqen, means "people using reindeer" , it is a name they gave themselves. The ancestor of the Oroqens originally lived in the vast area south of the Outer Xing'an Mountains and north of Heilongjiang. They once formed part of the ancient people known as the Shiwei. In the 17th century, following the invasions by Russia, some Oroqens moved to the area near the and Mountains.

Culture

The Oroqen are exogamous and only marriages among members of different clans are permitted. The traditional dwelling is called a ''sierranju'' is covered in the summer with birch bark and in the winter with deer furs. These dwellings have conical forms and are made out of 20 to 30 pine sticks. The dwellings are usually about six meters of diameter and five meters of height. In the center a fire is placed that serves so much as of a kitchen and as of source of lighting. Birch bark is an important raw material in the traditional culture next to the furs. It served for the preparation of containers of all types, from the manufacture of children cradles to boats. With respect to the reindeer herding Evenki, Oroqen and Nanai, which all shared the use of birch bark, it can be said that these cultures are part of a "birch bark" culture.

Religion

Until the early 1950s the main religion of the nomadic Oroqen was shamanism. In the summer of 1952 cadres of the Chinese communist party coerced the leaders of the Oroqen to give up their "superstitions" and abandon any religious practices. These tribal leaders, Chuonnasuan and Zhao Li Ben, were also powerful shamans. The special community ritual to "send away the spirits" and beg them not to return was held over three nights in Baiyinna and in Shibazhan.

The last living shaman of the Oroqen, Chuonnasuan , died at the age of 73 on 9 October 2000. His life, initiatory illness, and training as a shaman are detailed in a published article, also online available.

Sacrifices to ancestral spirits are still routinely made, and there is a folk psychological belief in animism.

Traditionally the Oroqen have a special veneration for animals, especially the bear and the tiger, which they consider their blood brothers. The tiger is known to them as ''wutaqi'' which means "elderly man" while the bear is ''amaha'' which means "uncle“.

Notes

Chinese Monpa People

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The Monpa are an ethnic group of descent in the Indian territory of Arunachal Pradesh, with a population of 50,000, centered in the districts of Tawang and West Kameng. Another 25,000 of them can be found in the district of Cuona in Tibet, where they are known as Menba. Of the 45,000 Monpas who live in Arunachal Pradesh, about 20,000 of them live in Tawang district, where they constitute about 97% of the district's population, and almost all of the remainder can be found in the West Kameng district, where they form about 77% of the district's population. A small number of them may be found in the district of East Kameng and Bhutan .

They also share very close affinity with the Sharchops of Bhutan. Their belongs to the Tibeto-Burman family, but it is significantly different from the Eastern Tibetan dialect. It is written with the Tibetan script.

The Monpa are sub-divided into six sub-groups because of their variations in their language. They are namely:
* Tawang Monpa
* Dirang Monpa
* Lish Monpa
* Bhut Monpa
* Kalaktang Monpa
* Panchen Monpa

Religion

The Monpa are mainly followers of Tibetan Buddhism of the Gelugpa sect, although some members of the Bhut Monpa are followers of B& and Animism. In every household, small Buddhist altars placed with statues of are given water offerings in little cups and burning butter lamps.

The belief in transmigration of the soul and reincarnation is widespread, as their life is largely centered on the Tawang monastery in Tawang district, where many of the young Monpa boys would join the monastery and grow up as Buddhist Lamas.

The Bhut Monpa led a hunter-gather lifestyle and believed that the main totem and clan idol is the spirit of the tiger, who will torment any initiate while he sleeps. It is also believed that the spirit of the tiger is the manifestation of the ancestral forest spirit, who took a young shaman into the jungle to be initiated.

Culture

The Monpa are known for wood carving, Thangka painting, carpet making and weaving. They manufactured paper from the pulp of the local sukso tree. A printing press can be found in the Tawang monastery, where many religious books are printed on local paper and wooden blocks, usually meant for literate Monpa Lamas, who use it for their personal correspondence and conducting religious rituals.

Principal Monpa festivals include Choskar harvest, Losar, Ajilamu and Torgya. During Losar, people would generally pray pilgrimage at the Tawang monastery to pray for the coming of the Tibetan New Year.

The Buddhist Lamas would read religious scriptures in the Gompas for a few days during Choskar. There after, the villagers will walk around the cultivated fields with the sutras on their back. The significance of this festival is to pray for better cultivation and protect the grains from insects and wild animals. The prosperity of the villagers is not excluded as well.

It is a rule that all animals except men and tigers are allowed to be hunted. According to tradition, only one individual is allowed to hunt the tiger on an auspicious day, upon the initiation period of the shamans, which can be likened a trial of passage. Upon hunting the tiger, the jawbone, along with all its teeth, is used as a magic weapon. This is believed that its power will enable the tigers to evoke the power of his guiding spirit of the ancestral tiger, who will accompany and protect the boy along his way.

Society

The traditional society of the Monpa was administered by a council which consists of six ministers locally known as ''Trukdri''. The members of this council were known as the ''Kenpo'', literally the Abbot of Tawang. The Lamas also hold a respectable position, which consists of two monks known as ''Nyetsangs'', and two other ''Dzongpon''.

The man is the head of the family an he is the one who takes all decisions. In his absence his wife takes over all responsibilities. When a child is born they have no strict preference for a boy or a girl. Some however prefer a daughter for she stays in the house of her parents once she is married. Her husband is the one who moves to the house of his parents-in-law.

Lifestyle and Dress

The traditional dress of the Monpa is based on the Tibetan Chugba, although woolen coats and trousers maybe worn as well. The men wear a skull cap of felt with fringes or tassels. The women tend to wear a warm jacket and a sleeveless chemise that reaches down to the calves, tying them round the waist with a long and narrow piece of cloth. Ornaments that include silver rings, earrings made of flat pieces of bamboo with red beads or turquoises are worn as well. One can see a person wearing a cap with a single peacock feather round their felt hats.

Due to the cold climate of the Himalayas, the Monpa, like most of the other Buddhist tribes, construct their house with stone and wood with plank floors, often accompanied with beautifully carved doors and window frames. The roof is made with bamboo matting, keeping their house warm during the winter season. Sitting platforms and hearths in the living rooms are also found in their houses.

Economy

The Monpa practice shifting and permanent types of cultivation. Cattle including yaks, cows, pigs, sheep and fowl are kept as domestic animals, and meat is hunted using primitive methods.

To prevent soil erosion by planting crops on hilly slopes, the Monpa have terraced many slopes. Cash crops such as rice, maize, wheat, barley, chili pepper, pumpkin, beans, tobacco, indigo and cotton are planted.

History

Legends, chronological and archaeological evidence that the Monpa, who were the aborigines of that area, once ruled a kingdom known as Monyul, or Lhomon that existed from 500 B.C. to 600 A.D., a kingdom that was ruled by the then-nomadic Monpa.

It was believed that Monyul stretched from present day Tawang right up to West Bengal, Assam, part of Sikkim and even the Duars plains at the Himalayan foothills. Upon the collapse of Monyul, the Monpa came under the rule of Tibet for many years, although small Monpa chiefdoms were formed whenever Tibetan rule was not strong in the area. One of the good reminiscences of the ancient Monpa chiefdoms include the Dirang Fort constructed around the 11th century, which was meant to defend against invasions from neighbouring chiefdoms.

The sixth Dalai Lama, Tsangyang Gyatso, whom the Tibetans still dearly love, despite his deviancy, and whose Gurs are still fondly recited or sung, came from Mon. A translation of his Gurs by K. Dhondup, a deceased Tibetan scholar, is enjoyable. Perhaps the most famous Gur, still sung all over Tibet and outside is titled "Oh White Crane, lend me your wings. I go no farther than Lithang; thence return again."

Miscellaneous

The sixth Dalai Lama, , is a Monpa by ethnicity. The Monpa monk Geshe Ngawang Tashi Bapu, popularly known as Lama Tashi, was a Grammy Awards Nominee of the Traditional World Music category in 2006.

Chinese Bonan People

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The Bonan people are an ethnic group living in Gansu and Qinghai provinces in northwestern China. Numbering approximately 17,000 they are the 7th smallest of the officially recognized by the People's Republic of China.

The Bonan speak the Bonan language, a , and are predominantly . The Bonan of Qinghai speak a slightly different dialect that those of Gansu. Whereas the Bonan language of Gansu has undergone influences, the Bonan language of Qinghai has been influenced by . They are believed to be descended from Muslim Mongol soldiers stationed in Qinghai during the or dynasties and to have settled in Gansu during the reign of the .

Culture

The Bonan share many traditions with the Dongxiang and Hui. Their traditional dress includes elements of Tibetan, Hui and Dongxiang clothing. Married Bonan women wear black veils, while unmarried women wear green veils. Bonan men typically wear black or white head coverings and white jackets.

Bonan knives are renowned for their beauty and hardness and their manufacture and sale form an important part of the local economy, along with farming and ranching.

Religion

The small group of Bonan that lives in the province of Qinghai are mainly Tibetan Buddhists whereas the rest are followers of Islam.

Chinese Evenks People

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The Evenks or Evenki are a Tungusic people of Northern Asia. In Russia, the Evenks are recognized as one of the Indigenous peoples of the Russian North, with a population of 35,527 . In China, the Evenki form one of the officially recognized by the People's Republic of China, with a population of 30,505, as per 2000 Census.

Evenks of Russia

The Evenks were formerly known as ''tungus''. This designation was spread by the Russians, who acquired it from the Yakuts and the Siberian Tatars in the 17th century. The Evenks have several self-designations of which the best known is ''even'', ''evenk''. This became the official designation for the people in 1931. Some groups call themselves ''orochen'' , ''orochon'' , ''ile'' , etc. At one time or another tribal designations and place-names have also been used as self-designations, for instance ''manjagir'', ''birachen'', ''solon'', etc. Several of these have even been taken for separate ethnic entities.

Besides Evenks, the list of indigenous ethnic groups of Siberia includes similarly named Evens . Although related to the Evenks, the Evens are now considered to be a separate ethnic group.

The Evenks are spread over a huge territory of the Siberian taiga from the in the west to the Okhotsk Sea in the east, and from the Arctic Ocean in the north to Manchuria and Sakhalin in the south. The total area of their habitat is about 2,500,000 . In all of Russia only the Russians inhabit a larger territory. According to the administrative structure, the Evenks live, from west to east, in and Tomsk Oblasts, Krasnoyarsk Krai with Evenk Autonomous Okrug, , , and Amur Oblasts, the and the Sakha Republics, Khabarovsk Krai, and Sakhalin Oblast. However, the territory where they are a titular nation is confined solely to Evenk Autonomous Okrug, where 3,802 of the 35,527 Evenks live . More than 18,200 Evenks live in the Sakha Republic.

Anthropologically the Evenk belong to the Baikal or Paleo-Siberian group of the Mongolian type, originating from the ancient Paleo-Siberian people of the Yenisei River up to the Okhotsk Sea.

The Evenk language is the largest of the northern group of the Manchu-Tungus languages, a group which also includes the Even and Negidal languages.

Evenks of China

According to the 2000 Census, there are 30,505 Evenks in China mainly made up of the Solons and the Khamnigans. 88.8% of China's Evenks live in the Hulunbuir region in the north of the Inner Mongolia Province, near the city of . The Evenk Autonomous Banner is also located near Hulunbuir. There are also around 3,000 Evenks in neighbouring Heilongjiang Province.

In 1763, the government moved 500 Solon Evenk and 500 Daur families to the Tacheng and Kuldja areas of Xinjiang, in order to strengthen the empire's western border. 1020 Xibe families followed the next year. Since then, however, the Solons of Xinjiang have assimilated into other ethnic groups, and are not identified as such anymore.

Religion

Prior to contact with the Russians, the religion of the Evenks was shamanism. Although many of them have adopted Lamaism the Evenks of both the Russian Federation and the People's Republic of China are a nominally people. Along with their cousins and a few other tribes in Siberia, they are some of the only Asiatic peoples who nominally practice Orthodox Christianity, which they had voluntarily adopted during contacts from Russian expansion into Siberia.

References

Chinese Nu People

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The Nu people are one of the officially recognized by the People's Republic of China. Their population of 27,000 is divided into the Northern, Central and Southern groups. Their homeland is a country of high mountains and deep ravines crossed by the Lancang, Dulong and Nujiang rivers, and this area is rich in natural minerals. The name "Nu" comes from the fact that they were living near the Nujiang river, and the name of their ethnic group derives from there.

The Nu live mainly in Yunnan province. 90% of them are found in Gongshan, Fugong, Laping and Bijiang counties in Yunnan Province, along with Lisu, Drung, Tibetan, Nakhi, Bai and Han. There is also a sparse distribution of Nu in Weixi County in the Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture and Zayu County in Tibet Autonomous Region, particularly at the border between Yunnan and Tibet.

The Nu speak a language in the family of languages. They do not have a written language of their own, although the have recently helped them to develop a script based on the Latin alphabet.

Dress

Linen clothes are popular among both sexes. The womenfolk generally wore linen or cotton tunics with sleeves, which are buttoned on the left and long skirts. The young girls often wear aprons over their tunics. They like to wear necklaces strung with colored plastic beads. Some wear head or chest ornaments with strings of coral, agates, shells and silver coins. They wear big copper earrings that hang to the shoulder. The menfolk often put on linen sleeved tunics over shorts, and almost every man wears a string of coral on his left ear and hangs a machete from the left side of his waist. When they go out, they often carry machetes, bows, and arrow bags made from animal felt, which make them looks chivalrous and heroic. They also wear black turbans wrapped around their head, though they tend to keep ear-length haircuts.

Lifestyle

The Nu build their houses made out of either bamboo-slips or wooden planks near the mountains, though houses made out of the latter type are more prevalent due to its better strength. Within the house there are two stories; the lower floor acts as a barn, where livestock, food, and other storage items are placed, while the upper floor consists of the living quarters. On the second floor, it is further sub-divided into the inner and outer rooms. The inner room is used as a bedroom as well as a storeroom, while the outer one is as a kitchen and guestroom.

Agriculture is their main occupation. Bamboo and wooden farm tools were the tools for planting, and major crops include maize, buckwheat, barley, potatoes, yams and beans. Output is low, as chemical fertilizers are not used and primitive crop-planting techniques are used. The annual grain harvest is some 100 kg short of the per capita need, and the diet is supplemented by hunting and fishing.

Religion and Culture

The Nu are adherents of Tibetan Buddhism and their tribal Animism, which has close affinities with the natural world. Of late, a small minority have converted to Christianity as well. Lamaism is mainly professed by the Northern Nu, although Christianity has made some inroads into the southern group. However, most of the southern and central groups have retained their Animist faith to date.

The Nu celebrate mainly the tribal flower-fairy festival, which is mainly celebrated by the Nu in the Gongshan area of Yunnan province. According to the , the festival comes on the 15th of March annually and lasts three days. The festival is based on the legend that the Nu River often flooded in ancient times. A Nu girl named A-Rong, inspired by the web of a spider, created a kind of rope-bridge, by which the people could conveniently cross the river. Coveting the beauty of A-Rong, the chief of the Hou tribe tried to force her to marry him time and time again. However, A-Rong wouldn't agree, so she escaped into the mountains and eventually turned into a stone statue in a cave. To honor her, the Nu people celebrate Fairy Festival on March 15th every year.

Upon the arrival of the festival, the people will pick bunches of azaleas and sacrifice the fairy maiden at a cave, literally known as Fairy People Cave. After the ceremony, the people drink together at home, and people of all ages will dress up in their best traditional costumes, hold fresh flowers. They will gather together in the open air, singing, dancing, and telling stories. Ball matches akin to football matches, bow and arrow competitions are held as well.

Another festival is the Jijilamu festival, the spring festival which lasts about 15 days from the end of lunar December to the beginning of lunar January. It is mainly celebrated by the Nu living in Bijiang, Fugong, Gongshan, Lanping and Weixi counties of Yunnan Province, although Losar is also celebrated by the Tibetan Buddhist Nu.

On the eve of the festival, households in every village are busy butchering pigs, making soft-rice dumplings, brewing wine and cleaning their courtyards, similar to the Chinese New Year. On New Year's Eve, before eating, they put corn and dishes of food on a three-legged barbecue. On top of the three legs, three cups are put and also three pieces of meat, then the family members, either young or old, pray for a good harvest and strong livestock for the upcoming New Year.

Chinese Achang People

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The Achang , also known as the Ngac'ang or Maingtha are an ethnic group. They form one of the officially recognized by the People's Republic of China. They also live in Burma.

The Achang number 27,700, of whom 27,600 are from Yunnan province, especially Dehong Autonomous Prefecture. The Achang speak a language called , but there is no indigenous writing system to accompany it. Chinese characters are often used instead. Many Achang also speak the language of the Dai, mainly to make commercial transactions.

Speaking a distinct dialect, the Husa Achang living in consider themselves to be distinct and filed an unsuccessful application in the 1950s as a separate nationality. The Husa were more Sinicized than other Achang. For example, Confucian-styled ancestral memorial tablets are common in Husa homes. Most traditional Husa believe in a mixture of Theravada Buddhism and Taoism.

History

The ancestors of the Achang were some of the first inhabitants of the province of Yunnan. Their ancestors lived near the Lancang river and during the 12th century they began to emigrate towards the border the west of the river.
By the 13th century, some of them settled down in the area of Longchuan, whereas others settled around Lianghe. During the Ming and Qing dynasties they were governed by local village heads.

Culture

A great part of the history and traditions of the Achang has been transmitted from generation to generation through music and songs. Music is one of the mainstays of their culture, and they usually finish all celebrations with songs and dances.
The unmarried young people usually comb their hair with two braids that gather on their head. The typical clothes of the Achang vary according to village. The married women dress in long skirts whereas the unmarried ones wear trousers.
The men usually use the colors blue, or black to make their shirts, buttoned to a side. The unmarried men surround their head with a fabric of white color whereas the married ones use a blue color.
In Buddhist funerals of the Achang, a long fabric tape of about 20 meters is tied to the coffin. During the ceremony, the monk in charge of the ritual, walks in front as opposed to holding the tape. By doing this, the monk helps directs the soul of the deceased so that the soul of the deceased arrives at its final destiny. The deceased is buried without any metallic elements, not even jewels, since it is believed that those elements contaminate the soul for future reincarnation.

Chinese Pumi People

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::''Pumi is also a breed of Hungarian sheepdog, see Pumi ''

The Pumi people are an ethnic group. They form one of the officially recognized by the People's Republic of China.

Ethnically related to the Qiang, their population of 30,000 is found mainly in Yunnan and Sichuan, notably in the counties of Lanping, Lijiang, Weixi and Yongsheng, and Yi Autonomous County of Ninglang, many of them are located at elevations above 9,000 feet. Those in Sichuan are found in the Muli Tibetan Autonomous County and Yanyuan.

Script

The Pumi language belongs to the Tibeto-Burman family. In the past, it was noted that the Pumi in the Muli and Ninglang areas used Tibetan characters mainly for religious purposes, although gradually the Tibetan characters fell into disuse and oblivion. Modern Pumi use the Chinese and Roman scripts instead.

History

The Pumi have the longest traceable migration path of any minority group in China. Originally existing as nomads inhabiting the Qinghai-Tibetan plateau, they later moved to the warmer areas along valleys within the Hengduan Mountain Range in the 4th century B.C.

Subsequently, they moved to Northern Sichuan in the 7th century, and subsequently to northwest Yunnan in the 14th century. Many of them settled down to become farmers, and local landlords dominated the Pumi economy in Lanping and counties. Except for a small number of common areas, the landlords large areas of lands and collected rental fees from the peasants. This accounted for at least 50 per cent of the harvest. Pumi landlords and Nakhi chiefs also traded domestic slaves.

With the coming of the Cultural Revolution, these traditional landlords eventually lost their power and position as modern facilities, such as hospitals and factories, are introduced to the local people.

Religion

Since they had severed much contact with the since ancient times, along with some Buddhist influence, the Pumi had largely practiced Animism and ancestor worship, a religion locally known as Zanbala.

However, through the efforts of Tibetan Buddhist missionaries from Tibet, a significant proportion have adopted the Gelugpa and Kagyu lineage of Lamaism, much of whom are those in Sichuan.

The Zanbala religion, also locally known as Dingba, literally means white earth. It is noted that the Pumi around Ninglang still install Zanbala altars in their home, which were worshipped by the older generations. The Zanbala religion consists of the veneration of three gods and ancestral spirits, in which only the old men preside the rituals and prayers.

Almost all Pumi villages have their own local mountain gods, which are worshipped during festive seasons. On those days, the entire family will give food offerings and pray for the good health and prosperity of the family. On the 15th day of each month, the minor mountain god is worshipped, and a grand ceremony is held on the 15th day of the 7th lunar month to venerate the Great Mountain God.

In many of the Pumi homes, a cooking fire ring plays an important part of Pumi beliefs. The ring should never be touched by guests. A Guazei, which consists of small stone towers, is located behind the fire rings. During mealtime, the oldest male will take a spoonful of the food, which will subsequently be placed on every tower. One spoonful will be thrown into the fire, which acts as a symbolic gesture to feed the spirits of their ancestors.

Culture

Because of their origins, the Pumi are culturally influenced by the . The Lunar New Year is also celebrated on the first fifteen days of the new year based on the lunar calendar. Losar is also celebrated by some as well.

Especially in Ninglang and Yongsheng, Pumi women often wear jackets with buttons down one side. Long and pleated skirts, multi-colored wide belts are worn. Owing to its cold weather, a goatskin is draped over their backs. However, in the case of the Lanping and Weixi areas, the womenfolk tend to wear colored long-sleeved jackets under their vests, along with long trousers which are fastened with embroidered belts. Like the , Pumi women plait their hair with yak tail hairs and silk threads. Subsequently, their heads are wrapped in large cloths. Prized jewellery, such as silver earrings and bracelets are worn among the rich as well.

Pumi men tend to wear either sleeveless goatskin or linen jackets with and long trousers, which is accompanied by the Tibetan hat. Especially in the case of the hunters and warriors, a long Tibetan sword and deerskin bags may be carried. Upon reaching thirteen, the Pumi boys will go through the ablution rites of manhood and only after ablution may they put on adult clothing and take part in society's activities.

Lifestyle

Owing to its cold weather and its close proximity to Tibet, the lifestyle of the Pumi closely resembles to that of the Tibetans.

Generally, the Pumi are a patrilineal and monogamous society, although polygamy is accepted. In Yongsing, the Pumi continue to follow a matriarchal system linked to the Azhu marriage system, which literally means friendship.

Leading an agricultural lifestyle, crops such as corn and maize serves as their staple food. A variety of vegetables and fruits such as the Chinese cabbage, carrots, eggplant and melons acts as supplements. Salted pork wrapped in pork skin in the shape of a pipa suggests the nickname of the ''Pipa meat''. Barley folur and Butter tea are also consumed as well.

Chinese Tajiks People

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Tajiks in China are one of the officially recognized by the People's Republic of China.

This group, with a population of 41,028 , is located mainly in China's western Xinjiang region with 60% living in Tashkurgan Tajik Autonomous County; some researchers view them as a collection of over a dozen small East Iranian ethnic groups that are related to, but distinct from, the Tajiks of Tajikistan. The Ethnologue claims that they are actually Shugni and Wakhi. Aurel Stein and other writers from his time referred to them simply as ''Sarikoli''. Some have referred to them simply as "Mountain Tajiks." Robert Shaw considered them Sarikolis and Wakhis, referring to them collectively as Ghalchah.

In China, the languages of the Tajiks have no official written form. The great majority of Chinese Tajik speakers speak the Sarikoli language and use , or to communicate with people of other nationalities in the area. A small proportion of Chinese Tajik speakers speak .

Chinese Maonan People

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The Maonan people are an ethnic group. They are one of the officially recognized by the People's Republic of China.

The Maonan ethnic minority has a population of 107,166, living in the northern part of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, according to the Chinese government site.

Language

Their language belongs to the Kam-Sui branch of the Tai-Kadai languages. Is a tonal language with eight tones. Approximately half of the members of this ethnic group they are capable of speaking this language. In addition to this, many Maonan also speak or .

Culture

Interestly, more than one 80% of the Maonan share the same surname: Tan. Maonan with the surname "Tan" believe that they are descended from the old inhabitants of the province of Hunan that emigrated to Guangxi and married Maonan women. Other frequent surnames found in this ethnic group are: Lu, Meng, Wei and Yan.

The towns of the Maonan do not surpass more than 100 dwellings. Their towns are organized by clan. Their dwellings, are very similar to those of the Zhuang, they are usually made up of two floors and constructed out of clay. The upper floor is used as the living quarters while the lower one serves as a granary and stable.

Traditionally, the marriages were arranged by the parents when the future newlyweds still children. Traditionally when a Maonan woman became a widow, the brother of her late husband took her as his wife.

During the funeral service, the children of the deceased had that "to buy" water of a river to be able to wash the corpse. Before proceeding to the burial, the blood of a chicken was poured on the land to purify it and to bless the spirit of the dead person.

References

Chinese Blang People

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The Blang people are an ethnic group. They form one of the officially recognized by the People's Republic of China.

Language

The Blang language belongs to the branch of the Mon-Khmer family of languages. Within the Palaung-Wa branch, Blang belongs to the Waic subgroup, which also contains the languages of the and peoples in addition to Blang. Some Blang also speak Chinese language and languages in addition to speaking Blang. Two systems of writing based on the Latin alphabet have been developed: 'Totham' in the Xishuangbanna and 'Tolek' from Dehong and Lincang.

History

Chinese ethnographers identify the Blang as descendants of an ancient tribe known as the "Pu" , who lived in the Lancang river valley during ancient times. It is believed that these people were one branch of a number of peoples that were collectively known to the ancient Chinese as the Bǎipú .

Culture

Traditionally, the Blang considered teeth blackened by chewing betel nuts a beauty characteristic.

The women usually dress in jackets with black skirts. The men had tattoos in the torso and the stomach. They dressed in wide black trousers and jackets buttoned to the front. Often they would wear turbans of either white or black fabric.

The houses of the Blang are made out of bamboo and usually consist of two floors. The first floor is designed as a warehouse for food and a stable for livestock animals, such as chickens, whereas the second is designed to house the family. The chimney is located in the center of the house.

The Blang are traditionally divided into small clans, with each clan owning its own land. Every Blang town has its own cemeteries, which are divided by clans. The deceased are buried, with the exception of those who perished due to unnatural causes. In this case they are cremated.

Religion

Traditionally the Blang are mostly , in addition to ancestor worship.
The Blang also combine their native beliefs with Theravada Buddhism.

Chinese Salar People

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The Salar people are one of the officially recognized by the People's Republic of China. They numbered 104,503 people in the last census of 2000 and live mostly in Qinghai , in Gansu and in Xinjiang .

Their ancestors were migrating Oghuz Turks who intermarried with the Tibetans, Han Chinese, and . They are a patriarchal agricultural society and Muslims.

History

Their origins are uncertain but according to Salar tradition, during the fourteenth and fifthteenth centuries their ancestors, possibly from an Oghuz tribe of the Seljuk Turks, left Samarkand in present-day Uzbekistan and eventually settled in their present location in Gansu province. Over the course of their history, the ancestors of the Salar are believed to have merged with Tibetans, Han Chinese and Mongolians to form the present-day Salar.

In 1781, armies crushed a Salar uprising with the results being disastrous for the Salar. As much as 40% of their entire population was killed in the revolt.

Culture

The typical clothing of the Salar very similar to other Muslim peoples in the region. The men are commonly bearded and dress in white shirts and white or black skullcaps.

The young single women are accustomed to dressing in Chinese dress of bright colors. The married women utilize the traditional veil in white or black colors.

They have a musical instrument called the ''Kouxuan''. It is a string instrument manufactured in silver or in copper and only played by the women.

For the Salar, divorce is a very easy procedure, although it can only be requested by the husband. In order to dissolve the marriage, the man only has to tell his wife that he no longer wishes to remain married to her. The woman abandons the conjugal residence and he remains free to be married again.

The Salars have been in Qinghai Province, China since the Mongol Yuan period.
For centuries they've maintained their Oghuz language remarkably similar to the Turkmen language spoken in the Qaraqum.

However, culturally they have strictly conformed to the Naqshbandi ways of their Hui coreligionists. Therefore many nomadic Turkmen traditions have been lost, and Turkmen music was forbidden. More secular minded Salars have resorted to appropriating Tibetan or Moghol music as their own.

Language

The Salar language has two large dialect groups. The divergence is due to the fact that one branch was influenced by the and Chinese languages, and the other branch by the and Kazakh languages. Only about one third of Salar speak their own language. In addition to Chinese, many Salar also speak . Salar is not a written language. There are reported similarities with .

References

* Tenišev, E.R: ''Stroj salarskogo âzyka'' . Moscow, Nauka 1976).
* Lin Lianyun : 汉撒拉、撒拉汉词汇 (''Chinese-Salar Salar-Chinese lexicon''. Chengdu, People's Press of Sichuan. 1992.

External links

*
* Arienne M. Dwyer:
* Ma Wei, Ma Jianzhong, and Kevin Stuart, editors. 2001. Folklore of China’s Islamic ` Nationality. Lewiston, Edwin Mellen.
* Ma Quanlin, Ma Wanxiang, and Ma Zhicheng . 1993. Salar Language Materials. Sino-Platonic Papers. Number 43.
* Ma Wei, Ma Jianzhong, and Kevin Stuart. 1999. The Xunhua Salar Wedding. Asian Folklore Studies 58:31-76.
* Ma Jianzhong and Kevin Stuart. 1996. ‘Stone Camels and Clear Springs’: The Salar’s Samarkand Origins. Asian Folklore Studies. 55:2, 287-298.
* Han Deyan . 1999. The Salar Khazui System. Central Asiatic Journal 43 : 204-214.
* Feng Lide and Kevin Stuart. 1991. Ma Xueyi and Ma Chengjun. Salazu Fengsuzhi ; Han Fude, general editor. Salazu Minjian Gushi ; Han Fude, general editor. Minjian Geyao ; and Han Fude, general editor. Minjian Yanyu . Asian Folklore Studies. 50:2, 371-373.

Chinese Jingpo People

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The Jingpo or Kachin people are an ethnic group who largely inhabit northern Burma . They also form one of the officially recognized by the People's Republic of China, where they numbered 132,143 people in the 2000 census. There is a closely related people in India called Singpho.

Categorization

Two different categorization schemes complicate the terms Jingpo and Kachin . In one, a variety of linguistic groups with overlapping territories and integrated social structures are described as a single people: the Kachin or Jingpo. In the other, linguistic categorization, the native speakers of each language in the area are treated as distinct ethnic groups. Both schemes treat the Shan people who live in the same or contiguous areas as ethnically distinct. Kachins have frequently defied the Western expectation of lineage-based ethnicity by culturally "becoming Shans."

In British colonial Burma, Jingpo or Kachins were categorized by the Census as separate "races" or "tribes" according to language, including Kachin , Gauri, Maru, Lashi, Szi, Maingtha, Hpon, Nung, and Lisu. Other officials, missionaries, and the local administration recognized them as a single ethnic group. The early independence period Burmese government recognized Kachin as an overarching category. The current Myanmar government again views the Kachin as a "major national ethnic race" comprising the Kachin, Trone, Dalaung, Jinghpaw, Guari, Hkahku, Duleng, Maru , Rawang, Lashi , Atsi, and Lisu as distinct ethnic groups.

Languages

The people classified as the Jingpo or Kachin in the broader sense speak at least nine different languages, , Tsaiva, Maru, Lashi, Szi, , Hpon, Nung, and Lisu.

Jingpo

Main article Jingpho language

Jingpo proper is spoken by 900,000 people in Burma and by 40,000 people in China. It is classified as , , Jingpo-Konyak-Bodo, Jingpo-Lu. Jingpo proper is also understood by many speakers of Tsaiwa. One standard language that is taught in China is based on the dialect of Enkun.

Tsaiva

Tsaiva is spoken by about 80,000 people in China and about 30,000 people in Burma. It is classified outside China as Sino-Tibetan, Tibeto-Burman, Yi-Burman, Northern Burmic. After the establishment of the People's Republic of China, a written language based on the dialect of Longzhun village and using the Latin alphabet was created and officially introduced in 1957.

Religion

Although groups of Buddhists and Christians are found amongst them, the majority of the Jingpo are christians. Before American missionary came to Kachin land, majority of Kachin people were animists. Some worship various gods as well the spirits of their ancestors. The ancestor of all the Kachin, who is worshipped as a spirit or god, is held to be named Madai. They believe that the spirits reside everywhere, from the sun to the animals, and that these spirits bring good or bad luck. For the Jingpo, all living creatures are believed to have souls. Rituals are carried out for protection in almost all daily activities, from planting of crops to warfare.

Culture

Their dwellings are usually two stories and built out of wood and bamboo. The houses are of oval form; the first floor serves as a storage and stable while the second is utilized for living quarters.
The women dress black jackets decorated with silver decorations. They also wear wool skirts made in bright colors The men also wear black and wide pants. They cover their heads with turbans: the youths with white turbans and the adults with black turbans

History

Their ancestors lived in the Tibetan plateau and they migrated gradually toward the south. To their arrival to the present province of Yunnan they received the name of ''Xunchuanman''. It is possible that they might be related to the Qiang.

During the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries they continued migrating to being established in their present territory. They have received diverse names along the centuries: ''Echang'', ''Zhexie'', and ''Yeren'', the latter name which was used in China from the Yuan dynasty to the formation of the People's Republic of China in 1949.

The Kachin people are an ethnic affinity of several tribal groups, known for their fierce independence, disciplined fighting skills, complex clan inter-relations, embrace of Christianity, craftsmanship, herbal healing and jungle survival skills. Other residents of Kachin State include Shans , Nagas, and Burmans, who form the largest ethnic group in Burma, also called Bamar. During the British colonial period, some tribes were well integrated into the state while others operated with a large degree of autonomy. Kachins, including those organized as the Kachin Levies provided assistance to British and American units fighting the Japanese Imperial Army during World War II.

Following the end of World War II and Burma’s independence from Britain, long standing ethnic conflicts between frontier peoples such as the Kachins and the Burman-dominated central government resurfaced. The first uprising occurred in 1949. The uprisings escalated following the declaration of Buddhism as a national religion in 1961. However, Kachins fought both for and against the government during most of the ethnic conflicts.Kachin soldiers once formed a core part of the Burmese armed forces and many stayed loyal after the Kachin Independence Organisation with its military wing, the Kachin Independent Army was formed in 1961. After Ne Win's coup in 1962, there were fewer opportunities in the Burma Army for Kachins. Much of Kachin State outside of the cities and larger towns was for many years KIO administered.

The KIO formed alliances with other ethnic groups resisting the Burmese occupation, and later despite its non-communist stance along with China informally supported the Communist Party of Burma , which held strategically sensitive parts of the country vis a vis the Kachin positions. The KIO continued to fight when Ne Win’s dictatorship was succeeded by another incarnation of the military junta in 1988 called the State Law and Order Restoration Council . However, with a gradual withdrawal of Chinese support, in 1989 the Communist Party of Burma soon disintegrated into warlord led groups that negotiated ceasefire deals with the junta. This led to the KIO being surrounded by organizations effectively aligned with the SPDC. It was squeezed by redeployed battalions of the rearmed and ever growing Burma Army, and constantly urged to make peace by a civilian population suffering from years of warfare. In 1994 the KIO chose to enter into a ceasefire with the junta.

The ceasefire delivered neither security nor prosperity to the Kachin. With the end of hostilities the Burma Army presence has increased considerably, along with allegations of atrocities against the civilian population, including forced labor and rape.

High demand from China is currently encouraging logging-based deforestation in the Kachin region of Burma. . Increasingly impoverished, some Kachin women are drawn into the child and adult sex trade to Thailand, China and in Yangon .

Sources

*E.R. Leach, ''Political Systems of Highland Burma: A Study of Kachin Social Structure'' .
* Kachin Women's Association Thailand , .
*Fredrich Kahrl, Horst Weyerhaeuser, and Su Yufang, . Forest Trends, World Agroforestry Centre, 2004.
* Global Witness , 2005.
* Liú Lù: Jǐngpōzú yǔyán jiǎnzhì - Jǐngpōyǔ 刘璐景颇族语言简志——景颇语 .
* Xú Xījiān 徐悉艰, Xú Guìzhēn 徐桂珍: Jǐngpōzú yǔyán jiǎnzhì - Zǎiwǎyǔ 景颇族语言简志——载瓦语 .
* All Kachin Students and Youth Union , Kachin Development Networking Group, .

Chinese Daur People

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''This arcticle is about the Daur people and their language. For the Daur region of Pakistan, see Daur region''----

The Daur people are an ethnic group. They form one of the officially recognized in the People's Republic of China. They numbered 132,394 according to the latest census , and most of them live in the Morin Dawa Daur Autonomous Banner in Inner Mongolia autonomous region of China. There are also some near Tacheng in Xinjiang, where their ancestors were moved during the Qing Dynasty.

Language

Daur is a . There is no written standard, although a Pinyin-based orthography has been devised by the native Daur scholar Merden Enhebatu.
The Daur language retains some Khitan substratal features, including a number of lexemes not found in other Mongolic languages. It is made up of three dialects: Bataxan, Hailar, Qiqihar.

History

Genetically, the Daurs are descendants of the , as recent DNA analyses have proven. The Daurs gave their name to the region of , also called Transbaikal, now the area of Russia east of Lake Baikal.

Facing the Russian expansion in the Amur region, between 1654 and 1656, during the reign of Shunzhi Emperor, the Daurs were forced to move southward and settle on the banks of the , from where they were constantly conscripted to serve in the banner system of the Qing emperors. The Daurs were engaged in border skirmishes with the Cossacks in 1643 and 1651. When the Japanese invaded Manchuria in 1931, the Daurs carried out an intense resistance against them.

Culture

There is a very noticeable hierarchic structure. People sharing the same surname are in groups called ''hala'', they live together with the same group, formed by two or three towns. Each ''hala'' is divided in diverse clans that live in the same town. If a marriage between different clans is made, the husband can go to live with the clan of his wife but he does not hold any property rights.

In the weddings, the fiancé goes out to look for the fiancée when the sun when coming out. It is custom that offers wine, meat and paste to all the neighbors who are attending. The celebration of the wedding usually concludes with a festival of flat racing.

During the winter, the Daur women wear long dresses, generally blue in color and boots of skin that they change by long trousers during the summer. The men dress in winter made orejeros caps in fox or red deer skin. In summer, they cover its head with fabrics with white color or straw hats.

A customary sport of the Daur is Beikou, a game similar to field hockey or street hockey, that has been played by the Daur for about 1,000 years.

Religion

Many Daurs are shamanists. Each clan has its own shaman in charge of all the important ceremonies in the lives of the Daur. However there are a significant number of Daurs who have taken up Lamaism .

Chinese Nakhi people

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The Nakhi are an inhabiting the foothills of the Himalayas in the northwestern part of Yunnan , as well as the southwestern part of Sichuan in China.

The Nakhi are thought to have come originally from Tibet and, until recently, maintained overland trading links with Lhasa and India. They were brought to the attention of the world by two men: the botanist Joseph Rock and the Russian doctor Peter Goullart, both of whom lived in and travelled throughout the area during the early 20th century. Peter Goullart's book ''Forgotten Kingdom'' describes the life and beliefs of the Nakhi and neighbouring peoples, while Joseph Rock's legacy includes diaries, maps, and photographs of the region.

The Nakhi form one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the People's Republic of China. The official Chinese government classification classes the Mosuo as part of the Nakhi people. However, despite similar origins and very striking resemblances from a linguistic point of view, the two groups are now culturally distinct, the Nakhi more influenced by Han Chinese culture, the Mosuo more influenced by Tibetan culture.

Culture

Nakhi culture is largely a mixture of Tibetan and Han Chinese influences, with some indigenous elements. Especially in the case of their musical scores, it acts as the foundation of the Nakhi literature.

Music

Nakhi music is 500 years old, and with its mixture of literary lyrics, poetic topics, and musical styles from the , , and dynasties, as well as some Tibetan influences, it has developed its own unique style and traits. There are three main styles: Baisha, , and Huangjing, all using traditional Chinese instruments.

The origin of Baisha music lies in a gift from the first emperor of the Yuan Dynasty, Kublai Khan. Upon his expedition to , he had difficulty crossing the Golden Sand River, and received help from Mailiang, the chief of the Nakhi people. To show his appreciation, Kublai Khan left half of his band and many musical scores as a gift to the chief. "Baisha Fine Music" is one of ancient China's few large-scale, classical orchestral forms of music and has twenty four tunes, locally known as ''qupai''. Although archaic, simple, and elegant in style, modern Baisha is exquisite, euphonious, and energetic in character.

Taoist in origin, and fused with some indigenous elements, Dongjing music was introduced to the Nakhi from the central plains during the and dynasties, and today it is the most well-preserved musical form in China. In addition to its intrinsic stateliness, purity, and elegance, Dongjing music incorporated the local musical elements and styles. Originally reserved for the nobles, the local passion for music overcame this restriction.

Art and architecture

Absorbing architectural styles of the and the , the houses of the Nakhi are built in a unique vernacular style of one courtyard with five skylights, which have a crude and simple appearance, but with elaborate and delicate patterns on casements and doors.

The temples, though looking very staid and ordinary from the outside, are decorated on the interior with carvings on poles, arches and idols of gods. The decorations include depictions of episodes from epics, dancers, warriors, animals and birds, and flowers. The mural paintings depict Dongba gods, and are derived from Tibetan styles. A good example is the Delwada Temple.

Festivals

The Nakhi celebrate the annual Torch Festival on the 24th and 25th of the sixth month of the Lunar calendar, which corresponds approximately to July 8th-9th, and the Sanduo Festival on February 8

According to legend, Sanduo is a war god who defends the local people. In ancient times a hunter discovered a strange stone on Jade Dragon Mountain, and carried the stone home. On his way home, he had to put the stone down for a rest, because it was extremely heavy. When he decided to continue his trip, he could no longer lift the stone, and many thought that it was the embodiment of a god.

The Nakhi later built a temple to honour this god, whom they later named Sanduo, and depicted as an immortal in a white coat and a white helmet, carrying a white spear and riding a white horse. They believed that Sanduo would protect the local people and their land. Because Sanduo was thought to have been born in the , a goat is sacrificed at his festival.

Customs

Cremation has been a tradition since ancient times, although burial was adopted in certain Nakhi areas during the late Qing Dynasty. Religious scriptures were chanted at the funeral ceremony to expiate the sins of the dead.

Among the Nakhi in Yongning County in Yunnan and the Yanyuan County in Sichuan, existing remnants of a matriarchal family structure were evident until the beginning of democratic reform, when it changed to a patriarchal structure.

As the heads of the family, the women gave inheritance to the children either through the mother, or to her nephews through her brothers. This is called decent, where one belongs to one's mother's lineage.

A matriline is a line of descent from a female ancestor to a descendant in which the individuals in all intervening generations are female. In Nakhi society, women also acted as the main work-force; thus they were respected at home and in the Nakhi society.

In 2005, Kuang Jianren, a famous Chinese film script writer produced "Snow Bracelet", a film based on the life of Nakhi ethnic minorities in Yunan.

Nakhi men have a tradition of hunting with falcons.

Nakhi music

The Nakhi have several indigenous forms of music, including ''baisha xiyue'' and the Chinese-inspired ''''.

Dress

The Nakhi women wear wide-sleeved loose gowns accompanied by jackets and long trousers, tied with richly decorated belts at the waist. is worn slung over the shoulder. Especially in Ninglang County, the women wear short jackets and long skirts reaching the ground with several folds. Large black cotton turbans are worn around their heads, which are accompanied with big silver earrings. The men's costumes is much like that of Han Chinese. In modern times, traditional dress is rarely worn among the younger generation, since most of them prefer to wear Chinese dress. It is now usually only worn at cultural events and on special occasions.

The dress of the Dongba lamas resembles that of the B& priests of Tibet; they wear conical hats like those of the lamas of the Black Hat sect, with a piece of red cloth.

Language and script

History

The Nakhi are believed to be the descendants of the nomadic Qiang, an ethnic group inhabiting the Tibetan plateau since ancient times. During the and dynasties, the Nakhi were known as the Mosha-yi, or the Moxie-yi. Only after communist rule in China did they call themselves Nakhi, which means "people who worship the black things of the nation".

Frequently harassed by neighbouring tribes, the proto-Nakhi then moved to head of the Nujiang River from the Jinsha and then to the Along River in the present-day province of Sichuan in western China. After being pushed south by other conquering tribes, the Nakhi finally settled in Baisha and by 3 CE.

The Nakhi split into three groups while their ancestors were still in Baisha. The ones who remained are known as the Nakhi, those in are known as Bai, and those living around the Lugu Lake are called the Mosuo. Even today, the three groups share similar customs.

Between the and , agricultural production in underwent marked changes, and agriculture eventually replaced livestock breeding as the main occupation of the people. The production of agricultural, handicraft, mineral, and livestock products led to considerable prosperity, and during this period a number of slave-owning groups in Ninglang, Lijiang, and Weixi counties grew into a feudal caste of lords. Tibetan Buddhism got a foothold among the Nakhi from the onwards.

In 1278, the Yuan Dynasty established the Lijiang Prefecture, which represented the imperial court in Yunnan. A chieftain, Mude, was made the hereditary chieftain of Lijiang Prefecture, exercising control over the Nakhi people and other ethnic groups during the Ming Dynasty. The hereditary chieftains from the Mu family collected taxes and tribute, which then went to the Ming court in the form of silver and grains. The Ming relied on the Mu family as the mainstay for the control of the people of various ethnic groups in northwestern Yunnan Province.

Land-leasing began to take place, thus marking the beginning of an economy controlled by a landlord. In 1723, during the Qing Dynasty, hereditary local chieftains in the Lijiang area were replaced by court officials, and the Mu chieftain became the local administrator.

The ancient Nakhi town of Lijiang is now a major tourist destination. Some Nakhi run shops catering to tourists, such as those serving traditional Nakhi bread .

Religion

The Nakhi are traditionally followers of the Dongba religion. Through both Han Chinese and Tibetan cultural influences, they adopted Tibetan Buddhism and, to a lesser extent, Taoism, in the .

Dongba

Dongba religion was rooted in the beliefs of the Tibetan B& religion; the word "Dongba" literally means "wise man" in the Nakhi language. Tracing its origins to a Bön shaman from eastern Tibet named Dongba Shilo, who lived in a cave near Baishuitai 900 years ago. According to Nakhi legends, he was said to have created the Lijiang Mural.

Anthropologists claim that many of the Dongba rituals show strong influences from the Bön religion, and are not native in origin. Bön lamas are believed to have settled among the Nakhi as farmers, and to have begun to practise exorcisms as a way of earning a little money on the side; they were thus in competition with the native ritual specialists, locally known as ''Llü-bu'', or ''Ssan-nyi''.

Religious scriptures suggest that the Llü-bu were female shamans who practised divination, exorcism, and other rites in a trance. By the early , the Dongba priests had created a huge religious vocabulary accompanied by a variety of rituals, and had largely displaced the Llü-bu.

Adherents of Dongba had no places of worship, and so they were not officially recognized as a religion. A Dongba shaman is merely a part-time practitioner priest, who is literate in Dongba religious texts that were unreadable by most Nakhi.

The Dongba religion is based on the relationship between nature and man. In Dongba mythology, "Nature" and "Man" are half-brothers, having different mothers. According to the villagers of Shu Ming Village, nature is controlled by spirits called "Shv". These gods are depicted as human-snake chimeras. The Dongba priests practice rituals such as the "Shv Gu" to appease these spirits and prevent their anger from boiling into natural disasters such as earthquakes and droughts.

Before communist rule in China, many villages still had shrines or places of worship dedicated to nature gods such as Shu, and until recently, at least, inhabitants of Tacheng, which is in the Lijiang-Nakhi Autonomous county, still professed belief in the "nature and man" concept.

Their attitude towards nature is clearly illustrated by the story of He Shun, a Dongba priest, who forbade his three sons to cut down more trees than they needed, as this would anger the gods and bring misfortune to his family.

One of the most widely practised Dongba rituals, ''Zzerq Ciul Zhuaq'' , is often seen in the village of Shuming. The ritual was conducted if somebody was stricken with illness or bad luck, when a Dongba priest would be consulted. On many occasions, the result would show that the person had carried out logging or washing of dirty things in the forest, and the family or person concerned would have to ask the Dongba priest to hold the ritual near where the activity had taken place, and apologise to the nature god Shu.

Being a conservative people, the villagers prohibited logging, and even the cutting of tree branches and gathering of dry pine-needles from the coniferous trees wasn't generally allowed. The gathering of pine needles was only allowed in July, when the forests were lush and green. However, only one person of each household was allowed to do this job, in order to enforce fairness between households with more or fewer labourers.

The elders, locally known as ''Lao Min '', would watch the all these activities. The elders also voluntarily carried out the public affairs of the village. Traditionally, they played an important role, which still influences many villages.

Especially in Longquan, the villagers have a traditional custom for regulations for logging and firewood. Known as ''Jjuq-ssaiq'' or ''Jjuq-Hal-Keel'' by the local people, this refers to the regular logging of trees and firewood every two to three years in the forested area near the particular village. A group of people comprising the Lao Min, the village headman, and the mountain guards will organise the procedure in advance. Even in recent years, Nakhi villages still retain an organisation that protects the forests, who were administered by the members of the village committee. This necessarily include the heads of the agricultural Productive Cooperatives, the members of the female union, and the village mountain guard.

Until the communists came to power in China in 1949, villagers followed these traditional principles and tried to use the natural resources conservatively, with thought for the preservation the natural resources for future generations. However, after 1949 serious cultural and social change came to the Nakhi, and the government encouraged logging in the area, which in turn led to a relaxation of the traditional customs.

Lamaism

The Nakhi's Tibetan origins and proximity to Tibet led them to embrace the Kagyu lineage of Lamaism during the . Over the years, the Nakhi in Lijiang built Buddhist Gompas which acted as the place of worship for the Nakhi Buddhist community. The first monastery, Ogmin Namling at Lashiba, was founded by the tenth Karmapa, Ch&. Religious Mani stones can also be found in some of the Nakhi households, especially among the Mosuo sub-group.

The story is told of the Nakhi king inviting the eighth Karmapa, Miky& to Lijiang in 1516. The king, worried about the safety of the Karmapa on his long journey to Lijiang, dispatched an army of four generals and ten thousand soldiers to accompany him. On the third day of the fourth month the Karmapa reached the border between Tibet and the Nakhi kingdom. Accompanied by his brother and his uncle, who were both riding elephants and escorted by many riders on horseback, the Nakhi king, riding on a palanquin, received a magnificent welcome. The king prostrated himself before the Karmapa, the elephants broke their tethers and bowed down three times before him, and raised their trunks to the sky causing thunderclaps with their trumpeting.

References

Asia Harvest reference profiles

*
*

External links

* — Deqen, Lijiang, Weixi, & Yenyuan
* — holders of most of Joseph Rock's work
* — an alternative interface to the images held at Harvard
* — book by Peter Goullart
* — on-line selections from the Library of Congress Nakhi manuscript collection
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Chinese Qiang people

2008-09-03T20:02:00.004-07:00

The Qiang people are an ethnic group. They form one of the officially recognized by the People's Republic of China, with a population of approximately 200,000 living in northwestern Sichuan province. Nowadays, the Qiang are only a small segment of the population, but they are commonly believed to be an old, once strong and populous people whose history can be traced to the Shang Dynasty and whose offspring include the Tibetans and many minorities in southwestern China.

Early history

In ancient China, Qiang was usually used as a generic term for the non- peoples in the northwest. These peoples were frequently at war with the inhabitants of the Yellow River valley, the ancestors of ethnic Hans. Not until the rise of the state of under Duke Mu was the Qiang expansion effectively checked.

The structure of the graph also reflects this view. It was composed of two elements: and , suggesting a sheep-herding people. During the Eastern Han Dynasty and Wei-Jin periods , Qiang were widely distributed along the mountainous fringes of the northern and eastern Tibetan Plateau, from the Kunlun Mountains in Xinjiang province, and eastern Qinghai area, to southern Gansu, western Sichuan, and northern Yunnan.

Later, the Chinese restricted the term Qiang min to refer to sinicized non-Han living in the valley in Sichuan and used the term Fan Qiang to refer to less sinicized non-Han living in the vicinity.

Recent history

At present, the Qiang have a self-identity, referring to themselves as Qiang zu and ''erma'' or ''rma'' . There are some 198,000 Qiang today in western Sichuan, predominantly in the five counties of Maoxian, Wenchuan, Lixian, Beichuan and Heishui, of the Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture. On 12 May 2008, the Qiang people were heavily affected by a , whose epicenter was in Wenchuan County.

The Qiang today are mountain dwellers. A fortress village, ''zhai'' , composed of 30 to 100 households, in general is the basic social unit beyond the household. An average of two to five fortress villages in a small valley along a mountain stream, known in local Chinese as ''gou'' , make up a village cluster . The inhabitants of fortress village or village cluster have close contact in social life. In these small valleys, people cultivate narrow fluvial plains along creeks or mountain terraces, hunt animals or collect mushrooms and herbs in the neighboring woods, and herd yaks and horses on the mountain-top pastures. In the past, warfare between villages was common.

From the linguistic point of view, all modern Qiang people speak one of two Qiang languages, which are members of the Qiangic sub-family of Tibeto-Burman. However, dialects are so different that communication between different Qiang groups is often in . Lacking a script of their own, the Qiang also use Chinese characters.

Customs

The matrilineal Qiang society is primarily , although polyandry and cross-cousin marriages are accepted. Since most women are older than their husbands and also work as the leading people in agricultural activities, they act as the head of the family as well as the society.

Romantic love is considered important, and sexual freedom is prevalent, as the Qiang find marriages important. In the past, marriages were organized by the parents, with approval from the children. It still is not unusual for brides to live in their parents' houses for a year or so after the marriage, and the children were usually separated from their parents after marriage, except for the first son and his family. However, such habits have been gradually discarded with the coming of .

The Qiang also have a rigid taboo system in their birth and death. Prior to the birth of a baby, a pregnant woman is not allowed to go near the riverside or well, be at a wedding ceremony, or stand in the watchtower.

Upon a delivery, a Duangong is invited to help the delivery procedure, and strangers are not allowed to wail or enter the house. This is prevented by hanging up a flail on the gate for a week upon the birth of a boy, and a bamboo basket upon the birth of a girl.

After she has delivered her child, a woman is not allowed into the kitchen for one month thereafter. It would be considered a sinful action against the kitchen and family gods. A woman is also not allowed to leave her home, or meet any strangers on the first forty days after delivery. It is believed that danger of an evil spirits coming into the house would harm the mother. An initiation ceremony of cattle sacrifice would be conducted on the home altar, where the baby would be given a name.

Stillborn or premature babies are not considered as human beings by the Qiang. Instead, it was considered as a demon which caused a woman to become pregnant, as it was believed that the deceased would cause problems for the family. Their bodies are thrown in a hole in the ground and then covered with dirt.

Culture and lifestyle

Owing to its ethnic diversity, Qiang culture has influenced other culture and has been influenced by others. Generally, those who live nearer to the Tibetans are influenced by the Tibetan culture, while the majority are more influenced by the Han Chinese, which has close links with its ethnic history.

Both the menfolk and womenfolk wear gowns made of gunny cloth, cotton and silk with sleeveless wool jackets. Following age-old Chinese traditions, their hair and legs are bounded. The womenfolk wear laced clothing with decorated collars, consisting of plum-shaped silver ornaments. Sharp-pointed and embroidered shoes, embroidered girdles and earrings, neck rings, hairpins and silver badges are also popular.

Millet, highland barley, potatoes, winter wheat and buckwheat serve as the staple food of the Qiang. Consumption of wine and smoking of orchid leaves are also popular among the Qiang.

The Qiang live in granite stone houses generally consisting of two to three stories. The first floor is meant for keeping livestock and poultry, while the second floor is meant for the living quarters, and the third floor for grain storage. If the third floor does not exist, the grains will be kept on the first or second floor instead.

Skilled in construction of roads and bamboo bridges, the Qiang can build them on the rockiest cliffs and swiftest rivers. Using only wooden boards and piers, these bridges can stretch up to 100 meters. Others who are excellent masons are good at digging wells. Especially during poor farming seasons, they will visit neighboring places to do chiseling and digging.

Embroidery and drawn work are done extemporaneously without any designs. Traditional songs related to topics such as wine and the mountains are accompanied by dances and the music of traditional instruments such as leather drums.

Religion

The majority of the Qiang adhere to a religion, known as Rujiao, a religion that involves belief in the White Stones that were worshipped as the sun god, who will bring good luck to their daily aspects of life. Others, who live near the Tibetans follow Tibetan Buddhism. Small minorities of and Taoists exist as well.

The Qiang worship five major gods, twelve lesser gods, some tree gods, numerous stones worshiped as gods. A special god is worshippeed as well in every village and locality, who are mentioned by name in the sacred chants of the Qiang priests. Mubyasei, also known Abba Chi, is known as the god of heaven is also considered as the supreme god. This term is also used to refer to a male ancestor god, Abba Sei. In certain places, Shan Wang, the mountain god, is considered to worshipped the supreme god. The Qiang people have also adopted many practices of the Taoist gods as well.

For the Polytheists, most White Stones were placed on the corners of their roofs or towers, as a good luck symbol for the sun. A square stone pagoda, which is located on the edge of many Qiang villages and on the top of a nearby hill as well. The pagoda is usually over two meters high and its uppermost part is inlaid with a circle of small white stones. A larger white stone is also placed at the pinnacle as well.

A small pagoda is also sometimes built on the roof of a house, with a pottery jar that contained five varieties of grain is placed within the pagoda. On top of the pagoda, a white stone is placed together with ox and sheep horns. By tradition, the door of a Qiang house is supposed to face south and the pagoda is built on the northern end of the roof in line with the door. Every morning, the Qiang family will burn incense sticks or cedar twigs in the pagoda and kowtow to it, praying for the protection of the family by the god of the white stone.

However, with the encouragement of atheism, worship of the White Stones is not nearly as common as it used to be. There are several legends that explain the origin of this stone worship.

Legend of the White Stones

At the legendary time when the Qiang people moved into Sichuan from Tibet, they placed white stones on every hilltop and crossroads , for they did not want to forget the route leading back to their original homeland. These piles of white stones also acts as a token of their affection for their homeland and the people they left behind at the same time.

Upon arriving at the territory of the local Geji people, the Qiang fought a losing battle. Jirpol, witnessing the condition that they were in, instructed the Qiang to find a strong white stone and attach it to rattan sticks and fight with this weapon, tying some sheep wool to the neck of the stick as well. Victory was on their side, and the Qiangs began to look upon the white stones as gods to be worshipped.

Chinese Monguor people

2008-09-03T20:02:00.003-07:00

The Monguor people are one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the People's Republic of China. They are distributed throughout the 31 provinces and regions of China, with a higher concentration in Qinghai and Gansu Provinces in the northwest.

Ethnonym and ethnic origins

The official classification as "Tu Nationality" took place in 1953, when most of the Chinese nationalities were classified. The name "Tu" is derived from the Chinese phonetic transcription of Tuyuhun , the first Khan who established the Tuyuhun Kingdom after it separated from the Murong group of the Xianbei nationality in northeast China in the third century.

The earliest use of the specific designation "Tu" dates to the early Song Dynasty, in 1001 CE. Prior to that time official records called them the "Tuhun ren" or "Tuihun er" .

The Tu in and counties in Qinghai also call themselves "Chaaghaan monguor" in contrast to their reference to the as "Khara Monguor" . This contrast is the result of the Tu in these areas encountering the Mongols during the Yuan Dynasty and most likely reflected on the lighter skin of the Tu people, derived from the Murong Section of Xianbei who were referred to as the "Baibu Xianbei" , which marked their difference from the other sections of the Xianbei , from the latter of which the Mongolians derived their ancestry. The shared ancestral origins of the Tu and Mongolians have contributed to the similarities in the languages of the two groups, the parallel festival celebrations of ''Nadun'' among the Tu and ''Nadam'' among the Mongolians, and shamanism as part of their religious practices.

Language

The Tu language is classified as one of the ; 85% of the Tu vocabulary is similar to the that of the Mongolian language .

The term "Monguor" language usually refers to the Northern, or Huzhu , dialect of Monguor, on which the most research has been conducted. There is also a Southwest and a Southeast variety, both of which have orthographic and grammatical differences from Northern Monguor and which have had different amounts of contact throughout history with the neighboring languages Tibetan, Salar, Wutun, and the local, -influenced variety of Chinese.

Religion

The Tu religion is a harmonious blend of the Tibetan Buddhism, Taoism, and Shamanism. In many Tu villages, a Buddhist temple and a Taoist shrine coexist. While Buddhist monks are common in most villages, Taoist priests and shamans are few and each serves a large area. The shaman's primary function is as a trance medium during the Nadun celebration.

Cultural traditions

The Tu, whose social organization reflects Confucianism, have preserved ancient cultural traditions, most characteristically demonstrated in the unique Nadun and Anzhao. Nadun is similar in name to Nadam celebrated by the Mongolians, but different in format and content. It is specifically held among the Tu people who live in the Sanchuan Region of Minhe County, on the border of Qinghai and Gansu Provinces by the Yellow River, whose subpopulation totaled 39,616. It is celebrated at the end of the harvest each year and lasts over two months across the Sanchuan area from the twelfth of the seventh month to the fifteenth of the ninth month by the Chinese lunar calendar. Anzhao is traditional Tu dance predominantly held in Huzhu County, which has the largest Tu community of 62,780 people.

Traditional Tu weddings are incomparable affairs with elaborate rituals that encompass hundreds of wedding songs, called "daola," that are sung over days and nights with great variations in melody and contents.

Origins and History

The origins of the Tu are reflected in the local folktales that accounted the struggles the Tu ancestors, Donghu , with the Wangmang people about three thousand years ago in northeast China. Donghu first developed bronze technology in northeast China, where proto-Mongolian language was spoken, and developed into powerful coalitions formed by the Donghu, Wuheng , and Xianbei tribes during the 8th to 2nd centuries BC.

Origins as the Murong of the Xianbei kingdom

After Donghu was annihilated by Xiongnu at the beginning of the Han Dynasty, Wuheng and Xianbei moved respectively to Mt. Wuheng and Mt. Xianbei. The Murong Section of Xianbei resided towards the north, and because of their lighter skin, they were referred to as "Bai Bu" , by the other Xianbei sections that resided in the west. After the Han defeated Xiongnu , Xianbei forced inside the Great Wall and annexed the Wuheng tribe, moved further to the vast grassland of Mongolia, and killed the Xiongnu chief, Shanyu Youliu , thereby taking over the Xiongnu territory and a powerful Xianbei Kingdom was formed under the leadership of Tanshihuai .

In 235 AD, the last Khan of Xianbei, Kebineng, was assassinated by the Wei Kingdom , and resulted in the disintegration of the Xianbei Kingdom. The Murong section separated first, led by Mohuba , to submit under Wei. He was succeeded by his son Muyan in 246, and grandson, Shegui , the latter of whom was appointed as the Xianbei Khan . After She Gui died in 283, his brother, Nai , first took the position of the Khan and, after being killed, was replaced by his younger son, Murong Gui . In 284, an internal feud developed between Murong Gui and his older brother, Tuyuhun, which folktales accounted to be caused by a horse race and in fact by disputes over the position of the Khan. As a result of the dispute, Tuyuhun led his people, proclaimed as the , and undertook the long westward journey, whereby the official history of the Tu people began.

Westward migration to Qinghai

Tuyuhun "migrated westward 4,000 kilometers" to pass the territories of the Yuwen and Duan sections , further crossing the Bai sections in the Ru River and Mt. Bai to settle by Mt. Yin facing the Yellow River. In 315, Tuyuhun crossed the river and move southward to settle on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, whereby the Tu presence in northwest China began. Two years later, Tuyuhun died at the age of 72 years old and was succeeded by his oldest son, Yeyan . Yeyan occupied the land of Xiqiang through military conquest and established capital at Gansong , occupying a vast territory that covered the great Marshes of Gannan and Shaqiang , the upper and middle streams of the Tao River , and reached the Ruoergai Marshes . After overtaking the Aba Grasslands , they expanded northwest along the Yellow River, Mt. Great Jishishan and Mt. Bailan .

Expansion

The subsequent Tuyuhun Khans vastly expanded the territory. Achai developed diplomatic relationships with the Liu-Song Dynasty , and expanded southwest to the east of River Jinsha , the middle and upper streams of Yalong River , Greater and Lesser Jinchuan , and the Qiang areas around the Dadu River . He further expanded across Bailan to the other Qiang areas along the Tongtian River , and opened a route into the Xinu Kingdom , current Lhasa and Nepal. In the northwest, he annexed the territories of Yifu and Qihan and further expanded northward to reach the south of River Ruo . His son, Mugui , brought the kingdom to its highest peak, by annexing West Qin and eliminating Haolian Xia , and further expanding the territory to the upper streams of the Wei River . At the southeast, the Kingdom extended to the Baishui River area . After his death in 436, his brother, Muliyan , succeeded to be the Khan. In face of the growing and expanding North Wei from the east, he undertook a famous westward campaign to eliminate the smaller kingdoms and to expand into the northwest of the present Tibet. After he died in 452, his son Shiyan succeeded him as Khan and further expanded to annex the south of the Great Chaidamu Basin under his territory. Through these successful military conquests, he was able to expand into North Wei by 471.

Subsequently major changes took place in central China. Yang Jian replaced the North Zhou with Sui Dynasty. The Tuyuhun leadership did not adapt with changes in foreign policy and engaged in decades of warfare with the Sui. By 576, internal conflicts developed within the kingdom and brought it to a gradual decline. The Tuyuhun Khan, Kualu , repeatedly abolished his heirs, killing those who were deemed not loyal, and further sent troops to assault the Sui and provoked the Sui to send troops to attack the Kingdom. Turmoil ensued and portions of the kingdom abandoned Tuyuhun and surrendered to the Sui.

Tibet breaks away from the Tuyuhun kingdom

After the Tang Dynasty was established, the Chinese defeated the in the north. Because the Tuyuhun kingdom controlled the crucial trade routes between the east and the west, the kingdom became the immediate target of attack by the Tang. Meanwhile, as the Tuyuhun kingdom underwent a decline through internal conflicts under the changing international politics, the region called Tubo , located in the southwest of the Kingdom, developed rapidly and expanded northward, directly threatening the kingdom. Songzanganbu united the entire Tubo region and moved its capital to present Lhasa. The exile Tuyuhun Khan, Dayan , submitted himself under Tubo, which resorted to an excuse that Tuyuhun objected its marriage with the Tang and sent 200,000 troops to attack. Tuyuhun troops retreated to the Qinghai area, whereas Tubo went eastward to attack the Dangxiang groups and reached the southern Gansu. The Tang Government was shocked and sent five troops to fight. Although Tubo withdrew in response, Tuyuhun lost much of its territory in southern Gansu. Meanwhile, the Tuyuhun Government was split between the pro-Tubo and pro-Tang fractions, with the former increasingly becoming stronger. In the struggle between the different fractions, the pro-Tubo fractions corroborated with Tubo and brought the Tubo troops to attack the Kingdom. The Tang sent the famous general, Xue Rengui , who led 100,000 troops to fight Tubo in Dafeichuan . They were annihilated by the ambush of 200,000 troops of Dayan and Tobu, which became the biggest debacle in the Tang history.

Split into eastern and western kingdoms

After the war, the originally independent and unified Tuyuhun kingdom fell into the east and west Tuyuhun kingdoms, respectively controlled by two puppet governments supported by the Tang in the east and the Tibetan kings in the west. The west Tuyuhun was placed under the total control of Tubo and served as its base to attack Tang and main procurement for material goods and soldiers. The east Tuyuhun was distributed on the eastern side of Mt. Qilian and increasingly migrated eastward to central China, particularly following the An Shi Rebellion and the continued attacks of Tubo. The Anshi Turmoil shook the Tang Dynasty and caused its emperor to flee, during which Tubo overtook the entire territory of Tuyuhun. The former Khan and officials of Tuyuhun were forced to serve under the reign of Tubo until the internal turmoil developed within the Tubo Government and massive revolts brought an end to its ruling.

Tuyuhun diaspora

Following the fall of the Tuyuhun Kingdom, the Tuyuhun people underwent continuous diasporas and were widely distributed over the vast territory in the north of the Yellow River, which stretched from the northwest to the central and eastern parts of China that covered the present Qinghai, Gansu, Shaanxi, Ningxia, Inner Mongolia, Shanxi, Hebei, Henan, and Shandong Provinces. Through the later dynasties, many Tuyuhun descendants became high-ranking officials and military generals. For example, the legendary general, Murong Yanzhao , played a key role in the founding of the Song Dynasty and enjoyed the highest ranking position under its first emperor, Zhao Kuangyin . As an overall trend, the Tuyuhun people underwent constant dispersal and gradual absorption into other ethnic groups, the bulk into the Han.

Northern Tu establish the West Xia kingdom

In the eleventh century, the Tu who disseminated northward established the Xixia Kingdom, which also had a mixture of Dangxiang Qiang. When the Mongolians troops marched southward in the thirteen century, Xixia resisted for 22 years before it was eventually overrun. The Tu settlement in the current Qinghai, Gansu, and Yunnan occurred after the fall of Xixia. A continuous cluster distribution was maintained especially in Qinghai until after the Ming Dynasty, during which the Han migrations occurred and increasingly disrupted the former settlement of the Tu. In the following centuries, the Tu population underwent further decline from more dispersals and absorption into other populations. The assimilation occurred predominantly into the prevailing populations around them. Few were absorbed into Tibetans, some into Muslims, and the bulk of the Tu who dispersed in central China became Han Chinese.

Modern Tu groups

By the turn of the 20th century, the Tu were found predominantly in Qinghai, Gansu, and Yunnan. The Tu population declined from nearly 4 million during the peak of the Tuyuhun Kingdom to about 49,000 when the People's Republic of China was founded in 1949. During the 1950s, the Chinese Government launched a large-scale nationwide survey to grasp the precise locations and numbers of all the ethnic groups in China. The Tu were identified as one of the official nationalities in the initial classification in 1953. Because the sub-groups have been separated and lived in isolation, surrounded by other ethnic groups, they have been under different extents of linguistic and cultural influences from the surrounding peoples. The Huzhu Tu live among the Tibetans and absorbed more influence from the Tibetan language, whereas the Minhe Tu show greater influence from the Han Chinese, an overall pattern demonstrated in the Tuyuhun culture which adopted the Chinese language and Confucianism since the early Xianbei period. The bulk of the Tu who have been absorbed into the Han Chinese, and some who became Tibetan Buddhists and no longer carried the ethnic characteristics to be identified as Tu. After another half a century passed, the Tu population increased to over 200,000 in China by the turn of this century.

The Tu are the direct descendants of the Xianbei Nationality. After the bulk of Xianbei have been absorbed into the Han and other groups hundreds of years ago, the Tu have kept intact the unique cultural heritages of Xianbei. After thousands of years, the Tu legends continue to give off the reminiscence of the struggles that the earliest Tu ancestors had had with the Wangmang people, and the unique Nadun celebration vividly demonstrates the intense warfare that took place during the Three Kingdoms, at a time when Tuyuhun separated from Xianbei. In absence of a written language, Xianbei and Tuyuhun relied on the Chinese language to record and communicate officially, which is a feature maintained in the elaborate Tu wedding songs and rituals at present. As a result of continuous military expansions over a vast territory and annexation of diverse nomadic groups, the Tu language and culture absorbed the vocabulary and cultural elements of these groups, including the Shatuo Turks who submitted allegiance under Tuyuhun. The original religion of Tuyuhun was the Chinese Buddhism, which subsided following the westward migration and gradually gave way to the increasingly strong influence of the Tibetan Buddhism in northwest China.

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*Louis MJ Schram. 1961. The Monguors of the Kansu-Tibetan Frontier: Part III. Records of the Monguor Clans. Philadelphia: Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 51:3.
*Louis Schram . 2006. 蒙古尔部族的组织 meng gu er bu zu de zu zhi . 青海民族研究 qing hai min zu yan jiu . 1:29-36.
*Louis Schram . 2006. meng gu er bu zu de zu zhi 蒙古尔部族的组织 . 青海民族研究 qing hai min zu yan jiu) . 2:10-14.
*Dominik Schröder. 1952/1953. Zur Religion der Tujen des Sininggebietes . Anthropos 47:1-79, 620-658, 822-870; 48:202-249.
*Dominik Schröder. 1959. Aus der Volksdicntung der Monguor ; 1. Teil: Das weibe Glücksschaf . Asiatische Forschungen 6. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz.
*Dominik Schröder. 1964. Der dialekt der Monguor In B. Spuler, editor Mongolistik. . Leiden: EJ Brill.
*Dominik Schröder. 1970. Aus der Volksdichtung der Monguor ; 2. Teil: In den Tagen der Urzeit . Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz.
*Keith Slater. Mangghuer In Janhunen 2003:307-324.
*Keith W. Slater. 2003. Minhe Mangghuer: A Mongolic Language of China’s Qinghai-Gansu Sprachbund. Curzon Asian Linguistic Series 2. London: RoutledgeCurzon.
*Albrecht de Smedt & Antoine Mostaert . Le dialecte monguor parlé par les Mongols du Kansou occidental, Ière partie: Phonétique. Anthropos 24: 145-166, 801-815; 25: 657-669, 961 973; 26: 253.
*Albrecht De Smedt & Antoine Mostaert . Le dialecte monguor parlé par les Mongols du Kansou occidental, IIIe partie: Dictionnaire monguor-français. Pei-p’ing: Imprimerie de l’Université Catholique.
*Albrecht De Smedt & Antoine Mostaert . Le dialecte monguor parlé par les Mongols du Kansou occidental, IIe partie: Grammaire. Monumenta Serica, Monograph 6. Peking.
*Elliot Sperling. 1997. A Note on the Chi-kya Tribe and the Two Qi Clans in Amdo. Les habitants du Toit du monde, Recherches sur la Haute Asie, 12:111-124.
*Kevin Stuart and Hu Jun. 1992. Death and Funerals Among the Minhe Tu . Asian Folklore Studies 51:2, 67 87.
*Kevin Stuart and Hu Jun. 1993. ‘That All May Prosper’: The Monguor Nadun of the Guanting / Sanchuan Region. Anthropos 88:15-27.
*Kevin Stuart and Limusishiden, editors. 1994. China’s Monguor Minority: Ethnography and Folktales. Sino-Platonic Papers No 59.
*Sun Zhu, editor. 1990. Menggu yuzu yuyan cidian . Xining: Qinghai renmin chubanshe .
*Thu’u bkwan Blo bzang chos kyi nyi ma. 1989 . Lcang skya Rol pa’i rdo rje’i rnam thar. Lanzhou: Gansu’u mi rigs dpe skrun khang.
*Buljash Khojchievna Todaeva. 1959. Über die Sprache der Tung-hsiang. Acta Orientalia Hungarica 9: 273-310.
*Buljash Khojchievna Todaeva. 1961. Dunsyanskii yazyk. Moskva: Institut narodov Aziï AN SSSR.
*Buljash Khojchievna Todaeva. 1963. Einige Besonderheiten der Paoan-Sprache. Acta Orientalia Hungarica 16: 175-197.
*Buljash Khojchievna Todaeva. 1966. Baoan’skii yazyk. Moskva: Institut narodov Aziï AN SSSR.
*Buljash Khojchievna Todaeva. 1973. Mongorskii yazyk: Issledovanie, teksty, slovar . Moskva: Institut vostokovedeniya AN SSSR.
*Üjiyediin Chuluu . 1994. Introduction, Grammar, and Sample Sentences for Monguor. Sino-Platonic Papers No 57.
*Wang Xianzheng and Kevin Stuart. 1995. ‘Blue Skies and Emoluments’: Minhe Monguor Men Sing I and II. Chinese Music 18:13-18; 18::28-33.
*Wang Xianzheng, Zhu Yongzhong, and Kevin Stuart. 1995. ‘The Brightness of the World’: Minhe Monguor Women Sing. Mongolian Studies 18:65-83.
*Wang Xianzhen, writer; Zhu Yongzhong and Kevin Stuart, editors. 2001. Mangghuerla Bihuang Keli . Chengdu, China-Chengdu Audio Press.
*www. 4corners.org
*www.cybercities.com/t/westernyugur/new.htm
*www.tu.advocate.net
*Xinhua. 8 May 2004. http://202.84.17.11/english/china_abc/minzu.htm.
*Zhaonasitu, editor. Tuzu yu jianchi . Beijing: Minzu chubanshe .
*Zhu Yongzhong and Kevin Stuart. 1996. Minhe Monguor Nadun Texts. CHIME 9:Autumn, 89-105.
*Zhu Yongzhong and Kevin Stuart. 1996. A Minhe Monguor Drinking Song. Central Asiatic Journal 40:283-289.
*Zhu Yongzhong and Kevin Stuart. 1997. Minhe Monguor Children’s Games. Orientalia Suecana XLV-XLVI:179-216.
*Zhu Yongzhong and Kevin Stuart. Education Among the Minhe Monguor IN Postiglione .
*Zhu Yongzhong and Kevin Stuart. 1999. ‘Two Bodhisattvas From the East’: Minhe Monguor Funeral Orations. Journal of Contemporary China 8:179-188.
*Zhu Yongzhong, Üjiyediin Chuluu , Keith Slater, and Kevin Stuart. 1997. Gangou Chinese Dialect: A Comparative Study of a Strongly Altaicized Chinese Dialect and Its Mongolic Neighbor. Anthropos 92:433-450.
*Zhu Yongzhong, Üjiyediin Chuluu , and Kevin Stuart. 1995. The Frog Boy: An Example of Minhe Monguor. Orientalia Suecana XLII-XLIV:197-207.
*Zhu Yongzhong, Üjiyediin Chuluu, and Kevin Stuart. 1999. NI in Minhe Mangghuer and Other Mongol Languages. Archív Orientální 67 :323-338.

Chinese Xibe people

2008-09-03T20:02:00.001-07:00

The Xibe are an ethnic group living mostly in northeast China and Xinjiang. They form one of the officially recognized by the People's Republic of China.

History

The Xibe originally lived on the and river valleys in central Manchuria. They are known as one of the nine states that were defeated by Nurhaci in the Battle of Gure in 1593. They were under loose domination of the Khorchin Mongols even after the Khorchin came under the control of the Manchu Qing Dynasty.

The Xibe started to make direct contact with the Qing Dynasty when it conducted military campaigns against Russia. They provided logistical support to the Qing. In 1692, the Khorchin dedicated the Xibe, the Gūwalca and the Daur to the Kangxi Emperor in exchange for silver. The Xibe was incorporated into the Eight Banners and were stationed in Qiqihar and other cities in Manchuria.

After conquering Eastern Turkestan, the Qianlong Emperor garrisoned part of the Xibe there in 1764 to defend the new frontier. They formed a community in the region south of the Ili River.

Culture

The traditional dress of the Xibe was similar to the traditional dress of the Manchus. Nowadays almost all the Xibe wear Western clothing and the traditional clothing is worn by elders during festivals.

Traditionally, the Xibe were divided into ''hala'', clans consisting of people who shared the same surname. Until modern times, the dwellings of the Xibe housed up to three different generations from a same family, since it was believed that while the father was alive no son could break the family clan and to leave the house.

Language

The Xibe in northeast China speak as their first language. In Xinjiang, descendants of the Qing dynasty military garrison preserve their language, which is an innovative dialect of the . Unlike the Manchu language, the Xibe language is reported to have eight vowel distinctions as opposed to the six found in Manchu, differences in morphology, and a complex kind of vowel harmony. The general vocabulary and structure of Xibe has not been affected as much by the influence of Chinese as Manchu has been. However, there are a number of Chinese loanwords, and a large body of sociological terminology, such as ''gəming'' and ''gungshə'' , have been borrowed from Chinese and incorporated into the everyday vocabulary of the language. They use the , a slightly revised .

* The Xibe believe that they are descendants of the Xianbei.
* Dr. Pamela Kyle Crossley, Professor of History at Dartmouth College, asserts that the Russians named Siberia after the Sibe/Xibe.

References

* Wu Yuanfen, Zhao Zhiqiang. 1981. "Xibozu xiqian gaishu" . ''Minzu yanjiu'' 2:22-29.
* Ramsey, S. Robert. 1987. ''The Languages of China''. Princeton University Press, Princeton New Jersey ISBN 0-691-06694-9
* ''C. G. Mannerheimin Valokuvia Aasian-Matkalta 1906-1908 '', ISBN: 9511113577. Contains photographs of Xibe/Xibo and other ethnic groups.

Chinese Yugur People

2008-09-03T20:01:00.011-07:00

The Yugurs ,
or Yellow as they are traditionally known,
are one of China's , consisting of 13,719 persons according to the 2000 census. The Yugur live primarily in Sunan Yugur Autonomous County in Province.

About 4,600 of the Yugurs speak a and about 2,800 a Mongolic language; the remaining Yugurs of the Autonomous County lost their respective Yugur language and speak . A very small number of the Yugur reportedly speak . They use Chinese for intercommunication. Both Yugur languages are now unwritten, although vertical Uyghur script was in use in some Yugur communities till end of 18th century.

The Turkic speaking Yugurs are considered to be the descendants of a group of Uyghurs who fled from Mongolia southwards to Gānsù, after the collapse of the Uyghur Empire in 840 A.D., and soon established there a prosperous Ganzhou Kingdom with capital near present Zhangye city on the foots of in the valley of the Ejin River . Population of this Kingdom, that was estimated at 300,000 in Song Dynasty chronicles, worshipped Manichaeism and Buddhism in numerous temples flourished throughout the country and had forcibly been incorporated into Tangut Kingdom, despite of fierce resistance, after bloody war of 1028-1036 A.D.. The Mongolic speaking Yugurs are probably the descendants of one of the Mongolic speaking groups invading northern China during the Mongol conquests in the thirteenth century. The Yugurs were eventually incorporated in the Chinese Qing empire in 1696, during the reign of the second emperor Kangxi .

The nationality's current, official name, Yugur, derived from the Yugur's autonym: the Turkic speaking Yugur designate themselves as ''Yogïr'' or ''Sarïg Yogïr'' , and the Mongolic speaking Yugur likewise use either ''Yogor'' or ''Šera Yogor'' . Chinese historical documents have recorded these ethnonyms as ''Sālǐ Wèiwù'ěr'' or ''Xīlǎgǔ'ěr''. During the Qing dynasty, the Yugur were also called ''Huángfān'' . In order to distinguish both groups and their languages, Chinese linguists coined the terms ''Xībù Yùgù'' and ''Dōngbù Yùgù'' , based on their geographical distribution.

The Turkic speaking Yugur mainly live in the western part of the County in Mínghuā District, in the Townships of Liánhuā and Mínghǎi, and in Dàhé District, in the centre of the County.
The Mongolic speaking Yugur mainly live in the County's eastern part, in Huángchéng District, and in Dàhé and Kānglè Districts, in the centre of the County.

The traditional religion of the Yugur is Tibetan Buddhism, which used to be practiced alongside shamanism.

The Yugur people are predominantly employed in animal husbandry.

Literature

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Chinese Russians People

2008-09-03T20:01:00.009-07:00

Russians in China form one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the People's Republic of China. They are the descendants of Russians who settled in China, and hold Chinese rather than Russian citizenship.

History

The first Russians recorded to have settled in China were the who joined the Manchu imperial guard in 1685. Significant immigration began in 1897 with the construction of the China Far East Railway and increased after Russia's October Revolution. In the years after the establishment of the People's Republic of China, many Russians either or were repatriated to the Soviet Union; only a minority remained behind in China.

There is a district of Beijing known as Russiatown. It is settled primarily by Russian tradesmen from Siberia. The focal point of the district is a large market. Business s are mostly in and written in the Cyrillic alphabet, a surprise to many tourists.

Prominent Russians in China

* Chiang Fang-liang, the First Lady of the Republic of China in 1978-88
* Nikolai Lunev, deputy to the tenth Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference

Chinese Uzbeks People

2008-09-03T20:01:00.007-07:00

The Uzbeks are a of Central Asia. They comprise the majority population of Uzbekistan, and large populations can also be found in Afghanistan, Tajikstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Russia and the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China. Smaller diaspora populations of Uzbeks from Central Asia are also found in Iran, Turkey, North America, and Western Europe.

Name

The origin of the name ''Uzbek'' remains disputed. One view holds that it is eponymously named after Uzbeg Khan, although the nomadic Uzbeks were never entirely subject to him . An etymological argument states that the name means ''independent'' or the ''lord itself'', from O'z and Bek .

Contemporary indigenous sources usually used the term Uzbek to refer to uncultured individuals, especially nomads and rural peasants.

Origins

Although Altaic infiltration into Central Asia had started early, as late as the 13th century AD when and Mongol armies finally conquered the entire region, the majority of Central Asia's peoples were such as Sogdians, Bactrians and, more ancient, the Saka–Massagetae tribes. It is generally believed that these ancient peoples were linguistically assimilated by smaller but dominant Turkic-speaking groups while the sedentary population finally adopted the Persian language, the traditional ''lingua franca'' of the eastern Islamic lands. The language-shift from Middle Iranian to Turkic and New Persian was predominantly the result of an ''elite dominance'' process. This process was dramatically boosted during the when millions were either killed or pushed further south to the Pamir region.

The modern Uzbek language is largely derived from the , an Eastern Turkic language which gained prominence in the Mongol . The position of Chagatai was further strengthened after the fall of the Timurids and the rise of the that finally shaped the Turkic language and identity of modern Uzbeks, while the unique grammatical and phonetical features of the Uzbek language as well as the modern Uzbek culture reflect the more ancient Iranic roots of the Uzbek people.

Genetic origins

The modern Uzbek population represents varying degrees of diversity derived from the high traffic invasion routes through Central Asia. Once populated by tribes and other Indo-European people, Central Asia experienced numerous invasions emanating out of Mongolia that would drastically impact the region. According to recent Genetic genealogy testing from a University of Chicago study, the Uzbeks cluster somewhere between the Mongols and the Iranian peoples.

From the 3d century B.C., Central Asia experienced nomadic expansions of Altaic-speaking oriental-looking people, and their incursions continued for hundreds of years, beginning with the Hsiung-Nu , in ~300 B.C., and followed by the Turks, in the 1st millennium A.D., and the Mongol expansions of the 13th century. High levels of haplogroup 10 and its derivative, haplogroup 36, are found in most of the Altaic-speaking populations and are a good indicator of the genetic impact of these nomadic groups. The expanding waves of Altaic-speaking nomads involved not only eastern Central Asia—where their genetic contribution is strong, as is shown in figure 7d—but also regions farther west, like Iran, Iraq, Anatolia, and the Caucasus, as well as Europe, which was reached by both the Huns and the Mongols. In these western regions, however, the genetic contribution is low or undetectable , even though the power of these invaders was sometimes strong enough to impose a language replacement, as in Turkey and Azerbaijan . The difference could be due to the population density of the different geographical areas. Eastern regions of Central Asia must have had a low population density at the time, so an external contribution could have had a great genetic impact. In contrast, the western regions were more densely inhabited, and it is likely that the existing populations were more numerous than the conquering nomads, therefore leading to only a small genetic impact. Thus, the admixture estimate from northeast Asia is high in the east, but is barely detectable west of Uzbekistan.

The Uzbek population, according to this study, shows substantial Caucasoid admixture. The Uzbeks display a much closer genetic relationship with Turkic roots traits than with Iranic populations to the south and west. Another study out of Uzbekistan corroborates this genetic evidence as to the origins of the modern Uzbeks and other regional Turk peoples:

These migrations are reflected in the DNA, too, and it is clear that despite the majority of modern Central Asians speaking Turkic languages, they derive much of their genetic heritage from the conquering Mongol warriors of Genghis Khan.

The Turkic people as a whole share common languages and many common cultural traits, but do not have common origins. The Uzbeks are descended to a large degree from Turkic invaders whose invasions span literally millennia from the first millennium CE with the early migrations of the G& to later invasions by the Uzbeks themselves during the early and mid period of the 2nd millennium. Throughout the centuries, these migrating Altaic peoples began to outnumber the native Iranian people of Central Asia and appear to have assimilated the vast majority through intermarriage, while mainly the Tajiks survived albeit with some Turk intermingling as well. Thus, in the case of Uzbekistan and most other Central Asian states, it was not only a process of language replacement, such as what took place in Turkey and Azerbaijan, but also a mass migration and population replacement that helped to shape the modern Turk people of Uzbekistan and other Central Asian states.

History

Ancient History

In ancient times, various Altaic-speaking tribes began to move to the area between the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers. Some of these early tribes included the Huns who eventually occupied this region around the 3rd century BC and continued their conquests further south and west.

13th-16th Century

Following Arab incursions into the region, Islam supplanted Buddhism and other religions in Central Asia, while local Iranian languages survived into the 2nd millennium . What drastically changed the demographics of Central Asia was the invasion of the Mongols led by Genghis Khan in the 13th century. Numerous native populations were wiped out by the Mongols and a process of population replacement began in earnest. During this period numerous Turkic tribes began to migrate and ultimately replace many of the Iranian peoples who were largely killed, absorbed by larger Turco-Mongolian groups, and/or pushed further south and Central Asia came to be known as Turkestan. Much of modern Uzbekistan took shape during the reign of Tamerlane, a prominent Turkic conqueror who reigned over a vast empire from his capital at Samarkand . Later, between the 15th and 16th centuries, various nomadic tribes arrived from the steppes including the Kipchaks, Naymans, Kanglis, Kungrats, s and others and these tribes were led by Muhammad Shaybani who was the of the Uzbeks. This period marked the beginnings of the modern Uzbek nationality and formation of an Uzbek state in what is today Uzbekistan , as these tribes were the first to use the name 'Uzbek' . This early Uzbek state challenged the Safavids and Mughals, for control over the land that is now modern Afghanistan.

19th and early 20th century

Within a few generations of Shaybani Khan's death, the Uzbek state broke up into three major khanates based in Bukhara, Khiva, and Kokand until the early 19th century. The Russian Empire eventually infiltrated Central Asia and the Khanates were annexed to the empire during the mid to late 19th century. Until 1924, the bulk of the settled Turkic population of Russian Turkestan, who were of very heterogeneous descent, were known as Sarts by the colonial authorities, and only those groups speaking Kipchak dialects who had arrived in the region with Muhammad Shaybani Khan were called 'Uzbeks'. In 1924, when the new Uzbek SSR was created, the Soviets abolished the term 'Sart' and decreed that all settled Turkic speakers would henceforth be known as Uzbeks. Uzbekistan, under Russian and then later Soviet administration, became multi-ethnic as populations from throughout the former Soviet Union moved to Central Asia. Now, people of Uzbek nationality can be found with different characteristics, from light skinned to dark toned skin colors, from blue eyes to black eyes, from blonds to brunettes.

Language

The Uzbek language is an Altaic language and is part of Karluk group of Turkic languages. Modern Uzbek bears the closest resemblance to , slightly less to and to . Modern Uzbek is written in wide variety of scripts including Arabic, Latin, and Cyrillic. After the independence of Uzbekistan from the former Soviet Union, the government decided to replace the Cyrillic script with a modified Latin alphabet, specifically for Turkic languages.

Modern Uzbek has also absorbed a considerable vocabulary and - to a much lesser degree - certain grammatical elements from non-Turk languages, most of all from as well as Arabic and among others.

Religion

Uzbeks come from a predominantly Sunni Muslim background, usually of the Hanafi school,. but variations exist between northern and southern Uzbeks. The majority of Uzbeks from the former USSR came to practice religion with a more liberal interpretation due to the official Soviet policy of atheism, while Uzbeks in Afghanistan and other countries to the south have remained more conservative adherents of Islam. However, with Uzbek independence in 1991 came an Islamic revival amongst segments of the population. People living in the area of modern Uzbekistan were first converted to Islam as early as the 8th century AD, as Arab troops invaded the area, displacing the earlier faiths of Zoroastrianism and Buddhism. The Arab victory over the Chinese in 751, at the Battle of Talas, ensured the future dominance of Islam in Central Asia.

Notes

References

*
* Calum MacLeod, Bradley Mayhew “Uzbekistan. Golden Road to Samarkand” page31.
*
*
*
*
* ''Great Soviet Encyclopedia'', Part 9, pages 483-489
*

Chinese Deang People

2008-09-03T20:01:00.005-07:00

The De'ang people are an ethnic group. They form one of the officially recognized by the People's Republic of China. They also live in Burma , where they are recognised by the government as an ethnic minority within the Shan national race, as well as in Thailand. They speak a of the Palaungic group called Palaung or "Ta-ang".

History

In 1949, those living in China received the name of Benglong and in 1985 were given present name of Ta'ang, at the request of the members of this ethnic group.

Culture

Most of the houses of the De'ang are of bamboo, with wooden structures. The doors of the houses are always opened towards the east. Each family has its own house which are usually two stories in height. The first floor is used as a barn and stable, while the second floor serves as living quarters.

The women dress differently depending on the area they reside in. Normally they dress in short jackets, black or white in color, decorated with velvet tassels of different colors. Skirts, with drawings in red targets are more commonly worn than trousers.
The men dress in blue or white short jackets with wide, long trousers. They cover their heads with white or black handkerchiefs. In some towns the men have tattoos on their body that represent tigers, birds or flowers.

Language

The Palaung language belongs to the Palaungic sub-group of the group of languages and forms a bridge between Mon and Khasi .

Religion

Most De'ang are adherents of Buddhism and Buddhist temples can be found in most of their towns. Buddhism is present in all of the daily activities of this ethnic group. As of age of 10, many children are sent to the monasteries. Most of them return to lay life years later.

BACKGROUND OF PALAUNG STATE LIBERATION FRONT

The Palaung National Front was set up on the 12th of January, 1963, at the time when national leaders from different parts of Shan State. On 12th January, 1976 Mai Kwan Toung, one of the military commanders of the PNF who had allied himself with the Kachin Independence Army , set up the Palaung State Liberation Organization and its armed wing, the Palaung State Liberation Army .

On the 27th of April 1991, a sad day for the Palaung people, the PSLP, PSLA had no choice made and a cease-fire agreement with the SLORC. However, some members of the party, dissatisfied with the cease- fire and refusal to make an acceptable political settlement, then formed the Palaung State Liberation Front on January 12th, 1992 in Manerplaw KNU HQs, under the leadership of Mai Tin Moung. On May 2, 1994, Mai Tin Moung was assassinated.

Ko Mya Moung also known as Mai Aik Pan: Member of PSLP in 1984 to 1991, member of PSLF in 1992 to 2000. He was elected Joint Secretary in 2000. He was arrested by SPDC on October 1, 2001, and he died in Molumein prison on July 31, 2002.

“Although we are not qualified we should have our own idea, own territory, own party and own armed forces. Therefore, anyone else should be ready to fight against and to give there live for their nationalities, territories and rights”.

Mai Aik Pan

THE AIMS OF THE PALAUNG STATE LIBERATION FRONT

* To free all nationalities from oppression.

* To remove dictatorship and rebuild genuine peace.

* To oppose narrow and superior minded racism.

* To secure the unconditional release of all political prisoners.

* To demand a nationwide cease-fire and tripartite dialogs.

* To fully obtain democracy and human rights.

* To establish national equality and self-determination comprised of all ethnic nationalities States.

* To maintain cultural values and a national identity.

* To oppose narcotic drugs.

Trend of PSLF, to implement the aims above

We are still fighting against the military junta, called State Peace and Development Council . We are joining hand in hand with our alliance. PSLF is now member of National Democratic Front , Democratic Alliance of Burma , and National Coalition Union of Burma and Shan State Nationalities Solidarity Committee . Most of PSLF member are living in Palaung State and some are base at Thai Burma border side. We are attempting together with our alliance for achieving real democracy and the rights of ethnic nationalities in Burma.

In memorial and great honor of late martyrs Mai Tin Moung, Mai Aik Pan, Mai Aik Kyein, Mai Ah Maung and the milestone of 40 year anniversary of the Palaung National Revolution Day, on the 12th of January, due to this occasion leaflet was published and issued. Mai Tin Moung also known as Mai Dwio Vang. He jointed PSLP in 1989 to 1991. In 1992 he was elected he first PSLF’s chairman. He was assassinated on May 2, 1994 in Manaplaw KNU headquarters.

“Our country is full of valuable natural resources. Our indigenous nationalities are desperately poor and struggling for their basic rights and freedoms. At the same time, we encourage them to unite to protect our natural resources from destruction by the developed countries. Let us save them for the future of the next generations”

Mai Tin Maung

“Mai Thien Maung also known as Ah Maung: Member of PSLF in 1999 to 2002. Lance Corporal. He died in the frontline for nationals on January 4th, 2002. He was a soldier of sound character well as strictly in the discipline.”

“Ko Ba Chit also known as Mai Aik Kyein: Member of PSLP in 1984- 1997. Member of PSLF in 1999 to 2002 joint commander of PSLF. He died in the frontline for his nationals on January 3, 2002.’

“The main source is not quantity; it is only the courageous spirits against unfair and unjust matters, dictatorship and all destructive elements.”

Mai Aik Kyein

PALAUNG STATEMENT: Palaung Struggle Movement

An Independent Report by the Karen Human Rights Group
Manerplaw, July 3, 1992

The following statements were made by ethnic Palaung men, from Palaung land in what is officially northwestern Shan State. They arrived in Manerplaw after being among the 2,000 convicts in Mandalay jail who were taken to be frontline porters at the Naw Hta front of the SLORC’s dry season offensive against Manerplaw. They escaped into the care of the Karen National Union. In the interest of their safety and that of their families, no details can be given which could be used to directly identify them. Their descriptions of the situation in Palaung land and of their time as porters are taken from personal experience. Their descriptions of prison life are a combination of personal experience, things they witnessed firsthand, and the personal experiences which other prisoners related to them.

Statements: The SLORC has a Four Cuts program against people in Palaung land. They try to cut off food supplies, communication with the people, and finances to the Palaung State Liberation Party , and to cut off the heads of revolutionaries. As part of their Four Cuts policy, in January and February 1991 they forced all the Palaung villagers in the entire Palaung revolutionary area to move to the towns. The troops went into every village, collected the villagers and marched them to the towns with whatever they could carry. About 100,000 villagers altogether were forced to move to big relocation camps near the towns. These were like refugee camps, but they were guarded and there was no supply of medicine and never enough food. No one was ever allowed to leave the camps, and there was no way to build a house. Families just lived outside on the ground. Fortunately it was dry season so there was no rain.

Meanwhile, there were almost no more Palaung villagers in the countryside. Anytime SLORC troops saw firelight at night or any other sign of life in a village they went and burned the village down. They burned down 22 villages, 2 monasteries, a church and several schools in Palaung land last year alone.

At the relocation camps the troops interrogated anyone they suspected of knowing anything about the PSLP, raped a lot of women, and killed people every day. They kept telling the villagers “You should suggest to the PSLP that they make a ceasefire with us. Otherwise, all of you may die.” The PSLP leaders heard that this was happening; and because they are Palaung themselves and love their own Palaung people who had always supported them, they had no choice but to make a compromise with the SLORC in late April 1991. They agreed to a ceasefire but would not lay down arms, and only on the condition that all villagers be released from the relocation camps. Now the villagers have gone back home and their PSLP still lives in the revolutionary area, while the SLORC troops mostly stay near the towns. Sometimes you even see a SLORC soldier and a PSLP soldier in the same town market, both carrying their arms. The people are still unhappy and support the PSLP, because they have no freedom and they know that the SLORC could still attack or imprison them again anytime they like.

As part of the compromise, the SLORC promised to do a lot of development in Palaung land. They’ve build one bridge between Pan Lo and Nam Shan, across the Myinge River, and a few pagodas the Palaung people are very religious – but that’s all. We see them taking a lot of logs on trucks out to China.

The SLORC’s compromise with the PSLP did not stop them from taking political prisoners. There are Palaung among the 500 or so political prisoners and the 7,000 ordinary prisoners in Mandalay Prison. In Mandalay, when political prisoners are first brought in they’re put alone into a “dark” cell. A “dark” cell is about 4 feet by 4 feet with no light and no window, not even in the door. When they shut you in it’s pitch dark, all the time. There’s just a bare concrete floor and no toilet. You have to urinate and defecated on the floor, and they never clean the cell except maybe between prisoners. Occasionally, a guard opens a little hatch in the ceiling to look in, but just for a moment. Twice a day they slide some food through a hatch in the bottom of the door.

Prisoners are kept in these dark cells as long as their interrogation period lasts; there’s no time limit. They’re only allowed out to be interrogated. One of them joked that “When I’m in the dark cell I’m a free man – free to sit down or lie down, whenever I like”.

Dark cell prisoners are regularly taken for interrogation. They take them directly from the dark cell to a “bright” cell, which is a little bigger, about 6 feet by 6 feet, with very bright Lights in the ceiling. During interrogation prisoners are badly beaten, and most suffer broken ribs or teeth. Many also have to “ride the motorcycle”: the guard makes you squat down and pretend to ride a motorcycle, making all the sounds with your mouth. He sits on your back and holds your ears and says “Make it like a real motorcycle! Go forward! Now turn left!”, like that. When he pulls on your ears you have to make the sound of the horn. Then after doing this for a while, the questions and beatings start again.

When the interrogation period finally finishes, most prisoners are taken out of the special cells to go before the judge. By this time most of them can’t walk, and they’re very weak. Most of them have lost a lot of their memories, have no self-confidence, and are confused and a little bit crazy. The judges dress as civilians, but they’re under the control of the military. When they take you in front of the judge you have no lawyer. You can talk, to answer the judge’s questions, and then he sentences you.

After sentencing, most political prisoners are sent to ordinary cells, which they share with as many as 4 others. Any important political prisoners are either sent to ordinary cells where they’re alone, or kept indefinitely in a “dark” cell. In the ordinary cells light comes through the metal bars and it’s not as bad. You sleep on a thin sleeping mat on the concrete floor, and there’s a bedpan for a toilet which is cleaned out sometimes. Some prisoners have blankets their families brought them when they were sentenced. They’re lucky, because once you’re in the prison you can’t get any. Twice a day they bring rice, yellow beans and fishpaste to the cell. Between 7 a.m. and 10 a.m., and from 2 to 4 in the afternoon, they open the cell doors and the prisoners can walk up and down the 15-metre hallway outside the cells and talk with each other.

There are about 500 political prisoners and 7,000 criminal prisoners in Mandalay Prison. The criminal prisoners are generally treated better by the guards, and they don’t face so much torture or isolation.

In March about 2,000 of us were taken from the prison. Only a few were political prisoners. The guards told us they were going to renovate the prison so they had to move us out, but they didn’t say where we were going. They jammed us all onto big and small trucks - each big truck held about 60 men standing crammed together – and we set off with a convoy that must have been nearly 100 trucks. We had to stay on those trucks for 4 or 5 days. We had to stand jammed together on the truck all day, and some days we got no food at all. Some nights, if there was a big empty building available, we got to rest on the ground under guard. But other nights we had to stay on the trucks.

Eventually we got to an army camp near Pa’an town, and then we were driven another 2 days to a camp near the Naw Hta front where the SLORC was attacking Manerplaw. We got off the trucks and they loaded us down with ammunition. Each man had to carry two 120 mm mortar shells, or sometimes rice, altogether 18 or 20 viss [30-32 kilograms. It took a whole day to march up and down over the hills to the frontline. We went back and forth day after day, carrying ammunition and supplies up to the frontline and wounded soldiers back. They fed us twice a day, but it was only one small plate of plain rice, and we were always starving. At night they put each group of us inside a bamboo fence, and we rested on the ground under guard. There were no mats or blankets or anything; we were just in our prison clothes. We were allowed a bath about 3 times in 10 days. Fortunately, it was the hot and dry time of year so not many got sick. But one man in our group got diarrhoea, and he still had to keep working.

We were usually divided into groups of 30, 40, or 50, and when we marched there were about 5 porters to every soldier. We often saw porters beaten with fists and sticks. One time the tailpiece of a 120 mm shell somehow fell off and disappeared while one porter in our group was carrying it. When we arrived at the front and the soldiers found out, they were very angry and all 30 of us were beaten with sticks.

We didn’t see them kill any porters, but one time there were 4 porters who were too weak to go on any further. A couple of them could still stand, but the others couldn’t. The soldiers took away their loads and left them behind, telling them “When you can walk, follow us”. We marched on, but as we left some soldiers lingered behind with the weak porters. We never saw those porters after that.

After just over a week, we were sick of being porters. Three of us planned to escape, and once when we were sent to get water for cooking without a guard at the frontline, we ran away. It didn’t take us long to find the Karen soldiers, and then all the torture was finally over – for us at least.

RELOCATION CAMPS 1991 Information provided by PSLF
NO

CAMP

VILLAGES RELOCATED THERE
1
Hu Mung Hu Mung, Ma Lone, Sa Naam, Ho Pan, Hu Wai, Ling Dtul, Maung Oo, Pang Long
2
Hu Maing Hu Maing Pang Swe, Nam Tam, Tha Ngam, Hu Bang, Hu Lao, Nam Yan, Bang Kem, Nam Sai Kow, Pa Ma Chong, Pang Rang Ray, Hu Nam
3
Aram Aram, Man Mai, Hu Khin, Tam Sai, Ma Sat, Tong Kyaw, Nam Keu South and North, Hu Chaung, Daw – Keu- Daw Mile, Hu La, Nam Sai Kow, Pa Ma Chong, Pang Rang Ray, Hu Nam
4
Bang Sri Bang Sri, Hu Nam, Gaya Gyi, Jong Hay, Ka Nguang Do, Man Pak, Ngaw Swit, Gaung Kelaw, Alok
5
Kon Ka Kon Ka, Kying Kying, La King, Loi Jeree, Ban Kwe, Na Kaw, Kyau Lon Gyi, Ho Maung, Bang Hai, Bang Keng, Man Kau, Loi Weh, Bang Top, Hing Kut, Nyen Thap, Hai Kyat
6
Mo May Town Ye Bon, Man Teng, Taung Gyi, Ma Young, Ka Ket, Mi Gyeree, Ho Pan, Pan La
7
Man Don Man Don, Loi Kang, Bang Pai, Rao Kying, Hu Noi, Rao Myo, Daw Maw, Ho Pan, Pan La
8
Nam Tu Town Man Pat, Tha Ban, Bang Sai, Hin Pot, Man Top, Bang Wat, Bang Dong, Ka Lwee, Sun Oi, Kong Kat, Man Kya, Nam Keung
9
Nam Lin Nam Lin, Keu K un, Bang, Bang Lom, Om Lot, Ma New, Ho Hop, Ho Pat, Hai Tong, Man Lam, Man Yai, Long Top, Man Wai
10
Zyan Gyi Zyan Gyi South & North, Ding Kaya, Bang Sumei, Hu Chong
11
Main Kong Main Kong, Ba Lan, Bang Chong, Pa Bung, Bang Pao, Bang Cherok, Loi Kam, Na Ka Dong, Taw Mun, Pa Dang, Man Mun, Loi Pet, Ho Ko

Total: 11 camps, 118 villagers, 77,200 people.
This list is not complete.VILLAGES BURNED DOWN IN 1991: Ka Kyet, Ye Bon, Hu Bang, Bang Se, Hu Mang, Mah Lone, Hu Kim, Mang Mai, Hu Mein, Man Pang, Ga Ya, Bang Seree, Hu Wai, Bang Dong, Na Aw, Wang Plong, Oi Law, Nam Sai Kau, Bang Su Mein, Man Mai, Nam Lin, Rau Bran.

Chinese Jino People

2008-09-03T20:01:00.003-07:00

The Jino people are a ethnic group. They form one of the officially recognized by the People's Republic of China. They live in Xishuangbanna in Yunnan province, China.

Population distribution

This table shows the population distribution of the Jino nationality on the county level, according to the figures of the last census of 2000.

Language

The Jino language belongs to the Tibeto-Burmese branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family. According to SIL International, Jino has two dialects that are not mutually intelligible, Youle and Buyuan . There is no official written form. Most Jino also speak one of the Dai languages and/or Chinese.

External links

Chinese Vietnamese People

2008-09-03T20:01:00.001-07:00

Some areas of the southwestern People's Republic of China are inhabited by an indigenous population of . They are referred to in Chinese as the Jīng ; "Kinh" is often spelled "Gin" in Chinese government publications. They form one of the officially recognized by the People's Republic of China. They speak , mixed with dialect and mainly live on 3 islands off the coast of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. The population of the Vietnamese indigenous to China was just over 20,000 in 2000. This number does not include ethnic Vietnamese nationals from Vietnam studying or working in China.

Chinese Li people

2008-09-03T19:59:00.001-07:00

Li or Hlai is a minority Chinese ethnic group. They form one of the officially recognized by the People's Republic of China. 94% of the Li live off the southern coast of mainland China on Hainan, where they are the largest minority ethnic group.

During the Sui Dynasty they were known by the name Liliao, and presently they refer to themselves as the Hlai or Sai people.

They are held in high esteem by the Beijing government because they fought on the side of the against Chinese rule, during the Revolutionary Chinese Civil War. The Li suffered heavily under the Japanese occupation.

The Li have their own language, known as Hlai, which is classified as one of the Tai-Kadai languages . The Hlai language did not have a writing system prior to the 1950s, when the Latin alphabet was adopted. The Li people can generally understand or speak .

Culture

The Li play a traditional wind instrument called ''kǒuxiāo'' ,, and another called ''lìlāluó'' .

Chinese Kazakhs people

2008-09-03T19:58:00.008-07:00

The Kazakhs are a of the northern parts of Central Asia .

Etymology of ''Qazaq''

There are many theories on the origin of the word "Qazaq". "Qazaq" was included in a 13th century - dictionary, where its meaning was given as "independent" or "free".. Both Kazaks and later Cossacks adopted Turkic social term "qazaq" as their name. The Kazakhs began using this name during either the 15th or 16th century.

In the 19th century, one etymological theory presented was that the name came from the Kazakh legend of the white goose . In this creation myth, a white goose flying over the great steppes was impregnated by the rays of the Sun, giving birth to the first Kazak. This version was rejected by linguists, because in Turkic languages, an adjective is put before a noun, therefore, "white goose" would be ''Aqqaz'', not ''Qazaq''.

Another of the theories on the origin of the word "Kazakh" is that it comes from the ancient word ''"qazğaq"'', first mentioned on the 8th century Turkic monument of . According to the notable Turkic linguist Vasily Radlov and the orientalist Veniamin Yudin, the noun ''"qazğaq"'' derives from the same root as the verb ''"qazğan"'' . Therefore, ''"qazğaq"'' defines a type of person that seeks profit and gain.

Culture

Kazakhs are descendants of Turkic tribes , Mongol groups and Indo-Iranian tribes which populated the territory between Siberia and the Black Sea and remained in Central Asia when the Turkic and Mongolic groups started to invade and conquer the area between the fifth and thirteenth centuries AD .

Due to their complex history, Kazakhs display phenotypical diversity, though they tend to exhibit predominantly Mongoloid features.
Fair to light-brown skin tends to be the norm. Among physical traits are aquiline noses, epicanthic fold and high cheekbones. Hair colour among Kazakhs varies from prevalent jet black to red and sandy brown. Hazel, green and blue eyes are not uncommon.

Many are also skilled in the performance of Kazakh traditional songs. One of the most commonly used traditional musical instruments of the Kazakhs is the ''dombra'', a plucked lute with two strings. It is often used to accompany solo or group singing. Another popular instrument is ''kobyz'', a bow instrument played on the knees. Along with other instruments, these two instruments play a key role in the traditional Kazakh orchestra. A famous composer is Kurmangazy, who lived in the 19th century. A famous singer of the Soviet epoch is Roza Rymbaeva, she was a star of the trans-Soviet-Union scale. A famous Kazakh rock band is Urker, performing in the genre of ethno-rock, which synthesises rock music with the traditional Kazakh music.

Language

The Kazakh language is a member of the language family, as are , , , , , , , and many other living and historical languages spoken in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Xinjiang, and Siberia.

Kazakh belongs to the Kipchak group of the Turkic language family. Kazakh is characterized, in distinction to other Turkic languages, by the presence of in place of reconstructed proto-Turkic * and in place of *; furthermore, Kazakh has where other Turkic languages have .

Kazakh, like most of the Turkic language family lacks phonemic vowel length, and as such there is no distinction between long and short vowels.

Kazakh was written with the Arabic script during the 19th century, when a number of poets, educated in Islamic schools, incited revolt against Russia. Russia's response was to set up secular schools and devise a way of writing Kazakh with the Cyrillic alphabet, which was not widely accepted. By 1917, the Arabic script was reintroduced, even in schools and local government.

In 1927, a Kazakh nationalist movement sprang up but was soon suppressed. At the same time the Arabic script was banned and the Latin alphabet was imposed for writing Kazakh. The Latin alphabet was in turn replaced by the Cyrillic alphabet in 1940.

Kazakh is one of the principal languages spoken in Kazakhstan, along with . It is also spoken in the region of the in the , where the Arabic script is used, and in parts of Mongolia.

Kazakh tribalism

Due to their nomadic pastoral lifestyle, Kazakhs kept an epic tradition of oral history. They had to develop phenomenal memories in order to keep an account of their history. The nation, which amalgamated nomadic tribes of various Kazakh origins, managed to preserve the distant memory of the original founding clans. It was important for a Kazakh to know his or her genealogical tree for no less than seven generations back .

The Kazakh marriage system was exogamous, with marriage between individuals with a common ancestor within seven generations considered taboo. In intertribal marriage, paternal descent is decisive.

In modern Kazakhstan, tribalism is fading away in business and government life. Still it is common for Kazakhs to ask which tribe they belong to when they meet each other. Nowadays, it is more of a tradition than necessity. There is no hostility between tribes. Kazakhs, regardless of their tribal origin, consider themselves one nation.

The majority of Kazakhs belongs to one of the three ''es'' : the "Great juz" , "Middle juz" , and "Junior juz" . Every juz consists of tribes and clans . Also Kazakhs, but outside of the juz system are: ''tore'' , ''qoja''/ , ''tolengit'' , "sunak" and "kolegen" .

Religion

Islam was brought to the Kazakhs during the 8th century when the Arabs arrived into Central Asia. Islam initially took hold in the southern portions of Turkestan and thereafter gradually spread northward. Islam also took root due to the zealous missionary work of Samanid rulers, notably in areas surrounding Taraz where a significant number of Kazakhs accepted Islam. Additionally, in the late 1300s, the Golden Horde propagated Islam amongst the Kazakhs and other Central Asian tribes. During the 1700s, Russian influence toward the region rapidly increased throughout Central Asia. Led by , the Russians initially demonstrated a willingness in allowing Islam to flourish as Muslim clerics were invited into the region to preach to the Kazakhs whom the Russians viewed as "savages" and "ignorant" of morals and ethics. However, Russian policy gradually changed toward weakening Islam by introducing pre-Islamic elements of collective consciousness. Such attempts included methods of eulogizing pre-Islamic historical figures and imposing a sense of inferiority by sending Kazakhs to highly elite Russian military institutions. During the Soviet era, Muslim institutions survived only in areas where Kazakhs significantly outnumbered non-Muslims due to everyday Muslim practices. In an attempt to conform Kazakhs into Communist ideologies, gender relations and other aspects of the Kazakh culture were key targets of social change. and even more devotedly in the countryside. Those who claim descent from the original Muslim soldiers and missionaries of the 8th century, command substantial respect in their communities. Kazakh political figures have also stressed the need to sponsor Islamic awareness. For example, the Kazakh Foreign Affairs Minister, Marat Tazhin, recently emphasized that Kazakhstan attaches importance to the use of "positive potential Islam, learning of its history, culture and heritage."

Kazakh population in Kazakhstan

Kazakh minorities

In China

Kazakhs, called Hāsàkè Zú in Chinese are among officially recognized by the People's Republic of China. In China there is one Kazakh autonomous prefecture, the Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture in the , three Kazakh autonomous counties, Aksai Kazakh Autonomous County in Gansu, Barkol Kazakh Autonomous County and Mori Kazakh Autonomous County in the .

Many Kazakhs in China are not fluent in Standard Mandarin, China's official language, instead speaking the Kazakh language.

Since the early 21st century, Mamuer Rayeskan, a young Kazakh musician from Qitai, Xinjiang now living in Beijing, has achieved some renown for his reworking of Kazakh folk songs with his group IZ, with which he sings and plays acoustic guitar, dombra, and Jew's harp.

In Russia

In Russia, the Kazakh population lives in the regions bordering Kazakhstan. The 2002 Russian census recorded 655,000 Kazakhs living in the , , , , , , , , and Altai Krai regions. Since they, their ancestors, and other Turkic peoples populated these areas long before Russian , Russian Kazakhs are irredenta. During the 1920s, however, significant numbers of Kazakh families were left outside the designated Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic; after the end of the Soviet Union in 1991, they acquired Russian citizenship.

Other countries

*Mongolia: Majority of Kazakhs live in Bayan-&. The Kazakh folk music is well known and loved in Mongolia. Most of Mongolian Kazakhs belong to "Middle juz" , the largest among three juzes.
*Uzbekistan: Significant Kazakh population lives in Karakalpakstan and Tashkent oblast. Since the fall of Soviet Union, vast majority of Kazakh people are returning to Kazakhstan, mainly to Manghistau Oblast'. Most Kazakhs in Karakalpakstan are descendants of one of the branches of "Junior juz" -Adai tribe.
*Iran: Iranian Kazakhs live mainly in the Golestan province in northern Iran. According to ethnologue.org, in 1982 there were 3000 Kazakhs living in the city of Gorgan. Since fall of Soviet Union number of Kazakhs in Iran decreased due to emmigration to their historical Motherland."

Notes and references

Chinese Dai people

2008-09-03T19:58:00.007-07:00

The Dai peoples of China is the officially recognized name of several ethnic groups living in the and the , but by extension can apply to groups in Laos, Vietnam, Thailand, and Burma when Dai is used to mean specifically Tai Lue, Chinese Shan or even in general. For other names, see table below.

Name Ambiguity

The Dai people form one of the officially recognized by the People's Republic of China, and are closely related to the Thai people who form a majority in Thailand. However, as with many other 'officially recognized' ethnic groups in China , the term ''Dai'' at least within Chinese usage is an umbrella term and as such has no equivalent in Tai languages who have only more general terms for 'Tai peoples in general' and 'Tai people in China' , both of which include the Zhuang for example which is not the case in the Chinese; and more specific terms, as shown in the table below. Therefore the word ''Dai'', like with the aforementioned ''Yao'', is a Han-Chinese cultural concept which has now been adopted by other languages such as English, French and German . As a solution in the Thai language, however, as in English, the term Tai Lue can be used to mean Dai, despite referring to other groups as in the table below. This is because the two main groups actually bear the same name, both meaning 'Northern Tai' .

Although they are officially recognized as a single people by the Chinese state, these Tai people form several distinct cultural and linguistic groups. The two main languages of the Dai are and ; two other written languages used by the Dai are and . They all are Tai languages, a group of related languages that includes Thai, , and , and part of the language family. Various dialects of the Tai/Dai language family are spoken from Assam, India to Taiwan and ShanSri Province, China in the North to Java in the South. The Tai peoples follow their traditional religion as well as , and maintain similar customs and festivals to the other Tai-speaking peoples. They are among the few natives groups in China who nominally practice the Theravadin school of Buddhism.

Exodus

The original areas of the Tai Lue included both sides of the Mekong River in the Sipsongpanna. According to the Tai Lue, there were five city-states on the east bank and six on the west, which with formed twelve rice field divisions with all twelve having another 32 small provinces. These were:

On the west banks - Rung, Ha, Sae, Lu, Ong, Luang, Hun, Phan, Chiang Choeng, Hai, Chiang Lo and Mang;

On the east banks - La, Bang, Hing, Pang, La, Wang, Phong, Yuan, Bang and Chiang Thong .

Some portions of these Tai Lue either voluntarily moved or were forcibly herded from these city-states around one to two hundred years ago, arriving in countries of present-day Burma, Laos and Thailand.

The Tai Yong

In the 19th Buddhist century Chao Sunantha, son of the ruler of Chiang Rung, led a following of Tai Lue from Chiang Rung to in present-day Shan State to rule over the original inhabitants, the . They were aided by the following factors:

- Assimilating beliefs and customs and the arrival of a unifying Buddhist religion in a later period

- Family ties with and a tributary system to the city-states of Chiang Rung and , and the building of official alliances with clusters of city-states around Chiang Rai on the banks of the Mekong, such as and Chiang Khong.

Given this history, the Tai Yong are thus descendants of the Tai Lue. In Thailand, these people are know as Thai Yai and by the rest of the world as Shan.

Tai Lue in Thailand

In Thailand there are Tai Lue in many provinces of the upper regions of Northern Thailand; these provinces are:

-: Mae Sai, Chiang Khong and Chiang Saen districts

-: and districts

-: , , and districts

-: and districts

-: and districts

-Lamphun: and districts

Economy

The Dai people are typically farmers, growing a variety of tropical crops such as pineapples, in addition to the staple crop of rice. Many Dai live near the Mekong river where it meanders through the far south of Yunnan.

Tai groups and names

Chinese She people

2008-09-03T19:58:00.005-07:00

The She people are an ethnic group. They form one of the officially recognized by the People's Republic of China.

They are the largest minority in the Fujian province. They are also present in the Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Guangdong and Anhui provinces.

There is a Xiaocang She Nationality Rural Township in Lianjiang County of Fujian province and a Jingning She Autonomous County in Zhejiang.

The She language is a . Most of the She today speak Chinese dialects, like . Those who retain their own language - approximately 1,200 individuals in Guangdong province - call themselves ''Ho Ne'' "mountain people" .

Chinese Lisu people

2008-09-03T19:58:00.003-07:00

The Lisu people are a ethnic group who inhabit the mountainous regions of Burma , Southwest China, Thailand, and the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh.

About 730,000 live in , , and prefectures in the Yunnan Province of China. The Lisu form one of the officially recognized by the People's Republic of China. In Burma, the Lisu are known as one of the seven minority groups and an estimated population of 350,000 Lisu live in Kachin and Shan State in Burma. Approximately 55,000 live in Thailand, where they are one of the six main hill tribes. They mainly inhabit the remote country areas.

History

Lisu history is passed from one generation to the next in the form of songs. Today, this song is so long that it can take a whole night to sing.

Origins

The Lisu are believed to originate from eastern Tibet. Research done by Lisu scholars indicates that they moved to northwestern Yunnan. They inhabited a region across Baoshan and the Tengchong plain for thousands of years. The Lisu, , Akha and Kachin languages are Tibetan-Burman languages, distantly related to Burmese and Tibetan. After the Chinese Ming Dynasty, around 1140-1644 A.D. the eastern and Southern Lisu language and culture were greatly influenced by Han culture of China. village in Yinjiang, Yunnan, China, was first established by Lu Shi Lisu people about 1000 years ago. In the mid-19th century, Lisu peoples in Yinjiang began moving into Momeik, Burma, a population of Southern Lisu moved into Mogok, north-eastern Burma, and then in the late 19th century, moved into northern Thailand.

Migration into Arunachal Pradesh

Christian Lisu in Arunachal Pradesh are believed to have migrated from the Patkai Hills. Part of the population was believed to have migrated from China to Burma, fleeing the Communists, and then were ordered to leave Burma by the government at the time; this group also settled in Arunachal Pradesh. In Arunachal Pradesh, they are primarily concentrated in Changlang District and Tirap district.

Culture

The Lisu tribe consists of more than 58 different clans. Each family clan has its own name or surname. The biggest family clans well known among the tribe clans are Laemae pha, Bya pha, Thorne pha, Ngwa Pha, Naw pha, Seu pha, Khaw pha and Gwa pha. Most of the family names came from their own work as hunters in the primitive time. However, later, they adopted many Chinese family names.

After the Ming Dynasty, most Lisu tribe people had become a people that lived in villages high in the mountains or in mountain valleys. However, those who still lived in the Paoshan plains, standing on the side of the Qing Dynasty, fought against the kingdom of Ming. The Lisu knife ladder climbing festival was first held as a memorial event of victory over Ming in 1644 A.D. The Lisu people invented their own traditional dance so called "gwa-che" along with the Lisu guitar which has no bars on the fretboard. They invented another musical instrument called fulu jewlew as well. It is a kind of flute that has about six or seven small bamboo tubes tied up together to a dried-hollow-gourd.
Songs and dances are different from each other according to the occasions. They have different songs and dances for weddings, homecoming hunters, harvest time and so on, separately.

Lisu villages are usually built close to water to provide easy access for washing and drinking. Their homes are usually built on the ground and have dirt floors and bamboo walls, although an increasing number of the more affluent Lisu are now building houses from wood or even concrete.

Lisu subsistence was based on paddy fields, mountain rice, fruit and vegetables. However, they have typically lived in ecologically fragile regions that do not easily support subsistence. They also faced constant upheaval from both physical and social disasters . Therefore, they have typically been dependent on trade for survival. This included work as porters and caravan guards. With the introduction of the opium poppy as a cash crop in the early 19th century, many Lisu populations were able to achieve economic stability. This lasted for over 100 years, but opium production has all but disappeared in Thailand and China due to interdiction of production. Very few Lisu ever used opium, or its more common derivative heroin, except for medicinal use by the elders to alleviate the pain of arthritis.

The Lisu practiced swidden horticulture. In conditions of low population density where land can be fallowed for many years, swiddening is an environmentally sustainable form of horticulture. Despite decades of swiddening by hill tribes such as the Lisu, northern Thailand had a higher proportion of intact forest than any other part of Thailand. However, with road building by the state, logging by Thai companies, enclosure of land in national parks, and influx of immigrants from the lowlands, swidden fields can not be fallowed, can not re-grow, and swiddening results in large swathes of deforested mountainsides. Under these conditions, Lisu and other swiddeners have been forced to turn to new methods of agriculture to sustain themselves.

Perhaps the best-known subgroup of the Lisu is the Flowery Lisu in Thailand, due to hill tribe tourism. Lisu women are remarked for their brightly colored dress. They wear a multi-colored knee-length tunics of red, blue or green with a wide black belt and blue or black pants. Sleeve shoulders and cuffs are decorated with a dense applique of narrow horizontal bands of blue, red and yellow. Men wear baggy pants, usually in bright colors but normally wear a more western type of shirt or top.

Religion

Animism, shamanism, ancestor worship

There is little published material regarding the religious practices of the Lisu, but it is known that most Lisu still practice a religion that is part animistic, part ancestor worship, but is mixed within complex local systems of place-based religion. Most important rituals are performed by shamans. The main Lisu Festival corresponds to the Chinese New Year and is celebrated with music, feasting and drinking, as are weddings; people wear large amounts of silver jewelry and wear their best clothes at these times. In each traditional village there is a sacred grove at the top of the village, where the sky spirit and other main spirits are presented with s for propitiation; each house has an ancestor altar at the back of the house.

Christianity

Beginning in the 20th century, some Lisu people in China and Burma converted to Christianity. Missionaries such as James O. Fraser and Isobel Kuhn of the China Inland Mission, were active with the Lisu of Yunnan. The Chinese government's Religious Affairs Bureau has proposed considering Christianity as the official religion of the Lisu. According to estimates by the Christian organization OMF International, as of 2008 there are now at least 300,000 Christian Lisu in Yunnan, China and 150,000 in Burma . The Lisu of Thailand have remained largely unchanged by Christian influences.

Language

Linguistically, the Lisu belong to the branch of the Sino-Tibetan family.

There are two scripts in use and the Chinese Department of Minorities publishes literature in both. The oldest and most widely used one is the Fraser alphabet developed about 1920 by James O. Fraser and the evangelist Ba Taw. The second script was developed by the Chinese government and is based on pinyin.

Today the Lisu in Nujiang Lisu Autonomous Prefecture have their own language, but Lisu elsewhere speak the local language.

Fraser's script for the Lisu language was used to prepare the first published works in Lisu which were a catechism, portions of , and eventually, with much help from his colleagues, a complete New Testament in 1936. In 1992, the Chinese government officially recognized the Fraser alphabet as the official script of the Lisu language.

Only a small portion of Lisu are actually able to read or write the script, with most learning to read and write the local language through primary education.

References

*
*
* Gros, Stephane, 1996. ''Terres de confins, terres de colonisation: essay sur les marches Sino-Tibetaines due Yunnan a travers l'implantation de la Mission du Tibet'', Peninsule 33: 147-211.
* Gros, Stephane, 2001. ''Ritual and politics: missionary encounters in local culture in northwest Yunnan'', In Legacies and Social Memory, panel at the Association for Asian Studies, March 22-25, 2001.
* Bradley, David, 1997. ''What did they eat? Grain crops of Burmic groups'', Mon-Khmer Studies 27: 161-170.
* Dessaint, Alain Y, 1972. ''Economic organization of the Lisu of the Thai highlands'' Ph.D. dissertation, Anthropology, University of Hawaii.
* Hanks, Jane R. and Lucien M. Hanks, 2001. ''Tribes of the northern Thailand frontier'', Yale Southeast Studies Monographs, Volume 51, New Haven, Hanks.
* Enriquez, Major C.M., 1921. ''The Yawyins or Lisu'', Journal of the Burma Research Society 11 , pp. 70-74.
* George, E.C.S., 1915. ''Ruby Mines District'', Burma Gazetteer, Rangoon, Office of the Superintendent, Government Printing, Burma.
* Scott, James George and J.P. Hardiman, 1900-1901. ''Gazetteer of Upper Burma and the Shan States, Parts 1 & 2, reprinted by AMS Press .
* Hutheesing, Otome Klein, 1990. ''Emerging Sexual Inequality Among the Lisu of Northern Thailand: The Waning of Elephant and Dog Repute'', E.J. Brill, New York and Leiden.
* Durrenberger, E. Paul, 1976. ''The economy of a Lisu village'', American Ethnologist 32: 633-644.
* Fox, Jefferson M., 2000. ''How blaming 'slash and burn' farmers is deforesting mainland Southeast Asia'', AsiaPacific Issues No. 47.
* Fox, Krummel, Yarnasarn, Ekasingh, and Podger, 1995. ''Land use and landscape dynamics in northern Thailand: assessing change in three upland watersheds'', Ambio 24 : 328-334.
* McCaskill, Don and Ken Kampe, 1997. ''Development or domestication? Indigenous peoples of Southeast Asia''. Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books.
* Durrenberger, E. Paul, 1989. ''Lisu Religion'', Southeast Asia Publications Occasional Papers No. 13, DeKalb: Northern Illinois University.

In popular culture

Chinese Gelao people

2008-09-03T19:58:00.001-07:00

The Gelao people are an ethnic group of China and Vietnam. They form one of the officially recognized by the People's Republic of China.

They number approximately 438,200 and are mainly located in the western part of the Guizhou Province. Some live in Guangxi, Yunnan, and Sichuan. The main religion practiced is Taoism with a small but significant Buddhist minority.

Language

The Gelao language belongs to the . Today, only a small minority of the Gelaos still speak this language. Since the various Gelao dialects differ greatly from each other, has been used as a ''lingua franca'' and is now the main language spoken by Gelaos. The , and Buyei languages are also used.

The Gelao language does not have an alphabet. Chinese characters are used instead.

Culture

The traditional suits of the men consist of jacket done up to a side and long pants. The women utilize short jackets and narrow skirts divided into three parts: the head office is elaborate in red wool while the other two are of fabric bordered in black and white colors. Men and women utilize long scarves.

In their traditional music, the Gelao use a two-stringed fiddle with a body made from a cow horn, called the ''jiaohu'' .

Chinese Lahu people

2008-09-03T19:57:00.008-07:00

The Lahu people are an ethnic group of Southeast Asia and China.

They form one of the officially recognized by the People's Republic of China, where about 450,000 live in Yunnan province. An estimated 150,000 live in Burma. In Thailand Lahu are one of the six main hill tribes, and their population is estimated at around 100,000. The often refer to them by the exonym "Mussur", meaning hunter. About 10,000 live in Laos. They are one of in Vietnam, where about 1,500 of them live in Lai Chau province.

The Lahu divide themselves into a number of subgroups, such as the Lahu Na , Lahu Nyi , Lahu Hpu , Lahu Shi and the Lahu Shehleh. Where a subgroup name refers to a color, that is the traditional color of their dress. These groups do not function as tribes or clans - there are no kin groups above that of the family. Lahu trace , and typically practice .

Their language is in the Loloish branch of the Lolo-Burmese subgroup of the family . Like most of its relatives, it is a heavily isolating language with Subject Object Verb word order and a set of . There are seven , and consonants cannot close syllables. The language spoken by the Lahu Shi is notably divergent from that spoken by the other groups. In Thailand, Lahu Na often serves as a lingua franca among the various hill tribes. Written Lahu uses the Latin alphabet. Among Christian villages, the language has been enriched by loanwords from English, Latin and Greek via Bible translation, plus neologisms in the areas of hygiene, music and education.

The traditional Lahu religion is polytheistic. Buddhism was introduced in the late 1600s and became widespread. Christianity became established in Burma in the 1800s and has been spreading since.

Chinese Dongxiang people

2008-09-03T19:57:00.007-07:00

The Dongxiang people are one of officially recognized by the People's Republic of China. Most of the Dongxiang live in the Linxia Hui Autonomous Prefecture and surrounding areas of Gansu Province in northwestern China, while others groupings can also be found in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, Qinghai Province, and Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. According to the 2000 census, their population numbers 513,805.

Origin and development

The Dongxiang are closely related to the Mongolians. Scholars speculate that their identity as an independent ethnic group arose through contact with Central Asians, due to whom the Dongxiang converted to Sunni Islam in the 13th century.

One possible origin is that they are descendants of Mongolian troops posted in the Hezhou area by Genghis Khan during his journey westward, while another possibility is that they could be a mixture of many peoples including Mongolian, Han, and Tibetan groups.

Their autonym, ''sarta'', may also provide a contradictory clue to their origin: a similar word ''Sart'' was formerly used in Central Asia to refer to Arab traders, later to the local Turkic-speaking city dwellers. Their official name of Dōngxiāng meaning "eastern villages" stems from the fact that their settlements are east of the major Han Chinese settlements.

Economy

The base of the economy of Dongxiang is agriculture. The main products are potatoes, maize and wheat. They are also recognized craftsmen, specializing in the elaboration of traditional carpets.

Language and education

The Dongxiang speak Dongxiang language, a member of the family. The Dongxiang people also have a rich tradition of oral literature, but do not have their own writing system. Government statistics show that the Dongxiang are among the poorest and least literate of China's minorities, with most Dongxiang having completed only an average of 1.1 years of schooling, a problem aggravated by the lack of a written language.

In 2004, the Ford Foundation provided US$30,000 in grant money for a pilot project to promote bilingual education in Dongxiang and Mandarin, in an effort to reduce school drop-out rates. The project is credited with the publication of a Dongxiang-Chinese bilingual dictionary as well as recent rises in test scores.

Chinese Va people

2008-09-03T19:57:00.005-07:00

The Va nationality lives mainly in compact communities in the Ximeng , Cangyuan, Menglian , Gengma , Lincang , Shuangjiang , Zhenkang and Yongde counties in southwestern Yunnan Province of China. Their population in China is around 400,000.

The Va language belongs to Mon-Khmer group of the Austroasiatic family. A written language was created for the Va people in 1957.

The Va form one of the officially recognised by the People's Republic of China. They also live in Burma.

Bibliography

*J. G. Scott, ''Gazetteer of Upper Burma and the Shan States''. 5 vols. Rangoon, 1900-1901.
*J. G. Scott, ''Burma and beyond''. London, 1932.
*G. E. Harvey, ''Wa Précis''. Rangoon, 1933.
*, ''Scott of the Shan Hills''. London: John Murray, 1936.
*Bertil Lintner, ''Burma in Revolt: opium and insurgency since 1948''. Chiang Mai, 1999.
*, ''The Trouser People: a Story of Burma in the Shadow of the Empire''. London: Penguin; Washington: Counterpoint, 2002. ISBN 1-58243-120-5.

Fiction

*G. E. Mitton and J. G. Scott, ''In the Grip of the Wild Wa''. London, 1913.

Chinese Shui people

2008-09-03T19:57:00.003-07:00

The Shui people are an ethnic group living in the Guangxi, Guizhou, and Yunnan areas of southwestern China. They are counted as one of the officially recognized by the People's Republic of China.

History

It is believed that the Shui are descended from the that inhabited the southeast coast of China before the Han dynasty.
Their name of Shui, which means "water", was adopted during the Ming dynasty.

Culture

The Shui are organized around the family clans. The houses are usually one story, although some of their homes are two storied. In these last, the second floor is used for the living quarters whereas the first floor is used primarily as a stable and food storage.If a woman is widowed, she covers her hair with a fabric of white color for three years. The Shui possess a lunar calendar that is initiated in the ninth lunar month. Their funeral services are elaborate and long ceremonies where animal sacrifices are carried out in honor of the dead.

Religion

The Shui are mainly polytheists and they practice ancestor worship as well. In the antiquity was hired to the shamans so that they carried out prayers and sacrifices in the houses of those that were sick or close to the death.

Language

The Shui speak the Sui language of the Tai-Kadai family. Their language has eight tones, fewer than the Dong language which has 13. However, it does have a large number of consonants with forty-two. Some other features of the language includes , stops, prenasalized stops , "preglottalized" stops and nasals . Ethnologue describes native language use by the Shui as "vigorous" and credits them with a "positive language attitude".

A simple system of writing for this language exists although only their shamans know it and is not utilized for everyday use by the Shui. This system is used for geomancy and divination purposes. A few of these 150 or so graphs are drawings, such as of a bird or a fish, and a few are schematic representations of a characteristic quality, for example a snail is represented by a drawing of an inward curving spiral. The majority of these characters are borrowings from Chinese characters and are written backwards, apparently for more magical power. The Shui use written Chinese for their daily activities.

References

* Edmondson, Jerold A., and David B. Solnit . 1988. Comparative Kadai: Linguistic Studies Beyond Tai. Dallas, TX: SIL.
* Edmondson, Jerold A., Esling, John H., Harris, Jimmy G., & Wei, James. 2004. A phonetic study of Sui consonants and tones. Mon-Khmer Studies 34:47-66.
* Stanford, James N. 2007. Dialect Contact and Identity: A Case Study of Exogamous Sui Clans. Ph.D. Dissertation, Michigan State University.
* Stanford, James N. 2007. Sui Adjective Reduplication as Poetic Morpho-phonology. Journal of East Asian Linguistics 16:87-111.
* Stanford, James N. 2006. When Your Mother Tongue is Not Your Mother's Tongue: Linguistic Reflexes of Sui Exogamy. University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics 12.2: Selected Papers from NWAV 34. 217-229.
* Zhang, Junru. 1980. ''Shuiyu Jianzhi'' . Beijing: Minzu yinsha chang

Chinese Yi people

2008-09-03T19:57:00.001-07:00

The Yi people are a modern ethnic group in China, Vietnam, and Thailand. Numbering 8 million, they are the seventh largest of the officially recognized by the People's Republic of China. They live primarily in rural areas of Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou, and Guangxi, usually in mountainous regions. There are 3300 Lô Lô peoples living in Hà Giang, Cao B& and Lào Cai provinces in Vietnam.

The Yi speak , a Tibeto-Burman language closely related to , which is written in the Yi script.

Diversity

The Chinese government has grouped the Nisu, Nasu, Sani, Axi, Lolopo, Pu, and scores of other peoples speaking more than six completely distinct languages with dozens of dialects into a single group called the Yi. Because of this, a Yi from one area may not be able to communicate with a Yi from another area; and may or may not even agree that they both are Yi. Most Yi are farmers; herders of cattle, sheep and goats; and nomadic hunters. Only about one third of the Yi are literate. Most have no written language.

Religion

The Yi are , with elements of Daoism, shamanism and fetishism. Shamans/medicine men are known as “bimo.” Bimo officiate at births, funerals and weddings. They are often seen along the street consulting ancient scripts. As animists, Yi worship the spirits of ancestors, hills, trees, rocks, water, earth, sky, wind, and forests. Magic plays a major role in daily life through healing, exorcism, asking for rain, cursing enemies, blessing, divination and analysis of one's relationship with the spirits. They believe dragons protect villages against bad spirits, and demons cause diseases. After someone dies they sacrifice a pig or sheep at the doorway to maintain relationship with the deceased spirit.

The Nuosu religion distinguishes two sorts of shamans: the « bi-mox » and the “su-nyit”. Bi-mox are the most revered and maybe also important agents in the Nuosu religion, to the point that sometimes the Nuosu religion is also called “bimox religion”. When one can becomes a bimox by patrilineal descent after a time of apprenticeship, one becomes a su-nyit by election or after having been “elected”. Both can perform rituals. But only bimox can perform rituals linked to death. Bimox are said to be literate too. In order to preserve this heritage and promote tourism, the local government helped construct a museum to house ancient artifacts.

In Yunnan, some of the Yi have been influenced by Buddhism through the culture. The Yi believe in numerous evil spirits. They believe that spirits cause illness, poor harvests and other misfortunes and inhabit all material things. The Yi also believe in multiple souls. At death, one soul remains to watch the grave while the other is eventually reincarnated into some living form.

In the beginning of the 20th century, some Yi people in China converted to Christianity, after the arrival of medical missionaries such as Alfred James Broomhall of the China Inland Mission. According to missionary organization OMF International, the exact number of Yi Christians is not known. In 1991 it was reported that there were as many as 150,000 Yi Christians in Yunnan Province, especially in Luquan County where there are more than 20 churches.

Location

Of the over 8 million Yi people, over 4.5 million live in Yunnan Province, 2.5 million live in southern Sichuan Province, and 1 million live in the northwest corner of Guizhou Province. Nearly all the Yi live in mountainous areas, often carving out their existence on the sides of steep mountain slopes far from the cities of China.

The altitudinal differences of the Yi areas directly affect their climate and precipitation. Their striking differences have given rise to the old saying that "the weather is different a few miles away" in the Yi area. This is the primary reason why the Yis in various areas are so different from one another in the ways they make a living.

History

Legend has it that the Yi are descended from the ancient Qiang people of today's Western China, who are also said to be the ancestors of the , Naxi and Qiang peoples. They migrated from Southeastern Tibet through Sichuan and into Yunnan Province, where their largest populations can be found today.

They practice a form of animism, led by a shaman priest known as the Bimaw. They still retain a few ancient religious texts written in their unique pictographic script. Their religion also contains many elements of Daoism and Buddhism.

Many of the Yi in northwestern Yunnan practiced a complicated form of slavery. People were split into the ''nuohuo '' or Black Yi and ''qunuo'' or White Yi . White Yi and other ethnic groups were held as slaves, but the higher slaves were allowed to farm their own land, hold their own slaves and eventually buy their freedom.

Language

The Yi language belongs to the Tibeto-Burman Language Group of the Sino-Tibetan Language Family, and the Yis speak six dialects. Many Yis in Yunnan, Guizhou and Guangxi know the Han language. The Yis used to have a syllabic script called the old Yi language, which was formed in the 13th century. It is estimated that the extant old Yi script has about 10,000 words, of which 1,000 are words of everyday use. A number of works of history, literature and medicine as well as genealogies of the ruling families written in the old Yi script are still seen in most Yi areas. Many stone tablets and steles carved in the old Yi script remain intact. Since the old Yi language is not consistent in word form and pronunciation, it was reformed after liberation for use in books and newspapers.

Culture

The Yi play a number of traditional musical instruments, including large plucked and bowed string instruments, as well as wind instruments called ''bawu'' and ''mabu'' .

List of Yi sub-groups

Groups listed below are sorted by their broad linguistic classification but in reality is more of the general geographic area where they live. Within each section, largest groups are listed first.

Chinese Tujia people

2008-09-03T19:56:00.010-07:00

The Tujia , with a total population of over 8 million, is the 6th largest in People's Republic of China. They live in Wuling Range, straddling the common borders of Hunan, Hubei and Guizhou , and Chongqing .

Their endonym ''Bizika'' means "native dwellers" in the .

The Origins of the Tujia

Although there are different accounts of their origins, the Tujia may trace their history back over twelve centuries, and possibly beyond, to the ancient who occupied the area around modern-day Chongqing some 2,500 years ago. The reached the zenith of its power between 600 BC and 400 BC but was destroyed by the in 316 BC. After being referred to by a long succession of different names in ancient documents, they appear in historical records as the Tujia from about 1300s onwards.

The Tujia under the and Dynasties

The Tujia tusi chieftains reached the zenith of their power under the Ming Dynasty , when they were accorded comparatively high status by the imperial court. They achieved this through their reputation as providers of fierce, highly-disciplined fighting men, who were employed by the emperor to suppress revolts by other minorities. On numerous occasions, they also helped defend China against outside invaders, such as Japanese pirates who ravaged the coast during the 16th century.

The Manchus conquered China in 1644 and established the Qing Dynasty. Ever suspicious of local rulers, the Qing emperors always tried to replace Chinese officials with Manchu officials wherever they could. In the early 1700s, the Qing court finally felt secure enough to establish direct control over minority areas as well. This process, known as ''gaituguiliu'' , was carried out throughout south-west China gradually and, in general, peacefully. The court adopted a carrot-and-stick approach of lavish pensions for compliant chieftains, coupled with a huge show of military force on the borders of their territories.

Most of the Tujia areas returned to central control during the period 1728-1735. Whilst the Tujia peasantry probably preferred the measured rule of Qing officials to the arbitrary despotism of the Tujia chieftains whom they had replaced, many resented the attempts of the Qing court to impose Chinese culture and customs on them. With the weakening of central Qing rule, numerous large-scale uprisings occurred. The Taiping Rebellion affected the area badly, and western imperialist aggression caused great economic hardship as cheap foreign goods flooded the region, with local products being bought up at rock-bottom prices.

Recent History

Following the collapse of the Qing Dynasty, the Tujia found themselves caught between various competing warlords. More and more land was given over to the cultivation of high-earning opium at the insistence of wealthy landlords, and banditry was rife. After the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, Tujia areas came under Communist control, and banditry was rapidly eradicated. Subsequent land reform meant that the spectre of starvation ceased to be the ever-present companion of the peasant farmer.

The Tujia were officially recognised as one of the 55 in January 1957, and a number of autonomous prefectures and were subsequently established.

Culture

Today, traditional Tujia customs can only be found in the most remote areas.

The Tujia are renowned for their singing and song composing abilities and for their tradition of the Baishou Dance , a 500 year old collective dance which uses 70 ritual gestures to represent war, farming, hunting, courtship and other aspects of traditional life. They are also famous for their richly-patterned brocade, known as ''xilankapu'', a product that in earlier days regularly figured in their tribute payments to the Chinese court.

Regarding religion, most of the Tujia worship a white tiger totem, although some Tujia in western Hunan worship a turtle totem.

Language

Tujia is a language and is usually considered an isolate within this group, although it has grammatical and phonological similarities with .

Today there are at most 70 thousand speakers of the Tujia language, most of whom live in the northern parts Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture in north-western Hunan Province and in Enshi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture in south Hubei Province. Tujia is a member of the Sino-Tibetan language group; many consider it an within this group.

The vast majority of the Tujia use a dialect of ; a few speak . Few monolingual Tujia speakers remain; nearly all are bilingual in some dialect of Chinese. Children now learn Chinese from childhood and many young Tujia prefer to use Chinese when communicating among themselves. Among fluent Tujia speakers, Chinese borrowings, and even sentence structures, are common.

Designated for Tujia

Bibliography

*Brown, M.J. . "Ethnic Classification and Culture: The Case of the Tujia in Hubei, China," ''Asian Ethnicity'' 2: 55-72.
*Brown, M.J. . "They Came with Their Hands Tied behind Their Backs" - Forced Migrations, Identity Changes, and State Classification in Hubei. ''Is Taiwan Chinese?'' . Berkeley: University of California Press.
*Brown, M.J. . "Ethnic Identity, Cultural Variation, and Processes of Change - Rethinking the Insights of Standardization and Orthopraxy". ''Modern China.'' 33: 91-124. Sage Publications.
*---- 2002. "Local Government Agency: Manipulating Tujia Identity," ''Modern China.''
*Ch'en, J. . ''The Highlanders of Central China: A History 1895-1937''. New York: M.E. Sharpe.
*Dong, L. . ''Ba feng Tu yun--Tujia wenhua yuanliu jiexi .'' Wuhan: Wuhan Daxue Chubanshe.
*Dong, L., Brown, M.J., Wu, X. . Tujia. ''Encyclopedia of World Cultures - Supplement''. C. Ember, M. Ember & I. Skoggard , NY: Macmillan Reference USA, pp. 351-354.
*Huang B. . "Tujiazu Zuyuan Yanjiu Zonglun" . In ''Tujia zu lizhi wenhua lunji'' , edited by Huang Baiquan and Tian Wanzheng. 25-42. Enshi, Hubei: Hubei Minzu Xueyuan.
*Li, S. . ''Chuandong Youshui Tujia'' . Chengdu: Chengdu Chubanshe.
*Peng, B., Peng, X. et al. . Jishou University Journal, Humanities Edition #2: Special Issue on Tujia Ethnography . Jishou: Jishou University.
*Shih C. . "Ethnicity as Policy Expedience: Clan Confucianism in Ethnic Tujia-Miao Yongshun," ''Asian Ethnicity'' 2: 73-88.
*Sutton, D. . "Myth Making on an Ethnic Frontier: The Cult of the Heavenly Kings of West Hunan, 1715-1996," ''Modern China'' 26: 448-500.
*Sutton, D. . "Violence and Ethnicity on a Qing Colonial Frontier: Customary and Statutory Law in the Eighteenth-Century Miao Pale". In: ''Modern Asian Studies'' 37: 41–80. Cambridge University Press.
*Sutton, D. . "Ritual, Cultural Standardization, and Orthopraxy in China: Reconsidering James L. Watson’s Ideas". In: ''Modern China'' 33: 3-21. Sage Publications.
*Tien, D., He, T., Chen, K., Li, J., Xie, Z., Peng, X. . ''Tujiayu Jianzhi'' . Beijing: Minzu Chubanshe.
*Wu, X. . "Changes of chieftains' external policy in the Three Gorges Area in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties ". In: ''Ethnic Forum'', : 88-92.
*Wu, X. . "Tujia's food-getting pattern in west Hubei in the Qing Dynasty". In: ''Journal of Hubei Institute for Nationalities'', : 33-35.
*Wu, X. . "On the Tage Dance". In: ''Journal of Chinese Classics and Culture'', : 22-29.
*Wu, X. . "Food, Ethnoecology and Identity in Enshi Prefecture, Hubei, China". .
*Wu, X. . "Turning Waste into Things of Value": Marketing Fern, Kudzu and Osmunda in Enshi Prefecture, China. In: ''Journal of Developing Societies'', 19: 433-457.
*Wu, X. . "Ethnic Foods" and Regional Identity: the Hezha Restaurants in Enshi. In: ''Food and Foodways'', 12: 225-246.
*Wu, X. . "The New Year's Eve Dinner and Wormwood Meal: Festival Foodways as Ethnic Markers in Enshi". In: ''Modern China'', 31: 353-380.
*Wu, X. . "Maize, Ecosystem Transition and Ethnicity in Enshi Prefecture, China". In: ''East Asian History'', 31: 1-22.
*Wu, X. . "Tujia National Minority". ''The Berg Encyclopedia of World Dress & Fashion''.
*Ye, D. . ''Tujiayu yanjiu'' . Jishou, Hunan: Hunan Chu Wenhua Zhongxin, Jishou Daxue.

Chinese Mongols people

2008-09-03T19:56:00.009-07:00

Ethnic Mongols in China are citizens of the People's Republic of China who are ethnic Mongols. They form one of the 55 officially recognized by the People's Republic of China. There are approximately 5.8 million ethnic Mongols living in China. Most of them live in Inner Mongolia, Northeast China, Xinjiang, etc. The Mongol population in China is over twice that of the independent nation of Mongolia.

Regional distribution

The Mongols in China are divided between autonomous regions and provinces as follows:
* 68.72%: Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region
* 11.52%: Liaoning Province
* 2.96%: Jilin Province
* 2.92%: Hebei Province
* 2.58%: Xinjiang Autonomous Region
* 2.43%: Heilongjiang Province
* 1.48%: Qinghai Province
* 1.41%: Henan Province
* 5.98%: Rest of China

Besides the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, there are other Mongol autonomous administrative subdivisions in China.

On prefecture level:
* Haixi Mongol and Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture
* Bayingolin Mongol Autonomous Prefecture
* B&

On county level:
* Weichang Manchu and Mongol Autonomous County
* Harqin Left Mongol Autonomous County
* Fuxin Mongol Autonomous County
* Qian Gorlos Mongol Autonomous County
* Dorbod Autonomous County
* Subei Mongol Autonomous County
* Henan Mongol Autonomous County
* Hoboksar Mongol Autonomous County

Famous ethnic Mongols in China

* Ulanhu , politician
* Li Siguang , founder of China's geomechanics
* Siqin Gaowa , a famous actress of China
* Mengke Bateer , basketball player
* Bao Xishun , one of the tallest men alive
* , a pop/rock musician
* Sengge Rinchen , Qing dynasty nobleman and general
* Buren Bayaer , singer, composer and a disc jockey
* Uyunqimg , Vice-Chair of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress
* Fu Ying , Chinese ambassador to the United Kingdom

External links

* Chinese government information.

Chinese Tibetan people

2008-09-03T19:56:00.007-07:00

The Tibetan people are indigenous to Tibet and surrounding areas stretching from Central Asia in the West to Myanmar and China Proper in the East.

The Government of Tibet in Exile claims that the number of Tibetans has fallen from 6.3 million to 5.4 million since 1959 , while the government of the People's Republic of China claims that the number of Tibetans has risen from 2.7 million to 5.4 million since 1954 . The documents an additional 125,000 Tibetan exiles living in India, 60,000 in Nepal, and 4,000 in Bhutan.

Tibetan exile groups estimate the death toll in Tibet since the invasion of the People's Liberation Army in 1950 to be 1,200,000. On the other hand, official records provided by the Chinese government indicate a blossoming of ethnic-Tibetan population from 1.2 million in 1952, to 2.6 million by the end of 2000; much of this being attributed to the improved quality of health and lifestyle of the average Tibetan since the beginning of resulting in an infant mortality rate of 35.3 per 1,000 in the year 2000, as compared to the 430 infant deaths per 1,000 in 1951, and an average life expectancy of 35 years in 1950's to over 65 years for the average Tibetan in the 2000's.

Physical adaptation to high altitudes

The ability of Tibetans to function normally in the oxygen-deficient atmosphere at high altitudes - frequently above 4,400 metres , has often puzzled observers. Recent research shows that, although Tibetans living at high altitudes have no more oxygen in their blood than other people, they have 10 times more nitric oxide and double the forearm blood flow of low-altitude dwellers. Nitric oxide causes dilation of blood vessels allowing blood to flow more freely to the extremities and aids the release of oxygen to tissues. This may also help explain the typical rosy cheeks of high-altitude dwellers. What is not yet known is whether the high levels of nitric oxide are due to a genetic mutation or whether people from lower altitudes would gradually adapt similarly after living for prolonged periods at high altitudes.

Origins

The Han Chinese and "proto-Tibeto-Burman" may have split sometime before 4000 BC, when the Han began growing millet in the Yellow River valley while the Tibeto-Burmans remained nomads; Tibet split from Burma circa 500 . The Tibetan language is a member of the Tibeto-Burman branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family.

Very little is known about the origins of the Tibetan people. Some argue that Tibetans share a genetic background with Mongols, although it is clear that other main influences do exist. Some anthropologists have suggested a Central Asian or Indo-Scythian component, and others a Southeast Asian component; both are credible given Tibet's geographic location. The romantic claim that American Hopi and Tibetans are close cousins is not likely to find support in genetic studies, although strong cultural similarities may be found between the two groups. Some light has been shed on their origins, however, by one genetic study: Su, Bing, ''et al.'' , in which it was indicated that Tibetan Y-chromosomes had multiple origins, one from Central Asia while the other from East Asia.

Traditional explanation

Tibetans traditionally explain their own origins as rooted in the marriage of a monkey and a mountain ogress. Tibetans who display compassion, moderation, intelligence, and wisdom are said to take after their fathers, while Tibetans who are "red-faced, fond of sinful pursuits, and very stubborn" are said to take after their mothers.

Notable features

Tibetans have a legendary ability to survive extremes of altitude and cold, an ability no doubt conditioned by the extreme environment of the Tibetan plateau. Recently, scientists have sought to isolate the cultural and genetic factors behind this adaptability . Among their findings was a gene which improves oxygen saturation in hemoglobin and the fact that Tibetan children grow faster than other children to the age of five . The is studying the Stone Age colonization of the plateau, hoping to gain insight into human adaptability in general and the cultural strategies the Tibetans developed as they learned to survive in this harsh environment.

Religion

Most Tibetans generally observe Tibetan Buddhism and a collection of native traditions known as B& . The Tibetan Muslims are also known as the .

Legend said that the 28th king of Tibet, Lhatotori Nyentsen, dreamed of a sacred treasure falling from heaven, which contained a Buddhist sutra, mantras, and religious objects. However, because the modern Tibetan script was not introduced to the people, no one knew what was written on the sutra upon the first look. Buddhism did not take root in Tibet until the reign of Songtsen Gampo, who married two Buddhist princesses, Brikhuti and Wencheng. It then gained popularity when Padmasambhava, widely known as Guru Rinpoche, visited Tibet at the invitation of the 38th Tibetan king, Trisong Deutson.

Today, one can see Tibetans placing Mani stones all over. Tibetan lamas, both Buddhist and Bön, play a major role in the lives of the Tibetan people, conducting religious ceremonies and taking care of the monasteries. Pilgrims plant their prayer flags onto the sacred grounds as a symbol of good luck.

The prayer wheel is a means of chanting the mantra by revolving the object several times in a clockwise direction. It is widely seen among Tibetan people. In order not to desecrate religious artifacts such as Stupas, mani stones, and Gompas, Tibetan Buddhists walk around them in a clockwise direction, although the reverse direction is true for B&. Tibetan Buddhists chant the prayer "Om mani padme hum", while the practitioners of Bön chant "Om matri muye sale du".

Culture

Tibet boasts a rich culture. Tibetan festivals such as Losar, Shoton, Linka , and the Bathing Festival are deeply rooted in indigenous religion and also contain foreign influences. Each person takes part in the Bathing Festival three times: at birth, at marriage, and at death. It is traditionally believed that people should not bathe casually, but only on the most important occasions.

Art

Tibetan art is deeply religious in nature, from the exquisitely detailed statues found in Gompas to wooden carvings and the intricate designs of the Thangka paintings. Tibetan art can be found in almost every object and every aspect of daily life.

Thangka paintings, a syncretism of Indian scroll-painting with Nepalese and Kashmiri painting, appeared in Tibet around the 8th century. Rectangular and painted on cotton or linen, they usually depict traditional motifs including religious, astrological, and theological subjects, and sometimes the Mandala. To ensure that the image will not fade, organic and mineral pigments are added, and the painting is framed in colorful silk brocades.

Drama

The Tibetan folk opera, known as ''Ache lhamo'', which literally means "sister goddess" or "celestial sister," is a combination of dances, chants and songs. The repertoire is drawn from Buddhist stories and Tibetan history.

Tibetan opera was founded in the by Thangthong Gyalpo, a lama and a bridge builder. Gyalpo, and seven girls he recruited, organized the first performance to raise funds for building bridges, which would facilitate transportation in Tibet. The tradition continued uninterrupted for nearly seven hundred years, and performances are held on various festive occasions such as the Lingka and Shoton festival. The performance is usually a drama, held on a barren stage that combines dances, chants, and songs. Colorful masks are sometimes worn to identify a character, with red symbolizing a king and yellow indicating deities and lamas. The performance starts with a stage purification and blessings. A narrator then sings a summary of the story, and the performance begins. Another ritual blessing is conducted at the end of the play. There are also many historical myths/epics written by high lamas about the reincarnation of a "chosen one" who will do great things.

Architecture

The most unusual feature of Tibetan architecture is that many of the houses and monasteries are built on elevated, sunny sites facing the south. They are often made out a mixture of rocks, wood, cement and earth. Little fuel is available for heating or lighting, so flat roofs are built to conserve heat, and multiple windows are constructed to let in sunlight. Walls are usually sloped inwards at 10 degrees as a precaution against frequent earthquakes in the mountainous area. Tibetan homes and buildings are white-washed on the outside, and beautifully decorated inside.

Standing at 117 meters in height and 360 meters in width, the Potala Palace is considered the most important example of Tibetan architecture. Formerly the residence of the Dalai Lama, it contains over a thousand rooms within thirteen stories and houses portraits of the past Dalai Lamas and statues of the Buddha. It is divided between the outer White Palace, which serves as the administrative quarters, and the inner Red Quarters, which houses the assembly hall of the Lamas, chapels, 10,000 shrines, and a vast library of Buddhist scriptures.

Medicine

is one of the oldest forms in the world. It utilizes up to two thousand types of plants, forty animal species, and fifty minerals. One of the key figures in its development was the renowned eighth century physician Yutok Yonten Gonpo, who produced the Four Medical Tantras integrating material from the medical traditions of Persia, India and China. The tantras contained a total of 156 chapters in the form of Thangkas, which tell about the archaic Tibetan medicine and the essences of medicines in other places.

Yutok Yonten Gonpo's descendant, Yuthok Sarma Yonten Gonpo, further consolidated the tradition by adding eighteen medical works. One of his books includes paintings depicting the resetting of a broken bone. In addition, he compiled a set of anatomical pictures of internal organs.

Cuisine

The Cuisine of Tibet reflect the rich heritage of the country and people's adaptation to high altitude and religious culinary restricitions. The most important crop is barley. Dough made from barley flour, called tsampa, is the staple food of Tibet. This is either rolled into noodles or made into steamed dumplings called . Meat dishes are likely to be yak, goat, or mutton, often dried, or cooked into a spicy stew with potatoes. Mustard seed is cultivated in Tibet, and therefore features heavily in its cuisine. Yak yoghurt, butter and cheese are frequently eaten, and well-prepared yoghurt is considered something of a prestige item.

Clothing

Most Tibetans wear their hair long, although in recent times due to the Chinese influence, some men do crop their hair short. The women plait their hair into two , the girls into a single queue.

Because of Tibet's cold weather, the men and women wear thick long dresses . The men wear a shorter version with pants underneath. The style of the clothing varies between regions. Nomads often wear thick sheepskin chuba's.

Marriage customs

Polyandry is practiced in some parts of Tibet, where a woman may marry her husband's brother. This is usually done to avoid division of property and provide financial security. However, monogamy is more common throughout Tibet. Marriages are sometimes arranged by the parents, if the son or daughter has not picked their own partner by a certain age.

Since the late , the Chinese presence in Eastern Tibet has increased, however mixed marriages between Tibetans and Chinese are still not very common.

References

*
* Goldstein, Melvyn C., "Study of the Family structure in Tibet", ''Natural History'', March 1987, 109-112 .
*Su, Bing, ''et al.'' . ''Human Genetics'' 107, 2000: 582–590.

External links

*
* : Article on modern Tibetan people.
* : Information on Tibetan culture and history
* : Article on Tibetan people at the time of early mountaineering.
*
*

Chinese Buyei people

2008-09-03T19:56:00.005-07:00

The Buyei are an ethnic group living in southern China. Numbering 2.5 million, they are the 11th largest of the officially recognized by the People's Republic of China. Some Buyei also live in Vietnam, where they are one of that nation's . Despite the Chinese considering them a separate group, they consider themselves Zhuang .

The Buyei live in semi-tropical, high-altitude forests of Guizhou province, as well as in Yunnan and Sichuan provinces, and speak a Tai language. Traditionally they practice animism, although some have now converted to Christianity.

Language

The Buyei speak the Buyei language which is very close to the Zhuang language. There is a dialect continuum between these two. The Buyei language has its own written form which was created by linguists in the 1950s based on the Latin alphabet and with spelling conventions similar for the Pinyin system that had been devised to romanise Chinese.

History

The Buyei are the native Tai peoples of the plains of Guizhou. They are one of the oldest peoples of China, living in the area for more than 2,000 years.
Prior to the establishment of the Tang dynasty, the Buyei and Zhuang were linked together; the differences between both ethnic groups grew greater and from year 900 already they were two different groups.
The Qing dynasty abolished the system of local heads and commanded in its place to officials of the army which caused a change in the local economy; from then on, the land was in the hands of a few landowners, which caused the population to revolt. During the Rebellion of Nanlang in 1797, the Buyei underwent a strong repression that caused that many of them emigrated to neighboring Vietnam.

Chinese Dong people

2008-09-03T19:56:00.003-07:00

The Dong people are an ethnic group. They form one of the officially recognized by the People's Republic of China, and are famed for their carpentry skills and unique architecture, in particular a form of covered bridge known as the "wind and rain bridge" . Many of the people are also farmers. Their cuisine prominently features foods and sticky rice.

They live mostly in Guizhou, Hunan, and Guangxi provinces of China.

Language

The Dong language is a language. When written, the Dong people sometimes use Chinese characters to represent the sounds of Dong words. A new orthography based on the Latin alphabet was developed in 1958, but it is not used very much, due to a lack of printed material and trained teachers.

The Ethnologue distinguishes two Dong dialects with the codes for the southern dialect and for the northern.

Notable Dong people

* , gold medalist in the 10 meter synchronized platform diving at the 2004 Summer Olympics at Athens, Greece
*Wu Hongfei , singer for the Chinese rock band Happy Avenue
*Su Yu , the first four-star general of the People's Liberation Army
* (向旭）Nick:*浮砂 Fusha The youngest musican for [

References

* D. Norman Geary, Ruth B. Geary, Ou Chaoquan, Long Yaohong, Jiang Daren, Wang Jiying . ''The Kam People of China''. Turning Nineteen? . ISBN 0-7007-1501-0.
*Long, Yaohong and Zheng, Guoqiao . '' Language in Guizhou Province, China''. Dallas: SIL International and the University of Texas at Arlington Publications in Linguistics 126. ISBN 1-55671-051-8.
* Ōu Hēngyuán 欧亨元 . ''Cic deenx Gaeml Gax / Dòng-Hàn cídiǎn'' 侗汉词典 . ISBN 7-105-06287-8.
* ethnic minority

External links

*
* Zhèng Guóqiáo 郑国乔:
*, by Amy Tan
*
*

Listening

*, April 2008

Chinese Yao people

2008-09-03T19:56:00.001-07:00

The Yao nationality is a government classification for various minorities in China. They form one of the officially recognized by the People's Republic of China, where they reside in the mountainous terrain of the southwest and south. They also form one of the officially recognized by Vietnam. In the last census, they numbered 2,637,421 in China, and roughly 470,000 in Vietnam.

History

Early history

Origins of the Yao can be traced back 2000 years ago starting in Northern China.

Emigration

From the to 19th Century, the Yao migrated into Thailand, Vietnam and the highlands of Laos. The migration was agitated by the opium trade and as the result of revolts in Southern China during this period.

Laotian Civil War

During the Laotian Civil War, Yao tribes of Laos had a good relationship with forces and were dubbed to be an “efficient friendly force.” This relationship caused the Laotian government to target Yao tribal groups for revenge once the war was over. This triggered further immigration into Thailand, where the tribes would be put into camps along the Thailand-Laos border.

Immigration to the United States

After obtaining refugee status from the and with the help of the United Nations, many Yao people were able to obtain sponsorship into the United States . Most Yao have immigrated to the United States have settled along the Western part of the U.S., mainly in Northern California such as , Oroville, Sacramento, but also in parts of Oregon and . See Mien American for those identified as Mien.

Culture

The typical houses of the Yao are rectangular and they have structures made of wood and bamboo. Normally it has three rooms: a room and two dormitories in the lateral side. Each one of these rooms has a small oven to cook.

The men and the women cover their heads with a black or red scarf. Some women substitute this scarf by a turban that can adopt different forms.

The traditional suit of the women is of bright colors. They also decorate their shirts with decorations made out of silver.

In Vietnam, Yao people celebrate many exciting and meaningful festival such as Nhơn chung lỉnh , Nhiang chằm đao ...

Religion

The Yao have a religion based on medieval Chinese Taoism, although many have converted to Buddhism and some to Christianity. Though some people has converted onto other religions, many still remained practicing their traditions.

Marriage

Marriage is traditionally arranged by go-betweens who represent the boy's family to the girl's parents. If the union is acceptable, a bride-price is negotiated, typically ranging from three to ten silver bars, worth about US$100 each, a partial artifact from the opium trade. The wedding takes place in two installments, first at the bride's house, followed by a procession to the groom's house where a second ceremony occurs.

Groups and languages

There are several distinct groups within the Yao nationality, and they speak several different languages, from different language families:

* Miao-Yao languages
** The Mien speak ''Mienic'' languages , including:
*** Mian-Jin languages
**** , 818,685 speakers
**** , more than 300,000 Yao people
**** , 20,000 speakers
*** , 60,000 speakers
*** , 43,000 speakers
**
*** , 258,000 speakers
*** , 18,442 speakers.
*** , 9,716 speakers
*** , 1,078 speakers also known as the 'Flowery Blue Yao'
*** Some linguists group the above languages - with a total of more than 287,000 speakers - together as dialects of a single Bunu language .
* Tai-Kadai languages
** , 12,000 speakers
*
** about 500,000 Yao speak Chinese dialects

In addition to China, populations of Yao also live in Northern Vietnam , Northern Laos, and Burma. There are around 60,000 Yao in Northern Thailand, where they are one of the six main hill tribes. The lowland-living Lanten of Laos, who speak , and the highland-living Iu Mien of Laos are two different Yao groups. There are also many , mainly refugees from the highlands of Laos who speak the Iu Mien language. The Iu Mien do not call themselves "Yao". Not all "Yao" are Iu Mien.

A group of 61,000 people on the island of Hainan speak the Yao language , but see themselves as , and they are also officially categorized as Miao by the Chinese Government. 139,000 speakers of Kim Mun live in other parts of China , and 174,500 live in Laos and Vietnam.

The Bunu call themselves ''Nuox'' , ''Buod nuox'' , ''Dungb nuox'' or according to their official name ''Yaof zuf'' . Only 258,000 of the 439,000 people categorised as Bunu in the 1982 census speak Bunu; 100,000 speak Zhuang, and 181,000 speak Chinese and Bouyei.

Written languages

After the Eleventh Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, the Guangxi Nationality Institute and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences together created a new Yao writing system which was unified with the research results of the Yao-American scholar Yuēsè Hòu . The writing system was finalized at a one-day conference in 1984 in Ruyan County, Guangdong, which included Chinese professors Pan Chengqian , Deng Fanggui , Liu Baoyuan , Su Defu and Yauz Mengh Borngh; Chinese government officials; Mien Americans Sengfo Chao , Kao Chiem Chao , and Chua Meng Chao; David T. LeeUnited States Linguist Herbert C. Purnell, who developed a curriculum and workshop presentations on language learning in East and Southeast Asia; and Yao Seng Deng from Thailand. The US delegation took the new writing system to the Iu Mien community in the United States where it was adopted with a vote of 78 to 7 by a conference of Mien American community leaders.
This writing system based on the Latin alphabet was designed to be pan-dialectal; it distinguishes 30 syllable initials, 121 syllable finals and eight tones.

For an example of how the unified alphabet is used to write Iu Mien, a common Yao language, see Iu Mien language.

There is a separate written standard for Bunu, since it is from the side, rather than the Mien/Yao side, of the Miao-Yao languages family.

Officially illiteracy and semi-literacy among the Yao in China still stands at 40.6%, as of 2002.

References and sources

* Máo Zōngwǔ 毛宗武: Yáozú Miǎnyǔ fāngyán yánjiū 瑶族勉语方言研究 , ISBN 7-105-06669-5.
* Méng Cháojí 蒙朝吉: Hàn-Yáo cídiǎn - Bùnǔyǔ 汉瑶词典——布努语 , ISBN 7-5409-1745-8.
*Barker, Judith C., and Saechao, Kaochoy. "A Household Survey of Older Iu-Mien Refugees in Rural California." Journal of Cross-Cultural Gerontology 12.2 : 121-143.
*Barker, Judith C. & Saechao, Kaochoy. . A demographic survey of Iu-Mien in West Coast States of the U.S., 1993. Journal of Immigrant Health, 2:1, 31-42.

Films

*2003 - . Directed by Richard Hall; produced by Fahm Fong Saeyang.
*1989 - . Directed and produced by Elaine Velazquez

Chinese Koreans people

2008-09-03T19:55:00.003-07:00

The population of Koreans in China include millions of descendants of Korean immigrants with citizenship of the People's Republic of China, as well as smaller groups of South and North Korean expatriates. Chinese citizens of Korean descent, referred to in Chinese as ''Chaoxianzu'' and in English as Korean Chinese , form one of the officially recognized by the . , there were two million ethnic Koreans in China. Most of them live in Northeast China. The largest ethnic Korean population in China live in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture .

History

Throughout history, due to the close interactions between China and Korea, some degree of population movements have always occurred between the two neighboring countries. There were written records of Korean migrations in the early Qing Dynasty, Ming Dynasty, Yuan Dynasty, and earlier. The majority of early Korean populations in China had assimilated with . The current population in China is, from the perspective of China, mainly descended from migrants who came between 1860 and 1945. In the 1860s, a series of natural disasters struck Korea, leading to disastrous famines. Along with the Qing dynasty's loosening of border controls and acceptance of external migration into Northeast China, this pushed many Koreans to migrate. By 1894, an estimated 34,000 Koreans lived in China, with numbers increasing to 109,500 in 1910. After the , larger numbers of Koreans moved to China. Some merely fled from Japanese rule or economic hardship, while others intended to use China as a base for their anti-Japanese resistance movements. By 1936, there were 854,411 Koreans in China. As Japanese rule extended to China, the Japanese government forced Korean farmers to migrate north to China to develop the land. During World War II, many Koreans in China joined the Chinese peoples in fighting against the Japanese invaders. Many also joined on the Communist side and fought against the Chinese Nationalist armies during the Chinese Civil War. After 1949, estimated at about 600 thousand individuals, or 40% of the Korean population at the time, chose to return to the Korean peninsula. But most Koreans chose to stay in China and took up Chinese citizenship between 1949 and 1952.

Since 1949

After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Yanbian, where most ethnic Koreans live, was designated as an autonomous county in 1952, and was upgraded to an autonomous prefecture in 1955. Starting in the 1980s, along with the reform and opening up of China and the improvement in South Korea-China relations, many ethnic Koreans in China went to South Korea as migrant labourers to seek better lives; their population there is estimated at 219,000, forming more than half of all .. However, the living standard of those who remained behind has continued to improve; one 2004 survey showed that ethnic Koreans had the second highest quality of ethnic life in China, after the Manchu, as measured by an overall score which took into account infant mortality, life expectancy, and literacy rates.
From around 1990, the ethnic Korean population of Yanbian began shrinking. Some Koreans schools are being closed for the lack of students, and even where schools exist parents are increasingly unwilling to send their children there . The share of the ethnic Korean population in Yanbian dropped to 36.3 percent in 2000 . This process is a result of social changes in the ethnic Chinese community. The success of the economic reforms in China brought fast growth. In the past, most ethnic Koreans aspired at becoming a good farmer. Now, success is increasingly associated with a college degree and/or migration to a large city, perhaps even to Seoul. However, college education is in Mandarin. The Korean parents know that Chinese language schools give their children better chances to go to college. The result is a dramatic decline in enrollment in the Koreans schools. In a middle school in Longjing where in the 1970s there were 400 students, now there are merely 39 students.

Culture

Most ethnic Koreans in China speak and .

Most ethnic Koreans in China are not affiliated with any religion, though minorities believe in Buddhism and Christianity. South Korean churches have been known to send missionary groups to among the ethnic Koreans in China and refugees from North Korea, especially in the Northeast.

North Korean refugees

China also has an unknown number of North Korean refugees, as well as a small community of Koreans in Hong Kong; neither of these are typically considered to be members of the ethnic Korean community, and the Chinese census does not count them as such. Some North Korean refugees who are unable to obtain transport to South Korea instead marry ethnic Koreans in China and settle there, blending into the community; however, they are still subject to deportation if discovered by the authorities.

South Korean expatriates

After the 1992 normalisation of diplomatic relations between China and South Korea, many citizens of South Korea started to settle in China. Large new communities of South Koreans have formed in Beijing, Shanghai, and Qingdao. The South Korean government officially recognises seven Korean international schools in China, located in Yanbian, Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Yantai, Qingdao, and Dalian, all founded between 1997 and 2003. Typically, they come to China as employees of South Korean corporations on short-term international assignments; when their assignments are completed, many prefer to stay on in China, using the contacts they have made to start their own consulting businesses or import/export firms. Other South Koreans also moved to China on their own after becoming unemployed during the ; they used funds they had saved up for retirement to open small restaurants or shops. The low cost of living compared to Seoul, especially the cheap tuition at international schools teaching both English and Chinese, is another pull factor for South Korean migration to China. The number of South Koreans in China is estimated to be 300,000 to 400,000 as of 2006; at the current rate of growth, their population is expected to reach one million by 2008.

Famous ethnic Koreans in China

* Cui Jian , Chinese rock musician, composer, trumpet player and guitarist
* Jin Haixin , pop star
* Gao Xianzhi, General of the Tang dynasty
* Li Chengliang, General of the Ming dynasty
* Li Rusong, General of the Ming dynasty
* Li Rubai, General of the Ming dynasty
* Li Dezhu , Chief Executive of the State Ethnic Affairs of PRC
* Li Yongtai, , Member of the 9th NPC Standing Committee, Deputy Commander of the PLAAF
*Zhao Nanqi , People's Liberation Army General, former Vice Chairman of The Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference
* Zheng Lucheng composer of the People's Liberation Army's March
* Cai Lina 미녀들의 수다
"The Chattering of the Beauties" or "Talk with beauties" - Korean Talk Show

Notes

Chinese Bai people

2008-09-03T19:55:00.001-07:00

The Bai are one of the officially recognized by the People's Republic of China. They numbered 1,858,063 as of 2000.

The Bai People hold the white colour in high esteem and call themselves "Baizi", "Baini" or "Baihuo", which means white people. In 1956, of their own will they were named the Bai Nationality by Chinese Authorities.

Location

Bai people live mostly in the provinces of Yunnan , and in neighboring Guizhou and Hunan provinces. Of the 2 million Bai people, eighty percent live in concentrated communities in the Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture in Yunnan Province.

Language

An estimated 1,240,000 of the Bai speak the in all its varieties. The tongue is either a member of the or the of the or possibly part of an independent branch of this family.

Cormorant Fishing

Cormorant fishing is a way of using cormorant birds for fishing and is practiced among the Bai fishermen.

Chinese Hani people

2008-09-03T19:18:00.004-07:00

The Hani people are an ethnic group. They form one of the officially recognized by the People's Republic of China. They also form one of the 54 . There are 12,500 Hanis living in the Lai Chau and provinces of Vietnam.

Over ninety percent of the Hani live in the southwestern Chinese province of Yunnan, scattered across the Ailao Mountains between the Mekong River and the .

The origins of the Hani are not precisely known, though their ancestors, the ancient Qiang tribe, are believed to have migrated southward from the Qinghai-Tibetan plateau prior to the third century AD.

The Hani oral traditions state that they are descended from the Yi people, and that they split off as a separate tribe fifty generations ago. One of their oral traditions is the recital of the names of Hani ancestors from the first Hani family down to oneself.

Religion

The Hani are polytheists and they profess a special adoration toward the spirits of their ancestors. They are used to practicing rituals to venerate to the different gods and thus to obtain their protection.

The religious hierarchy of the hani is divided into three main personages: the ''zuima'' that directs the main celebrations; the ''beima'', responsible for practicing the exorcisms and the magical rituals; the ''nima'' that takes charge of carrying out predictions and to administer the medicinal herbs. This last charge can be performed indistinctly by men and women. Some Hani also profess Theravada Buddhism.

Culture

The dwellings of the Hani are usually two or three flats built with bamboo, mud, stone and wood.

The traditional clothing of the Hani is used made out of dark blue fabric. The men dress in short jackets and in long wide pants. They also wear turbans which are white or black. The women dress depending on which clan they belong to. There is no gender difference in the clothing of children under the age of seven.

They play a wind instrument called the ''ebi'' .

Language

The Hani language spoken by many of the Hani is of the Yi branch of the Tibeto-Burman linguistic family. Oral tradition tells of an ancient written script, tradition says it was lost on the migration from Sichuan. They now use a romanization of the Luchun dialect as a written script.

External links

*
* on China.org.cn
*
*

Chinese Zhuang people

2008-09-03T19:18:00.003-07:00

The Zhuang are an ethnic group of people who mostly live in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in southern China. They form one of the officially recognized by the People's Republic of China. Their population, estimated at 18 million people, puts them second only to the Han Chinese and makes the Zhuang the largest minority in China.

The Zhuang live mostly in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in southern China. Some also live in the Yunnan, Guangdong, Guizhou and Hunan provinces.

Etymological note

The name of the Zhuang minority used to be written 獞. However, the character also refers to a variety of wild dogs, so it was considered an ethnic slur. In 1949, the "animal" was replaced by the "human" radical, and the character became 僮. Eventually, the character was replaced with 壮, a character already in existence meaning "sturdy" or "strong".

History

Prehistory

The Zhuang are of origin, a people who migrated south from central China roughly 5000 years ago. The Zhuang settled in what is now Guangxi while other Tai peoples moved to Yunnan. It is suggested the Tai peoples migrated for food purposes, as the culture developed a unique irrigation system which was useful for growing rice. As the soil was unsuitable for this purpose in Central China, the Tai sought out more fertile plains. However, it is highly probable that struggles with emerging Chinese states that rapidly gained power with Mesolithic weapons had something to do with this. Long struggles with China to avoid destruction led Tais around 1100 AD to migrate south from Southern China to create the Lao, and Shan peoples of Indochina, and even as far away as Assam, India.

The dynasties

The Zhuang did not record their history until the of China. The Chinese referred to the area as 百越/百粵 . Eastern Guangxi was conquered by the Han people under the Qin Dynasty in 214 BC. The Hans, to bring the area firmly in their control, built the Ling Canal to link the and rivers and form a .

An independent state known as around was created by General Zhao Tuo when the Qin Dynasty collapsed. This Kingdom was supported by the Zhuang until its collapse in 111 BC. The Han Dynasty thought the Zhuang culture unproductive, so they reduced local authority and consolidated their authority with Military posts at Guilin, Wuzhou, and .

In 42 AD, the Trung Sisters uprising was quelled by an army under General , who sought not only victory on the battlefield but felt true concern for the Zhuang people. He reorganized the Zhuang Local Authority, improved public works, dug canals and reclaimed land to increase production. His work brought the Zhuang into a more modern condition, and temples in his honor can still be seen to this day.

An influx of immigrant Yao people from Hunan after the collapse of the Han Dynasty caused the region to become unstable as the Yao showed hostility to assimilation. The Guiping area of Guangxi, where the Yao settled, would become a hotbed of revolution against Han rule, causing the Zhuang people to suffer terribly, despite their passive stance on assimilation.

Under the Tang Dynasty Guangxi became part of Ling-nan Tao with present day Hainan and Guangdong. The noted scholar Liu Zongyuan was prefectural administrator at Liuzhou. Irked by Chinese expansion, however, the Zhuang moved to support the Tai kingdom of Nanchao in Yunnan. Guangxi was then divided into an area of Zhuang ascendancy west of Nanning and an area of Han ascendancy east of Nanning.

After the collapse of the Tang a new Chinese kingdom known as , based in Guangdong, gained minimal control over the Zhuang, but the Nan Han Kingdom was plagued by instability and it was annexed by the Song Dynasty of China in 971. The Nan Han rule of the Zhuang was marked by minimal interference in Zhuang affairs by the Chinese rulers.

The Song developed a new way of dealing with the Zhuang that was a combination of force and appeasement, a policy that neither satisfied the aspirations of the Zhuang nor ended the savage warfare brought to the region by the Yao against the Chinese. In 1052 a Zhuang leader, Nong Zhigao, led a revolt and set up an independent kingdom in the Southwest. The revolt was crushed, and the Song rule became more brutal, causing the region to spasm in revolt against the Chinese.

After the Yuan Dynasty liquidated the Song, they spent several years deciding what to do with the Zhuang. Weary of the bad relationship previous Chinese rulers had with the region, they decided to make it a full province of China rather than let it remain an occupied territory. This only caused greater stress as the Zhuang and Yao felt alienated, and hated direct rule from the Chinese government. Further complicating Zhuang aspirations, another aboriginal people, the , left Guizhou and Hunan for the Zhuang lands.

The area continued to be unruly, forcing the Ming Dynasty to impose an underhanded way of dealing with it: the Ming would give tribal leaders of the Zhuang an army to attack the Yao. Once the Yao were devastated, the Ming used the armies they had given the Zhuang leaders to kill the Zhuang leaders, and force a leaderless Zhuang society under their heavy handed rule. This resulted in perhaps the bloodiest period of history in a relatively calm region. At the Battle of Rattan Gorge, in 1465, 20,000 deaths were reported. The Ming policy failed, but the larger cities in the region did prosper under Ming economic reform.

The Qing Dynasty let the region remain in chaos until 1726 when they imposed direct rule as the Yuan had. This was also a failed venture as a Yao revolution took place in 1831. Twenty years later, in 1850, the same area witnessed the Taiping Rebellion break out. The execution of a French missionary led to the Second Opium war in 1858. The Franco-Chinese War of 1885 put Vietnam under French supremacy and opened up the area to foreign encroachment. All of this caused a constant economic depression through the .

Modern times

Together with neighboring Guangdong, Guangxi became an area of Sun Yat-sen 's revolution. With the fall of the Qing, the Zhuang sent representatives to the central government to campaign for Guangxi , but when years of protocol failed, the "Guangxi Clique" turned to open revolt in 1927. Maintaining a defiant self-rule stance for two years, the Zhuang leaders of Li Tsung-jen and Li Chi-shen modernized Guangxi, but Chiang Kai-shek ruthlessly crushed their revolt in 1929. Despite the Clique's failure, Chiang could not put Guangxi under direct provincial rule, and it remained unruly until 1950. The Kuomintang's suppression of Guangxi led to widespread support of Communism.

During World War II Guangxi was a major target of Japanese attacks, as they invaded the coast in 1939. The famous patriotic newspaper ''National Salvation Daily'' was printed at Guilin. In 1944, the Japanese launched a major offensive to take the western half of Guangxi, but with relentless Zhuang guerrillas and a Chinese counterattack, the Japanese were routed.

Culture

Language

There is an indigenous Zhuang language, which has been written with Zhuang logograms based on Chinese characters for over a thousand years, and now is officially written in Roman letters.

Religion

Most Zhuang follow a traditional animist/-oriented religion, however, there are a number of Buddhists, Daoists, and Christians in Guangxi as well.

Zhuang medicine

Zhuang medicine is a complementary and alternative medicine. Prescriptions about how to detoxificate and how to treat malaria began to appear in medical books of and Dynasties , which was called Lingnan Prescription. The and Dynasties were booming time for Zhuang Medicine. Many Zhuang prescriptions were written down in many books including ''Bencao Gangmu'' by Li Shizhen. Accoding to history records, during that time, many Zhuang medical schools were built in Guangxi, which brought many Zhuang doctors.

Zhuang people live in the subtropical regions which is rich in animals and plants. Zhuang medicine tends to take advantage of its recourses, so animals are widely used for medicine in Zhuang medicine. There is a believe among Zhuang people: if you want to be cured, flesh and blood are needed. The basis of Zhuang medicine is a very simple truth: if something can cause illness, there must be something corresponding to cure it.

Notables

* Li Ning, Chinese gymnast and entrepreneur.
* Shi Dakai, Taiping leader.

Notes and references

Chinese Manchu people

2008-09-03T19:18:00.001-07:00

The Manchu people are a who originated in Manchuria . During their rise in the , along with the help of Ming rebels , they conquered the Ming Dynasty and founded the Qing Dynasty, which ruled China until its abolition in 1911 after the Xinhai Revolution, which established in its place.

The Manchu ethnicity have largely been assimilated with the Han Chinese. The Manchu language is almost extinct, now spoken only among a small number of elderly in remote rural areas of northeastern China and a few scholars; there are around ten thousand speakers of , a Manchu dialect spoken in the Ili region of Xinjiang. In recent years, however, there has been a resurgence of interest in Manchu culture among both ethnic Manchus and Han. The number of Chinese today with some Manchu ancestry is quite large, and the adoption of favorable policies towards ethnic minorities has encouraged some people with mixed-Han and Manchu ancestry to re-identify themselves as Manchu.

Much recent scholarship in ethnic identity emphasizes that ethnic categories, rather than being static and objective, are fluid and subjective. This applies to the notion of a Manchu ethnicity which much recent scholarship suggests was strengthened in the early 19th century to distinguish members of the Qing military elites from the peoples they ruled.

Culture

Aspects of Manchu customs and traditions can be seen in local cuisines, language and customs in today's Manchuria as well as cities in that region. After the fall of the Ming Dynasty, Manchus also adopted many customs and traditions.

They traditionally coiled their hair in high tufts on top of their heads and wore earrings, long gowns and embroidered shoes. The women with higher social standing wore silk and satin clothing while cotton clothing was worn by women of lower social standing. Variants of such vestments are still popular all over China. The man's clothing once consisted of a short and adjusted jacket over a long gown with a belt at the waist to facilitate horse-riding and hunting. Unlike the Han, the Manchu did not practice foot binding.

The traditional Manchu dwellings were made up of three quarters. In the center of the house was the kitchen while the wings contained the dormitory and the living room. The unique Manchu tradition did not allow people to die on '''' to the west or north. Believing that doors were made for living souls, the Manchus allowed dead bodies to be taken out only through windows. Ground burial was the general practice.

The Manchu language is a member of the language group, itself a member of the proposed .

Origins

[]
Ancestors of the Manchu were the peoples of the Mongolian steppes. The first ancestors of the Manchu were the Sushen, a people who lived during the second and first millennia BC. They were followed by the Yilou people, who were active from AD 202 to 220. The followed in the fifth century and the tribes of the Mohe in the sixth century. One of the tribes of the Mohe, the Heishui tribe, eventually became the ancestors of the Jurchens, from whom the Manchu originated.

The Jurchens under the Wanyan clan established the Jin Dynasty that ruled the northern half of China and rivaled the Song Dynasty in southern China. The Jin were conquered by the Mongols under Genghis Khan.

Before the seventeenth century, the ancestors of the Manchus were generally a pastoral people, hunting, fishing and engaging in limited agriculture and pig-farming.

Founding of the Qing Dynasty

In 1616 a Manchu leader, Nurhaci broke away from the power of the decaying Ming Dynasty and established the Later Jin Dynasty / ''Amaga Aisin Gurun'' , domestically called the State of Manchu , and unified Manchu tribes, establishing the Manchu Banner system, a military structure which made their forces quite resilient in the face of superior Ming Dynasty numbers in the field. Nurhaci later conquered Mukden and built it into the new capital in 1621. In 1636 Nurhaci's son Huang Taiji, reorganized the Manchus, including those Mongolians, Koreans and Hans who had joined them, changed the nation's name to '''', and formally changed the name of the nationality to Manchu.

The early significance of ''Manchu'' has not been established satisfactorily. It may have been an old term for the Jianzhou Jurchens. One theory claims that the name came from the Bodhisattva Ma& , of which Nurhaci claimed to be an incarnation. Another theory is that the Manchus, like a number of other Tungusic peoples, take their name from the common Tungusic word *''mangu'', 'a great river'.

When Beijing was captured by Li Zicheng's peasant rebels in 1644, the last Ming Emperor Chongzhen committed suicide. The Manchu then allied with Ming Dynasty general Wu Sangui and seized control of Beijing, which became the new capital of the new ruling Qing dynasty. Over the next two decades, the Manchu took command of all of China.

For political purposes, the early Manchurian emperors took wives descended from the Mongol Great Khans, so that their descendants would also be seen as legitimate heirs of the Mongolian Yuan dynasty. During the Qing Dynasty, the Manchu government made efforts to preserve Manchu culture and the . These efforts were largely unsuccessful in that Manchus gradually adopted the customs and language of the surrounding Han Chinese and, by the , spoken Manchu was rarely used even in the Imperial court. Written Manchu, however, was still used for the keeping of records and communication between the emperor and the Banner officials until the collapse of the dynasty. The Qing dynasty also maintained a system of dual appointments in which all major imperial offices would have a Manchu and a Han Chinese member. Because of the small number of Manchus, this insured that a large fraction of them would be government officials.

Near the end of the Qing Dynasty, Manchus were portrayed as outside colonizers by such as Sun Yat-Sen, even though the Republican revolution he brought about was supported by many reform-minded Manchu officials and military officers. This portrayal quickly dissipated after the 1911 revolution as the new Republic of China now sought to include Manchus within its .

Manchukuo

In 1931, the Empire of Japan created a puppet state in Manchuria called Manchukuo. The new state was nominally ruled by Emperor Puyi. By this time the population of Manchuria was overwhelmingly Han Chinese, and though Manchukuo was intended to be a state for Manchus, the way its borders were drawn produced a state that had a majority population. Manchukuo was abolished at the end of World War II, with its territory incorporated back into China.

designated for Manchus

Famous Manchu

* Cao Xueqin - Famous writer.
* Nalan Xingde - Famous poet.
* Na Ying - Pop Star.
* Zhao Junzhe - Football player.
* - Pianist.
* Pu Yi - Last Emperor of Qing Dynasty and Emperor of Manchukuo.
* Lang Ping - Ex-Volleyball player, now coaching USA Women's Volleyball National Team.
* Lao She - writer.
* - Calligrapher

External links

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Chinese Miao people

2008-09-03T19:17:00.003-07:00

The Miao are a linguistically and culturally related group of people recognized by the government of the People's Republic of China as one of the . Miao is a Chinese term and does not reflect the self-designations of the component sub-groups, which include , Hmu, A Hmao,and Kho Xiong. The Miao live primarily in southern China, in the provinces of Guizhou, Hunan, Yunnan, Sichuan, Guangxi, Hainan, Guangdong, and Hubei. Some members of the Miao sub-groups, most notably Hmong/Mong people, have migrated out of China into Southeast Asia . Following the communist takeover of Laos in 1975, a large group of Hmong/Mong refugees resettled in several Western nations

Nomenclature: Miao and Hmong

The term "Miao" gained official status in 1949 as a encompassing a group of linguistically related ethnic minorities in southwest China. This was part of a larger effort to identify and classify minority groups to clarify their role in national government, including: establishing and allocating the seats for representatives in provincial and national government.

Historically, the term "Miao" had been applied inconsistently to a variety of non-Han peoples often with the connotation of "barbarian." This former meaning has not kept members of the modern nationality from self-identifying as Miao. Outside of China, "Meo", a variation of "Miao" still exists in Southeast Asia where it is often used in a highly derogatory way. Western researchers have treated the terminological problems in a non-uniform way. Early writers used Chinese-based names in various transcriptions: Miao, Miao-tse, Miao-tsze, Meau, Meo, mo, miao-tseu etc. When referring to specific sub-groups of the Miao nationality or to ethnic groups outside of China, it is preferable to use the ethnonym of the specific group, for instance: Hmong/Mong, Hmu, etc. The prominence of Hmong/Mong people in the West has led to the situation where the Miao nationality is sometimes referred to as Hmong or Mong, despite the fact that they are only one of the sub-groups contained in the classification. Following the recent increased interaction of Hmong in the West with Miao in China, it is reported that some non-Hmong Miao have even begun to identify themselves as Hmong.

Though the Miao themselves use various self-designations, the Chinese traditionally classified them according to the most characteristic colour of the women's clothes. The list below contains the self-designations, the colour designations and the main regions inhabited by the four major groups of Miao in China:

* Ghao Xong; Red Miao; west Hunan.
* Hmu, Gha Ne ; Black Miao; southeast Guizhou.
* A Hmao; Big Flowery Miao; northwest Guizhou and northeast Yunnan.
* Hmong, White Miao, Mong, Green Miao, Small Flowery Miao; south Sichuan, west Guizhou and south Yunnan.

Demographics

According to the 2000 census, the number of Miao in China was estimated to be about 9.6 million. Outside of China, members of Miao sub-groups live in Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Myanmar due to migrations starting in the 18th century. As a result of recent migrations in the aftermath of the and wars between 1949 and 1975, many Hmong/Mong people now live in the United States, French Guiana, France and Australia. Altogether there are approximately 8 million speakers of Miao languages. This language family, which consists of 6 languages and around 35 dialects belongs to the Hmong/Miao branch of the .

:''Note: The Miao areas of Sichuan province became part of the newly created Chongqing Municipality in 1997.''
[]
Most Miao currently live in China. Miao population growth in China:
* 1953: 2,510,000
* 1964: 2,780,000
* 1982: 5,030,000
* 1990: 7,390,000

3,600,000 Miao, about half of the entire Chinese Miao population, were in Guizhou in 1990. The Guizhou Miao and those in the following six provinces make up over 98% of all Chinese Miao:
* Hunan: 1,550,000
* Yunnan: 890,000
* Sichuan: 530,000
* Guangxi: 420,000
* Hubei: 200,000
* Hainan: 50,000

In the above provinces, there are 6 Miao autonomous prefectures :
* Qiandongnan Miao and Tong Autonomous Prefecture , Guizhou
* Qiannan Buyi and Miao Autonomous Prefecture , Guizhou
* Qianxinan Buyi abd Miao Autonomous Prefecture , Guizhou
* Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture , Hunan
* Wenshan Zhuang and Miao Autonomous Prefecture , Yunnan
* Enshi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture , Hubei

There are in addition 23 Miao autonomous counties:
* Hunan: Mayang , Jingzhou , and Chengbu
* Guizhou: Songtao , Yingjiang , Wuchuan , Daozhen , Zhenning , Ziyun , Guanling , and Weining
* Yunnan: Pingbian , Jinping , and Luquan
* ChongQing: Xiushan , Youyang , Qianjiang , and Pengshui
* Guangxi: Rongshui , Longsheng , and Longlin
* Hainan: Qiong and Baoting

Most Miao reside in hills or on mountains, such as
* Wuling Mountain by the Qianxiang River
* Miao Mountain , Qiandongnan
* Yueliang Mountain , Qiandongnan
* Greater and Lesser Ma Mountain , Qiannan
* Greater Miao Mountain , Guangxi
* Wumeng Mountain by the Tianqian River

Several thousands of Miao left their homeland move to larger cities like Guangzhou and Beijing. There are also 2,000,000 Miao, especially in Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar, Taiwan, Cambodia and on other continents. 174,000 live in Thailand, where they are one of the six main hill tribes.

History

Contact with the Huaxia

In China, the first recorded Miao was called Jiuli, and its ruler or rulers, had the title ''Chiyou'' or ''Txiv Yawg'' or ''Txiv Yawg'' . ''Chiyou'' means grandfather, and is a title equal to, but no less than, emperor. ''Chiyou'''s ancestors are thought to be the Liangzhu people. Jiuli was said to have jurisdiction over nine tribes and 81 clans.

History according to Chinese legend

According to Chinese legend, the Miao descend from the Jiuli tribe led by Chiyou were defeated at the Battle of Zhuolu by the military coalition of Huang Di and Yan Di, leaders of the tribe as the two tribes struggled for supremacy of the Yellow River valley. According to legend, the battle, said to have taken place in the 26th century BC, was fought under heavy fog. The Huaxia, who possessed the compass, was able to defeat the tribe of Chiyou.

After their defeat, the tribe of Chiyou split into two smaller splinter tribes, the Miao and the . The Miao continuously moving southwest and Li southeast as the Huaxia race, later known as Han Chinese, expanded southward. During the course of Chinese history, the Miao were sometimes regarded as "barbarians" by the increasingly technologically and culturally advanced Han Chinese. Some members of the Miao and Li tribes were assimilated into the Han Chinese during the .

Another version of the story says that the tribe split three ways. It is said Chiyou had 3 sons, and after the fall of Jiuli, his eldest son led some people south, his middle son led some people north, and his youngest son remained in Zhuolu and assimilated into the Huaxia culture. Those who were led to the south established the San-Miao nation. Perhaps due to this splitting into multiple groups, many Far Eastern people regard Chiyou as their ancestors, and by the same token, many question the ethnicity of Chiyou as exclusively Mong or otherwise. In some circles of thought, the Koreans also regard Chiyou as an ethnic ancestor. Furthermore, under the present ethnic unification policy of the PRC, Chiyou is now also regarded as one of China's forefathers alongside the ethnic Han ancestors, Huangdi and Yandi. It is believed that during this time the Mong were split into two main dialects: Mong Leng and Hmong Der and referred to as Mong and Hmong. Today, the two names are used interchangeably.

and dynasties

The term "Miao" was first used by the Han Chinese in pre-Qin times, i.e. before 221 BC, for designating non-Han Chinese groups in the south. It was often used in the combinations "nanmiao", "miaomin", "youmiao" and "sanmiao" . At that time the people lived in the Yangtze River valley, but later they were forced by the antagonistic policing of the Han Chinese to move further southwards and to higher elevations. As most territories of the Six dynasty located south of the river, bringing the Miao into submission was a major concern for stability of those dynasties. With the Wu Hu ravaging areas north of the river, large scale migration of Chinese to the south accelerated the assimilation of Miao into Han Chinese.

Tang Dynasty

Thus beginning in Tang Dynasty, the Miao ceased as a major non-Han Chinese group except in the province of Yunnan where six ''zhao''s of Miao resided there. Some scholars argued that the six ''zhao''s were groups of the Yi people. The southernmost, known as Meng-she-zhao or Nan-zhao united all six zhaos and found an independent state during early 8th century with treacherous help from Tang Dynasty. The title of the head of state was Nan-zhao Wang , meaning the King of Nanzhao. Uneasiness of the increasing threat from encouraged the Chinese dynasty to establish a friendly regime neighboring both countries. Tang also deployed a military district, Jiannan Jie-Du located in today southern Sichuan Province and bordering Nanzhao.

Nanzhao

During the first ten peaceful years in 8th century, Nanzhao regularly paid tributes through the head of military district to the Han Chinese dynasty. As the Tang Dynasty deteriorating during mid 8th century, the district was gaining more independent authority from the Tang dynastic government. They demanded more tributes from Nanzhao to develop sizable forces against the dynasty. Some district heads even intimidated the peoples of Nanzhao. The rulers of Nanzhao were Tibeto-Burman speakers, but it is possible the population included some ancestors of the present-day Hmong. A famous example was a rejected demand to spend a night with the queen, the only wife of the Nanzhao King. All intimidations and unfair tributes led to the outbreak of Nanzhao rebellion during the ''Tianbao'' era of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang China. Before marching against the district legion, the Nanzhao King ordered a stone inscription of the reasons of rebellion. The monument remained erected and can still be seen today ''''. The Tang Dynasty could have easily defeated Nanzhao troops but struggles of power among generals of the district letting Nanzhao surge deeply into Tang's territory, almost reaching Chengdu, location of the district headquarters. Appointment of incompetent heads was also a factor. The most famous one was Yang Guozhong, brother of Lady Yang, the beloved concubine of the emperor. Although the rebellion was eventually squashed, the dynasty wasted precious resources which could have been used securing the northern border, ushering in the much more disastrous Anshi Rebellion.

During the later years of the Tang dynasty, Nanzhao had the upper hand on its relations with Tang and Tibet as both countries tried to ally with Nanzhao, thus isolating the enemy. Nanzhao fully exploited the situation and rose as a major power in Southeast Asia. During its zenith of power, northern parts of Vietnam, Laos, Thailand and , Guangxi and eastern portion of Guangdong, southwestern portion of Sichuan, Guizhou and the whole province of Yunnan were all under its control. Chengdu and Hanoi were each sacked twice. After the fall of the latter in late 9th century, Chinese dynasties never recovered the city until Ming Dynasty in the 15th century. Tang Dynasty gradually increased numbers of military district bordering Nanzhao and consequently the insurgences of Pang Xun was the first of the rebellions leading to the fall of Tang.

Nanzhao, under the influence of Tang for a century , was gradually adopting the Chinese culture and at the same time disintegrated as struggles of power among various rival clans. Eventually the Duan clan won and found the Kingdom of Dali which lasted until the submission to the Mongols. During Tang Dynasty and the term "nanman" was used. However, the name "miao" to describe some of these southern people reappeared in Fan Chuo's book on the southern tribes, Manshu .

Zhong Xang, Yajiaumo of Huang

Xang was the general of the Huang during the 11th Century in Southern China during the Zhou Dynasty, he was the general of the Huang dynasty that led the rebellion against the Khong Ming of the Zhou during the Qin Xing war

and dynasties

During the and dynasties 'miao' and 'man' were both used, the second possibly to designate the people. The Yuan, Ming, and Qing Dynasties could neither fully assimilate nor control the aboriginal people. As a result, the policy of "using barbarians to rule barbarians" was employed. Furthermore, a counterpart wall to the Great Wall in the south was erected to protect and divide the Chinese from the 'southern barbarians'. Politically and militarily, the Hmong continued to be a stone in the shoe of the Chinese empire. The Hmong were more than a match against the Chinese since the latter's military was stretched across China defending against northern invaders. The Chinese had to fall back on political means to ensnare Hmong people, they created multiple competing positions of substantial prestige for Hmong people to participate and assimilate into the Chinese government system. During the Ming and Qing times, the official position of ''Kaitong'' was created in Indochina. The Hmong would employ the use of the ''Kiatong'' government structure until the 1900s when they entered into French colonial politics in Indochina.

Bibliography

*Enwall, Jaokim. ''Thai-Yunnan Project Newsletter'', Number 17, June 1992, Department of Anthropology, Australian National University.
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Earlier books

* Edkins, ''The Miau-tsi Tribes'',
* Henry, ''Lingnam'',
* Bourne, ''Journey in Southwest China'',
* A. H. Keaw, ''Man: Past and Present'',