THE BULANG PEOPLE OF SW CHINA

Detailed Map of Cities of Xingshuangbanna.   Can you see Jinghong?

     There are 36,500 Bulang living in Xishuangbanna.  They live principally in Bulangshan, Xiding, Mengman, Daluo, Jinghong, Menghai and Mengla.

     Their ancestors are the Ancient Pu people.  They are idigenous people of Hunnan.  After a long term national movement of tribal fusion, one part of the Pu people settled in Xishuangbanna, Simao and Lincang areas and developed into today's Bulang.

     Originally, the Bulang weere hunter-gatherers, but during the Ming Dynastythey started neglecting hunting and harvesting and took up farming.  Differences developed between Bulang groups as they moved to other regions.  Some were more influenced by the Han culture and others by the Dai.

     Somehow they lost their communal ownership of the land and during the Republic of China, a feudal like system became dominant.  At the time of the Revolution of 1949 the first steps to privatize the land greeatly profited the newly emerged landowners.  Popular communes were intorduce in the Bulang region in 1958, with the establishment of cooperatives years later.  The communist mvement brought dramatic changes to Bulang traditional culture.  Since then, great economic changes have taken place.
It's hard to foresee how their traditional culture will fare in the future.

     The Bulang are facing hard times now due to the removal of some services formerly provided by the government, such as health services, education, and infrastructures, resulting in a lack of opportunities to enjoy the benefits of a market economy.