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.

THE LISU OF SW CHINA

     The Lisu are the largest ethnic grop in the Nujiang Valley and I have read that they are also in the Xishuangbanna prefecture. The women are recognized by their black pleated skir, crimson tunic buttoned to one side, hat of plastic shells and bead and ornamental belt.  Lisu men sometimes wear black turbans.  The Lisu language belongs to the Yi branch of the Sino-Tibetan group.

     There are over a dozen clans, each with their own totems.  A hair-combing fetival is held in the first lunar mointh and a harvest festival in the 10th lunar month, when Lisu braves climb barefoot up 30m-high poles, using sword blades as rungs.  Twould be fun to see that....!

AKHA (HANI) PEOPLE OF SOUTHWEST CHINA

My Akha Hat

Akha Woman in Her Beautiful Dress

     The Akha or Hani as they are called in Xishuangbanna are of Tibetan original.  According to folklore they are descended from frogs' eyes.  They are closely related to the Yi as part of the Tibeto-Burman group.

     They are famed for their river-valley rice terraces, especially in the Red River valley where they cultivate rice, corn and some poppy.

     They are also known for their colorful and great variety of dress.  Their clothing is made of home-spun blue cloth.  In Xishuangbanna, the women wear jackets buttoned on the right side and decorated withsilver ornaments.  They wear black turbans.  In the Lancang area, they wear skirts, round caps, and strings of silver ornaments.  Some Hani women (especially the Aini, a subgroup of the Hani) wear headdresss of beads, feathers, coins and silver rings, some of which are made with French (Vietnamese), Burmese, and Indian coins from the turn of the century.

Their homes build two-and three-story houses of bamboo, mud, stone and wood on hill slopes.  A village comprises from ten to as many as 400 hoouseholds.  

They are polytheists and ancestor worshippers.  Rituals are regularly held to worship the Gods of Heaven, Earth, the Dragon Tree and their village, as well as their family patron gods.  Many festivals take place during the year with the weeklong celebration of the New Year in October.  An important part of that celebration is the use of an ox-hide swing to symbolically ward off bad fortune and augur.