Funeral Rites among the Lama Priests of the Monguor

In all cultures across the world, death and the traditions bound up in death are important aspects of one’s culture. Among the Monguor (also known as the Tu), one of the 56 officially recognised ethnic groups in China, there are certain funerary rites that must be adhered to in order to safeguard the community. In addition to this, deaths are categorised into different groups; those who have died a natural death, an unnatural death or the death of a lama.

A lama is a Tibetan or Mongolian priest of Lamaism (Tibetan Buddhism) and the death of one of these priests is of great concern among the Monguor. Death and the spirits are considered with great seriousness as if the proper rites are not performed correctly, then the spirit can raise havoc among the community.

If a lama is advanced in years or is clearly seriously ill, a coffin is built for him in advance. The coffin is constructed sloping at the top and is painted red with a sun and moon symbols. The box is built on a small scale, usually only big enough “accommodate the corpse, which is set in the box in a squatting position just prior to being carried to the cremation ground”.

As the lama dies, his clan and immediate family are invited to join in the ‘death watch’. As soon as the lama dies, his ajiu (important male maternal relative) is informed. The rest of his family and village are then told. On the first day of his death there are endless burning of symbolic paper money and flat pieces of fried bread (which are only used during the Spring Festival, the Day of Pure Brightness, and the anniversary of the death of the deceased, and are never eaten).

The body is then prepared. The body is generally tied in a squatting position, dressed in his finest clothes. His face is white-washed and covered in yellow silk. The head is crowned with a five-directional hat and then the body is placed in the centre of the north room facing the door. A table or chest is placed in front of him where offerings of fruit, money, large sugar crystals, a bowl of rice in which crossed chopsticks are inserted, bread, joss sticks, oil lamps, etc, are placed upon. The body will stay here until the third day of his death.

On the third day, the ajiu arrives to visit the deceased with a group of people. Several old women will walk behind him, singing loud laments. As soon as the ajiu arrives, family members rush out of the home and kneel outside on the ground, and, as the ajiu draws near, they kowtow, holding incense sticks. It is the older family members, and those who are closely related to the lama, that will kowtow and the entire family will wail before the ajiu enters the home.

After this, the body is then placed in his coffin. The windows are closed in order to prevent the curious looking in. As this happens, a retinue for wailing women set off for the cremation site, singling laments about the deceased. The woman going in front carries a wicker basket containing crumpled funeral bread and bits of "sacred paper" burned for the deceased. As she walks to the site, she will gradually throw out the contents of the basket. The women have effectively, “opened a road for the deceased to follow”.

The coffin is then brought to the site. The ajiu walks in front of the coffin and the rest of the family and community behind them. Once they reach the site, a screen of several blankets are placed around the oven before the corpse is placed seated upon it in privacy. “The coffin sedan is smashed to pieces and the pieces placed in the oven bottom, above a basin of liquefied butter and cypress needles”.

On one side, a group of lamas will assemble. Usually they number seven but any up to twenty will arrive. “After the lamas assemble and begin chanting, a lama hands the oldest xiaozi a long tree-branch, the end of which has been tied with cotton, dipped in butter, and set ablaze. The xiaozi accepts the torch, kowtows to the dead lama, then kneels and lights the fuel inside the cremation oven through the four small openings at the bottom”.

At this point the women leave and only the men remain. After an hour the rest of the villagers will leave as well so that only a few xiaozi (male relatives) and lamas remain. After the lamas have finished their chanting, they too depart.

The fire then burns out and after three days the oven is opened, and the bones are removed using red chopsticks, wrapped in yellow gold paper, and placed in a small container. This container may then be buried locally or sent to Kumbum (Taer Temple). The mourning period of the nephew of a lama lasts for 100 days. In this time they should not cut any facial hair or brush their hair. In addition to this, they are should not wash their faces until after the coffin is taken out.

The funerals and traditions surrounding the deaths of lamas among the Monguor are fascinating; it has been pondered by scholars as to the reasons why they are cremated and never buried in their ancestral burial grounds. It has been suggested that this is because they die childless and if they were buried in ancestral ground it could bring bad luck to the community – which future generations may not reproduce.

Bibliography:

Stuart, Kevin & Hu, Jun (1992) Death and Funerals among the Minhe Tu (Monguor), Asian Folklore Studies, Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture.

Funeral Rites among the Lama Priests of the Monguor

In all cultures across the world, death and the traditions bound up in death are important aspects of one’s culture. Among the Monguor (also known as the Tu), one of the 56 officially recognised ethnic groups in China, there are certain funerary rites that must be adhered to in order to safeguard the community. In addition to this, deaths are categorised into different groups; those who have died a natural death, an unnatural death or the death of a lama.

A lama is a Tibetan or Mongolian priest of Lamaism (Tibetan Buddhism) and the death of one of these priests is of great concern among the Monguor. Death and the spirits are considered with great seriousness as if the proper rites are not performed correctly, then the spirit can raise havoc among the community.

If a lama is advanced in years or is clearly seriously ill, a coffin is built for him in advance. The coffin is constructed sloping at the top and is painted red with a sun and moon symbols. The box is built on a small scale, usually only big enough “accommodate the corpse, which is set in the box in a squatting position just prior to being carried to the cremation ground”.

As the lama dies, his clan and immediate family are invited to join in the ‘death watch’. As soon as the lama dies, his ajiu (important male maternal relative) is informed. The rest of his family and village are then told. On the first day of his death there are endless burning of symbolic paper money and flat pieces of fried bread (which are only used during the Spring Festival, the Day of Pure Brightness, and the anniversary of the death of the deceased, and are never eaten).

The body is then prepared. The body is generally tied in a squatting position, dressed in his finest clothes. His face is white-washed and covered in yellow silk. The head is crowned with a five-directional hat and then the body is placed in the centre of the north room facing the door. A table or chest is placed in front of him where offerings of fruit, money, large sugar crystals, a bowl of rice in which crossed chopsticks are inserted, bread, joss sticks, oil lamps, etc, are placed upon. The body will stay here until the third day of his death.

On the third day, the ajiu arrives to visit the deceased with a group of people. Several old women will walk behind him, singing loud laments. As soon as the ajiu arrives, family members rush out of the home and kneel outside on the ground, and, as the ajiu draws near, they kowtow, holding incense sticks. It is the older family members, and those who are closely related to the lama, that will kowtow and the entire family will wail before the ajiu enters the home.

After this, the body is then placed in his coffin. The windows are closed in order to prevent the curious looking in. As this happens, a retinue for wailing women set off for the cremation site, singling laments about the deceased. The woman going in front carries a wicker basket containing crumpled funeral bread and bits of "sacred paper" burned for the deceased. As she walks to the site, she will gradually throw out the contents of the basket. The women have effectively, “opened a road for the deceased to follow”.

The coffin is then brought to the site. The ajiu walks in front of the coffin and the rest of the family and community behind them. Once they reach the site, a screen of several blankets are placed around the oven before the corpse is placed seated upon it in privacy. “The coffin sedan is smashed to pieces and the pieces placed in the oven bottom, above a basin of liquefied butter and cypress needles”.

On one side, a group of lamas will assemble. Usually they number seven but any up to twenty will arrive. “After the lamas assemble and begin chanting, a lama hands the oldest xiaozi a long tree-branch, the end of which has been tied with cotton, dipped in butter, and set ablaze. The xiaozi accepts the torch, kowtows to the dead lama, then kneels and lights the fuel inside the cremation oven through the four small open-ings at the bottom”.

At this point the women leave and only the men remain. After an hour the rest of the villagers will leave as well so that only a few xiaozi (male relatives) and lamas remain. After the lamas have finished their chanting, they too depart.

The fire then burns out and after three days the oven is opened, and the bones are removed using red chopsticks, wrapped in yellow gold paper, and placed in a small con-tainer. This container may then be buried locally or sent to Kumbum (Taer Temple). The mourning period of the nephew of a lama lasts for 100 days. In this time they should not cut any facial hair or brush their hair. In addition to this, they are should not wash their faces until after the coffin is taken out.

The funerals and traditions surrounding the deaths of lamas among the Monguor are fascinating; it has been pondered by scholars as to the reasons why they are cremated and never buried in their ancestral burial grounds. It has been suggested that this is because they die childless and if they were buried in ancestral ground it could bring bad luck to the community – that future generations may not reproduce.

Bibliography:

Stuart, Kevin & Hu, Jun (1992) Death and Funerals among the Minhe Tu (Monguor), Asian Folklore Studies, Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture.

The History of the Eka People in China

The world knows that China is one of the few countries in the world where there is a multitude of different ethnic groups, with the Han, Zhuang and the Manchus consisting of the highest numbers. There are a number of smaller groups, including the Yi people, which some Westerners may have heard of in passing, but many do not realise that there are dozens, sometimes even hundreds, of smaller minority groups which are counted in these larger ethnicities.

The Eka people are one of these. With a population of around 3,000 people, the Eka have been placed in the larger Yi minority group, along with over 100 other groups. Although a relatively small group, they are the largest Yi people to live in Shuangjiang County of Yunnan Province in southwest China. This village is in a largely inaccessible mountainous region where you can only reach via foot. There are a few other Eka people living in nearby villages.

Around 300 years ago, the Eka people moved to this location from the surrounding areas of Kunming City. When they moved here, most of the land was unclaimed but as soon as they started working the land and cultivating it, there was an increased migration of Han and other people into the area. They drove off the Eka people who retreated into the mountains where they made their home.

The Eka people are polytheists, worshipping a great many of deities and spirits. They share many similarities with the other Yi tribal beliefs in the surrounding areas. For three years after someone has died, an effigy made from wood, the root of a lotus or hemp of the deceased, is kept in a box or placed under the roof. This effigy is infused with magical protection and after three years it is thrown away since it is then that the soul of the deceased is judged by either the gods or one singular deity.

The Eka people have their own dialect, which is a Lahu language. Some, due to the close contact with the Han population, speak Mandarin Chinese. An alternative name for the Eka is Menghuaren.

Who are the A-Hmao?

The A-Hmao is one of the hundreds of different ethnic groups in China who are grouped together with others to make a larger minority group. The Miao people, or Hmong as they are known in other parts of Asia, are made up of nearly 100 of these little groups, one of them being the A-Hmao.

The A-Hmao has a population of around 410,000 scattered across northwest Guizhou Province and northeast Yunnan province. There is also a small pocket of A-Hmao who live in the Panzhihua area in southern Sichuan province.

There is much that we don’t know about the A-Hmao. However, we do know that the A-Hmao were essentially slaves to the Nosu Yi who stole their land and imposed outrageous taxes on them before seizing large amounts of A-Hmao as slaves. It has even been recorded that the Nosu Yi would use the backs of A-Hmao as a stepping stool when mounting their horses. Samuel Pollard recorded in his diary that the A-Hmao used to be cannibals; after battle, they would remove the hearts from the fallen and cook them in a fire before consuming them. However, Samuel Pollard was a Christian missionary and it is unclear as to whether he actually made this up since he was highly critical of the A-Hmao, including the women.

Around 70 – 80% of A-Hmao today are Christians, having been converted by Samuel Pollard who visited the region in 1904. Others still practice the religion of their ancestors, believing in a pantheon of spirits known as bidlang.

The different Miao sub-groups all speak a different dialect including the A-Hmao. Each dialect is so different that the A-Hmao, who are also known as Big Flowery Miao, cannot communicate with the Small Flowery Miao who near them in Guizhou province.

The A-Hmao are one of those ethnic groups westerners never hear about due to incorporation into a larger minority group. However, it is important to learn as much as we can about them before their history and culture fades into obscurity.

Who Are the A’ou?

China can be classed as one of the richest countries in the world due to the amazing wealth of ethnicities it holds. There are 56 officially recognised ethnic groups in China including the Gelao. Within this ethnicity is the A’ou sub-group.
Although the A’ou are considered to be part of the Gelao group, they do not share the same cultural identity. In addition to this, the A’ou speak a language which does not correspond to any of the many languages and varieties of languages that the Gelao speak.

The history of the A’ou can be found in Guizhou Province. According to Jacob Lee, there were numerous tribes living in the southwest of China who were each ruled by their own ruler and lived according to their own customs. The largest tribe were the Gelao, who were known then as the Liao, and called their kingdom Yelang. During the Han Dynasty (206 BCE – 220 CE), armies and ambassadors were sent to Yelang Kingdom and the king peacefully submitted. Because of this, most of the tribal leaders lost their power save the Yelang king.

Guizhou is one of the poorest provinces in China and the A’ou scratch a meagre living from cultivating rice. Because of this many young A’ou have now moved to larger cities to search for work. There are 2,500 A’ou who live in three counties across Guizhou Province, these include Longjiazhai District of Zhijin County; in the Shawo, Lannigou, and Xinkaitian districts of Qianxi County; and in and around the town of Pudi in Dafang County.

The A’ou are polytheists although around 15% claim no religious affiliation. Most A’ou, especially the older generation, worships a number of gods and spirits and makes regular sacrifices to them. Honouring ones ancestors is equally important to the A’ou.

The A’ou are just one of the hundreds of minority groups which makes up the larger ethnicities in China. Because of this, their history, culture and identity are mostly unknown to foreigners and even the Chinese themselves.

Who Are the A Che?

The A Che are one of the hundreds of minority groups which make up the Yi ethnic group in China. With a population numbering 39,000 they are often confused with the Azhe people, who also make up the Yi people. Dispute the similarity of their names, the A Che people are a distinctly separate group.

The A Che and the Azhe people share a common ancestry. Both groups migrated to Jianshui County in Yunnan Province during the Sui and Tang Dynasties (581 – 907 CE) where they enrolled in the Luodian kingdom’s armies. After a period of time, a group moved into Yimen and Shuangbai counties where they eventually settled and became known as the A Che.

The A Che are polytheists and have always been so. Worshipping their creator god, they claim that the relationship between their creator and themselves was once much closer, but over the years they have become separated and they cannot communicate with the creator, thus they cannot enter heaven.

Like most groups belonging to the Yi ethnic group, the A Che celebrates the Dragon Festival which is held on the second day of the second lunar month. In Shuangbai County, the other great important festival is the Open Street Festival. Held on the eighth day of the first lunar month in Damaidi District, the entire community comes together is a blaze of colour and gaiety.

The A Che lives in the southern province of Yunnan, most of who live in the eastern counties of Chuxiong Prefecture with others in Yuxi Prefecture. Those who live in Shuangbai County live in rural and extremely isolated villages, which is perhaps why most foreigners have not heard of them before.

A History of the Manchus

The Manchus are one of the 56 officially recognised ethnic groups in China; as of the 1990 census, there are approximately 9.8 million, mainly in Liaoning Province. There are, however, small numbers of Manchus living in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, and Hebei and Shangdong provinces. The main area where the Manchus are found was named Manchuria.

The origins of the Manchus are somewhat difficult to trace. However, scholars are confident that the Manchu people derived from the Jurchen culture (10th – 17th centuries) which was primarily a folk culture in which oral tradition, shamanic ritual, and clan custom were the foundations of an organized social existence. The Jurchen people themselves were related to or descended from the Heishui Mohe people of the Tang period, who in turn shared lineage with the Bohai people of southern Manchuria. The Manchus today are descended from several small groups of people from the northeast of China, making them a very unique and fascinating ethnic group.

One of the earliest sources of our knowledge on the Manchus is from the’ History of the [Jurchen] Jin [Jin shi), an anthology on the Jin dynasty (1115- 1234) that had been translated into Manchu under Hung Taiji (1592- 1643), the man who had succeeded his father as second khan of the Later Jin in 1627 and later created himself emperor of the Qing dynasty. He states that the location where the Manchus rose was Changbaishan, and the Black River the Heilongjiang and that one of the peoples who came to be known as the Manchus were called zhushe.

These zhushe were said to practice a tradition where a baby’s head was flattened using a stone; this is reminiscent of a custom that the Manchus used to practice. This shows a common ancestry with the zhushe, emphasising their ancient lineage. Unfortunately, no records of other zhushe traditions survive today.

The Manchus are most commonly recognised for the rise to power in the 17th century CE when they founded the Qing Dynasty, the last dynastic era in Chinese history. However, they made an appearance in early Ming Chinese records (the Manchus were seen as barbarians and were a non-Chinese race), where they were "propagandists of the most scandalous inclinations picked over every word, every line, every paragraph, with no object other than to defame”.

The Qing Dynasty began in 1644 under Nurgaci who had been given the title Dragon-Tiger General (longhu jiang] during the Ming dynasty and it was hoped that this would appease him. “The wrath of Nurgaci was provoked by the Seven Great Grievances, and it was to avenge them that the defeats were visited on the Ming armies in the early battles in Liaodong. The Ming sued for peace, but the Qing were not so easily placated”. Eventually, the Ming dynasty collapsed, the Qing hunted down the last Ming ruler who had fled to Burma and had him killed. The Qing took complete control.

In the first two decades of the Manchu rule was overseen by four regents who acted on behalf of the young king K'ang-hsi who was still in his minority. After attaining his majority in 1667 and annuled the regency in 1669, K'ang-hsi led China resolutely and intelligently for another half-century. But his key achievements and the essence of his rule are easily perceived in a fifteen-year determining phase from 1669 to 1684 when he succeeded in establishing Manchu rule over China. By the end of this episode, K'ang-hsi had upturned the general course of government policy, applied sensible decisions in political calamities, suppressed a powerful enemy on land and another at sea, protected China's northern boundaries against foreign advancement, utilized both Manchu and Chinese abilities for government benefits, opened China to Western scientific knowledge, supported literary compilations, and dissipated the anti-Manchu hostility of a large group of Chinese scholars.

Even under the rule of K'ang-hsi, the peak of the Qing Dynasty had already passed; it was not surprising that it began its slow and eventually fatal decline after K'ang-hsi’s death. Until the fall of the Qing Dynasty in 1912 under the rule of Emperor Puyi, China was subjected to several rebellions and wars, such as the Taiping Rebellion, the Japanese-Sino War and the two Opium Wars. The fall of the Qing Dynasty paved the way for the Chinese Revolution.

Today, the Manchus are an ethnic group that boasts some of the highest numbers. Although they were seen as non-Chinese, the Manchus and the Han Chinese basically shares the same festivals although there are still some elements which difficult. Like with many of the ethnic groups in China, they have their own language which is as unique and as old as the Manchu people themselves.

Bibliography:

Crossley, Pamela Kyle (1987) Manzhou Yuanliu Kao and the Formalization of the Manchu Heritage, The Journal of Asian Studies, Association for Asian Studies.

Kessler, Lawrence D. (1971) Chinese Scholars and the Early Chinese State, Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, Harvard-Yenching Institute.

A look at the Salar’s Samarkand Origins

China is a country made up of 56 officially recognised ethnic groups, the Salar being one of them. They are a Turkic-speaking Islamic people who live mainly in Xunhua County in eastern part of Qinghai Province. Along with the other ethnic groups, they have their own distinct dialects, culture, history and origins.

The Salar themselves claim that their ancestry lies in Samarkand, in modern day Uzbekistan. In the 13th century, they moved eastwards until they reached modern day Qinghai Province. Scholars have agreed with the Salar and their migration from Central Asia to China has been met with much interest.

According to one scholar, Mi Yizhi, claims that there are three possible explanations of the Salar’s migration from Samarkand. In the first, he says that the Salar were once an Oghaz tribe known as the Qaluer. The Oghaz were the descendants of the eldest son of Dagh Khan, one of the six sons of Oghaz Khan who gave his name to the people.

Sometime between the 9th and 12th centuries the Qaluer changed their name to the Saluer and followed other Oghaz tribes from the Saihun River basin, Yili, and Rehai (Isighgol) to Hezhong (Transoxania), Hualazimo (Khorarim), Huluoshan (Khorasam in Northern Iran), and eastern Anatolia.

However, during the Selzuk Empire (c. 1055 – 1258) the Saluer were forced into moving once more to the west. There were some who stayed in Marou and Sarakhs (modern day Turkmenistan) are known as the Turkomans. Between 1370 and 1424 the Saluer came to Samarkand and then passed through the Turpan Basin (present day Xinjiang), and Suzhou, ultimately reaching the Salar's present home in the region known today as Xunhua.

The second explanation draws on the work of Mula Sulaiman's investigations into the Hui ethnic’s group origins. Mi has suggested that the Salar were the descendants of the brothers Kharaman and Akhman who lived near Salark in Turkmenistan. When they moved to Qinghai they took 170 families with them, and these were the ancestors of the Salar.

The third explanation lies in linguistic similarities. Scholars have suggested that the similarities in the languages of the Salar, the Turkoman and the Uzbek suggest that they were all one people at one time.

The Salar celebrate their heritage with the doye oyna, a play which traces their migration from Samarkand to China. It is a way for these remarkable people to remember their Central Asian heritage.

Bibliography:

Jianzhong, Ma & Stuart, Kevin (1996) "Stone Camels and Clear Springs" The Salar's Samarkand Origins, Asian Folklore Studies, Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture.

The History of the Dai People in China

The Dai people are one of the 56 officially recognised ethnic groups in China. According to the national census they have a population of around 1.2 million, living in the Dai Autonomous Prefecture and the Dehong Dai-Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture in Xishuangbanna in the southern part of Yunnan province.

Like with the rest of the ethnic groups in China, the Dai have their own oral language, belonging to the Zhuang-Dai branch of Zhuang-Dong Austronesian of Chinese-Tibetan Phylum and it has its own written script. The Dai have four forms of written script, however they only use the standard characters used in the Xishuangbanna and Dehong scripts.

The origins of the Dai people are said to have originated with the native aboriginal people on the southeast Yunnan-Guizhiou Plateau. These indigenous people are also the ancestors of the Bouyei, the Dong, the Shui, the Li and the Zhuang ethnicities.

The first mention of the Dai in Chinese records can be found during the reign of Wu Di of the Han Dynasty in 109 BCE. The emperor established the Yizhou Prefecture and in later years the Dais sent tribute to the Han court in the form of gold seals. The emperor was said to have called the Dai leader ‘Great Captain’. The Dai were, at this time, named ‘Dianyue’ or ‘Shan’. During the Tanf and Song dynasties they were called Jingchi, Huaman or Baiyi and Baiyi or Boyi during the Yuan and Ming dynasties. The Dai call themselves ‘Dai’ to express their devotion to peace and freedom.

During the ninth century, the Chinese recorded the livelihoods of the Dai people. Mainly agricultural, they developed a sophisticated method of irrigation farming, grew rice and used oxen and elephants to till the land. Records also stated that they used gold and silver to plate their teeth.

During the 12th century, the Dai were able to establish their own regime under the leadership of a Dai man named Bazhen. He united all the local tribes and established Jinghong as the capital. “According to local records, the kingdom had a population of more than one million, and was famous for white elephants and fine-breed horses. It recognized the Chinese imperial court as its sovereign. When Bazhen ascended the throne, he was given a ‘tiger-head gold seal’ by the Emperor, and the title ‘Lord of the Region’”. The Dai had even established the Mengmao Kingdom in earlier years with Ruilijiang as the capital.

The Dai are a truly remarkable people. In 638 CE, they created their own calendar and there are books in the Dai language to calculate solar and lunar eclipses. Theravada Buddhism is the main religion of the Dai and they have many festivals. These include the Door-Closing Festival in mid-June by the lunar calendar, the Door-Opening Festival in mid-September, and the Water-Splashing Festival in spring. The Water-Splashing Festival is still the most important festival where they splash water on each other and hold dragon-boat races in order to cleanse illnesses bad fortune and bring about a good harvest and weather for the following year.

Bibliography:

Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China http://www.fmprc.gov.cn/eng/ljzg/3584/t17878.htm

A History of the Lahu in China

China is a united country made up of various ethnicities; indeed, there are 56 officially recognised ethnic groups that call China home. The largest numbers of these minority groups are the Zhuang, the Han and the Manchus, but the smaller groups have just a rich and fascinating history of their own.

As of 1990, the Lahu has a population of 411,476 and can be found across Yunnan's Lancang Lahu Autonomous County and neighboring counties such as Menglian, Shuangjiang, and Simao. The Lahu have their own language which belongs to Yi branch of the Tibeto-Burman Austronesian of the Chinese -Tibetan Phylum. For a long time, messages were passed by woodcarving the western alphabets that western priests had used. However, in 1957, an alphabetical script was created for them. Due to their frequent contact with the Han and Dai people, a large amount of the Lahus can also speak Chinese and the language of the Dais.

There are several branches of the Lahu family; the main groups are the Lahu Na, the Lahu Shi, the Lahu Nyi, and the Lahu Shehleh. All refer to themselves as Lahu instead of their individual sub-group identities. Lahu is the name they have given to themselves due to their long practice of hunting tigers. ‘La’ means ‘tiger’ and ‘hu’ means the method of roasting and eating. ‘Lahu’ in their own language can be translated as ‘roasting tiger-meat on a fire’.

The agricultural living of the Lahu is a combination of farming, raising domestic animals, gathering, hunting, and fishing. While many Lahu have engaged in altering degrees of intensive agriculture (irrigated wet-rice), slash-and-burn cultivation of hill rice, wheat, and buckwheat stays a noteworthy pattern of Lahu livelihood, especially for those in Burma and Thailand. The growth of cash crops, such as tea in Lancang, has also been increasing since the 1980.

There is a saying which is common among the Lahu, “"Hus-band and wife do it together" (phawd mawd nud ma ted gie te) and the often cited metaphor," Chopsticks work only in pairs”. These sum up the gendered allocation of labour among the Lahu. Married couples tend to own their properties jointly and practice a monogamous marriage. “The Lahu kinship system is fundamentally bilateral, although there are varying degrees of matrilineal or patrilineal skewing in different regions or subgroup”.

The main god of the Lahu is Xeul Sha and they practice an animalistic faith, although Mahayana Buddhism was introduced in the Qing Dynasty (1644 – 1911 CE), only a small proportion has converted to this. According to Lahu creation myths, the supreme god is actually a pair of male and female deities who emerged simultaneously. Since they exist only as a pair, they are frequently addressed in the Lahu vernacular by the single proper noun, Xeul Sha.

The Lahu are descended from the ancient Qiang tribe, who immigrated to present day northern Yunnan from northwestern China early in the third century CE. The emergence of the Nanzhao Kingdom forced the Lahu to move south. From the 18th century onwards, the Lahu are first mentioned in Imperial records as a distinctive ethnic group.

Like with many of the other ethnic groups in China, the Lahu underwent significant changes during the period when Chairman Mao was in power and the Cultural Revolution. These changes were not only political, but they suffered radical socioeconomic changes as well. But despite these, the Lahu have “since the dissolution of communes in Lancangi n 1982 Nevertheless, since the dissolution of communes in Lancang in 1982 Lahu married couples have regained their authority in managing the production and labourers of their households, reviving their ideal of "husband and wife do it together."

Bibliography:

Du, Shanshan (2000) “Husband and Wife Do It Together”: Sex/Gender Allocation of Labor Among the Qhawqhat Lahu of Lanchang, Southwest China, American Anthropologist, Blackwell Publishing on behalf of the American Anthropological Association.