Chinese minorities

Some ethnic minority groups of Taiwan are presented on the pages Portraits, and People: Children around the world, and examples of their artwork are shown on the page Culture: Tribal art of Taiwan.

The religion of the Bai is Benzhu, in which multiple gods are worshipped. Some Bai have converted to Buddhism, Daoism, or Christianity, all described on the page Religion.

Some Dai people follow their traditional religion, whereas others are among the few people in China to practice the Theravada (Hinayana) school of Buddhism.

Following the downfall of the local government in 1954, Kham was divided between the Tibetan Autonomous Region and Sichuan, and smaller areas in Gansu and Yunnan.

When the Dalai Lama fled to India in 1959, the Khampas revolted, forming a guerilla movement, which fought against the Chinese army, backed by the United States, who supplied them with weapons and trained them in guerilla warfare.

Guerilla camps were established in the Nepalese kingdom of Mustang, with the consent of the king, from where the guerillas raided Chinese army camps in nearby areas of Tibet. However, even for these hardy people, life was very tough, and, reluctantly, most of them ended their resistance around 1969.

Since Lijiang was founded during the reign of Mongolian emperor Kublai Khan, in the 13th Century, the Nakhi have managed to benefit from the fertile land around Lijiang. This city had a strategic location between areas, which were traditionally dominated by Chinese and Tibetans, and the Nakhi have obtained great influence due to this location. Also, the city was situated on a major trading route between China, Tibet, and India.

Today, Lijiang is a delightful place, with many canals, lined with weeping willows, meandering through the old city, which has preserved a large number of old-style wooden houses, and many arched bridges, which span the canals.

The Nakhi religion, called Dongba, is based on the relationship between nature and man, who, according to Dongba mythology, are half-brothers. Nature is controlled by spirits, called Shu, who are often depicted as part human, part serpent. Dongba shamans perform rituals, called Shu Gu, to appease these spirits and prevent them from causing earthquakes, droughts, and other natural disasters.

A widely practiced Dongba ritual is Zerq Ciul Zhuaq (literally ‘repaying the debts to a tree’), which is performed by a shaman, if a person falls ill or has bad luck. In many cases, the performed ritual reveals that the person in question has cut down a tree, or has been washing dirty items in the forest. The shaman then performs a ritual at the position of the bad activity, apologizing to the nature god Shu.

The traditional New Year of the Nakhi falls on the first day of the second lunar month. At this time, a most important festival takes place, when the Nakhi, dressed in their best finery, gather at the Baishueitai Terraces to pay respect to the gods of nature.

The word Dongba is also used about the pictorial alphabet, which is the core of the Nakhi literary heritage. This alphabet, which is directly attached to the ancient Dongba belief, is one of the few examples of a pictorial script, which is still in usage today. It is only practiced by the shamans.

The eccentric Austrian-born American botanist and explorer Joseph Rock (1884-1962), who lived in Lijiang 1921-1949, spent many years producing a dictionary of the Dongba characters and their meaning. He also went on numerous expeditions to remote corners of Yunnan with the aim of describing these areas, and to collect plants.

In 1985, British author Bruce Chatwin (1940-1989) followed in Rock’s footsteps, intrigued by the man and delighted by his writing. Here is one of Chatwin’s quotes of Rock’s unusual prose:

“A short distance beyond, at a tiny temple, the trail ascends the red hills covered with oaks, pines, Pinus Armandi, P. yunnanensis, Alnus, Castanopsis Delavayi, rhododendrons, roses, Berberis, etc., up over a limestone mountain through oak forests to a pass with a few houses, called Ch’ou-shui-ching (‘Stinking water well’). At this place, many hold ups and murders were committed by the bandit hordes of Chang Chichpa. He strung up his victims by the thumbs to the branches of high trees and tied rocks to their feet, lighting a fire beneath, he left them to their fate. It was always a dreaded pass for caravans. At the summit, there are large groves of oaks (Quercus Delavayi).”

Today, the vast majority of the Shuei live in Guizhou Province, mainly in the Sandu Shui region. Some live in the Yunnan Province, and a few hundred in bordering areas of Vietnam.

The Shuei are renowned for their folk arts, including paper-cutting, stone-carving, silver jewelry making, and batik dyeing. They have a unique local calendar, which basically follows the Chinese lunar calendar.

Following the Xinhai Revolution against the Qing Dynasty in 1912, Chinese soldiers were expelled from Ü-Tsang, which was declared an independent state in 1913, which, however, was not recognized by the subsequent Chinese Republican government. Tibet maintained its independence until 1951. Following the Battle of Chamdo in 1950, the Chinese communists incorporated Kham and Amdo into the provinces of Sichuan and Qinghai, and a year later, Tibet proper was declared an autonomous region within the People’s Republic of China. Following a failed uprising in 1959, the previous Tibetan government, including their religious leader, the Dalai Lama, fled to India.

The current population of Tibetans is estimated at about 6.5 million. Outside the Tibet Autonomous Region, significant numbers of Tibetans live in the Chinese provinces of Gansu, Qinghai, Sichuan, and Yunnan, as well as in India, Nepal, Bhutan, Switzerland, and the United States.

Most Tibetans practice Mahayana Buddhism, or Lamaism, although some still observe the ancient animist Bon religion. You may read about the Mahayana Buddhism on the page Religion: Buddhism, whereas the Bon belief is described on the page Religion: Animism.

Tibetans, and the Chinese invasion of Tibet, are dealt with in detail on the page Travel episodes – Tibet 1987: Tibetan summer.

During the communist Long March in the 1940s, the Yi supported the rebels, but they were far from happy, when the communists returned with their many doctrines. A prolonged guerilla war ensued, and relations between the Yi and the central government are still somewhat strained. Today, most Yi are farmers.

The Yi have a written language, dating back from the 13th Century. Their animistic religion is called Bimoism, and the shamans are known as bimo, meaning ‘master of scriptures’. The Yi worship their ancestors, besides local gods of nature, such as fire, hills, trees, rocks, water, earth, sky, and wind.