The Dulong People

The Dulong people (previously called the Drung) live within the deep, long, narrow Dulong River Valley in Northwest Yunnan Province along the western border. The Gaollgong Mountains flank it on the East and the Dandangilka Mountains on the West. With an annual precipitation of 2,500 mm, it is covered with virgin forest abounding in medicinal herbs, wild and rare animals and birds and mineral deposits. Snowfall isolates it much of the year. The Dulong River is torrential and navigable only by bridge and by ferry.

Long adapted to living off of the surrounding forest by hunting, gathering, fishing and farming, the Dulong were isolated from the world and characterized as "primitive." They are known for their hunting skills, tattooed women's faces and multicolored woven blankets. However, today there are roads, bridges, post offices, film projectors and hydroelectric plants in the valley.

In the past, fifteen patriarchal clans called Nile in Valley ruled the Dulong. Each Nile had several family communes and each commune occupied separate territory. Clans were further divided into Ke'eng or villages. Ke'eng members shared communal farming, hunting, fishing and gathering grounds. Ke'engs were the organization of society with each having its own ancestor. The Kashan headed the Ke'eng. He administrated and performed ceremonial duties. The Koshan also directed warfare and mediated disputes. Ke'engs were politically separate entities but united when outsiders threatened.

Between 618-907 the Dulong lived under the jurisdiction of the Nanzhao and Dali principalities; between 1271-1911 court-appointed Naxi headmen ruled them. In 1913, they repulsed a British military expedition. In 1956, the Gongshan Dulong and Nu Autonomous County was established, and a Dulong was made county magistrate. By 1980, one hundred Dulong cadres were listed as working in the government.

Their customs and habits are primitive, simple, and singular. The men hunt with the crossbow, poison tipped arrows, bamboo spikes and nooses. In addition, the gathering of wild plants, fishing and limited farming has been their way of life until recent decades.

Dulong have practiced monogamy since the 50s. Ancient customs were practiced within clans and one of these, inter-clan marriage, was strictly observed. For generations, mercenary marriage was also practiced: taking a wife was called "buying a woman" and the betrothal gift was called "body selling price."

The elderly are respected. Hunters give them the best meat from a hunt. Widows and widowers also get choice meats. The villagers carry water for the widows and widowers and give them preferred treatment at festivals with gifts and sacrificial meat. When the old die, villagers work together to make arrangements for them. The dead are buried in the ground within hollow logs. Those who had a serious disease are cremated or disposed of in a river. All relatives attend the funerals and sacrificial offerings of food are brought.

Dulong women are known for spinning hemp into yarn. They dye their yarn red, yellow, blue, green and purple and hand-weave blankets of narrow width. Both sexes wrap themselves in a blanket fastened with straw ropes or bamboo needles. When they cross streams, men cover their legs with white puttees to protect their legs against leeches. A chopping knife hanging at the waist symbolizes bravery. The

New Year Festival is celebrated for three to five days during the month of the new year that falls between the 11th and 12th lunar month of the Han people. A time of great celebration and jubilation, the people take turns dancing in one another's homes to wish prosperity for men and animals and for an abundant harvest. During this festival's grand ceremony, young women place a Dulong blanket over an ox with strings of colored beads on its horns. The ox is led around the house of its owner six times by a village elder and then tied to a pole or a tree. The crowd sings the song of offering the ox to the gods in a low key. Then, two men chosen to slaughter the ox emerge. They are either elders with prestige or young men whose parents are still living. Before slaughtering the ox, the butchers are offered wine that is drunk from bamboo tubes as they stand cheek-to-cheek, shoulder-to-shoulder. They empty the bamboo tubes in one draught, then the ox is pierced in the chest with bamboo spikes. After it dies, the ears are cut off and secured to two tree branches that are swung above the body while incantations are recited. The ox is then divided among the villagers. Throughout the ceremony, people dance continuously in simple steps to the beat of gongs.

The Dulong are one of only two ethnic minorities in China known for the custom of tattooing the face. Some now refuse to suffer the pains of tattooing and to have their faces marred in this way. When a woman reaches the age of 12 or 13, she is to have her face tattooed. The method consists first of drawing a design on the face. Pricks are then made with a bamboo needle dipped in soot that scars to form the tattoo. There are different explanations for the tattoos. Some think the tattoos are marks differentiating women of different clans and tribes. Others say the tattoos serve an exorcism purpose. Still others say the Dulong consider a tattooed woman beautiful and will not marry one without tattoos on her face.

Local people can tell where a woman is from and the clan she belongs to by the facial tattoos. Women living in the upper reaches of the Dulong River cover their entire face with tattoos of different designs. Most women in the lower reaches of the river have tattoos of vertical lines only on the lower part of the upper lip and the chin.