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Rainbow cloaks and sky ladders
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RENOWNED for their distinctive rainbow-striped cloaks and respect for nature, the Dulong people have a population of just under 7,000, mostly living in Gongshan Dulong and Nu Autonomous County in Nujiang Lisu Autonomous Prefecture in southwest China’s Yunnan Province. The Dulong Township in the Prefecture is the biggest community.
The Dulong people didn’t have a unified name before the founding of the People’s Republic of China . People used to name a group after the region or river where they lived, such as “Dulong” and “Dima.” They were also once called “Qiuren”, “Qiuqu” and “Quren” by the Han people.
They were officially named “Dulong” — the group’s preferred name — after 1949.
There are different versions of the group’s origin. Some experts consider Dulong people as a group native to the region, while others believe that they originally lived around the Nujiang River and gradually moved to the Dulong River Valley after discovering the land by accident.
The Dulong group has its own language, belonging to the Jingpo Branch of the Tibetan-Burmese Language Group of the Chinese-Tibetan Language Family. Some Dulong people speak Tibetan and Lisu. The group does not have a traditional written script. Although a Latin writing system was formulated in 1979, it has never been widely used.
Most Dulong people in the region live by slash-and-burn agriculture and follow traditional fishing and hunting. The Nujiang River and vast forest areas provide them with rich food resources.
They are polytheists, worshiping spirits in nature.
Staple foods include maize, potatoes, highland barley and buckwheat.
Shiban Baba (starch on stone plate) is a unique dish of the group. Liquid from a palm tree is mixed with eggs and baked on a heated stone plate. Other popular dishes also include xia re a — chicken cooked with wine — and suan zhucai, sour pickled bamboo shoots.
The Dulong traditionally wear colorful cloaks, the cloth used usually cotton or hessian, embroidered with five-colors of thread. Traditionally they believe that a rainbow is the fabric made by nature, while the Dulong woven cloak is a product learned from nature.
These colorful cloaks are used as everything from covers for babies to carrying grain.
Traditionally, both sexes wore their hair down to their shoulders and with a fringe to their eyebrows. They wore earrings or bamboo tubes in the ear.
There used to be a facial tattoo tradition among Dulong girls. When aged 12 or 13, girls would have their faces tattooed as a sign of their coming of age.
It is said that the souls of the deceased turn into butterflies. While these insects hovered over the gorge, the girls tattooed their faces with butterfly patterns using bamboo needles and indigo ink.
The tattooing tradition died out in the mid-20th century.
The most common style of Dulong homes is bamboo structures built on steep mountain slopes along the river. One side of the house links to the slope and the other faces the water. The homes are built on dozens of pillars and stand two meters above ground. They are two-storied with thin bamboo strips as walls and thatched roofs.
Dulong people of the same clan live together. Married sons and daughters do not move away from their parents. Rather, they set up a new house next to the old one and the roofs and walkways are linked together. Such houses are called “Long bamboo towers.”
Sky ladders and sliding cables used to be the main way of getting across the Dulong River.
A sky ladder is a log on which grooves serving as hand and footholds are cut and then erected up on the edge of the cliff. A sliding cable is made of bamboo strips tied to large trees or rocks on both sides of the river.
With solid wooden and chain bridges available today, the sliding cables are less widely used.
Kaquewa — the Dulong New Year is celebrated on the 30th day of the 12th month in lunar calendar.
The Dulong people also present flour animals to the mountain gods to express their gratitude for foods and harvest.
They also hold ceremonies like “slaughtering bulls to offer sacrifices to Heaven.”
In this ceremony, a young man wearing Dulong cloak will spear a strong bull. Then, the Dulong people light a bonfire and share the meat, while singing and dancing.
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