The Drung ethnic minority
The Drungs, numbering about 4,700, live mainly in the Dulong River
valley of the Gongshan Drung and Nu Autonomous County in northwestern
Yunnan Province. Their language belongs to the Tibetan-Myanmese group of
the Chinese-Tibetan language family. Similar to the language of the Nu
people, their neighbors, it does not have a written form and,
traditionally, records were made and messages transmitted by engraving
notches in wood and tying knots.
History
During the Tang Dynasty (618-907), the places where the Drungs lived
were under the jurisdiction of the Nanzhao and Dali principalities. From
the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) to the end of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911),
the Drungs were ruled by court-appointed Naxi headmen. In modern times,
the ethnic minority distinguished itself by repulsing a British military
expedition in 1913.
Natural Environment
The Dulong River valley extends 150 km from north to south. It is
flanked on the east by Mt. Gaoligong, 5,000 meters above sea level, and on
the west by Mt. Dandanglika, 4,000 meters above sea level.
The area has abundant rainfall due to the influence of monsoon winds
from the Indian Ocean; the annual precipitation is 2,500 mm. Virgin
forests cover the mountain slopes, and medicinal herbs, wild animals and
mineral deposits abound. Crops grown in the area used to be limited to
maize, buckwheat and beans, but after liberation at the mid-20th century
rice and potatoes were introduced.
Customs and Traditions
Before the founding of the People抯 Republic of China in 1949, Drung
society maintained many vestiges of the primitive commune system. There
were 15 patriarchal clans called "nile." Each nile consisted of several
family communes, and each commune occupied a separate territory marked off
by boundaries such as streams and mountain ridges. The clan was further
divided into "ke'eng," or villages, where people dwelt in common long
houses.
Agricultural production remained at a very low level until 1949, due
mainly to the primitive nature of the Drungs' farm tools. Every year saw
several lean months when their diet had to be supplemented by food
gathering, hunting and fishing.
The ke'eng members pursued collective farming on common land and held
their hunting, fishing and gathering grounds in common. However, in modern
times this system was slowly giving way to ownership of the means of
production by blood-related families. Following financial difficulties due
to illness or debt as a result of the imposition of taxes, land sales
gradually led to the emergence of oppressive landlords. And rich
households used to make seasonal workers and destitute children work for
them.
The Drungs produced some primitive handicrafts, including bamboo and
rattan articles and engaged in the weaving of linen. But the absence of
both traders and towns made barter the only form of exchange.
The ke'eng was the grassroots organization of Drung society. Its
members regarded themselves as being descended from the same ancestor. A
Drung's personal name was preceded by that of the family and his father's
name. In the case of a woman, her mother's name was included.
Each ke'eng was headed by a "kashan" whose duties were both
administrative and ceremonial. He also directed warfare and mediated
disputes. The ke'engs were politically separate entities, which formed
temporary alliances in times of great danger threatening from outside
communities.
Marriage within the clan was forbidden and monogamy was the rule in
recent times, but vestiges of primitive group marriage remained, such as
several sisters marrying one man. Polygamy was also not unknown.
The dead were buried in the ground in hollow logs, except in cases of
death from serious disease, when the corpses were cremated or disposed of
in the rivers. Funerals were attended by all the relatives, who brought
sacrificial offerings of food.
The Drung people, male and female, wear their hair down to their
eyebrows in front and down to their shoulders behind. Both sexes used to
wrap themselves in a covering of striped linen fastened with straw ropes
or bamboo needles. The poorer ones would often have no other clothing but
a skirt of leaves.
Girls tattooed their faces at the onset of puberty, with the patterns
varying according to the clan.
The traditional ke'eng long house -- made of logs in the northern areas
and of bamboo further south -- is made up of a large, oblong room which
serves as the ke'eng's common quarters, with two rows of smaller rooms at
the back. Each small room has a fireplace in the middle and is the home of
an individual family.
At one time, each ke'eng had a common granary, but this was replaced by
granaries owned by small groups of families.
The Drungs are animists and make sacrificial offerings to appease evil
spirits. Shamans, and sometimes the kashan, performed such rites. The
Drung New Year falls in December of the lunar calendar. The exact dates
are not fixed, nor is the duration of the celebration, which lasts as long
as the food does. Cattle are slaughtered as an offering to Heaven, and the
Drungs dance around the carcasses.
New Life
A new life began for the Drung people with liberation in 1949. The year
1956 saw the establishment of the Gongshan Drung and Nu Autonomous County,
with a Drung as the county magistrate. The first task for the government
was to provide the Drungs with clothing and farm tools, and promote farm
production and education.
In light of the conditions in Drung society, the government decided
that land reform would be inappropriate, and concentrated on the
development of production.
Beginning in 1954, about 6,000 hectares of arable land was brought
under cultivation in the Dulong River valley. Irrigation projects
transformed part of the land into paddy fields, which had been
non-existent up until then. A few years later, the area began to sell
surplus grain to the state. Along with the increased farm production went
a boost for livestock raising (cattle, goats and pigs), the cultivation of
medicinal herbs and the processing of animal hides.
Primary schools, unknown in the Drung area in the past, now number over
20. Clinics and health stations have put the shamans out of business.
Special attention has been paid to making the mountainous Drung area
accessible to the outside world. Some 150 km of roads have been
constructed, and ferries and bridges now span the roaring torrents of the
hill streams. Modern commodities are now available to the Drungs. There is
also a post office, bookstore and film-projection team in the valley.
Several small hydroelectric power stations, built in the last couple of
decades, have brought electricity to the Drung villages.