Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
(1923:176). There are the Tibetans, who lived primarily in the northern reaches of the river
beyond Gongshan. 1
Nujiang Prefecture, where eight of the thirteen dams in the Nu River cascade-develop-
ment plan are to be built, is the heart of the Nu River Gorge. It was established in 1954 as
an “autonomous prefecture” for the Lisu people, whose language is Tibeto-Burman in ori-
gin and has about 600,000 speakers in southwest China and thousands more in Myanmar
and Thailand ( Ethnologue 2009). Most Lisu communities are located in mountainous areas
from 1,500 to 3,000 meters above sea level. As with many of the minority nationalities
in the southwest, the Lisu practiced slavery into the early twentieth century (Miller 1994).
Tibetans also took slaves, often from local Dulong communities in the upper Nu River wa-
tershed (Gros 2011).
But the Lisu live side by side with myriad other ethnic groups. A traditional Lisu folk
tale provides a colorful origin story for the region's minority inhabitants. According to the
story, in the dim mists of an indeterminate past era, a mythical brother and sister survive
ninety-nine days and nights of torrential flooding by hiding away in a gourd, floating about
thelandscapeandwitnessingthedestructionoftherestofhumankindintherisingfloodwa-
ters. Lacking other alternatives and persuaded by a pair of dazzling, golden-colored birds
who possess the ability to talk, they reluctantly marry one another. In time, the woman
gives birth to twelve children, six sons and six daughters, each of whom marries a sibling
and goes off in search of his or her livelihood and destiny. The couple who travel north
become the progenitors of the Tibetans; the couple who travel south become the Bai; the
couple who go east are the Han; the couple who go west, into present-day Myanmar, are
the Keqin; the couple who settle on the banks of the river are the Nu; and the dutiful couple
who choose to stay with their parents are the Lisu (Miller 1994:74-84).
Such a story provides a basic framework for making sense of the intricacies of ethnic
identity in this corner of southwest China, but it also obscures the fact that ethnicity in the
Nu River valley is often not so clear-cut. Individuals from different ethnic backgrounds
have been connected via caravan routes up and down the gorge for centuries and have often
intermarried. During fieldwork in the gorge, when I inquired about a person's ethnic iden-
tity, I often heard a long pause, followed by an intricate recitation of genealogy: “My fath-
er is Lisu, but my mother is Tibetan, and many members of my extended family are Nu.”
As a result of this prolonged, intimate contact between ethnic groups, facility in two or
three languages is common among local residents. Cross-border transit into Myanmar, al-
though substantially more difficult in recent years, is still fairly common; many young men
from local villages are involved in the clandestine import of Burmese jade, which is highly
prized in the Chinese market.
Further complicating the story of ethnic identity is the fact that Tibetan Lamaistic
Buddhism as well as more ancient forms of animistic belief, long the dominant religious
traditions of the area, were supplanted by Roman Catholicism when a group of hardy
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