Aboriginals

    As a World Natural Heritage and World Biosphere, Jiuzhaigou is largely known for its mountain and lake landscapes. But,Jiuzhaigou is also famous for its local people who have fostered and guarded those mountains and lakes. They are Tibetans living among beautiful lakes and mountains. When you cherish a pilgrim's heart to visit this earthly heaven, you find yourself to have come to a site where both history and reality meet and both civilization and nature coexist in harmony.

    For generations after generations, Tibetans have been living in beautiful Jiuzhaigou, in harmony and mutual respect with other ethnic groups like Qiang, Hui and Han nationalities. Even today, Tibetans of Jiuzhaigou maintain their traditional yet simple life styles, as well as modes of production. Their lifestyle falls in a marginal culture of strong ethnic coloring.


    People of Jiuzhaigou are largely Tibetans, speaking the Tibetan language. As the area is gradually open to the outside world, middle-aged and young people begin to speak the standard Chinese. A few Tibetan words will be lots of fun on your way of tour.

    Baima people (a Tibetan tribe) have been living in North Sichuan and South Gansu province, between the north and south of the Tianshan Mountain Range and along the banks of the Fujiang River and the headstreams of the Baishui (White Water) River. Although in harsh living conditions, they have been keeping their unique ethnic customs for a long time, thus their language, religion, garments and accessories arc a little different from that of Anduo and Jiarong Tibetans. In Wenxian. Nanping and Pingwu counties, the Baima population is only about 10.000. They are lineal descendents of ancient Huang Di (Yellow Emperor) and have preserved certain tradi-tional lifestyle of the Chinese nationalities of their early stage.

    In general, Baima people believe in devils and demons. From the 5th and 15th of January on every Chinese lu- nar calendar, tourists will notice, on their way from Pingwu County to Jiuzhaigou County, the "folk devil dance" - the only one of the kind preserved in China.

    According to textual researches, Zhou'ou. the "mask dance" or "idol dance" in Chinese, is a very ancient kind of devil-driving dance ceremony. For over 5.000 to 6,000 years, this dance remains active in Baima tribes - a wonder that could hardly b e understood.

    The Han nationality in Jiuzhaigou tailed Zhou'ou the 12 facial-features dance, but actually has much to do with the traditional Chinese 12 animal symbols (to symbolize the year in which a person is born) According to local folk artists, Zhou'ou had over 30 kinds of masks in ancient times, and those remains up to day are only 12 ones, namely, phoenix, sculpture, heavenly dragon, earthly dragon, tiger, lion, bear, bull, senior demon and junior demon. Zhou'ou really means a puppet dance instead of a 12-animal-symbol dance.

    It is said that, a long time ago, visits among villages were accompanied with the devil dance. The best mask of a village was placed on top of their priority show list, and they regarded ii as their own god of patronage. Dancers were welcome and well treated wherever they went, and at their arrival, villagers were overjoyed.

    Garments and accessories of Baima people are colorful and gorgeous. All over the year, they wear the white, discshaped felt hat, with white cock tail feathers on top. Their dressing seems to symbolize certain anticipation of a new world. For Baima gentlemen, the white tail feather represents bravery and uprightness; for ladies, purity and femininity. In Baima area, everyone is a good singer and a good dancer, and they sing and dance almost at any time, not to speak of big occasions.

    The fireplace of Baima people is set close to the family altar, with men sitting on the left and women on the right. Only distinguished guests or friend from afar are treated with seats close to the altar. When you sit down with your knees bent, the host begins to offer you the honor of liquor that you will drink, instead of in a common manner, but literally sip through a carved bamboo pipe. When you are in high spirits, Baima young ladies will dance out and hold bronze-cups of liquor over the "toasting song."

    Most Tibetans do have their given names, but not surnames. Their name is usually made of one through four characters generally selected from Buddhist scriptures, and as a result, one name may be given to quite a number of people. However, many Baima people name themselves, largely by the Han nationality names: Lei, Hou and Yang.

    On the bank of the Baima River , the Baima Village preserves the most authentic tradition of their tribes. From 1984 when Duan Jia (the last ruler of the tribes ), together with his necromancers, passed away, no one is able to identify the Baima hieroglyph which is similar to Dongma hieroglyph in Naxi , Yunnan . This puzzles many visitors and researchers: why did the Qiang and Naxi necromancers use the same language even though they are thousands of kilometers apart?