Ethnic group serves up a recipe for tourism

Hong has transformed her house into a family inn, offering Deng delicacies.

"All the ingredients for the hand-grabbed rice are grown by ourselves," she says. "We raise the chicken, grow the crops and the chili."

But the meal would not be complete without the seasonings from the mountains.

"To prepare the hand-grabbed rice, you need to steam the chicken, chop it into slices and mix them with steamed rice," she says. "We also add wild green onions into the rice."

The Deng people wrap the rice and chicken meat in Japanese banana leaves. The meal is usually eaten alongside chicken meat, wild vegetables and fish mint salad soaked in chili sauce.

"We also provide homemade rice wine, which is sweet and a bit sour too," says Hong. "The wine tastes best with the chicken rice."

Hong says the hand-grabbed chicken rice is a traditional delicacy that the Deng people make on festivals or to entertain guests.

"In the past, it was the men who made the meals in accordance with our tradition," she says. "Now women have also begun to cook in the kitchen."

The village's tourism boom is driven by aid from the southern metropolis of Shenzhen, Guangdong province. In late 2016, with the help from the Shenzhen team sent to support Tibet, the village launched the Deng people family inn project.

By the end of 2018, the project managed to rake in a profit of about 500,000 yuan ($70,516), increasing the incomes of five Deng families. The Deng people bid farewell to absolute poverty that year.

Hong and three other families joined in the project. Besides the hand-grabbed rice brand, they also plan to develop roasted dishes to attract more tourists.

By 2019, the average annual income per capita had exceeded 20,000 yuan in the Deng villages, as local residents started doing business such as growing kiwi fruits and raising pigs.

"In the past, we, Deng people, were unaware of what commodities were," says local official Jin Xia. "Now with such a favorable business environment and policies, I am confident that people's lives will become increasingly better."

Xinhua