Deng people balance tradition in modern world

No writing system

Deng people have no recorded history. They have two dialects that divide them into two major subtribes. It is said that their family names are assigned according to the places they live. People of the same family name own the forests together.

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Having no written language, they used to make a record of events by tying knots on ropes or carving wood. For example, when inviting someone for a sacrifice in five days time, a string with five knots is sent and the receiver cuts one knot off each day as a reminder.

The Deng people use no calendar and do not keep note of their own ages or birthdays. In Xiani village, another Deng community with a population of about 200 in lower Zayu, some Deng traditions are still observed.

When a disease is hard to cure, villagers used to resort to the local wizard for a cure. A few people still follow this practice, says villager Xiong Weilong, 39.

The senior wizard in the village died in 2008. There are several junior wizards, who can only kill pigs but not oxen.

Xiong says in 1991, 20 cattle were killed for a great sacrifice; villagers invited their relatives from nine nearby villages to share the meat. They stayed in the village for three days to finish all the food, says Xiong.

According to Xiong, they have lots of taboos. For example, it is forbidden to mention someone's name after he or she dies. People of the same family name must stop working for some time after a death to mourn and pray for harvest, or else there will be disaster for the people and reduction in farmland yields.

Nowadays, weddings are the most important events in the village. Cattle, which are the main property, are still used for the dowry. The groom's family has to give five or 10 live cattle, depending on their financial status, to the bride's family.

In the past, some poor men who didn't have cattle would find it difficult to get a wife, while rich people could "buy" more than one wife with cattle, explains Xiong.

For weddings, the wealthiest families might kill 20 pigs to share with the villagers.

The Xiani villagers depend on crops like rice and corn, and collecting cordyceps sinensis. The household incomes vary from 10,000 to 70,000 yuan ($1,634 to 11,437) a year.

Xiong is happy to see the positive changes to his village. It is now connected to the county town with a newly built road, and the local government has subsidized each household with 8,000 yuan for renovating their houses.

In the past, few people in the village visited even the town. Now some of them have been to Lhasa, Chengdu and other cities, to visit modern doctors or access other services, Xiong says.

"The roads have been improving and our lives are getting better. We'll gradually have whatever people elsewhere have now," he adds.

Like Xiong, Alusung is content with the current life of the Deng people. However, he is still concerned about their official identity.

"I have been making efforts in the past years including proposing to the National People's Congress to add Deng people as the 57th ethnic group of China," he says.