Baima Tibetan

Living in the Mingshan mountain range, 250km away from Chengdu, the people of the White Horse Tibetan Tribe are well-known for their unique costumes and singing style. Their ancestors created their own spoken language (no written language). They carry out a strict marriage system（they intermarry in the tribe only）. Every tribe member wears a white fleece felt hat made by himself with one or more cock feathers on the hat as a symbol of the tribe. The White Horse Tibetan Tribe’s village is over 100 kilometers from JiuZhaiGou Scenic Area. There are about 4,000 people living in the village. They make their living on planting Codonopsis pilosula and Chinese prickly ash.

Numerable references dating back as far as 4,000 years in Chinese history record the Qiang tribes. Small groups of aggressive nomads roamed the rugged landscapes of the Tibetan borderlands. Sandwiched between the wild war-like Khampa Tibetans to the west and the Chinese to the east, these various nomadic tribes were known as "Qiang" (pronounced "Chi-ung"). Today, the descendants of these people still live scattered throughout western Sichuan Province - a land of breathtaking beauty, a land of gushing rivers and 18,000 feet high snow-capped mountains.

In 1960 the Chinese government began to form their lists of minority groups in China. In the ethnically deiverse mountains of western Sichuan they grouped together a number of small, independent tribes under the banner "Qiang" and still more groups they bunched together under the official "Tibetan" nationality. Today the Qiang minority comprises four seperate languages, and eight dialects. In their hasty attempt at officialdom, the government badly botched up the classification of the western Sichuan Peoples. Still today some 50,000 Qiang speakers are erroneously counted as Tibetans.

Many of the customs and beliefs which formed the identity of the Qiang have been set aside since the start of Communist rule. The current generation have been educated in atheistic schools, where they have been made to ridicule their parents religious beliefs, which are branded as "superstition."

For centuries past the Qiang practiced a bizarre worship using white stones. Still today in rural areas you can see small piles of white stones piled up on the corners of Qiang rooftops, or at the entrance way to protect a village. Qiang temples in the past contained only a white stone as the center-piece of worship. Not possessing any of the multiplicity of idols that other groups in the area have, the Qiang believed that the white stone represented the Supreme Being, leading some writers to speculate wildly that the Qiang may have been one of the "lost tribes of Israel," a claim that is highly unlikely, to say the least.

Qiang legend tells of two tribes centuries ago who fought each other. One tribe ambushed the other, who being caught unprepared, picked up sticks and white stones to fight with. Despite their arked disadvantage they anhialated their enemies, and won the right to live in the fertile valley that remains their home to this day. From stories like this white stones took on a powerful, mystical value.

The first day after arriving in the main Qiang town of Maoxian, an invigorating 12-hour bus ride from the provincial capital Chengdu, a friend and I spent the morning researching Qiang culture. We found our way to a temple reputed to be 1,000 years old, where an old lady was sitting in the sun knitting a sweater. After a brief introduction we discovered she was a Qiang sorceress, and a guardian of the temple. She told us, "I have the power to put people into a trance, and make their spirits leave their bodies and travel to hell. Usually we can then call their spirits back, but sometimes it doesn't work, and the person dies and is trapped in hell forever." When we told her about a God who had the power to take her spirit to heaven, she was delighted and wanted to know more.

Please pray for this sorceress, and the other Qiang who are lost, without a glimmer of hope in this world or the world to come. Satan has ruled the Qiang regions for thousands of years, and people planning to minister to them need to be prepared for opposition. Two seperate short-term teams sho traveled to Maoxian in 1994 were arrested and detained for several days just for being in possession of Christian literature. The authorities in the Qiang area are very keen to keep all outside influences, including Christianity, away from the Qiang people.

Lift up the few Qiang believers in prayer. Pray they would be steadfast and mature, and concerned for the

salvation of others.Pray that the praises of God would soon echo around the mountains from redeemed Qiang.

The Qiang ethnic minority has a long history. Information about this group can be found in ancient Chinese characters carved on tortoise shells and animal bones, which date back some 3,000 years. The Qiang has established a splendid civilization in the northwest and southwest of the country and be counted as one of the important founders of civilization in China.

Yong Jirong is of Qiang extraction. He’s deputy curator at the Cultural Palace Museum of China. He’s very proud of his ethnic history and culture.

As legend has it, when the ancestors of the Qiang moved to the upper reaches of the Mingjiang River in Sichuan province, they came upon a strong enemy. The head of the Qiang was instructed in a dream to overcome the enemy with white stones. After following the instructions, the Qiang nationality finally defeated their strong enemy. As a way of expressing their gratitude to the god who had appeared in the dream, the Qiang nationality began to worship the white stone. This tradition has been passed on from generation to generation ever since.”

After the Qiang nationality settled along the Mingjiang river, they put white stones on the top of their houses, on shrines for idols, as well as on the sides of roads and fields.

The Qiang minority mainly populates the valleys of the high mountains. Their houses are built on the flat areas half way up the mountain. They are traditionally built from stones with flat roofs. The houses are connected and form a village, which is solid in structure and grand in design. Yong Jirong says this type of architecture was good for protecting against attacks and wars in ancient times.

“Frequent wars in ancient times forced the Qiang people to build houses with strong defense capabilities. The houses of the Qiang people have three stories. The first floor is used to house domestic animals. The second provides a living area and the third floor is used to store grain and other odds and ends. A long corridor links all the houses in the village. In addition, a ten-story high watchtower was built in front of every village to guard against the enemies in ancient times.”

Like other ethnic minorities in China, the Qiang nationality is fond of dancing and singing. One popular musical instrument which is accompanied by dancing and singing is the Qiang flute. The double pipe flute is 20 centimetre long. It has two reeds at the top. It produces a clear and pleasant sound. The instrument was introduced to central China some 2,000 years ago, effecting a profound influence on the culture of central China.

Nowadays, the life of the Qiang minority has changed a lot. The industry and agriculture in the Qiang inhabited areas has undergone remarkable progress. Many small and medium sized hydro-power stations have been built. Pine torches used for illumination have been replaced by electricity. And TV sets and electric cookers are commonly used.

With the development of the local economy, the way the Qiang minority is perceived is also changing. In the past, the Qiang people mainly depended on breeding sheep and cattle. Now many of them are entrepreneurs. In the Aba county in the northwest of Sichuan province, 40 per cent of all enterprise managers are Qiang.