Jingpo People

All but a few of Yunnan's 120,000 Jingpo live in Dehong Prefecture, mostly in the mountains at 1500 metres or higher. Across the border in Myanmar the Jingpo are the largest of six ethnic groups (including Lisu) that are classified as Kachin, a Burmese word. They originated in the mountains along the eastern edge of the Tibet-Qinghai Plateau and migrated south to northern Burma and western Yunnan. By the early 15th century they were numerous enough in Dehong that the Ming government created two autonomous Jingpo districts and appointed one Jingpo nobleman in each as hereditary headman (tusi).

The following century witnessed a great migration of Jingpo to Dehong's mountains. They became the largest ethnic group in the hills and today comprise one-eighth of the prefecture's population. Around that time they learned to use iron ploughs and grow rice, a major transition from their previous economy of hunting and gathering. Living in the mountains where the soil is less fertile they generally resorted to the slash-and-burn style of farming. Contemporary governments have been weaning them away from this form of agriculture by introducing terracing, fruit orchards and crop substitution-tea and sugarcane instead of rice, as in Xishuangbanna.

The practice of slash-and-burn continues, however, though it is much reduced. But on some mountain slopes there is no other way to fertilise the soil other than with a layer of ashes. Even plains farmers burn off the straw in their fields in spring to provide nourishment for the upcoming sowing. Consequently, the air can be pretty thick in mid-spring, as the smoke enters the atmosphere on days that are already getting hazier and muggier. But at night, high in the remote mountains, long lines of carefully supervised flames make beautiful flickering patterns on the hillsides in the dark.

Most Jingpo settlements are ensconced in the forest or within bamboo groves and all but hidden from view. Traditional houses were made of wood and bamboo with thatched roofs. The walls were of plaited bamboo and a square hearth occupied the centre of the main room. The house stood on stilts or had one end against the higher part of the slope. This is still the norm in most areas, but brick housing, with tile roofs, like the Dai, are the current choice for any Jingpo family that can afford it. These rest on the ground, while separate sheds house the animals.

The Jingpo have a reputation as great drinkers, though not, it must be pointed out, as drunken revelers. But alcohol is part of a social encounter and men often carry wine flasks and cups with them. Both men and women chew tobacco, claiming it as an aid to digestion. Women like to chew catechu and betel nut, too, which darkens their teeth. In the old days this was considered a sign of beauty. The younger generation prefers sparkling white teeth though, and that particular Jingpo custom seems destined for desuetude.

The ethnic costume is still in fashion, even if nowadays the woman's wraparound skirt is more likely to be made on a knitting machine, if woolen, or a power loom, if cotton or silk. Many women still prefer to make their own and in the dry season they sit in the yard or on the porch with a backstrap loom hooked on to a house post. Older women usually wear dark sarongs and jackets,while younger women wear red, with yellow trim and inlaid patterns, or a multi-coloured piece with as many intricate patterns laid in as the best of the Dai sarongs.

The side-fastened, long-sleeved velvet jacket is plain black, but on special occasions-festivals, weddings,market days. anytime a Jingpo woman wants to look her Jingpo best-it is covered with silver ornaments. These include three rows of big half-globes, stitched around the collar, shoulders and back. At the bottom of these rows hang many thin, flat pendants on chains. These drop down to the midriff in front and below the shoulder blades in back. A few round, embossed discs may also be attached to the bottom of the front of the jacket. To complete her outfit the Jingpo woman wears a red woolen tubular hat and a dozen or more lacquered rattan waist hoops.

The men don't dress up so colourfully, even on festival days. The older men tend to wear the older styles of Han clothes, the younger ones contemporary urban fashions. On special occasions they will don a black vest and a white turban, the ends coloured with many small attached pompoms. They also carry the Jingpo shoulder bag, of red wool, black strap, and covered in front with silver bulbs and pendants on chains just like the women's jacket. A sword, with a straight edge and no pointed end, in a decorated scabbard (more than likely made in Husa) is the final item. Traditionally, Jingpo men carried the sword at all times, for use in defence (rarely necessary) and as a cutting tool for chopping everything from trees to sugar cane.