Lhoba
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Template:Ethnic group With a population of just 2,300, the Lhoba (珞巴) are one of the smallest officially recognized ethnic groups in China. They are divided between the Boga'er and Yidu (Idu), who were classified as one of the three sub-tribes of the Mishmi.
The Lhoba live in southeastern Tibet, notably in Mainling, Medog, Lhunze and Nangxian counties in southeastern Tibet. Additionally, a small number live in Luoyu, southern Tibet. Many more live in south of the Tibetan border in Dibang Valley in Arunachal Pradesh, where they engage in traditional agriculture and hunting. Until the Chinese occupation of Tibet, the Lhoba had no written language. Even though a romanized alphabet was developed for them, there are many elderly Lhoba who can neither read or even count. The occupation of Tibet also brought many changes to traditional Lhoba culture. Most significantly, it helped to integrate the Lhoba with the dominant Tibetan culture and began to put an end to the rigid class system, by which the Lhoba were divided into two distinct castes - aristocrat (maide) and peasant (nieba) - which were not allowed to intermix.
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Customs and Dress
Many customs, habits and dress of different clan members may vary. The Lhoba men in Luoyu wear knee-length black jackets without sleeves and buttons made out of sheep's wool. They wear helmet-like hats either made from bearskin or woven from bamboo stripes or rattan laced with bearskin. They also wear ornaments that include earrings and necklaces and carry bows and arrows or wear swords at their side. The Lhoba women wear narrow-sleeved blouses and skirts of sheep's wool. The weight of the ornaments the womenfolk wear is a symbol of their wealth, which includes shells, silver coins, iron chains bells, silver and brass earrings. Both sexes usually go barefooted. Their dress are quite similar to the Tibetan costume.
Culture and religion
Few know the Tibetan language. In the past, when there was no writing, the Lhobas kept track of history through telling their descandants and tying knot codes about their past. Their literature also poses a significant influence on their Tibetan counterparts.
They engage in barter trade in the Tibetan, trading goods like animal hides, musk, bear paws, dye and captured game for farm tools, salt, wool, clothing, grain and tea from Tibetan traders. As a result of constant trading with the Tibetans, they have been increasingly influenced by the Tibetans in their dress. Many Lhobas have converted to Lamaism in the recent years as they traded in the Buddhist monasteries, thus frequently mixing with their indigenious Animist beliefs, which had traditionally deep roots in the tiger. Others remain Animistic, more commonly among those in Arunachal Pradesh, and their pilgrim centre of the community lies at Atho-Popu in Dibang valley. The stories about immigration mentioned is along the banks of twelve rivers in Dibang Valley, the clustered area known as Cheithu-Huluni.
Festivals such as Reh are celebrated to control the peace and prosperity of the people. This is meant to appease the deities, who were traditionally believed to control the peace and prosperity of the people, which is the thought behind the celebration of the Reh festival. The celebration with great fan-fare and the performance of priest dance marks the ending of the festival.
The young boys are trained to hunt at an early age. However, women had low status in society and had no inheritance rights from their husbands or fathers. The Lhoba also enjoy a subtropical/warm temperate climate.
Cuisine
Their cuisine vary in different regions. Staple foods are dumplings made of maize or millet flour, rice or buckwheat. In places near Tibetan communities people have tsampa, potatoes, buttered tea and spicy food. Being heavy drinkers and smokers, at celebrations the Lhobas enjoy wine and singing to observe good harvests and good luck. The buttered tea is their favourite drink. However, due to the lack of salt, they had suffered endemic goiter, caused by poor living conditions. Many were either born deaf or mute. Their population went down in decline until recent years due to this disease. Due to their low population, many of them either intermarried with the Tibetans or with the tribal groups of Arunachal Pradesh, notably the Monpa.
History
With the excavation of the Bhismakanagar, a stronghold of the Chutiya caste, which existed up to the sixteenth century, shed light to their traditional history. According to archaeologists, Bhismakanagar tells about the contribution made by the Yidu Lhoba to the synthetic fabric of Indian culture, and as well as the early arrival of Cathoilism to this region.
Since the coming of liberation, followed by the Tibetan rebellion in 1959, the Chinese government have significantly improved their living condition. Since then, they were treated as equals by society. Now they are well represented in government at regional, county, district and township levels. Production was boosted and people's living standards and general health improved with loans and relief extended by the government. Previously were serfs, the Lhoba received land, farm implements and draught animals.
References
- The Lhopas (http://www.paulnoll.com/China/Minorities/min-Lhoba.html)
- The Lhoba minorty group (http://nths.newtrier.k12.il.us/academics/faculty/kessel/ethnicgroups_3-4/sonny/lhoba_minority_group.htm)
- Lhoba ethnic minorty (http://www.fmprc.gov.cn/eng/ljzg/3584/t17897.htm)
- Ethnic Groups-Lhobas (http://www.china.org.cn/e-groups/shaoshu/shao-2-lhoba.htm)
- PROPEL (http://www.proel.org/mundo/idu.htm)
- Unreached People prayer profiles (http://www.ksafe.com/profiles/p_code5/767.html)
- Compiling the Tibetan folktale (http://www.zytzb.org.cn/xizhang/zazhi/2001-3/eng/p6.htm)
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Chinese ethnic groups (classification by PRC government) |
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