The Mangghuer Nadun: Village Ritual and Frontier History on the Northeast Tibetan Plateau

The Silk Road: Interwoven History

Vol. 1. Long-distance Trade, Culture, and Society

Edited by Mariko Namba Walter James P. Ito-Adler

Cambridge Institutes Press ACANSRS: Association for Central Asian Civilizations & the

Silk Road Studies

© 2015 Cambridge Institutes Press All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America

ISBN 978-0-9910428-0-7 (alk.paper)

1. The Silk Road-long-distance trade routes-History. 2. Centra! Asian civilizations-East & West Cultural exchanges. I. Walter, Mariko Nainba. II. Ito-Adler, .lames P.

This book is also available on the World Wide Web as an eBook. Visit http://www.a~ansrs.cofT! for details. ACANSRS 1430 Mass Ave., Cambridge, MA 02144, USA

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The front page image: A Sogdian caravaner with his camel. From a rubbing of a T'ang-era tile from a tomb near Dunhuang, China. Photo by Daniel Waugh.

Cover Design: David Turner and Mariko Namba Walter

Dedicated to the Memory of Professor Richard Frye

Contents

Preface and Acknowledgments Series Foreword Introduction

One. Mapping the Silk Roads Tim Williams

Two. The Parthian Empire: Romans, Jews, Greeks,

~ IX

X

Xlll

Nomads, and Chinese on the Silk Road 43 Leonardo Gregoratti

Three. Heroes and Philosophers" Greek Personal Names and their Bearers in Hellenistic Bactria 71 Rachel Mairs

Four. Palmy rene Long-distance Trade: Land, River, and Maritime Routes in the First Three Centuries CE. I 0 l Eivind Heldaa.< Seland

Five. Judaeo-Persian Tombstone Inscriptions from Djam, Central Afghanistan 132 Ulrike-Christiane Lintz

Six. Musical Culture of Turkmenistan: From Ancient Merv to Modern Times 178 Djamilya Kurbanova

Seven. Nestorian Christianity in the Ordas in Inner Mongolia 219 Borbala Obrusanszky

Eight. Cowry Shells and the Emergent World Trade System ( 1500 BCE-1700 CE) 250 Bin Yang

Nine. The Maritime Silk Road: Silver and Silk in Japan's Trade with Asia in the 16th and l 7th Centuries 284

Ten.

Michael Laver

The MangghuerNadun: Village Ritual and Frontier History on the Northeast Tibetan Plateau Gerald Roche

Contributors Primary Editors Editorial Board Index

310

348 351 352 353

Ten

The Mangghuer Nadun: Village Rjtual and Frontier History on the

Northeast Tibetan Plateau

I Gerald Roche

I . fthe deitv Erlang Ye being carried- Shanzhaojia Fig. J· The pa anqum o ~

· Village

Introduction · . . a er is to explore processes of cultural change at the

The mm ofdth:~~m~n' scale at which traditional practices such as fine-grame bstantive form. I am specifically interested In how r~ual assum~h~~rized in the context of Chinese late imperial history.,

~~~~~~~~~~ent wo;ks on this topic have sought to bring a 'frontier

Stuart' T·,mothy Thurston._ and Elena McKinlay for commenting on

1 I thank C.K drafts of this paper.

THE MANGGHUER NADUN: NORTHEAST TIBETAN PLATEAU

perspective to the subject, 2 building on broader theoretical developments that might be called 'frontier' or 'borderland' studies."' Such an approach seeks to orient discourse away from central, typically state, actors and to focus on local actors, in order to create a more nuanced picture of state expansion and its impacts. Crossley et a!., 4 for example, stress "the agency of local groups who improvised on what they believed to be symbolisms of state authority in order to gain respective places in an increasingly connected state system." 5 Giersch advocates "analyzing the political and cultural institutions of intruder and indigene alike."6 Herman "highlight[s) the indigenous response to China's colonization of the southwest." 7 The same binaries emerge in these sources - local versus state, intruder versus indigene, and indigenous versus Chinese, giving the impression of two billiard balls colliding.

While well-intentioned in their attempt to diversify the perspectives from which history is told. such 'frontier' approaches do not go far enough in their reorientation of historical visions. Instead, they merely shift the perspective from one side to the other, while continuing to play out the same narrative of historical collision. In contrast, I argue for a perspective that shows the multiplicity of frontiers by reducing the unit of historical analysis from peoples and states to ideologies and their agents. This renders every site a frontier in the sense of being a zone of interaction, not between differing

2 C. Patterson Giersch, Asian Borderlands: The Transformation of Qing China's Yunnan Frontier (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2006). John Herman, Amid the Clouds and Mist: China's Colonization of Guizhou. 1200-1700 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, Harvard East Asian Monographs, 2007). Pamela Crossley, Helen Siu, and Donald Sutton (eds.), Empire at the Margins· Culture, Ethnicity, and F'rontier in Early Modern China (Berkley, CA: University of California Press, 2006). A similar perspective has been applied to Tibetan history in Wim van Spengen and Lama Jabb, Studies in the History of Eastern Tibet (Halle: International Institute for Tibetan and Buddhist Studies, 2009). 3 Hastings Donan and Thomas Wilson, Borders: Frontiers of Identity, Nation, and State (London: Berg Books, 1999). Robert Alvarez, "The Mexican~US Border: The Making of an Anthropology of Borderlands," Annual Review of Anthropology 24 (1995): 444-470. Richard White, The Middle Ground: indians, Empires, and Republics in the Great Lakes Region, /650-181.5 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991). James C. Scott, The Art of/1iot Being Governed: An Anarchist f/isto1y ofl.lpfand Southeast Asia (New Haven, CN: Yale University Press, 2009). 4

Crossley ct al. 5 Ibid 21. G Ibid. 3. 7 Ibid. 1.

I

GERALD ROCHE

peoples, or between state and non-state, but between different ideas. I do not wish to imply that the state, indigenous peoples, or ethnic groups do not exist, but merely that they do not necessarily always form the most meaningful unit of historical analysis, especially when dealing with small-scale culture change, rather than broad-scale historical processes.

I will exemplify this approach by unpacking the history of a ritual complex from northwest China, the Nadun of the Mangghuer people. The Mangghuer, officially classified in China as Tu; are a group of approximately 30,000 settled agropastoralists who speak a Mongolic language and primarily live in the Sanchuan region on the northern banks of the Yellow River in China's Qinghai Province. Though the ethnonym "Mangghuer" literally means 'Mongol' in the Mangghuer language, Sanchuan inhabitants consider themselves a distinct people.

\

Fig. 2: Locations mentioned in the text. The SandJUan region is located in Qinghai Province, Haidong Region (gray, left), Minhe Hui and Tu Autonomous County (black, left). A: The Yellow River forms the border of Qinghai and Gansu provinces, and is the southern limit of the Sanchuan region. B: The region to the south of the Yellow River is generically referred to as Hezhou. C: Zhaomuchuan. D: Pubaghuer. E: Minzhu Valley. F: Guanting. G: Zhujia Monasteryi Hulijia H: Wofo Monastery

The heart of the Sanchuan region, the Guanting basin, lies like the palm of a hand on the north bank of the Yellow River, with five tributary valleys radiating northward from it like fingers. The regional population is an intricate mosaic of Tibetans, various Mndim P-rcmns_ 1-hm Chinese_ ~nrl M:mp-o-hnf'r F::~rh "!ltmm~r o;;:nme


fifty-three Sandman communities hold the Nadun ritual, a series of danced performances that give thanks to territorial deities who ensure communal prosperity. The ritual shows the influence of i'Jge lugs pa Buddhism,' Chinese folk religion, popular Confucianism, and diffuse folk elements pertaining to hospitality, age hierarchies, ethnic stereotypes, and gender roles that have accumulated over several centuries.

This paper analyses the interaction between ritual elements in order to reconstruct the history of the Nadun 9 Primary sources for this research are interviews conducted with Mangghuer, Tibetans, and local Han Chinese in Sanchuan between 2008 and 2011. 10 Data were also gathered in thirty-five observations of the ritual over the same period. Secondary sources consist of English language materials on Tibetan, Chinese, and Mongol culture and history.

Fig. 3: Nadun in Zhujia Village.

My analysis suggests that the Nadun was not formed through a process of interaction between ethnic groups, nor between the state and its periphery (or frontier, margin, or borderland). Rather,

8 John Powers, Introduction to Tibetan Buddhism (Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion Publications, 1995). This work provides an introduction to the 'refonned' Dge lugs pa sect of Tibetan Buddhism. 9 Apart from a brief note on the contemporary period, my historical analysis concludes at the founding of New China in 1949. w Wen Xiangcheng conducted interviews, primarily in the Mangghuer language. 1 am grateful to him for his invaluable assistance. 1 take full responsibility for any

GERALD ROCHE

ideological 'stre~m_s" 1 were the basic unit of interaction, suggesting

that current diSCiplinary foc1- Smology, Tibetology, Mongol studies and so on - and their primarily ethnic and state emphases, may b~ inadequate for understanding small scale culture change.

Origins

The origins of the Mangghuer are controversial. One suggestion is that their ancestry can be traced back to the Xianbei people of Manchuria, who migrated west in the third century CE and founded the Tuyuhun Kingdom (285-670 CE), 12 which disintegrated into today's Mangghuer population. 13 An opposing position is that the Mangghuer descended from Mongol troops manning garrisons that submitted to the newly formed Ming Dynasty soon after its founding in 1368.

14 Both perspectives ignore research demonstrating human

habitation of Sanchuan dating back at least 4,000 years, associated primarily with the Qijia cultural complex, by a population who contributed genetically to both contemporary Han and Tibeto-B I . " A -urrnan popu at10ns. recent genet1c study found that Tu/

11 Frederick Barth, Balinese Worlds (Chicago and London: The University of

Chicago Press, 1993). The concept of ideoscapes is also relevant here. Arjun Appadurai, Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of GLobalization (Minneap~lis, tvfN: University of Minnesota Press, 1996). 12

Gabriella Mole, The Tu-yii-hun from the Northern Wei to the Time oft he Five Dynasties. Serie Orientale Roma 41 (Rome: lstituto Italiano peril Media ed Estreme Oriente, 1970). 13

Li Keyu, Tu zu (Menggu'er) yuan Liu kao {On the origins of the Tu (Monguor) NationaLity}. (Xining: Qinghai ren min chu ban she [Qinghai People's Press], !993); Hu Jun (Alex Hu). "An Overview of the History and Culture of the Xianbei ('Mangghuer'/Tu')," Asian Ethnicity II. I (2010): 95- 164 1

~ Louis M.J. Schram, The Mangghuers of the Kansu-Tibetan F"rontier Part 1: Their Origin, History and Social Organization: Part II: Their Religious Life; Part Ill: Records of the Mangghuer Clans: History of the Mangghuers in Huanchung and the Chronicles of the Lu Family, Kevin Stuart (ed.) with introductions by Juha Janhunen, Paul Neitpupski, Gray Tuttle, Keith Slater, Jeroom Heyndrickx, and Limusishiden ~d Kevin Stuart. (Xming: Plateau Publications, 2006 [1954, 1957, 1961]).

Yang Xmoyan, Xm Zhengkai, and Ye Mao! in. ''Prehistoric Disaster at Lajia Site, Q~nghai, China,'' Chinese Science Bulletin. 48.17 (2003): 1877~ 1881. Lu Houyuan, ~~~o~an Yang, Maolin Ye: Kam-Biu Liu, Zhengkai Xia, Xiaoyan Ren, Linhai Cai, Na1qm Wu, Tung-Sheng L1u. "Millet Noodles in Late Neolithic China," Nature. 437 (2005): 967~968. Mo Duowen, Zhijun Zhao, .Junjie Xu, and Ming!in Li. "Holocene Environmental Change and the Evolution of Neolithic Cultures in China," in Peter Martini and Ward Chesworth (cds). Landscapes and Societies· Selected Cases (Dordrecht: New York. NY: Sorine:er, 2010). 299~320. Gao Shizhu. Yan2 Vidal. Xu


Monguor ancestry could be traced to Greek, Han, Yi, Tujia, and Mongol sources, 16 It is challenging to learn much more about these early residents other than certain details of diet and material culture. They did, however, engage in agriculture, and may have held harvest rituals that contributed elements to contemporary Nadun, though the current state of knowledge prevents any speculation beyond this possibility.

Interviews with Mangghuer _elders in Sanchuan suggest the situation is more complex than either the Xianbei or Mongol theory suggest.

Our male ancestor came from Majiawan Village in Gansu Province. Ma people were Muslims but became Mangghuer. Our first male ancestor married a Tibetan woman when he first came here. 17

We are the seventh generation of Deng people in this village. We have five generations of tombs and two generations currently living. Our female ancestor's tomb is stil_l there. Her children were Han but they married locals, and their descendants became Mangghuer. 18

I heard that our ancestors were from Xi'an in Shaanxi Province. Our elders told us that we were from a village near Da liushu m Xi'an. 19

At first our ancestors came from Sichuan Province. At that time this was a Tibetan place. Our ancestors did not come here for any

the Chinese People: Mitochondrial DNA Analysis of a Neolithic Population from the Lajia Site," American Journal of Physical Anthropology. l33.4 (2007): 1128-1336. 16 See Garrett Hellenthal, George Busby, Gavin Band, James Wilson, Cristian Capelli, Daniel Falush, and Simon Myers. "A Genetic Atlas of Human Admixture History," Science 343.6172 (2014): 747~751. accessed !0 April20J4. http://www .admi~turetTJ.iiP· paintmvchromosomes.com/. This confirms earlier genetic findings that the Tu/ Monguor population, "has a multi··origin [sic], and it has also merged with other local populations," see Chen Feng. Yajun Deng. Yonghui Dang, Bo Zhang, Haofang Mu, Xiaoguang Xu, Lin Li, Chunx.ia Yan. and Teng Chen. "Genetic Polymorphism of Mitochondrial DNA I·IVS-I and HVS-II of Chinese Tu Ethnic Minority Group," Journal of Genetics and Genomics 35 (2008): 225-232. 17 Interview, 30 November 2008. 18 Interview, 25 October 2008.

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special reason. They came here just like one big tree has many branches that spread out everywhere. 20

Elders said that our ancestors were Tibetans from Bao'an Wutun 21

but I don't know where that is. Elders also told us that peop!e in Lajia Village were Tibetans from Lang_jia Valley. 22

I heard that our ancestors came from Baitu hang near Nanjing. Elders said that many people fled from a war there, and some of them ended up here. 23

Our ancestors ·were from east of Beijing. First, they moved to Dawang Village near Lanzhou. Then, they moved here from Dawang.24

These accounts illustrate that narratives positing a single origin of populations oversimplify complex realities. Historical analysis reveals the same thing for culture. Models that take rituals and other cultural expressions as unicausally and unproblematically emblematic of a local or ethnic culture inevitably oversimplify the situation.

We may, however, trace at least the origins of the name Nadun to a linguistically Mongolic source. The Mangghuer verb nadu means to play, joke, or perform. 25 The Mongolian festival Nadaam, consisting of horse races, archery, and wrestling, is etymologically related, though almost certainly not historically related. The presence of a Mongolic language in Sanchuan indicates that in addition to the sources described above, we must also add a Mongolic source for the local population, likely dating to the Mongol Empire (1206-1368

20 Interview. 7 March 2009. 21 Bao'an Wutun is in Bao'an Township, Tangren County. Certain residents speak the Mongolic Bao'an language. Skal bzang nor bu, Zhu Yongzhong, and Kevin Stuart. "A Ritual Winter Exorcism in Gnyan thog Village, Qinghai," Asian Folklore Studies 58.1 ( 1999): 189-203. 22 Interview, 22 November 2009. 23 Interview, 19 November 2009. 24 Interview, 16 November 2008. 25 For more on the Mangghuer language, see Keith W. Slater, Mangghuer: A IHongolic Language of China's Qinghai-Gansu Sprachbund (London and New York: Routledge, 2003). This work describes the Mangghuer language as a basically Mnnrrnlic l:mP!HH!e fh:1t ha5; unden?onc "tremendntJ<:: influence of other lrml!ll8Qes in


CE). 26 Beyond this fact, tracing a monolithic origin ofNadun seems impossible.

Three consistent ritual elements of Nadun demonstrate tl'!e problem of positing unicausal origins. First, all Nadun performers are male (including female character roles) and are ranked according to age, from eldest to youngest. Androcentrism and age hierarchy are therefore two important features of Nadun. The third consistent factor among all Nadun performances is that the relationship between the community and deities is expressed in the same terms that pattern relationships between guests and hosts on such formal hosting occasions as weddings, funerals, celebrations for a newborn, and gatherings upon the completion of a new house. Salient features of the local idiom of hospitality are its obligatory nature, explicit marking of hierarchy, transparency, and the use of hyperbole in the expressions of generosity. The deity is invited to the festivities to be entertained as a guest, rather than solely as an object of worship.

What is the source of the prominent features ofandrocentrism, age ranking, and the guest-host idiom? Three plausible origins are plausible: Tibetan culture, Mongol culture, and Han Chinese culture. Age hierarchy has been observed in Tibetan rituals, 27 as has

20 Juha Janhunen (personal communication, 18 December 2011) summarizes the origin of the Mangghuer as follows:

As a biological population and social group, the Mangghuer incorporate elements of previous populations dating back to the Neolithic, as there has probably never been a complete replacement of the local population. The actual involvement of these populations with the Tuyhun is unclear. They may have been incorporated Into the Tuyuhun polity politically but not socially and linguistically, or they may have spoken the Tuyuhun language, but we do not definitively know what that was. As a speech community and linguistic group, the Mangghuer descend directly from the mediaeval Mongols and the Middle Mongol language that they spoke. The Shirongolic branch ofMongolic to which the Mongolic languages of the Gansu-Qinghai region belong is Jess than 800 years old, and the separation of Mangghuer from the other languages of the northern Shirongolic subgroup may have taken place only 300 years ago. The situation may be compared with that in Iraq or Egypt: the modem people in these regions are primarily Arabs and speak Arabic, but historically they incorporate the local heritage of the ancient Mesopotamians (who spoke Sumerian and Akkadian) and Egyptians (who spoke Egyptian).

For more on the Shirongo!ic languages, see .Janhunen Juha, "On the Shirongolic ~ames of Amdo," Studio Etymofogica Cracovienisia 11 (2006b): 95-103.

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d t . 28 0 ' '' d . . f Sh an rocen nsm. rtner s · escnpt1on o erpa guest-host relations closely resembles Mangghuer hospitality, and she has also described the use of guest-host idioms in Sherpa rituals. 30 The source of these three traits may therefore be Tibetan. However, Humphrey and Sneath31 offer age hierarchy and generosity as being definitively Mongol. Pegg 32 describes Mongol 'domestic celebrations' that employ a guest-host idiom very similar to the Mangghuer's and Oberfallzerova 33 has also described the androcentric nature of many Mongol cultural practices. The origin of these three traits among the Mangghuer may therefore be Mongol. All these traits have, however, also been described as characteristically Chinese. 34 Contemporary values and attitudes observable among the Mangghuer in Nadun are also observable among Tibetans, Mongols, and Chinese. A Mongolist would consider them Mongolic and possibly trace their origin to the Mongol Empire. A Tibetologist might consider them Tibetan and trace their present distribution to the Tibetan imperial period (616-841 CE). A Sinologist would find these traits fundamentally Chinese and trace them to Confucian values. Disciplinary bias may lead to misguided conclusions.

The problems posed by Mangghuer origins and by sourcing the

Identity," in Buddhism in Contemporary Tibet: Religious Revival and Cultural Identity, ed. Melvyn C. Goldstein and Matthew T. Kapstein (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1998), 139~150. 28 Charlene Makley, The Violence of Liberation: Gender and Tibetan Buddhist Revival in Post-lvfao China (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. 2007). 29 Sherry 01tncr, Sherpas Through Their Rituals (London: Cambridge. University Press, 1978). 30 Sherry Ortner, High Religion: A Cultural and Political History of Sherpa Buddhism (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1991 ). 31 Caroline Humphrey and David Sneath, The End of Nomadism? Society, State, and the Environment in Inner Asia (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1999). 32 Carole Pegg, Mongolian Music, Dance. and Oral Narrative. (Seattle, WA: University ofWa')hington Press, 2001). 33 Alena Oberfallzerova, Metaphors and Nomads. (Prague: Triton, 2006). 34 Age hierarchy and androcentrism are discussed in Francis L.K. Hsu, Under the Ancestor's Shadow: Kinship, Personality, and Social Mobility (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1967). Guest-host relations arc discussed in Adam Chau :Social Heat: The Sensorial Production of the Social," Ethnos 73.4. (2008): 485-504. Adam Yuet Chau, Miraculous Response: Doing Popular Religion in Contemporary China (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2006).


presence of androcentrism, age hierarchy, and the guest-host idiom suggest the value of a strictly localized ethnographic approach. This method historicizes cultural facts from the ground up, based on observations in a discrete locale, rather than proceeding in a topdown fashion, beginning with a theoretical or area focus. This ethnographic style is suspicious of theories positing a single origin for any moderately complicated cultural phenomena, such as ritual. The approach adopted here therefore de-emphasizes vertical transmission, from ancestor to descendant, in favor of horizontal transmission, between contiguous but ancestrally unrelated populations.

In the following sections I chronologically reconstruct the steps through which I think contemporary Nadun was constructed. I necessarily begin with a question mark, as the androcentrism, age hierarchy, and guest-host idiom all seem to be so widespread as to be untraceable to any particular source. For other traits, however, I attempt to delimit a cultural and temporal source, though many of these dates are broad and speculative. This analysis reveals that all the components of Nadun appear to have been introduced from elsewhere. Horizontal transmission from contiguous populations, with traits layering and integrating into a sophisticated mechanism, is the basic method through which Nadun has taken shape. It is worth noting that in the Nadun, the only thing that is identifiably local, and definitively transmitted through vertical processes, is Nadun itself, which further justifies the discretely localized, rather than area or theory focused, approach employed here.

The Consequences of the Yuan-Ming Transition

Assuming that the most widely distributed traits are the oldest, it seems that androccntrism, age hierarchy, and the guest-host idioms probably predate Nadun and were an accepted part of the local cultural scene that structured the form of the ritual. The first vaguely datable aspects of the ritual following this seem to have emerged during the Yuan-Ming transition.

Three institutions that emerged following the Yuan-Ming transition had important outcomes in the Sanchuan region. The first institution was the tusi 'native chieftain' office. 35 The second

35 John E. Hennan, "Empire in the Southwest: Early Qing Reforms to the Native

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institution consists of numerous territorial deity cults, many focused on deified Ming Dynasty generals. Third was the appearance of surnames and the concomitant change in social structure. Due to the paucity of detailed written records, it is impossible to know whether Nadun existed at the Yuan-Ming transition, however, the three institutions that emerged at this time resulted in social forms and cultural orientations that are clearly present within Nadun today.

Most significant of the three was probably the establishment of the tusi office by the newly established Ming Dynasty, and the conferral of significant authority on these chieftains. One consultant described the authority of one Sanchuan tusi thus, "The tusi was a local leader. He was just like a local king here. Today, the tusi position is nothing, but at that time, he was a little emperor." 16 This institution allowed the Mangghuer to uphold a separate identity and maintain practices, including Nadun, which might have otherwise been lost.

Sanchuan in the post-Yuan era was not a region that encouraged the maintenance of local traditions, identities, or languages. It was violent; small populations were wiped out, fled, or were assimilated by larger groups. The region was densely populated, contested terrain. It was invaded, colonized, and inhabited by Mongols, Muslims, Tibetans, and Han Chinese and various mixtures and allegiances of all these. Refugees spilled in from every direction. However, a Mongolic language and unique local culture survived in Sanchuan for 700 years, intimately surrounded by much larger populations of Tibetans, Chinese, and Muslims.

The privileges conferred upon tusi allowed this. Tusi taxed their local population and were not required to pay tax to the Ming,37

enabling them to accumulate considerable wealth, as well as booty collected while on campaigns for the Ming. Their suzerainty over their subject populations was total, and backed up by threat of force from the Ming. Importantly, tusi had the right to accept subjects into his domain, who would thence be free from obligations to the central state, and thus defection from the state may have been encouraged in

the Clouds and Mist" and Giersch "Asian Borderlands" provide discussions of the rights and responsibilities of cusi, in Guizhou and Yunnan, respectivelv. 36 Interview, 13 September 2008. -37 Schram provides background on the roles and responsibilities of local tusi. Althoueh thev did not oav tax. tusi were reauired to orovide conscrints and corvee


some cases. Tusi were supported by the state but not personally beholden to it. They were able to exploit local populations and use them to help exploit extra-local populations. They created a space that simultaneously repelled homogenization through the deployment of wealth and subjugated human capital, while attracting diverse elements to assimilate to the local language and culture by offering relative autonomy and prosperity. Without the tusi institution to maintain this delicate balance, Nadun likely would not exist today, and the population of Sanchuan would be effectively indistinguishable from one of the surrounding populations: Tibetan, Han, or Muslim.

One of the distinctive features of life in Sanchuan that was maintained by the tusi institution was the local religious system that distinguishes between two important classes of deity: jiashen and miaoshen. Jiashen 'home/ family deities,' though uncommon today, were reported by numerous consultants to have been ubiquitous in Sanchuan homes in the past. Such deities ensure the prosperity and well-being of individual households, even at the expense of other households in the community, whom they may harm or steal from in order to enrich their host family. Religious practitioners known as huashi were previously responsible for attending to these deities and by singing, dancing, and playing drums, they delighted jiashen and ensured their benevolence to their hosts 38

The second class of deities, miaoshen, is comprised of territorial deities enshrined in communal temples. Though such deities benefit individual petitioners, they are primarily responsible for the wellbeing and prosperity of an entire community. The religious specialists associated with this class of deities are huala, mediums who provide temporary embodiment for miaoshen in order to facilitate communication between community and deity. Veneration of miaoshen and their embodiment in huala, in order to ensure communal prosperity, is the focus of Nadun. Determining the origin

38 Schram provides details on huashi, referring to them as shamans. A lengthv description of a ritual held by a huashi in Sanchuan in the winter of 1884H 1885 ca~ be found in Grigorij Potanin, The Tangut-Tibetan Frontier of China and Central Mongolia [unpublished trans. n.d. Janhunen, Juha](SL Pctersberg, 1893). The tem1 huashi is derived from the Chinese tem1 fashi, which may be translated as ritual master. For more on Daoistfashi see, Stephen Jones, In Search of the Folk Daoists of North China (London: Ashgate, 2010) and Livia Kahn, Daoism Handbook

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of the miaoshen cults is thus essential to dating the 'historical kernel' ofNadun. 39

Unlike clerical religions with doctrinal and scriptural foundations, it is impossible to date the origins of the territorial deity cults. However, local discourse holds that many of the deities currently enshrined in temples in Sanchuan originated during the Yuan-Ming transition, a perspective exemplified by the following statement:

Our deities appeared in the Ming Dynasty. Sojie Ye, Mojie Ye, Hechi Ye and Xiansheng Daidi ~all of them appeared in the Ming Dynasty. They were Zhu Yuanzhang's40 generals who helped him build his country. Zhu Yuanzhang deified them after he became Emperor.

The first Ming Emperor's deification of his generals is corroborated by at least one written source,41 which reports the deification of the Muslim general Hu Dahai as the deity Mojie Ye.

The cult of jiashen may predate the miaoshen cult. The kin, rather than communal, focus of this cult resembles what we know of Mongol shamanism. 42 lf a significant portion of the Sanchuan Mangghuer ancestry was Mongol, it may reasonably be suggested that they practiced a religion with deities that presided over kin groups. Furthermore, Sanehuan locals refer to the drum used by huashi as bo and Huzhu Mongghul refer to the same practitioner as bog. Transcriptions of the Mongol term for shaman include b66 and bo.43 There are also many similarities in the costumes and ritual paraphernalia of huashi and Mongol shamans. Finally, jiashen were enshrined in the northwest comer of homes, the same location where Daur Mongols enshrined, "a piece of cattle hals, a thin, transparent

39 Solomon Fitzherbert, The Birth of Gesar: lv'arrative Diversity and S'ocial Resonance in the Tibetan £jJic Tradition (Ph.D. thesis, Oxford University, 2007). 40 Zhu Yuanzhang was the first emperor of the Ming Dynasty. 41 Li Shujiang and Kar! Luckert, Mythology and Folklore of the Hui. a Muslim Chinese People (Ne\v York: State University of New York Press, 1994). 42 My identification of huashi with Mongol, kin-based religious forms is complicated by the fact that huashi variously report their religious affiliation as Yejiao (literally 'wild religion' but figuratively something akin to 'shamanism'), Shenjiao (doctrine/ teaching/ religion of the deities), or Daojiao (Daoism). The patron deity of huashi, Zhenwu Zushi, is an identifiably Daoist deity, see William Grootaers, "The Hagiography of the Chinese God Chen-wu (The Transmission of Rural Traditions in Chahar)," Folklore Studies. 11.2 (1952): 139~ 181. 43 Judith 1-langarnter. The Constitution and Contestation of'Darhad Shamans' Power


skin. lt was a bag, something like a membrane, and it was nailed up high on the wall in the main room. It represents your sacrifice to tengger." 44 The antiquity of the jiashen cult relative to the miaosheff cult is further suggested by local narratives of the spread of individual deity cults in Sanchuan.

The cult of local deities has no clergy and consequently miaoshen did not spread via proselytizing agents. They were also not spread due to the textual propagation of a doctrine because the cult of local deities has no scriptural or doctrinal basis. Rather, the cult of the deities was spread by villagers according to the deities' reputation as efficacious agents. 45 The following accounts describe the surprising process of how the cult of specific local deities were spread.

We stole our deity from Nuojie Village, and they stole it from somewhere in Hezhou. 46 When our elders went to steal the deity's statue, they first colored their faces black. When they arrived at the temple, they used an open palm to knock the deity into a sack. They then carried the statue upside down in the sack back to our village. 47

Our deity Niangniang Ye comes from Juetan Si, on the southern side of the Yellow River. Once someone from here went and stole Niangniang Ye in a sack. He carried Niangniang Ye to the bank of the Yellow River but after he crossed the Yellow River he discovered that his bag was empty. Niangniang Ye was on the opposite side of the Yellow River. Then he went back again and put the statue inside the bag and crossed the river again. But after he crossed, he found that Niangniang Ye was still on the other side of the Yellow River. He tried several times but failed. He was very surprised and thought, "I carried her all the way here from Juetan Si, but now I can't even bring her the short distance across the Yellow River. Why?" Then he had an idea. He took off his trousers and put Niangniang Ye in them. He then crossed the

.... Caroline Humphrey and Urgunge Onon, Shamans and Elders: Experience, Knowledge, and Power among the Daur Mongols (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1996), 147. 45 See Chau "Miraculous Response" fi)f more on the concept of divine efficacy in Chinese folk religion. 46 Hezhou refers specifically to Linxia City, capita! of Linxia Hui Autonomous Prefecture in Gansu Province, but more generally to the area on the southern bank of ~~e Yellow River, opposite Sanchuan.

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Yellow River and found that Niangniang Ye was still in his trousers. So, Niangniang Ye became our vil!age deity.48

Two more things may be noted about this method of propagation. Firstly, the vividness of the accounts suggests that they are relatively recent, as it is difficult to imagine such details being sustained by word of mouth transmission for 700 years. Secondly, we may note the ad hoc nature of the cults' spread. This was not a simultaneous, monolithic institution of a state-sympathetic cult of reincarnated generals. Rather, the cult of individual deities spread independently, based on their reputations for divine efficacy. The fact that many deities originated in the founding of the Ming Dynasty is incidental. Even if certain new deities were adopted immediately after the founding of the Ming, it must have taken some time, perhaps continuing up until the late Qing, for all the villages in Sanchuan to adopt their own deities.

It is likely that the Mongolic or Mongolized residents of Sanchuan focused their veneration on household deities at the time of the Yuan-Ming transition. They almost certainly did not adopt state-appointed communal deities wholesale at this point. Rather, the territorial deity cults that originated at the Yuan-Ming transition spread throughout Sanchuan gradually, village by village, perhaps over a period of centuries. Since Nadon is basically a ritual of the miaoshen cults, Nadun probably appeared after the Yuan-Ming transition along with the miaoshen deities, though establishing an exact date is impossible.

Fig. 4: Guan Yu in Yangjia Village

48 Interview, 6 March 2009. The thief was able to bring Niangniang Ye across the Yellow River in his trousers because 'lower e:annents' are considered nolluted and


The only other corroboration of Nadon's emergence after the Yuan-Ming transition is the appearance of surnames in Sanchuttn. This is important because the use of surnames implies the presence of named, patrilineal clans, and such clans form the basis of the communal organization- single-surname villages- that venerate the territorial deities that are essential to Nadon.

Surnames most likely first appeared in Sanchuan during the Ming, though this was an ongoing process that continued into the mid twentieth century. 49 Some surnames were given by imperial authority to tusi as a mark of their office. The tusi, in turn, could bestow this surname on their subjects, including those who moved or married into their territories. Central government authorities could also give surnames for taxation purposes, which was typically done on a communal basis. Finally, certain communities adopted surnames based on historical experience, for example, a village whose residents migrated from a settlement called Bao'an assumed Bao as their surname. 50 Although it is impossible to say for certain, the appearance of surnames must have had an impact on communal identities and social forms. These, in turn, formed the social basis for the territorial deity cults, as it was typically to these single-surname villages that the deities extended their benevolence.

Using these three events-the appearance of tusi, the adoption of surnames and the emergence of communal identities, and the spread of the cults of territorial deities-allows us to establish the YuanMing transition as a critical watershed in the history of Sanchuan and the Nadon. It is unclear whether these three factors emerged simultaneously or only gradually to establish the foundations of Nadon, but together they provide the necessary conditions for its emergence. Without any one of them, Nadun would be impossible.

The Extension of Qing Dominance: the 1700s

The Ming Dynasty was a turbulent period in Sanchuan and surrounding areas, with frequent raids being made into the area by Oirat Mongols from the Kokonor region in the west and the Ordas region in the east The Mangghuer tusi and their subject populations

49 See Schram for a review of this process. Limusishiden and Stuart also provide a ~_ase study of the bestowal of surnames in the twentieth century.

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served the dynasty throughout this time by providing conscripted military support. 51 Meanwhile, the Ming unrolled a colonial program in the area by establishing trading bureaus and schools in new urban centers, building military garrisons, and supporting military and civilian colonization of the countryside by Han Chinese. 52

The Qing Dynasty inherited a relatively well-developed colonial infrastructure in the region that included as a significant component the loyalty of the Mangghuer tusi who submitted to the Qing soon after its founding in 1644. Nonetheless, the region remained a precarious frontier until Qing control was consolidated, following the suppression of the 1723 revolt lead by the Oirat Mongol, Blo bzang bstan 'dzin. 53 At this time, the region was placed under the direct administration of the Qing state: taxes previously paid to monasteries and tribal chiefs were transferred to the Qing state; the practice of sending tribute to the Dalai Lama in Lhasa ceased; tribal territories were recorded and fixed; new Chinese administrative offices were established; and the permanent military presence in the region was increased. 54

Although the Qing seems to have exploited a chance to solidify its claim to a precarious territory, the post-1723 reforms may also be viewed as part of a larger expansionist campaign carried out primarily during the reign of the Qianlong Emperor (r.l735-1796). This campaign extended the dynasty's colonial purview in primarily western, non-Han areas of present-day Sichuan, Yunnan, Qinghai, the Tibet Autonomous Region, and Xinjiang. An important aspect of this expansionist program, in addition to its military and bureaucratic aspects, was a protracted propaganda campaign aimed at winning the hearts and minds of the local population.

Propaganda is typically thought to be a basically modern phenomenon that emerged with mass media. However, the use of

51 Schram provides detailed accounts of local history and local tusi's role in it. 52 Keith Dede, "The Chinese Language in Qinghai," Studia OrientaLia 95 (2003): 321-346. This work discusses the importance of the Ming Dynasty in the histor~y of Han colonization of the region, as well as details of the history of Han in the region. 53 Peter Perdue, China Marches West: The Qing Conquest of Central Eurasia (Cambridge, MA and London: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2005). Perdue asserts that rather than being the suppression of a sp~ritaneous rebellion, the events of 1723 were carefully engineered in order to incorporate the n•oinn intn th~ Oin~'>" Dvn::~stv


popular media-ritual, drama, and oral literature-to inculcate broad swathes of the population with state-friendly attitudes has been a part of Chinese statecraft since at least the mid-Ming and the spread Of syncretic, popular Confucianism. 55 By piggybacking Confucian values onto such widespread practices as the cult of popular deities, the state successfully spread values and orientations that made its presence seem both natural and beneficial, while simultaneously encouraging loyalty among the populace. Several aspects of the Nadun seem directly traceable to this period.

The first, which I have detailed elsewhere, 56 was the spread of the cult of the deity Guan Yu. This deity was adopted by the Qing as a paragon of loyalty, bravery, and humility.57 His temples and image were propagated throughout its newly conquered territories during the eighteenth century in an attempt to propagandize values that would make heavy military repressions and intense bureaucratic presence unnecessary. Guan Yu is one of the central figures of the Nadun performances, and his appearance probably dates to this time. As one Sanchuan consultant stated, "The government asked all Chinese people to believe in General Guan Yu, and then we danced some performances about him to show our respect and loyalty to the government. "58

55 Guo Qitao_ Ritual Opera and Mercantile Lineage_· The Confucian Transformation of Popular Culture in Late Imperial Huizhou (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2005). 56 Gerald Roche, _Nadun: Ritual and the Dynamics of Diversity in JVorthwest China's Hehuang Region (Ph.D. thesis, Griffith University, Australia, 2011. A notable parallel to the deification of Guan Yu is the deification of the Qing Dynasty general Nian Gengyao (1679- 1726) by Tibetans in Rdo sbis Township, Xunhua County, as the deity, A myes Gung y. See Skal bzang nor bu. "The A mdo Tibetan Rdo sbis lab rtse Ritual," Asian Highlands Perspectives 10 (201 1): 9-40_ Nian Gengyao was appointed to suppress Blo bzang bstan 'dzin and restructure the region after his defeat, see Perdue and Dai Yingcong, The Sichuan Frontier and Tibet_· Imperial Strategy in the Hariy Qing (Seattle, W A: University of Washington Press, 2009). Given that he was disgraced and ordered to commit suicide three years after his successful campaign, his deification and the propagation of his cult must have taken ~lace extremely rapidly. -7 In this sense, Guan Yu is an 'axial figure' of militant Confucianism in the same

way that Fitzherbert depicts Ge sar as a Tibetan 'axial figure'. The term 'axial figure' comes from Clifford Geertz, IsLam Observed: Religious Developments in Jndo;;esia and Morocco (Chicago, IL and London: University of Chicago Press, 1968). A discussion ofGuan Yu as model of martial (wu) masculinity is found in Kam Louie, Theorizing Chinese Masculinities. Society and Gender in China (Cambridge: ~ambridge University Press, 2002).

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Dances providing positive depictions of government officials are another aspect of Nadun that may be dated to this period and the popular Confucian practices churned out by the Qing propaganda machinery. At this time, the Qing state attempted to create a national, transethnic cult of officialdom that valorized educational attainment and obtaining official government positions and titles. 59

The extent of Qing bureaucracy in Sanchuan remains unclear. Much of the population paid taxes directly to tusi for most of the Qing,60 though certain populations that migrated to the area paid taxes directly to the Qing in Nianbo. 61 There may have been a bureaucratic installation of some sort in Guanting, the central market and sole traditional urban settlement in Sanchuan. The name itself may be interpreted to mean 'resting place of the official'. 62 That a bureaucrat was stationed in, or regularly visited, Guanting is plausible, as it was the site of a regular market where large numbers of the surrounding population gathered. It was also a crucial 'choke point' on an important trade route between the urban and commercial centers ofXining, Lanzhou, and Hezhou and thus an ideal point trom which to both survey and tax local populations.

However, the presence of a government bureaucrat of some sort may not have actually been necessary for the propagation of the cult of officialdom in Sanchuan. The state had clearly defined vested interests in propagating values that encouraged people to respect and obey bureaucrats. Officials were agents of the Qing state, and respect and loyalty to them meant respect and loyalty to the Qing state. It was also beneficial for the Qing to cultivate orientations that encouraged people to aspire to officialdom, and thus provide an intimate affective link with the state and its apparatuses. The purpose may therefore have been less to encourage submissiveness to

59 A discussion of the valorization of official and educational achievements among the Naxi of Yunnan can be found in Helen Rees, Echoes of History: Naxi Music in Modern China (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2000). The same is discussed for the case of the Hui of southern Fujian Province by Ke Fan, "Traditionalism and Identity Politics among the Ding Hui Community in Southern Fujian" in Tan Chee~Beng (ed.). Southern Fujian. Reproduction of Traditions in Post-Mao China (Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press, 2006): 35~68. 60 "There were no government officials at that time. Local leaders controlled local places." Interview, 14 March 2009. 6~ The county seat of present day Ledu County, Haidong Region, Qinghai Province. 6

" Kevin Stuart and Limusishiden (eds.). "China's Monguor Minoritv: Ethnm.:raohv


particular individuals or their offices, but rather to cultivate a fondness for an overall system of control.

This strategy seems to have been effective in Sanchuan, wht!'e elders still talk enthusiastically about official titles, such as gongye, a term of address for someone who obtained rank in Qing officialdom after passing a certain level of civil examination. In the quote from one consultant below, it is clear that this title was both coveted and contested:

LU Gongye was very famous in our area. There was also Zhang Gongye in Zhangjia. I heard that he was not very knowledgeable. There was a Qing Gongye in Qingjia. He actually failed the exam but got his diploma by going through the back door. My grandfather was a real gongye.

Aspirations to officialdom still prevail in Sanchuan, and can be seen in local discourse about families and their tombs. Locally, the position of a family's tomb is thought to influence the prosperity of the internee's descendants. This fact is typically expressed by saying that a well-positioned tomb will result in descendants becoming officials. One consultant reported how one family tomb was sabotaged (by burying metal objects in it) by people jealous of the number of officials appearing in that family. 63 Another consultant stated that a very good tomb could be distinguished from a good tomb by the fact that the former would result in many high officials appearing in a family, while the later would only generate ordinary officials. 64

The character of Guan Yu and the bureaucrats depicted in several Nadun performances seem to have been an aspect of Qing Dynasty popular Confucian statecraft. It is difficult to imagine why these characters would predate the Qing's consolidation of power in the region. As part of the Qing expansion into the western regions, these performances were likely deployed as propaganda intended to render the local population loyal and sympathetic to the state. These developments emerged at a time when the Qing was reaching the peak of its powers and territorial expanse, but it turned a corner in the coming century, which also had an impact on Nadun.

~3 Interview, 8 March 2009.

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The Islamic Impact: the 1800s

At the time the Qing was reaching the zenith of its territorial expansion, the empire was increasingly wracked by global currents. The emereence of the so-called Wahabists, Islamic scriptural fundament~lists, on the Arabian Peninsula during the late eighteenth century, is one example. 65 These reformists rallied against contemporary Islamic practices~ such as the veneration of saints and their tombs~ that they viewed as corruptions of the original intention of the scriptures. 66 Missionaries from the Arabian Peninsula and returning pilgrims carried these ideas to China with surprising speed. The eponymous 'founder' of Wahabism, Ibn Abdul AI- Wahhab, lived from 1703-1792 and before he died, the first violent Wahabist uprising had alre~dy taken place in northwest China, in 178 I. 67 The next major event began in Shaanxi in I 862, spread to Gansu, and lasted until the early- to mid-1870s. This uprising seems to have been caused, in part, by the general atmosphere of fear and distrust during the Taiping Rebellion, but also by the militancy of Islamic communities in the region produced by nearly a century of sectarian conflicts following Wahabism's arrival in China. The final disturbance took place primarily in Gansu and Qinghai between I 895 and 1896. and was the result of agitation by Wahabist pilgrims returned from the Arabian Peninsula.68 The impact of these years of violence can be estimated from the account of one eyewitness, a Christian missionary in Xining:

As a total of I 00,000 were estimated to have been slain during the war, there were in many districts no farmers left to cultivate the land, and in some places the people had great difficulty in getting enough seed to sow and implements to work with, though the officials had granted considerable relief for this purpose. When the

65 Wahabism's Arabic origins and spread to China are detailed in Dru Gladney, DisLocating China: MusLims, Minorities, and Other Subaltern Subjects (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2004) and Jonathan Lipman, FamiLiar Strangers: A Histo!): of MusLims in Northwest China (Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press, 1998). M Details on the Islamic cults of tombs and saints in China is available in Dru Gladney, "Muslims Tombs and Ethnic Folklore: Charters for !-lui Identity," The Journal for Asiatic Studies 46.3 (1987): 495-532. 67 See Schram for more on the 1781 incident. 68 See Lipman "Familiar Strangers" and Kim 1-lodong. Ho!v YVar in China: The Muslim Rebellion and State in Chinese Central Asia. 1864-1877 (Stanford.CA:


harvest had been sown, it was in large part destroyed by rats, which, attracted probably by so many bodies that had been given improper burial, spread like another army over the fields, leaving ~ waste and sorrowing hearts behind. For these various reasons, there was, when even two summers had intervened after the war, great want among the laboring classes, and years will elapse before even in a slight degree the effects of the rebellion will wear away.69

Sanchuan was caught up in the Wahabist-influenced uprisings of the I 800s. Three major developments in Nadun emerged during this period, as a result of shifts taking place in the Islamic world. The first was the arrival of the deity Erlang Ye, who became Sanchuan's 'public' deity. The second was the demographic transition of the Sanchuan population as a significant number of Han Chinese refugees fleeing disturbances in Hezhou and Shaanxi settled locally. Finally, a dance, directed at local expansionist Islamic populations, was innovated in one community. The appearance of the public deity Erlang Ye in Sanchuan is discussed first.

The deity Erlang Ye originated in Sichuan Province, in the outskirts of Chengdu, and is described in Sanchuan as a deified official who was responsible for building hydraulic works that prevented flooding in the region and also enabled new lands to be opened for agriculture70 One consultant described how Erlang came from Sichuan to Sanchuan:

Erlang came to Hezhou from Sichuan. They built a temple for Erlang in Hezhou and J heard that the templt::~ is still there. Once, some people from here went to make money in Hezhou. Then Hui people started to kill locals, so they ran away, and people from here abducted Erlang. They carried Erlang on their shoulders and held his hat in their hands. Then they came to the bank of the Yellow River. The river was in flood and those people couldn't swim. Then one of them put on Erlang Ye's hat and placed Erlang Ye on his back and said, "Erlang Ye, I will carry you across the Yellow River.

69 Susie Carson Rijnhart, With Tibetans in Tent and Temple (Edinburgh: Oliphant, Anderson, and Farrier, 1901: 10). The figure of 100,000 killed is likely baseless and almost certainly exaggerated. 70 A detailed discussion of this deity is found in Wang Xiaoxuan, Erlang S'hen: A Chinese God's Origins and Its TransfOrmations (MA thesis, University of Colorado, 2006). Erlang Ye is identified as the deified fonn of Li Erlang, son of Li Bing, the creat~r of the Dujiangyang irrigation system, in Cheng Manchao, The Origin o(

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If you don't help me, we will die together. If you help me, I will carry you across the Yellow River and I will build a temple for you." Then he jumped into the river, and the waters carried him to the opposite bank.7

i

Afterwards, the deity seems to have been shared between communities on both sides of the Yellow River. He was brought to Sanchuan every year to conduct a tour of the Zhaomuchuan Valley in the fourth lunar month, in order to protect the sprouting crops and ensure a good harvest. The statue was then taken back and enshrined in a temple somewhere on the southern bank of the Yellow River. How he came to reside permanently in Sanchuan is described below.

Erlang Ye's arrival in Sanchuan seems to have begun a new period in local history. Most non-Muslim Sanclman residents now accept Erlang Ye as the 'public' deity for the entire region, a development that represents an expanding circle of identity and community from household andjiashen, to community and miaoshen, to its logical next stage, a supra-communal, regional identity. In the same way that miaoshen are responsible for the prosperity of individual communities, Erlang Ye is seen to be responsible for the well-being of the entire Sanchuan-region. The majority of Nadun perfonnances are scheduled sequentially so that Erlang Ye may tour villages one by one and receive their offerings. Though the full extent of this integration likely emerged in the early twentieth century, as described below, its roots lie in the coming of Erlang Ye to Sanchuan. The unification of individual Nadun perfonnances within the cult ofErlang Ye had a significant impact on Nadun, with greater connectivity and sharing between communities.

Erlang Ye most likely came to Sanchuan during the second Islamic uprising, in the 1890s. Local oral accounts tell of taking refuge in temples and monasteries as the countryside was looted. The refugees huddling in these buildings were desperate for the intervention of divine efficacy, as indicated in the following account:

Villagers took refuge in a temple on a mountaintop and Muslims surrounded it for a long time. There was no water for people to drink. Muslims lay siege to it for ten days but then a spring appeared inside the temple grounds, so the Muslims couldn't


conquer them. Everybody there was grateful to the deity in that temple and believed she had saved them. 72

Erlang Ye must have been responsible for some such similar display of divine efficacy for his cult to have spread to such an extent in Sanchuan, but no memory of such an event remains.

At the time Erlang Ye was coming to Sanchuan from Hezhou, Han Chinese from the area were also fleeing to the region, as demonstrated by the following account:

Our ancestors come from across the river. Our male ancestor lived there, but Muslims killed him. After that, Muslims persecuted his wife and children, so she escaped here with her sons. They brought their deity with them and came here. 73

Local reckoning in this village places seven generations between their coming to Sanchuan and the present generation, dating their arrival to the disturbances of the I890s and the comingof Erlang Ye.

Other Han Chinese refugees may have arrived earlier. Residents of numerous villages in Sanchuan now trace their origins to Shaanxi. Shaanxi businessmen travelled to the area, as they did to many other places throughout China. However, it seems likely that they stayed in Guanting, the local market center, where they established a temple to Guan Yu and staged dramatic performances. Though accounts of Shaanxi businessmen integrating into local populations are available from other non-Han areas in China, 74 it is difJicu)t to imagine what would have led businessmen with successful enterprises to abandon the relative prosperity of the market to take up farming in Sanchuan. A far more likely source for villagers' claiming ancestry from Shaanxi is the series of uprisings of the 1860s and I870s. Mus lim populations first turned on local non-Islamic populations, killing many and causing many more to flee, mostly to the west. When the Qing reclaimed Shaanxi, the Muslims were pushed west, forcing the recently arrived Han refugees to flee to even more remote western regions. lt is likely that Han Chinese from Shaanxi first arrived in Sanchuan at this time75

72 Interview, 30 November 2008. 73 Interview, 25 October 2008. 74 C. Patterson Giersch, "Across Zomia with Merchants, Monks, and Musk: Process Geographies, Trade Networks, and the lnner-East-.Southeast Asian Borderlands," f?urna! of Global History 5 (2010): 215~239.

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The impact of these population shifts in Sanchuan can still be seen today. Most of the Shaanxi refugees settled in the west of Sanchuan, in the valleys of Zhaomuchuan and Pubaghuer, bringing elements of Shaanxi popular culture derived from performances known as yangge76 Certain communities in Zhaomuchuan currently hold annual New Year festivities known as yangguo that seem directly derived from yangge. Furthermore, the drums used in this region, the accompanying dances, and the costumes worn while drumming during Nadun performances, all appear to be directly derived from Shaanxi yangge.

The final Islam-induced changes in Nadun were trickle-on effects of the two uprisings of the nineteenth centuries. These events were conflicts between different Muslim communities as much as conflicts between Muslims and non-Muslims. The Muslim communities that had sided with the Qing during these two conflicts were granted significant civilian powers following the disputes. Therefore, upon the collapse of the Qing in 1911, the group that emerged to fill the power vacuum in the region was the Muslim Ma family in Hezhou, who moved their power base to Xining, and in 1928 were instrumental in setting up the modern province of Qinghai 77 Under the notorious leadership of Ma Bufang (1903··1975, r.l938-1949), the Ma family extended its territorial and military influence by forcibly conscripting and · heavily taxing· local populations.

This period saw the appearance of a new, unabashedly antiMuslim element in Nadun. When local Muslims invaded the peripheral Sanchuan region ofMinzhu Valley, villagers improvised a

Lipman (1984:294): "The great Muslim rebellion of 1862-1872 virtually eliminated the once-flourishing Muslim communities of Shaanxi, reducing their population from one million tn fifty thousand" Jonathan Lipman, "Ethnicity and Politics in Repub!ican Era Gansu: The Ma Family Warlords of Gansu," Modern China. 10.3 (1984): 285-316. 76 Yangge is described in David Holm, Art and IdeoLogy in Revolutionary China (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991 ). The spread of yangge performance forms to the Sibe of Xinjiang is described in Rachel Harris, Singing the Viffage: Music, Memory, and Ritual Among the Sibe of Xinjiang (London: The British Academy, 2004). Yangge performances are described in the context of New Year celebrations among Qinghai Han communities in Feng Ude and Kevin Stuart, "Delighting the Gods in 1990: A Han Shehuo in Qinghai Province (PRC)," Asian Theater Journal II. I. ( 1994): 35-63.


performance lampooning local Muslims, as described in the following account.

We originally danced Wudaminzu to insult Muslims. So, we made the masks with big mouths and ugly faces. We originally called the performance Abuder Yousihur- those are two common Muslim names. During the performance, at first an imam stood on a stool and asked his students, "Have you eaten pork? Have you drunk pork soup?'' The others answered, "We haven't eaten pork, but we have drunk pork soup." The aim of this performance was to insult Muslims, and they found it insulting, so they came to stop our villagers from dancing this performance. But, we still danced it. So, the Muslims and my villagers went to court.

The provincial leader, Ma Bufang was a Muslim. My villagers told him, "If we dance this perfonnance, we will have a peaceful life and we can have a good harvest. Actually, it benefits all local people, not just us." So, Ma Bufang scolded the local Muslims, "If you think this performance insults you, you can stay at home, you don't need to go see it. Nobody invites you to go, right? If this performance is good for people, and helps them to have a good harvest, then it is also good for you. Please don't go to see this perfonnance from today on, if you are going to feel insulted."

On the next day, Muslims gathered on the other side of the valley from our village. My villagers prepared many long sticks and hid them in the tent where the palanquins were. If they had come to fight us, we would have beat them, but when we danced they just stayed on the other side of the valley.

Now, we have good relations with those people, so we changed the name and we've changed the performance. We don't say the same things any more. We just say, "May everyone live harmoniously forever. "78

One would be hard pressed to find any Islamic elements in Nadun. Nonetheless, it is clear that developments taking place in the Islamic world, beginning in the late eighteenth century, had indirect impacts on Nadun. These changes resulted in a demographic shift in Sanchuan, bringing Han Chinese migrants from Shaanxi in the 1860s, and a second wave of Han migration from nearby Hezhou in the I890s. This second disturbance also resulted in a newly emerged communal identity in Sanchuan, and supplied a deity- Erlang Yeto serve as the eultic focus of this community. Finally, the power dynamic that resulted from these disturbances allowed local Islamic

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political factions to gain power after the fall of the Qing, engendering another change in Nadun, the appearance of the antiIslamic Wudaminzu performance.

Tibetan Buddhism and the Twentieth Century

Despite the significant impact of the Islamic world on Sanchuan in the nineteenth and early twentieth century, it was to be Tibetan Buddhism that would have the greatest influence on Sanchuan and the Nadun prior to the founding of New China in 1949. In Tibetan Buddhists in the Making of Modern China, Tuttle79 describes how the Republican Government revived the strategy of the Yuan and Qing dynasties of liaising with the Tibetan Buddhist clergy as a proxy to better control Tibetan and other Tibetan Buddhist populations. 80 An important figure in this period was the ninth Panchen Lama, who, "From 1934 to 1937 ... attempted to spread Chinese Nationalist ideology in the Tibetan borderlands."" To do this, the Panchen surrounded himself with an entourage of Tibetan Buddhist monks and lamas who aided him in agitating for the Republican Government's international, modernist program. These individuals were progressive border-crossers who mediated between international modernist visions, the Chinese nationalist government, and local Tibetan Buddhist populations. 82

One such figure was the Sanchuan monk known as Zhu Lama or Zhu Haishan ( 1894-1980). Zhu and Stuart83 have outlined a brief biography of this figure, and I have added to this picture elsewhere.84

Supported by the Panchen Lama, and more distantly the Republican Government, Zhu encouraged a nationalist, modernist reform

79 Gray Tuttle, Tibetan Buddhists in the Making of Modern China (New York, NY: Colombia University Press, 2005)_ 80 This approach to Tibetan Buddhism's role in Chinese imperial statecraft is critiqued in Johan Elverskog, Our Great Qing.- The MongoLs. Buddhism, and the State in Later Imperial China (Honolulu, Hl: University of H.awai'i Press, 2006). 81 Tuttle 191. 82 A similar Tibetan Buddhist figure, though not associated with the ninth Panchen Lama, is discussed by Pau! Nietupski, "The Fourth Belmang: Boddhisatva, Estate Lord, Tibetan Militia Leader, and Chinese Government Official," Asian Highlands Perspectives 1 (2009): 187-211. 83 Zhu Yongzhong and Kevin Stuart. "Education Among the Minhe Monguor" in Gerard Postiglione (ed.). China's National Minority Education: Ethnicity, Schooling and Develooment. (New York. NY: Garland Press. 1999): 341-384.


program in Sanchuan by building schools and libraries, banning foot binding, cutting men's pigtails, spreading anti-Japanese propaganda, and sending promising young students to study in Chines'e universities in Nanjing. His agenda was nationalistic, but mediated through his status as a respected representative of the Dge lugs pa establishment, backed by the powerful charismatic authority of the ninth Panchen Lama.

One of the most significant changes that Zhu Haishan implemented in terms of Nadun was the permanent relocation of Erlang Ye from the southern banks of the Yellow River to Sanchuan. Zhu used his political leverage to insist that Erlang Ye not return across the Yellow River after he had completed his annual tour one year. A temple was then built in Hulijia, in the center of Sanchuan, and Erlang Ye was permanently installed there. Monks from the nearby Zhujia Monastery were appointed to maintain the temple and attend to the deity on a rotating schedule. Under the auspices of the Nationalist Government, and with the support of the Dge lugs pa establishment, Erlang Ye was permanently installed as the public deity of the entire Sanchuan region.

Zhu Haishan next reformed the Nadun schedule, creating a sequential, linear program that enabled almost all communities in Sanchuan to host Erlang Ye during their Nadun. Potanin's description of Nadun in the mid-1880s suggests that certain communities have not changed their Nadun date from then until now 81 Zhu Haishan's alteration of the Nadun schedule probably involved tinkering, rather than a wholesale overhaul. The following account, though perhaps apocryphal, gives some sense of the power Zhu Haishan wielded:

Zhu Lama said, "Please allow Er!ang Ye to go wherever he wants. If he doesn't want to go somewhere, please don't carry him there." Now, almost every village has Nadun except Hu!ijia. Why doesn't Hulijia have Nadun? That's because Zhu Lama had a meeting with all the village leaders to decide their Nadun dates. Hulijia people sent a young boy there because they were very rich and arrogant at that time. After the young boy returned from the meeting, the village leaders asked him what the meeting had been about. He said, "Zhu Lama decided Nadun dates."

The village leaders asked, "What did he say about our village's Nadun date?"

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The young boy answered, "He didn't say anything about our village." The village leader was shocked, and went to plead with Zhu Lama. He begged him for a date for their Nadun, and Zhu Lama replied, "OK I can find a date for you, but first you need to invite all the village leaders for another meeting. If you can get them together, I will also come." The Hulijia leader knew that was impossible. He didn't have enough social influence or money to get all those leaders together, so he just gave up. That's why Hulijia has no Nadun now. 86

Subsequent Tibetan Buddhist figures in Sanchuan have failed to wield the power that Zhu Lama accumulated at the intersection of the Dge lugs pa establishment and the Nationalist Government. Two interventions-one minor and one failed-have, however, been instituted by Tibetan Buddhists since Zhu Lama's wide-reaching reforms. The minor, though successful, reform was instituted by the reincarnate lama at Wofo Monastery, 87 and concerned mediums piercing their bodies with thick metal skewers during possession. At that time, local hua/a pierced themselves with ten skewers, one of which was pierced through the tongue and dedicated to the protector deity of Wofo Monastery. The following account relates how the reincarnate lama of the monastery stopped this practice:

I heard that when the reincarnate lama saw the huala pierce himself with ten skewers, he became very sad and wept. Then, the skewer in the huala's tongue fell out by itself. The Living Buddha told the villagers, "From today on, please don't ask the huala to pierce his tongue for the monastery's protector deity. If anything bad happens as a result, I will take responsibility."

88

86 Interview, 25 October 2008. An alternative version of the same story was provided by an elder in Hulijia Village (interview, 1 May 2010):

Hulijia was a very small village when.Zhu Lama made the Nadun schedule. We didn't have enough people to dance the Nadun and we didn't have a temple or miaoshen. Zhu Lama said, "You don't have enough people to dance Nadun, and you don't have a temple, so I will let Sanchuan people build the Erlang temple in your village." So now, we don't dance Nadun but we invite Daoist practitioners to perfonn a ritual on our Nadun day.

87 This Dge lugs oa Monaster.' is located in Sanchuan's Minzhu Vallev.


This impact, however, was limited to the two villages that were the lay estate of the monastery and in which the huala pierced their tongues for the monastery protector deity. ""

The other, failed initiative of the Dge lugs pa establishment involved the renewal and re-empowennent of miaoshen statues, as described below:

We put 'stinking organs' in Erlang Ye in the past. We put snakes, magpies, and other living animals inside Erlang Ye to renew his power, but later Zhujia Lama converted the stinky organs to 'fragrant organs' by putting scriptures inside. The first time anybody did that was when the Tarimba Lama put scripture organs in Yangjia's miaoshen. He thought that the Yangjia miaoshen was too violent, so he changed the stinking organs to scripture organs as soon as China opened.89 Since then, the miaoshen became gentler and people's Jives became more peaceful.

Erlang Ye is the public deity for all of Sanchuan. Zhujia Lama is very powerful, so in 2005 he changed Er!ang Ye's organs into scripture organs. He had a meeting with Sanchuan leaders, and they agreed to change the organs to scripture organs. However, Zhaomuchuan people didn't attend that meeting and the year after that, they came to take Erlang Ye for his annual spring tour. They said they wanted to take out the scripture organs and put stinking organs back in, so the temple-keeper didn't let them take Erlang away. Since that time, there have been constant conflicts with Zhaomuchuan people.

Yesterday, all Sanchuan village leaders came to have a meeting to discuss Erlang Ye's organs. Some leaders said, ult is very good to put scriptures inside of Erlang Ye. We think its great, why don't you Zhaomuchuan people agree with Zhujia Lama?" Zhaomuchuan people said, "Since Zhujia Lama renewed Erlang Ye with scriptures, it has not been good for we Zhaomuchuan people, or anyone in Sanchuan. We want to change his organs back to stinking organs."90

The motive for this intervention was that placing living animals inside the statue violated the Tibetan Buddhist proscription against the taking life of sentient beings. Nonetheless, Erlang Ye's scripture organs were removed in 2010 and replaced with 'stinking organs' made from living animals sealed inside the statue. It is unclear if this represents a real failure for Dge lugs pa Buddhism. The long,

~~ That is, after the Cultural Revolution ( 1966-1976).

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complex deity re-empowerment rituals are becoming less frequent throughout Sanchuan. Fewer communities have the time, financial resources, and knowledge to conduct them. Many villages have, for the sake of convenience, brought their temple deities to monasteries in Sanchuan to have their stinking organs replaced with scripture organs. Although the reversion of Erlang Ye's organs from scriptures to creatures appears to be a loss for Dge lugs pa Buddhism, it is likely that the Dge lugs pa establishment will see its initiative eventually taken up throughout Sanchuan. However, as the public deity for all of Sanchuan, the matter of Erlang Ye's organs is liable to be the most hotly and lengthily contested.

Conclusion

Nadun history in Sanchuan begins with a number of question marks. Androcentrism, age hierarchy, and the guest-host idiom are widely distributed in the region and, as mentioned earlier, are untraceable and on-dateable in terms of their origins. The name of the festival itself is datable to the introduction of a language derived from Middle Mongol during the Mongol conquest of the Yuan Dynasty. Following this, the cult of territorial deities that form the focus of the ritual seem to have emerged during the Ming Dynasty, as did the communal structure of single-surname villages, and the tusi institution that created an 'autonomous space' in which Nadun could develop.

During the 1700s, something resembling the contemporary Nadun probably formed, with the institution of popular Confucian masked dances expressing themes and characters sympathetic to the expansionist Qing state. During the 1800s, the introduction of Wahabist Islam to China brought changes, as did widespread disturbances in Shaanxi that brought demographic and cultural change with an influx of refugees to Sanchuan. These disturbances also resulted in the emergence of the cult of a single focal deity for the entire Sanchuan region. The early twentieth century witnessed nationalist, Buddhist modernism culminating in the unification and rationalization of the Nadun schedule. The impact of Dge lugs pa Buddhism continued to be felt in the twenty-first century with debates regarding rituals associated with the territorial deity cults.

The historical complexity of the Nadun could easily be dismissed as resulting from the ethnic complexity of this 'border' region. At firc:t o-l~nrP it <;:PPm..: rP.~C:An~hiP tn \:'llfTOP.;:,t thqt 1\.lo:>rlnn ic rAmnl<"v

THE MANGCiHUER NADUN: NORTHEAST TIBETAN PLATEAU

because the region is a 1frontier1 where numerous peoples interact. The Mangghuer, furthermore, are easily construed as a fundamentally syncretic people cobbled together from diverse sources - a Mongolic language spoken by a people practicing a Chinese way of life while professing a Tibetan religion. Refuge is often taken in such imagery of hybridity when dealing with historical and cultural complexity; whether in Sanchuan, the Caribbean, Southeast Asia, northern Africa, or 'post-modem' cosmopolitan urban centers. However, in the case of Nadun, a closer examination reveals ethnic hybridity as a fallacy. The ideological strands intertwining in Nadun are typically intraethnic rather than interethnic, embracing sectarian elements of Buddhism and Islam, and the cult of individual deities. Such elements of the ritual as androcentrism and age hierarchies are, furthermore, strongly transethnic and easily and often cross ethnic and linguistic boundaries.

This suggests that the covert ethnic program of area studiesSinology is about the Chinese, not China, and so on-may be inadequate for dealing with the dynamic nature of culture. Rather, what is necessary are localized studies that enable clarification of how ideological strands are brought together by diverse agents representing various institutions in specific locales. Although the study of complex border regions may help highlight the basically syncretic, inter-ideological nature of culture, studies of practices in purportedly homogenous locales, such as the Chinese heartland, and Central Tibet, will also contribute to diffusing attention away from ethnicity and state in examinations of local processes of cultural change.

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The Mangghuer Nadun: Village Ritual and Frontier History on the Northeast Tibetan Plateau