Jingpo of the Dehong Border Hills and Their Grand Manau Dance

In the hills of the far southwest of Yunnan, along the border where China meets Burma, live the Jingpo, a highland people once famed as warriors and known across the frontier for their fierce independence and their magnificent festival of the dance. Kindred to the Kachin of Burma, they dwell on the forested slopes above the valleys of the Dehong country, keepers of the long sword, the silver-heavy dress, and the great Manau, one of the grandest communal dances of any people of China.

This account follows the Jingpo from their origins among the Tibeto-Burman peoples of the north, through their warlike border villages and their intricate web of clans, into their languages and their script, their worship of the spirits and their new Christian faith, and the sword, the silver, and the Manau dance that mark them. It ends with the Jingpo of today, a frontier people kindred to the Kachin, keeping their great dance and their sword alive in modern China.

The Warrior Highlanders of the Southwestern Border
Jingpo, Kachin, and the Names of the People
The Jingpo Tongues and Their Kindred
The Hills of Dehong on the Burmese Border
The Villages, the Chiefs, and the Old Order
The Clan, the Village, and the Bonds of the Jingpo
The Spirits, the Ancestors, and the Coming of the Cross
The Manau, the Sword, and the Ways of the Jingpo
The Weavers, the Silversmiths, and the Makers of the Sword
Rice, the Field, and the Table of the Hills
The Manau, the Great Dance, and the Feasts
From the Northern Highlands to the People of Modern China
The Jingpo in Modern China

The Warrior Highlanders of the Southwestern Border

In the hills of the far southwest of Yunnan, along the border where China meets Burma, live the Jingpo, a highland people once famed as warriors and known across the frontier for their fierce independence and their great festival of the dance. Numbering some hundred and fifty thousand within China, with a far larger kindred across the border, they dwell on the forested slopes above the valleys of the Dehong country.

The Jingpo belong to the Tibeto-Burman branch of the great Sino-Tibetan family, kin in the deep past to the Tibetans, the Yi, and the Burmans, and their forebears are held to have come long ago from the north, from the high borderlands near the Tibetan plateau, drifting south over many centuries into the hills of the southwestern frontier and beyond into Burma.

Across the border in Burma the same people, and their close kin, are known as the Kachin, and there they are numerous and have long played a great part in the affairs of the frontier hills. In China the Jingpo are one of several closely related groups gathered under the name, dwelling in the Dehong country beside the Dai of the valleys, whom they long faced as neighbours and rivals.

To speak of the Jingpo is to speak of a warrior highland people of the southwestern border, farmers of the forested slopes, keepers of the long sword and the great Manau dance, and, since the coming of the missionaries, in part a Christian people. Divided by a border from their Kachin kin, they hold their own place among the peoples of the Chinese frontier.

Jingpo (Kachin) women in traditional dress

Jingpo, Kachin, and the Names of the People

The people are known in China as the Jingpo, the Chinese rendering of their name, and it is by this name that the state recognises them as one of its nationalities, in the Dehong prefecture of the Dai and the Jingpo. The name is drawn from that of the largest of the groups gathered under it, and it binds together the several kindred communities of the Chinese side of the border.

Across the border in Burma the same people and their close kin are known as the Kachin, a name famous across the frontier, and there they form a large and prominent population. The Jingpo of China and the Kachin of Burma are one people divided by a modern border, sharing a common origin, a common body of custom, and, in large part, a common tongue and the great festival of the Manau.

The Jingpo of China are themselves made up of several closely related groups, distinguished by dialect and by custom, chief among them the Jingpo proper and the Zaiwa, along with others, whose speech differs enough that some use a common second tongue to understand one another. Yet all are gathered under the one name and share the sense of a common people.

Whatever the name, Jingpo in China or Kachin in Burma, the people know themselves as one great highland folk of the frontier, keepers of the sword, the silver, and the Manau dance. The name Jingpo, borne by the people of the Chinese side, marks them among the peoples of Dehong, kindred to the Kachin across the border and heirs to the same warrior tradition of the hills.

A Jingpo woman in silver-ornamented dress

The Jingpo Tongues and Their Kindred

The Jingpo speak languages of the Tibeto-Burman branch of the Sino-Tibetan family, but the groups gathered under the name do not all speak one tongue, for the Jingpo proper speak a language of one branch and the Zaiwa and some others speak languages of a different branch, the Burmish, kin to Burmese. So the name Jingpo covers speakers of more than one related but distinct language.

The Jingpo language proper, the tongue of the largest group and the same as the Kachin language of Burma, is the chief speech of the people, and it serves in many places as a common tongue among the different groups. Like its kin it is a tonal language, and it is rich in the oral poetry, the legend, and the ritual chant that the people carried in memory through the ages.

In the early twentieth century Christian missionaries, working among the Kachin and the Jingpo, devised a script for the Jingpo language using the Roman alphabet, and into it they translated the scriptures and the hymns and much else. This script gave the people a written language and is bound up with the spread of Christianity and of learning among them, above all across the border.

In China standard Chinese has spread through schooling and daily life, and most Jingpo are bilingual, using Chinese for the wider world and their own tongue at home, while the Jingpo script serves the Christian communities and the keeping of the language. Among the several groups the differences of speech remain, but the Jingpo language and its script bind the people and carry their rich heritage of song.

The Hills of Dehong on the Burmese Border

The homeland of the Jingpo in China is the Dehong country in the far southwest of Yunnan, along the border with Burma, a region of forested hills and mountain ridges rising above the warm valleys of the Dai. The greater number live in the autonomous prefecture of the Dai and the Jingpo, in the hill country about the towns of Mangshi, Ruili, and Yingjiang, with their Kachin kin spreading across the border into the mountains of Burma.

This is warm, wet, sub-tropical highland, its slopes clothed in dense forest, drenched by the summer monsoon, cut by swift streams, and rich in the life of the tropics. The Jingpo settled the forested hills and ridges, above the valleys held by the Dai, where they cleared their fields from the forest and, in the old way, hunted the game of the woods, keeping to the high country as the Dai kept to the plains.

The border country of the Jingpo has long been a frontier zone, where the Chinese, the Burmese, the Dai, and the hill peoples met, traded, and warred, and the mountains gave the Jingpo a stronghold from which they long kept their independence. The forests yielded timber, game, and the plants of daily use, and the hills bore the rice and other crops of the people.

Rooted to their forested hills and ridges, and gathered in the Dehong country beside the Dai, the Jingpo made their homeland on the southwestern frontier. It is a land of forest and mountain, of hill village and border pass, where a warrior highland people kept their language, their sword, and their great Manau dance through the long centuries at the meeting of China and Burma.

The Villages, the Chiefs, and the Old Order

In the days before the reach of the modern state, the Jingpo lived in their hill villages under the sway of custom, the guidance of elders, and the rule of chiefs, in a society that swung, in the manner famous among their Kachin kin, between times of strong chiefly rule and times of a more equal, village-based order. The chiefly houses held land and led in war and ritual, and the tension between chief and commoner shaped the life of the hills.

Theirs was in the old days a warlike world, and the Jingpo were feared by their neighbours, above all the Dai of the valleys, for the hill villages warred among themselves and raided the plains, and the long sword was the mark and the tool of the Jingpo man. The customs of war, of the feud, and of the taking of vengeance ran through the old society, and prowess in war was honoured.

Life turned on the clearing and cropping of the forested slopes, the growing of rice and other crops, and the hunt, and wealth was reckoned in land, in cattle, above all the buffalo sacrificed at the great rites, and in the standing of the chiefly house. The great festival of the Manau, the dance of the whole community, was held to mark the greatest occasions and to bind the people.

Governed by custom, by chiefs and elders, and long a power to be reckoned with on the frontier, the Jingpo lived as warlike farmers of the border hills. A highland people at the meeting of China and Burma, feared by the peoples of the valleys, they kept their language, their sword, and their great dance through the long centuries, holding their independence in the mountains of the frontier.

The Clan, the Village, and the Bonds of the Jingpo

Jingpo society rests on the clan and the village, the ties of descent that bind families across the forested hills. Descent is reckoned through the father’s line, and the Jingpo are ordered into a set of great clans, bound to one another by an intricate system of marriage in which certain clans give wives and others take them, weaving the whole people into a web of alliance and obligation.

This system of clans and of wife-giving and wife-taking lineages is among the most distinctive features of Jingpo society, for a clan takes its wives from certain clans and gives its daughters to others, in a fixed direction, so that the giving and taking of brides binds the lineages in a lasting order. This intricate structure, much studied by scholars, was the frame of alliance, of rank, and of obligation among the people.

Over the village stood the chief and the chiefly houses, whose rule waxed and waned, and the society of the Jingpo swung between the aristocratic order of strong chiefs and the more equal order of the village, a famous rhythm of their social life. Rank was reckoned by descent and by the standing of the lineage, and the chiefly clans held the highest place.

Women held a place shaped by the system of marriage, given between the clans in the fixed order of the alliance, and, as weavers, they clothed the household in the cloth they made and wore the silver ornaments for which the Jingpo are known. The clan, the village, and the intricate web of marriage bound the Jingpo individual into a close and ordered society of the hills.

The Spirits, the Ancestors, and the Coming of the Cross

The older faith of the Jingpo was a worship of the spirits, the nats, that fill the hill world, the spirits of the sky, the earth, the mountains, the fields, and the ancestors, ordered in a great hierarchy from the high gods of the heavens down to the local spirits of the village. Offerings and above all the sacrifice of buffalo and other animals kept the spirits content and secured their blessing on the crop, the hunt, and the health of the people.

At the head of the spirit world stood the great sky spirit and the other high gods, and the priests and ritual specialists, versed in the vast body of chants and myths carried in memory, stood between the people and the spirits, performing the sacrifices, reading the omens, and reciting at the great rites the long oral poetry that told the history and the beliefs of the people.

The great festival of the Manau was, in the old faith, a religious occasion as well as a dance, held to honour the spirits, to give thanks, and to secure blessing and prosperity, and the sacrifice of buffalo and the reciting of the sacred chants were part of its rites. The whole life of the people was bound to the propitiation of the spirits and the honouring of the ancestors.

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries Christian missionaries reached the Jingpo and the Kachin and won many to the new faith, above all across the border in Burma, giving them a script and planting churches. Today many Jingpo are Christian, while others keep the old worship of the spirits, and among some the two are woven together, but the memory of the nats and the Manau remains deep in the Jingpo world.

The Manau, the Sword, and the Ways of the Jingpo

The greatest of all Jingpo traditions is the Manau, the great communal dance, the most magnificent festival of the people, in which hundreds and even thousands join in a winding, snaking column of dancers who follow the leaders through intricate figures for hours and days on end. At its centre rise the tall carved and painted posts, the manau shadung, whose patterns the dancers trace with their steps, and the whole is a spectacle of unity and grandeur.

The long sword is the emblem of the Jingpo man, carried at the belt, used in the hunt, in war, and in the sword dance, in which the men leap and turn brandishing their blades in a display of martial vigour. Skill with the sword was a mark of manhood, and the sword, with the silver ornaments of the people, was among the marks of the Jingpo among their neighbours.

The rich oral poetry of the Jingpo, the long chants that tell the myths of creation, the history of the clans, and the beliefs of the people, recited by the specialists at the great rites, is among the treasures of their tradition. The sacrifice of buffalo at the great occasions, the intricate system of marriage between the clans, and the customs of the warlike past are woven into the life of the people.

Around these run the customs of the year and of life, the courtship, the weddings ordered by the alliance of the clans, and the funerals with their sacrifices and chants. Through the Manau, the sword, and the oral poetry, the Jingpo mark the passages of life and the great occasions of the community in ways carried down from their warrior forebears of the frontier hills.

The Weavers, the Silversmiths, and the Makers of the Sword

The crafts of the Jingpo are the crafts of a warrior highland people, and chief among the marks of the man is the long sword, forged by skilled smiths, keen and strong, worn at the belt and used in hunt, war, and dance. The forging of a good sword was an honoured skill, and the blade, with its scabbard and belt, was among the most prized possessions of a Jingpo man.

The women of the Jingpo are weavers, and the cloth they make, above all the woollen skirts and the woven bags, is dyed in deep reds and dark colours and patterned in bold designs, and the dress of the Jingpo women is heavy with silver, for silver ornaments, discs, chains, and jewellery adorn the festival dress in great profusion. The making and adorning of the dress was a labour of care and a mark of wealth and skill.

Silverwork is a notable Jingpo craft, the smiths working the metal into the discs, chains, buttons, and ornaments that cover the women’s festival dress and gleam at the great gatherings. The raising and carving of the tall Manau posts, painted with the sacred patterns that guide the dance, was a solemn craft, and the posts stand as monuments in the dancing grounds of the people.

Beyond these the Jingpo build their houses of timber, bamboo, and thatch, some long houses sheltering several families of a lineage, plait bamboo into baskets and mats, and carve the tools of daily life. Yet it is for the long sword, the silver-heavy dress, and the carved Manau posts that the crafts of the Jingpo are known, an art bound to the war, the wealth, and the great dance of the frontier hills.

Rice, the Field, and the Table of the Hills

The food of the Jingpo is the food of the southwestern hills, built on rice grown on the forested slopes and, where the land allowed, in the terraced valleys. Rice is the heart of every meal, boiled or steamed, and a well-loved way of cooking it is in a length of fresh bamboo, roasted over the fire so that the grain takes the fragrance of the green wood, a dish shared with other peoples of the frontier.

To the rice is added a relish of vegetables, gathered greens, beans, and the produce of the garden and the forest, with meat as the food of festivals and welcome. In the old days the hunt gave much of the Jingpo’s meat, and beef from the sacrificed buffalo, shared among the community at the great rites, and pork from the household pigs are the meats of the feast.

The Jingpo are known for a hearty and pungent cooking, fond of the chilli, the sour, and the bitter, and for dishes cooked simply over the fire and in bamboo, and for the gathering of wild plants and herbs from the rich forests of their hills. The offering of food and drink to a guest is a mark of the warm hospitality of the people.

Rice wine, brewed in the household, is the drink of hospitality and of ritual, poured for guests, shared at the festivals, and offered to the spirits and the ancestors, and it flows freely at the Manau and the great gatherings. From the bamboo-roasted rice and the buffalo of the sacrifice to the wild herbs of the forest and the home-brewed wine, the food of the Jingpo is that of a highland people of the frontier.

The Manau, the Great Dance, and the Feasts

The great festival of the Jingpo is the Manau, the magnificent communal dance held to mark the greatest occasions, a victory, a great sacrifice, a gathering of the people, or, in modern times, the yearly celebration of the nation. It is among the grandest festivals of any people of China, drawing hundreds and thousands of dancers into a long winding column that follows the leaders through intricate figures for hours and days.

At the heart of the Manau rise the tall carved and painted posts, the manau shadung, whose sacred patterns the dancers trace with their steps, guided by the leaders who bear swords and feathers and who know the figures of the dance. The sacrifice of buffalo, the reciting of the sacred chants, the beating of drums and gongs, and the feasting fill the days of the festival, the fullest expression of Jingpo unity and grandeur.

In the old faith the Manau was held to honour the spirits, to give thanks, and to secure blessing and prosperity, and even today, when many Jingpo are Christian, the great dance endures as the emblem and the celebration of the people. In modern times a fixed yearly Manau has become the national festival of the Jingpo, drawing the people and many visitors to the dancing grounds.

Around the Manau run the other observances of the year and of life, the rites of the crop, the courtship, the weddings ordered by the alliance of the clans, and the funerals with their sacrifices and chants. At all these occasions the silver-heavy dress, the long sword, the sword dance, and the chants of the people bring colour and grandeur, so that the Jingpo meet the great moments of life and the year with sacrifice, feast, and the great dance.

From the Northern Highlands to the People of Modern China

The Jingpo are counted among the Tibeto-Burman peoples who trace their forebears, in the deep past, to the high borderlands near the Tibetan plateau, from which they drifted south over many centuries into the hills of the southwestern frontier and beyond into Burma. There they settled the forested mountains, a warlike highland people facing the Dai of the valleys and the powers of the plains.

Through the long centuries the Jingpo and their Kachin kin held their mountains as a stronghold of independence, feared by their neighbours and reckoned with by the Chinese, the Burmese, and the Dai lords, whom they at times served, fought, and raided. The mountains kept them free, and the border country was a frontier zone where the hill peoples long went their own way.

The late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries brought the Christian missionaries, who won many of the Kachin and the Jingpo to the new faith, gave them a script, and reshaped much of their life, above all across the border. The drawing of the frontier between China and Burma divided the people, leaving a large Kachin population on the Burmese side, where they came to play a great part in the affairs of that land.

After the founding of the People’s Republic the Jingpo in China were recognised as one of the official nationalities, sharing with the Dai the autonomous prefecture of Dehong. The modern age has brought roads, schools, and the reach of the state to the border hills, drawing the Jingpo into the wider life of the country, while their Kachin kin across the border have known the long turbulence of the Burmese frontier.

The Jingpo in Modern China

Today the Jingpo number some hundred and fifty thousand within China, living still chiefly in the border hills of the Dehong country in the far southwest of Yunnan, with a far larger Kachin kindred across the border in Burma. A warrior highland people of the frontier, they remain rooted in the forested mountains beside the Dai of the valleys, keeping their language, their sword, and their great Manau dance.

Modern life has come to the Jingpo hills in the shape of roads, schools, and the reach of the market and the border trade, for the Dehong country lies on a busy frontier with Burma. A fixed yearly Manau has become the national festival of the people, drawing the Jingpo and many visitors to the dancing grounds, and the great dance has become the emblem of the nation.

The same forces bring change, for the pull of the towns and of the border economy draws the people, and standard Chinese and modern schooling spread among them, pressing upon the several Jingpo tongues. Christianity is a firm part of life for many, joined in some places to the old ways, while others keep the older worship of the spirits, and the Jingpo script serves the keeping of the language.

Through change the Jingpo carry their heritage with pride. The great Manau dance and its carved posts, the long sword and the sword dance, the silver-heavy dress, the rich oral poetry, and the intricate ties of the clans endure as marks of who they are. A warrior highland people of the southwestern frontier, kindred to the Kachin across the border, the Jingpo keep their dance and their sword alive in modern China.