Pumi of the Northwest Yunnan Ranges and Their Sacred Mountains

In the high mountains of the northwest of Yunnan, where the province climbs toward the Tibetan plateau, live the Pumi, a small highland people of herders and farmers. A Qiangic people kin to the Qiang and touched by the Tibetan world, they dwell in the counties of Lanping and Ninglang among snow peaks and forested slopes, keepers of the worship of the ancestors and the sacred mountains, of the rites of the han gui priests, and of the coming-of-age ceremony held for their children at the new year.

This account follows the Pumi from their origins among the ancient Qiang of the marches, through their mountain villages and their herds, into their Qiangic tongue, their worship of the ancestors and the peaks and the rites of the han gui, and the coming-of-age, the cured pork, and the festivals that mark them. It ends with the Pumi of today, a small highland people of the northwest Yunnan mountains keeping their ancestors and their peaks alive in modern China.

The Highlanders of the Northwest Yunnan Ranges
Pumi, Primi, and the Name of the People
The Pumi Tongue of Qiangic Root
The Mountains of Lanping and Ninglang
The Villages, the Clans, and the Old Order
The Clan, the Village, and the Bonds of the Pumi
The Ancestors, the Han Gui, and the Spirits
The Coming of Age, the Song, and the Ways of the Pumi
The Farmers, the Herders, and the Weavers
Grain, the Herd, and the Table of the Mountains
The New Year, the Rites of the Mountain, and the Feasts
From the Ancient Qiang to the People of Modern China
The Pumi in Modern China

The Highlanders of the Northwest Yunnan Ranges

In the high mountains of the northwest of Yunnan, where the province climbs toward the Tibetan plateau, live the Pumi, a small highland people of herders and farmers. Numbering around forty thousand, one of the smaller of China’s peoples, they dwell in the counties of Lanping, Ninglang, and their neighbours, among the ranges and valleys where the Yunnan highlands meet the borders of the Tibetan world.

The Pumi belong to the Tibeto-Burman branch of the great Sino-Tibetan family, and more nearly to its Qiangic group, kin in the deep past to the Qiang, the Tibetans, and the other peoples of the Sichuan-Tibetan marches. Their forebears are held to have come long ago from the north, from the high borderlands near the plateau, drifting south over many centuries into the mountains of northwest Yunnan.

As they moved south the Pumi settled the high slopes and valleys of the Yunnan ranges, where they took up the herding of their flocks on the mountain pastures and the tilling of the terraced fields, in a land of forest, peak, and river on the marches of the Tibetan world. There they kept their tongue and their customs, close in origin to the Qiang and touched by the Tibetan world about them.

To speak of the Pumi is to speak of a small highland people of the northwest Yunnan mountains, herders and farmers of the high slopes, keepers of a Qiangic tongue and of the worship of the ancestors and the mountains, touched by the Tibetan Buddhism of their neighbours. On the marches between the Yunnan and the Tibetan worlds, they hold their own place among the peoples of China.

A historical illustration of the Xifan (Pumi) people

Pumi, Primi, and the Name of the People

The people are known as the Pumi, or in other renderings Primi, the name they give themselves, which is said to mean the white people or a word close to it, a name of honour among them. It is by this name that the state recognises them as one of its nationalities, one of the smaller of the recognised peoples of China, in the mountains of northwest Yunnan.

In the old Chinese records the Pumi and their forebears appear under various names, among them the term Xifan, the western barbarians, used loosely for the peoples of the Sichuan-Tibetan marches, of whom the Pumi were one. Under these names the Pumi have a long presence in the histories of the frontier between the Chinese and the Tibetan worlds.

The Pumi are close kin to the Qiang and the other Qiangic peoples of the marches, sprung from a common ancient stock, and those who dwell across the border in Sichuan are counted by the state as Tibetans, while those in Yunnan are recognised as the Pumi nationality, a division of one people by the lines of administration. Yet all share a common origin and much of a common way.

Whatever the rendering, the people know themselves as one, the Pumi, a small highland folk of the northwest Yunnan mountains, keepers of their tongue, their ancestors, and their festivals. The name Pumi marks them among the peoples of China as a Qiangic people of the marches, kin to the Qiang and touched by the Tibetan world of their neighbours.

The Pumi Tongue of Qiangic Root

The Pumi speak a language of the Qiangic group of the Tibeto-Burman branch of the Sino-Tibetan family, kin to the tongues of the Qiang and the other peoples of the Sichuan-Tibetan marches. Like its kin it is a tonal language in some of its forms, and it is spoken in dialects across the Pumi communities of the northwest Yunnan mountains, the everyday tongue of the people.

Set among Tibetan, Naxi, Yi, and other neighbours on the marches, the Pumi language took in words from these tongues, above all from Tibetan in the terms of religion, which came with the Tibetan Buddhism that touched the Pumi, and from Chinese in the affairs of the wider world. Yet its Qiangic core and grammar endured through these borrowings.

For most of their history the Pumi had no writing of their own, and their store of song, legend, and lore was carried by memory and by mouth, kept above all by the ritual specialists, while the Tibetan script served for the affairs of Buddhism among those who took up the faith. The great body of Pumi tradition lived in the spoken and the sung word.

In the modern age standard Chinese has spread through schooling and daily life, and the Pumi, living among many peoples, often know also the tongues of their neighbours, so that many are bilingual or more. As a small people among larger neighbours, the Pumi face strong pressure on their Qiangic language, and its keeping among the young is a matter of concern for those who cherish it.

The Mountains of Lanping and Ninglang

The homeland of the Pumi is the high mountain country of the northwest of Yunnan, where the province climbs toward the Tibetan plateau, above all the counties of Lanping and Ninglang and their neighbours in the ranges about Lijiang and the Nu river. This is a land of high peaks, deep gorges, forested slopes, and mountain pastures, on the marches between the Yunnan and the Tibetan worlds.

Around the Pumi rise the great snow mountains of the northwest, among them the Biluo range, and the deep valleys of the rivers that run down from the plateau, in a country of stern and tremendous beauty. The climate shifts sharply with height, from the warmer valleys to the cold and misty heights, and the Pumi settled the middle slopes and the valleys, where they could till the fields and graze their flocks.

On these high slopes the Pumi built their villages of timber and earth, clustered among the fields and the pastures, and there they grew the hardy grains of the highland and kept their herds of cattle, sheep, goats, and pigs on the mountain grass. The forests gave game, timber, and the plants of daily use, and the high pastures the grazing for the flocks that were part of the Pumi wealth.

Rooted to the high slopes and valleys of Lanping and Ninglang, and scattered among the ranges of northwest Yunnan, the Pumi made their homeland on the marches of the plateau. It is a land of snow peak and forested slope, of terraced field and mountain pasture, where a small Qiangic people kept its tongue, its ancestors, and its festivals among the peoples of the highland northwest.

The Biluo snow mountains of the Pumi country

The Villages, the Clans, and the Old Order

In the days before the reach of the modern state, the Pumi lived in their mountain villages as herders and farmers, under the sway of custom, the guidance of elders, and the bonds of the clan, and, above them, the native chiefs and the officials of the empire on the marches. Each village was a community of households, ordered by the ties of clan and the authority of the old men.

Life turned on the tilling of the highland fields, the growing of the hardy grains on the terraced slopes, and the keeping of the herds on the mountain pastures, for the Pumi were both farmers and herders in the manner of the marches. Wealth was reckoned in land, in the herd, and in the standing of the family and the clan, and the round of the highland year, with its long winter, set the rhythm of life.

The Pumi lay on the old routes between the Yunnan valleys and the Tibetan plateau, on the Tea Horse Road by which the tea of the south went up to Tibet, and they knew the trade and the traffic of the marches. From their Tibetan neighbours many took something of the Buddhism of the plateau, and the Tibetan world touched their life, though they kept their own tongue and their older faith.

Governed by custom, by elders, and by the clan, and ruled from afar by the native chiefs and the empire, the Pumi lived as herders and farmers of the highland marches. A small Qiangic people between the Yunnan and the Tibetan worlds, keepers of the ancestors and the mountains and touched by the Buddhism of the plateau, they held to their ways through the long centuries in the high northwest.

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

Pumi society rests on the clan and the village, the ties of descent that bind families across the high valleys. Descent is reckoned through the father’s line, and the Pumi are ordered into clans, each bearing its name and tracing a common ancestor, and the members of a clan honour the same forebears, owe one another the duties of kin, and marry outside the clan.

The village, often a community of related families, was the largest everyday unit of Pumi life, guided by respected elders and the heads of the clans, and, among those touched by Buddhism, by the lamas and the ritual specialists. The Pumi built no wide state of their own, living under the native chiefs and the empire, and authority rested on age, on descent, and on the command of custom and ritual.

Marriage was arranged by the families according to custom, marked by the exchange of gifts and by feasting, and the ties of marriage bound the clans of a district together. A distinctive custom of the Pumi is the coming-of-age rite, held at the new year for boys and girls of thirteen, when the child puts on the dress of an adult and passes, with ceremony, into the grown world.

Women worked beside the men in the fields and the pastures and, as weavers, clothed the household in the cloth they made, and the honouring of the ancestors and the elders ran through the whole of society. Through the clan, the village, and the bonds of kin, the Pumi individual was bound into a close community of the highland marches, holding to its identity among many neighbours.

Yingpan town in Lanping, the Pumi country

The Ancestors, the Han Gui, and the Spirits

The religion of the Pumi is rooted in the worship of the ancestors and in a rich belief in the spirits of the mountain world, the spirits of the peaks, the forests, the rivers, and the fields. The forebears of the clan are honoured with offerings, for their goodwill is held to guard the family, and the great mountains, revered as the dwelling of powerful spirits, are honoured with rites and offerings on the high places.

At the heart of the older Pumi faith stood the han gui, the ritual specialists or priests, versed in the vast body of chants, myths, and rites carried in memory, who performed the ceremonies of the ancestors, the mountains, and the dead, read the omens, and healed the sick. The han gui stood between the people and the world of spirits, and held a place of the highest respect.

From their Tibetan neighbours many Pumi took something of the Tibetan Buddhism of the plateau, so that the lama and the Buddhist rite had their place beside the older worship, and in some communities the two faiths lived side by side. Yet the worship of the ancestors and the mountains, and the rites of the han gui, remained the deeper layer of the Pumi faith.

In the modern age the old faith has weakened under the pressures of change, yet the honouring of the ancestors, the reverence of the sacred mountains, and the rites of the han gui remain at the root of the Pumi sense of themselves, joined in places to the Buddhism of the plateau. The mountains and the ancestors are the heart of the religion of this small highland people.

Ritual manuscripts of the peoples of northwest Yunnan

The Coming of Age, the Song, and the Ways of the Pumi

A cherished tradition of the Pumi is the coming-of-age rite, held at the new year for the boys and girls who have reached the age of thirteen, when the child, standing by the hearth or the pillar of the house, is dressed for the first time in the clothes of an adult, with ceremony and blessing, and passes from childhood into the grown world of the people. This rite is among the most important events of a Pumi life.

Song and dance run through Pumi tradition, in courtship, at weddings, and at the festivals, and the people are known for their songs and for the dances that fill their gatherings, above all the linked dances performed to the music of pipe and drum. The rich oral lore of the Pumi, the myths, the history, and the chants of the han gui, is a treasure of their tradition.

The worship of the ancestors and the sacred mountains, with the rites and offerings of the han gui, runs as a tradition through the whole of Pumi life, binding the people to their forebears and to the great peaks that watch over them. The reverence of the mountains, in a land of tremendous ranges, is among the deepest of Pumi customs.

Around these run the customs of the year and of life, the coming-of-age rite, the courtship and the weddings, the festivals of the new year and the mountain, and the honouring of the ancestors. Through the coming-of-age, the song, and the worship of the ancestors and the peaks, the Pumi mark the passages of life and the turning of the year in ways carried down from their forebears in the highland marches.

The Farmers, the Herders, and the Weavers

The crafts of the Pumi are the crafts of a highland people of the marches, farmers and herders of the mountains. The tilling of the terraced fields and the keeping of the herds on the mountain pastures were their great skills, and the working of the wool of their flocks into felt, cloth, and the warm garments of the highland cold was a mainstay of the household.

The women of the Pumi wove and dyed cloth, favouring strong colours, and sewed the dress of the household, and the making of a woman’s dress, with its distinctive headdress and its ornaments, was a labour of care and a measure of her skill. The working of wool into felt and the weaving of the cloth for the mountain garments were among the great crafts of the people.

The Pumi built their houses of timber and earth against the highland cold, in the manner of the marches, and plaited bamboo and wood into the goods of the household, and carved the tools of daily life. The working of leather and the making of the gear of the herd and the field rounded out the crafts of a self-reliant highland people.

The keeping of the herds and the growing of the highland grains were the mainstays of the Pumi, and the working of the wool, the timber, and the gifts of the mountains gave the goods of daily life. The crafts of the Pumi are those of the highland farmer and herder, the skills of wringing life and shelter and clothing from the high cold country of the northwest marches.

The highland country of the Pumi in northwest Yunnan

Grain, the Herd, and the Table of the Mountains

The food of the Pumi is the food of a highland people of the marches, built on the hardy grains that grow in the high cold valleys, above all barley, maize, buckwheat, and wheat, ground into meal and cooked as porridge, cakes, and flatbread. Barley, well suited to the highland, is a mainstay, and the grain of the terraced fields gives the daily bread of the people.

Meat holds a larger place at the Pumi table than at that of many farming peoples, for the Pumi keep herds and flocks on the mountain pastures, and pork, mutton, and beef are eaten at festivals and welcome. A well-loved food is the preserved pork, above all the whole pig salted and kept, the pipa meat, hung and cured to last through the long winter, a distinctive food of the marches.

The dairy of the herds, the milk, butter, and cheese, gives food in the manner of the highland peoples, and tea, at times the buttered and salted tea of the plateau taken from the Tibetan world, is drunk and offered to guests. The gathering and preserving of the gifts of the mountains, the wild plants, herbs, and mushrooms, added to the fare through the year.

Grain and barley wine, brewed in the household, is the drink of hospitality and of the festivals, poured for guests and shared at the great occasions and the rites. From the barley and buckwheat of the high fields to the cured pork and the buttered tea, the food of the Pumi is that of a farming and herding people of the high cold marches of the northwest.

The New Year, the Rites of the Mountain, and the Feasts

The greatest festival of the Pumi is the new year, kept in the depth of the highland winter, a great occasion of the gathering of kin, the wearing of the best clothes, the sharing of the good things of the table, and the visiting that binds the community after the long cold. It is at the new year that the coming-of-age rite is held for the children of thirteen, one of the great events of the festival.

The rites of the sacred mountains, held on the high places with offerings and ceremonies to the spirits of the peaks, are among the great communal observances of the Pumi year, when the people gather to honour the mountains that watch over them and to pray for their welfare and the welfare of the herds and the crop. The reverence of the peaks is at the heart of these rites.

The turning of the highland year, the rites of planting and harvest, and the honouring of the ancestors bring their own observances, led by the han gui with their chants and rites, and, among those touched by Buddhism, the festivals of the Buddhist calendar are kept as well. These occasions gather the community for offering, feasting, and song.

The passages of life, birth, the coming-of-age, marriage, and death, gather the kin for ceremony, the wedding marked by feasting and song. At all these occasions the dress and the headdress, the linked dances, the songs, and the grain wine bring colour and warmth against the highland cold, so that the Pumi meet the great moments of life and the year with feast, dance, and the honouring of the ancestors and the peaks.

From the Ancient Qiang to the People of Modern China

The Pumi are counted, like the Qiang and their kin, among the peoples who trace their descent from the ancient Qiang of the borders of the Tibetan plateau, from whom sprang many of the Qiangic and Tibeto-Burman peoples of the marches. Over many centuries their forebears drifted south along the mountain valleys, settling at length the high ranges of northwest Yunnan that became their home.

Through the long centuries the Pumi lived in their mountains under the sway of the native chiefs and, more distantly, the Chinese empire, herding and farming on the high slopes, and their country lay on the old Tea Horse Road between the Yunnan valleys and the Tibetan plateau. From their Tibetan neighbours many took something of the Buddhism of the plateau, joined to their older faith.

The records of the Chinese dynasties note the peoples of the marches, among them the forebears of the Pumi, under names such as Xifan, and the Pumi shared in the long history of the frontier between the Chinese and the Tibetan worlds, a land of trade, of many peoples, and at times of war. Through it all they kept their tongue, their ancestors, and their festivals.

After the founding of the People’s Republic the Pumi of Yunnan were recognised as one of the official nationalities of China, while their kin across the border in Sichuan were counted as Tibetans. The modern age has brought roads, schools, and the reach of the market to the high mountains, drawing the Pumi into the wider life of the country, while the worship of the ancestors and the peaks remains the mark of their heritage.

The Pumi in Modern China

Today the Pumi number around forty thousand, one of the smaller of China’s peoples, living still chiefly in the high mountains of the northwest of Yunnan, above all in the counties of Lanping and Ninglang and their neighbours, with their kin across the border in Sichuan counted as Tibetans. A small highland people of herders and farmers, they remain rooted in the ranges and valleys of the marches.

Modern life has come to the Pumi mountains in the shape of roads, schools, and the reach of the market, and the same forces that touch all of rural China, the pull of the cities and of migrant labour, draw many younger Pumi away to the towns. The high slopes are farmed and grazed as before by those who remain, though the old ways change with the times.

As a small people among many larger neighbours, the Pumi face strongly the pressures that blur the lines between peoples, and standard Chinese and the tongues of their neighbours press upon the Pumi language, which is among the more fragile of the Qiangic tongues. Efforts have been made to record and keep the language, the customs, and the rites of the han gui.

Yet the Pumi carry their heritage with quiet pride. The coming-of-age rite, the worship of the ancestors and the sacred mountains, the rites of the han gui, the cured pork and the barley of the highland table, and the songs and dances of the marches endure as marks of who they are. A small Qiangic people of the northwest Yunnan mountains, the Pumi keep their ancestors and their peaks alive in modern China.