Achang of the Dehong Valleys and the Famed Husa Knife

In the warm valleys of the Dehong country in the far southwest of Yunnan, near the border with Burma, live the Achang, a small people famed above all as makers of fine knives and swords. A Tibeto-Burman people dwelling beside the Dai, they till the rice of the fertile valleys and, on the Husa plain of Longchuan, forge the celebrated Husa knife, keen and beautiful, sought across the whole southwest, joining the Buddhism of their Dai neighbours to the older worship of the spirits.

This account follows the Achang from their origins among the Tibeto-Burman peoples of the north, through their rice valleys and their forges, into their language, their Buddhism and the worship of the spirits, and the Husa knife, the courtship songs, and the festivals that mark them. It ends with the Achang of today, a small people of the Dehong valleys, masters of the blade, keeping their forge and their customs alive in modern China.

The Swordsmiths of the Dehong Valleys
Achang, Ngacʼang, and the Name of the People
The Achang Tongue of Tibeto-Burman Root
The Valleys of Longchuan and the Husa Plain
The Villages, the Smiths, and the Old Order
The Village, the Clan, and the Bonds of the Achang
Buddhism, the Ancestors, and the Spirits
The Husa Knife, the Song, and the Ways of the Achang
The Swordsmiths, the Weavers, and the Makers of the Blade
Rice, the Field, and the Table of the Valleys
The Water Festival, the Alubo, and the Feasts
From the Northern Highlands to the People of Modern China
The Achang in Modern China

The Swordsmiths of the Dehong Valleys

In the warm valleys of the Dehong country in the far southwest of Yunnan, near the border with Burma, live the Achang, a small people famed above all as makers of fine knives and swords. Numbering around forty thousand, one of the smaller of China’s peoples, they dwell chiefly in the county of Longchuan, above all on the Husa plain, whose smiths have forged the celebrated Husa knife for many generations.

The Achang belong to the Tibeto-Burman branch of the great Sino-Tibetan family, kin in the deep past to the Burmans, the Yi, and the other Tibeto-Burman peoples, and their forebears are held to have come long ago from the north, drifting south over many centuries into the valleys of the southwestern frontier, where they settled as farmers of the rice and, in time, as smiths.

Settled in the valleys of Dehong beside the Dai, the Achang became over the centuries a distinct people, keeping their own tongue and customs while living close among the Dai, from whom they took the Buddhism of the south and much else. Farmers of the fertile valleys, they became known above all for the forging of iron, and the Husa smiths made knives and swords sought across the whole region and beyond.

To speak of the Achang is to speak of a small people of the Dehong valleys, farmers of the rice and, above all, masters of the forge, whose Husa knives are famed across the southwest. Living among the Dai and their other neighbours in the warm valleys of the far south, followers of the Buddhism of the south and of the older spirits, they hold their own place among the peoples of China.

Achang, Ngacʼang, and the Name of the People

The people are known as the Achang, the name they give themselves, and 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. The name is their own word for who they are, binding together the small communities of the Dehong valleys, above all on the Husa plain of Longchuan.

In the old records the Achang and their forebears appear under various renderings, for they were long a small people of the southwestern valleys, at times noted for their forging of iron and their fine blades. The modern surveys marked them as a people in their own right, distinct in tongue and custom, under the name Achang.

The Achang are a Tibeto-Burman people, kin more nearly to the Burmans and their like than to the Dai among whom they live, yet they took much from their Dai neighbours, above all the Buddhism of the south, so that in faith and in much of their daily life they resemble the Dai while keeping their own distinct tongue and their fame as smiths.

Whatever the rendering, the people know themselves as one, the Achang, a small folk of the Dehong valleys, keepers of their tongue, their forge, and their festivals. The name Achang marks them among the peoples of China as a distinct Tibeto-Burman people of the southwestern valleys, famed above all for the making of the Husa knife.

The Achang Tongue of Tibeto-Burman Root

The Achang speak a language of the Tibeto-Burman branch of the Sino-Tibetan family, kin to Burmese and to the other Burmish tongues, and quite distinct from the Tai language of the Dai among whom they live. Like its kin it is a tonal language, and it is spoken in dialects across the Achang communities of the Dehong valleys, the everyday tongue of the people.

Living close among the Dai, the Achang often knew and used the Dai tongue as well, above all for the affairs of religion and trade, for the Buddhism they took from the Dai was kept in the Dai script and language, and the Dai were the dominant people of the valleys. So the Achang were long bilingual, using their own tongue at home and the Dai for the wider world of the valley.

For most of their history the Achang had no writing of their own, and their store of song, legend, and lore was carried by memory and by mouth, while the Dai script served for religion. The great body of Achang tradition, their myths, their history, and their ritual, lived in the spoken and the sung word, handed down through the generations.

In the modern age standard Chinese has spread through schooling and daily life, and the Achang, long bilingual in their own tongue and the Dai, are now often trilingual, using Chinese for the wider world. As a small people among larger neighbours, the Achang face strong pressure on their language, and its keeping among the young is a matter of concern for those who cherish it.

The Valleys of Longchuan and the Husa Plain

The homeland of the Achang is the Dehong country in the far southwest of Yunnan, near the border with Burma, above all the county of Longchuan and, within it, the Husa plain, with communities in the neighbouring districts. This is warm, fertile valley country, watered by rivers running down from the hills, where the Dai and the Achang grow their rice in the flooded fields, ringed by forested mountains.

The Husa plain, a fertile upland basin in Longchuan, is the heart of the Achang and the home of the famed smiths, and it is here, on the good rice land watered by the streams, that the greater number of the people live. Around the plain rise the forested hills, and beyond lie the mountains that divide the Dehong country from its neighbours and the border passes to Burma.

On the fertile valley floor the Achang built their villages of timber and earth, clustered among the rice fields, and among them, for the Achang took up the Buddhism of the Dai, the temples of the southern faith. The valleys gave the rice that was the mainstay of the people, and the iron and the coal of the hills gave the materials of the forge for which the Achang are famed.

Rooted to the valleys of Longchuan and the Husa plain, and gathered in the warm rice country of Dehong, the Achang made their homeland in the fertile southwestern valleys beside the Dai. It is a land of rice field and forested hill, of village and forge and temple, where a small Tibeto-Burman people kept its tongue, its forge, and its festivals among the peoples of the far south.

The mountains between Mangshi and Longchuan

The Villages, the Smiths, and the Old Order

In the days before the reach of the modern state, the Achang lived in their valley villages as farmers of the rice and, above all, as smiths, under the sway of custom, the guidance of elders, and, in the affairs of the valley, the native chiefs of the Dai lords in whose domains they lay. Each village was a community of households, ordered by the ties of kin and the authority of the old and the wise.

The forging of iron was the great and distinctive skill of the Achang, above all on the Husa plain, where the smiths made the knives and swords that became famed across the region, sought by the many peoples of the frontier and carried far by the traders. The making of the Husa knife, keen, strong, and beautiful, was the pride and the mark of the Achang.

Life turned on the tilling of the rice fields and the working of the forge, and wealth was reckoned in land, in the skill and the trade of the smith, and in the standing of the family. From their Dai neighbours the Achang took the Buddhism of the south, and the temple and the monk had their place in the villages of those who kept the faith.

Governed by custom, by elders, and by the Dai lords and the empire, the Achang lived as farmers and smiths of the Dehong valleys. A small Tibeto-Burman people beside the Dai, keepers of the rice and the forge and of the Buddhism and the spirits, they held to their ways through the long centuries in the warm valleys of the far south, famed above all for their blades.

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

Achang society rests on the village and the household, the bonds of kin that tie families together in the rice valleys. Descent is reckoned through the father’s line, and the village, often a community of related families, was the largest everyday unit of Achang life, guided by respected elders and, among those who kept the Buddhist faith, by the monks of the temple.

The Achang built no wide state and knew no king, living under the Dai lords and the empire, and authority within the village rested on age, on wisdom, and on the respect owed to those skilled in custom and ritual, and to the master smiths whose craft brought fame and wealth. The ties of kin and the bonds of the village were the frame of Achang life among the valleys.

Marriage was made according to custom, marked by the exchange of gifts and by feasting, and the songs of courtship, sung between young men and women, gave the young a voice in the choosing of their matches. The Achang were known for a lively courtship carried on in song, and the wedding was a great occasion of the village.

Women worked beside the men in the rice fields and, as weavers, clothed the household in the cloth they made, and the dress of the Achang women, with its distinctive headdress and its silver, marked them among their neighbours. Through the village, the kin, and the ties of faith and custom, the Achang individual was bound into a close community of the Dehong valleys.

Buddhism, the Ancestors, and the Spirits

The religion of the Achang joins the Buddhism they took from their Dai neighbours with the older worship of the spirits and the ancestors. Many Achang embraced the Theravada Buddhism of the south, the same form kept by the Dai, building temples in their villages, sending sons to become monks, and keeping the festivals and the merit-making of the Buddhist year, so that in faith they resembled the Dai among whom they lived.

Yet beneath and beside the Buddhism ran the older faith, the worship of the spirits of the forest, the fields, the rivers, and the home, and of the ancestors of the village and the household. Offerings and rites, led by the elders and the ritual specialists, kept the spirits content and secured their blessing on the crop and the health of the people, and the two faiths lived side by side in the Achang world.

The temple and the monk served the Buddhist rites and the merit-making, and the elder and the spirit-specialist the propitiation of the spirits and the honouring of the ancestors, and the great festivals joined the two. The life of the people was ordered by both the Buddhist calendar, taken from the Dai, and the older rites of the spirits and the ancestors.

In the modern age the old faith has weakened under the pressures of change, yet among the Achang the Buddhism of the temples endures, and the worship of the spirits and the honouring of the ancestors remain part of the people’s life. The joining of the Buddha and the spirits, taken in large part from the Dai, is the mark of Achang religion.

The Longchuan river country of the Achang

The Husa Knife, the Song, and the Ways of the Achang

The greatest tradition of the Achang is the making of the Husa knife, the famed blade forged by the smiths of the Husa plain, keen, strong, and beautiful, with its ornamented handle and scabbard, sought across the whole region and beyond and carried far by the traders. The craft of the smith, handed down through the generations, is the pride of the Achang and the mark of their people.

Song is a cherished tradition of the Achang, above all the songs of courtship sung between young men and women, and the people are known for a lively music and for the antiphonal singing that fills their gatherings and their weddings. The Buddhism of the south, with its temples, its festivals, and its merit-making, is a great tradition of the Achang who took up the faith.

The dress of the Achang women, with its distinctive tall headdress and its silver ornaments, and the customs of the courtship and the wedding, marked the people among their neighbours. The rites of the spirits and the ancestors, and the festivals of the Buddhist and the older faith, run through the life of the people, joining the two worlds of the Achang.

Around these run the customs of the year and of life, the forging of the blade, the courtship carried on in song, the Buddhist festivals and the rites of the spirits, and the honouring of the ancestors. Through the Husa knife, the song, and the joining of the Buddha and the spirits, the Achang mark their identity and the passages of life in ways carried down from their forebears in the Dehong valleys.

The Swordsmiths, the Weavers, and the Makers of the Blade

The master craft of the Achang is the forging of iron, and above all the making of the Husa knife, the famed blade of the Husa plain. The smiths heat, hammer, fold, and temper the iron into knives and swords of great keenness and strength, mount them with handles and scabbards of horn, wood, and silver, and adorn them with fine work, and the finest Husa blades are treasured and sought far and wide.

So renowned is the Husa knife that the Achang smiths made not only their own distinctive blades but knives and swords in the styles of the many peoples of the frontier, the Dai, the Tibetans, and others, for whom they forged to order, so that the Husa plain became a smithy for the whole region. The craft of the smith, handed down through the generations, is the great skill and pride of the Achang.

The women of the Achang wove and dyed cloth and sewed the dress of the household, with its distinctive tall headdress and its silver, and the making of a woman’s dress was a labour of care. The building of the houses of the valley villages, the plaiting of bamboo, and the making of the tools of daily life rounded out the crafts of the people.

The tilling of the rice fields and the working of the forge were the mainstays of the Achang, and the silverwork that adorned the knives and the dress was a skill of the people. Yet it is for the forging of the Husa knife above all that the crafts of the Achang are known, a blade famed across the southwest, the mark of a small people who made the forge their glory.

Rice, the Field, and the Table of the Valleys

The food of the Achang is the food of the southern rice valleys, built on the rice grown in the flooded fields of the Dehong country. Rice is the heart of every meal, boiled or steamed, and among the Achang the glutinous sticky rice is especially prized, above all for the festivals, when it is steamed and often coloured with the juices of plants for the great days.

To the rice is added a relish of vegetables, gathered greens, beans, and the produce of the garden, with meat as the food of festivals and welcome. The Achang share in the pungent and sour cooking of the south, fond of the chilli and the fermented, and the streams and paddies give fish, while pork from the household pigs is the everyday meat of the people.

A distinctive food of the Achang is a dish of rice noodles served in various ways, a favourite of the Dehong country shared with the Dai, and the many uses of rice, boiled, steamed, made into noodles and cakes, mark the table of a wet-rice people. The forests and hills yield wild plants, herbs, and game to enrich the fare through the year.

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 Buddha. From the rice of the flooded fields and the rice noodles of the valleys to the sour dishes of the south and the home-brewed wine, the food of the Achang is that of a wet-rice people of the warm southwestern valleys.

The Longchuan river valley of the Achang

The Water Festival, the Alubo, and the Feasts

The festivals of the Achang join the Buddhist calendar taken from the Dai with the older rites of the spirits and the ancestors. Among those Achang who took up the faith, the great Buddhist festivals, above all the water-splashing new year of the south, are kept as among their Dai neighbours, with the sprinkling of water, the visiting of the temple, and the gathering of the community for feasting and joy.

A festival dear to the Achang is the Alubo, or the festival of the god of the mountains and the harvest, kept with offerings, song, and dance to give thanks for the crop and pray for the year to come, an occasion peculiar to the people among the festivals of the Dehong world. The rites of the spirits and the honouring of the ancestors bring their own observances through the year.

The turning of the rice year, the rites of planting and harvest, and the festivals of the Buddhist and the older faith gather the community for offering, feasting, and song, and the Achang share in the great festivals of the wider Dehong world with their Dai and other neighbours. The lively courtship songs and the dances fill these gatherings.

The passages of life, birth, marriage, and death, gather the kin for ceremony, the wedding marked by feasting and the antiphonal songs for which the Achang are known. At all these occasions the dress and the tall headdress, the silver, the songs, and the rites of the Buddha and the spirits bring colour and devotion, so that the Achang meet the great moments of life and the year with feast and rite.

From the Northern Highlands to the People of Modern China

The Achang are counted among the Tibeto-Burman peoples who trace their forebears, in the deep past, to the highlands of the north, from which they drifted south over many centuries into the valleys of the southwestern frontier. There they settled among the Dai, took up the growing of rice, and became, over the ages, the small distinct people known today, famed for the forging of iron.

Through the long centuries the Achang lived in their valleys under the sway of the Dai lords and, more distantly, the Chinese empire, farming the rice and working the forge, and from their Dai neighbours many took up the Buddhism of the south. The Husa smiths forged their famed blades, and the knives of the Achang went out by the traders across the whole frontier.

The border country of the Achang, near the frontier with Burma, was a land of many peoples and of trade and, at times, of war, and the Achang blades were sought by all. Through the changes of the centuries the Achang kept their tongue, their forge, and their festivals in the warm valleys of Dehong, a small people beside the greater Dai.

After the founding of the People’s Republic the Achang were recognised as one of the official nationalities of China, one of the smaller of the recognised peoples. The modern age has brought roads, schools, and the reach of the market to the Dehong valleys, drawing the Achang into the wider life of the country, while the making of the Husa knife remains the pride and the mark of their heritage.

The Achang in Modern China

Today the Achang number around forty thousand, one of the smaller of China’s peoples, living still chiefly in the valleys of the Dehong country in the far southwest of Yunnan, above all in Longchuan and on the Husa plain, with communities in the neighbouring districts. A small people of the rice valleys and the forge, they remain rooted in the warm country where their forebears settled beside the Dai.

Modern life has come to the Achang valleys 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. The making of the Husa knife endures, cherished as the mark of the people, and the smiths still forge their famed blades, now often for collectors and for the trade as much as for use.

The same forces bring change, for the pull of the towns and the border economy draws the people, and standard Chinese, along with the Dai tongue, presses upon the Achang language, which, as the speech of a small people among larger neighbours, is among the more fragile parts of their heritage. The keeping of the language and the old customs is a matter of care.

Yet the Achang carry their heritage with pride. The famed Husa knife and the craft of the forge, the joining of the Buddha and the spirits, the tall headdress and silver of the women, and the courtship songs and festivals endure as marks of who they are. A small Tibeto-Burman people of the Dehong valleys, masters of the blade, the Achang keep their forge and their customs alive in modern China.