Tu of the Qinghai Valleys and Their Rainbow Sleeves

In the green valleys of eastern Qinghai, where the loess hills of the northwest give way to the edge of the Tibetan plateau, live the Tu, a settled farming people of Mongol root whom they themselves call the Monguor. Dwelling near the great monasteries about the Datong and Huangshui rivers, they are known for the rainbow-striped sleeves of their women’s dress and for the Nadun, a harvest festival so long it is said to be the greatest in the world.

This account follows the Tu from their origins in the mingling of Mongol, Tibetan, and other peoples on the marches of the plateau, through their valley villages and their native chiefs, into their Mongolic tongue, their Tibetan Buddhist faith, and the rainbow dress and Nadun festival that mark them. It ends with the Tu of today, a settled people of the Qinghai valleys keeping their dress and their festival alive in modern China.

The Farmers of the Qinghai Valleys
Monguor, Tu, and the Name of the People
The Monguor Tongue of Mongol Root
The Valleys of Eastern Qinghai
The Villages, the Tusi, and the Old Order
The Household, the Village, and the Bonds of the Tu
Tibetan Buddhism, the Ancestors, and the Monasteries
The Rainbow Dress, the Nadun, and the Ways of the Tu
The Embroiderers, the Farmers, and the Makers of Cloth
Wheat, Barley, and the Table of the Valleys
The Nadun, the Wheel Dance, and the Feasts
From the Tuyuhun and the Mongols to Modern China
The Tu in Modern China

The Farmers of the Qinghai Valleys

In the green valleys of eastern Qinghai, where the loess hills of the northwest give way to the edge of the Tibetan plateau, live the Tu, a settled farming people of Mongol root. Numbering some three hundred thousand, they dwell in the valleys about the Datong and Huangshui rivers, near the great monasteries of the region, a people at the meeting of the Mongol, the Tibetan, the Han, and the Muslim worlds of the northwest.

The Tu are a people of mixed and much-debated origin, but their language, a tongue of the Mongolic family, and their own traditions point to a large Mongol element in their making, and many trace them to Mongol soldiers and settlers left in the region in the days of the Mongol empire, mingled with the earlier peoples of the valleys. Some connect them also to the ancient Tuyuhun, a people who ruled the region long before.

Settled in the fertile valleys of eastern Qinghai, the Tu became over the centuries a distinct people, neither Mongol nor Tibetan nor Han, though touched by all, keepers of a Mongolic tongue and, in their faith, followers of the Tibetan Buddhism of the great monasteries near their homes. Farmers of the valleys, they took up the settled tilling of wheat and barley in a land of herders and monks.

To speak of the Tu is to speak of a settled farming people of the Qinghai valleys, of Mongol root yet shaped by the Tibetan world about them, keepers of the bright rainbow dress of their women and of the lively Nadun festival. At the meeting of great peoples on the marches of the plateau, they hold their own place among the peoples of the Chinese northwest.

Monguor, Tu, and the Name of the People

The people are known to China as the Tu, a name written with the character for earth or native, marking them as an old and settled people of the land, and it is by this name that the state recognises them as one of its nationalities and sets aside their autonomous counties in eastern Qinghai, above all at Huzhu and Minhe.

Among themselves the people call their nation by a name usually rendered Monguor, or by other names close to it, their own word for who they are, and it is by Monguor that scholars often know them and their Mongolic language. The name points to the Mongol element in the making of the people, and to their kinship, in speech, with the Mongols and the other Mongolic peoples of the northwest.

The Chinese name Tu, meaning native or of the earth, was given to mark the people as long-settled tillers of the valleys, set apart from the herding Mongols and the Tibetans of the plateau. It reflects the Tu way of life as farmers rooted to the land, distinct from the nomads about them, a settled people of the fertile valleys.

Whatever the name, the people know themselves as one, a settled folk of the Qinghai valleys, of Mongol root and Buddhist faith, keepers of their bright dress and their lively festival. The name Tu, given by the Chinese, and the name Monguor, their own, together tell the story of a people made on the marches of the plateau from the mingling of the Mongol and the peoples of the valleys.

The Monguor Tongue of Mongol Root

The Tu speak a language of the Mongolic family, the Monguor tongue, close kin to Mongolian and to the other Mongolic languages of the northwest, such as those of the Dongxiang and the Bonan. This Mongol root is the clearest witness to the part the Mongols played in the making of the people, whose forefathers included Mongol soldiers and settlers of the age of the empire.

Yet the Monguor language, set among Tibetan, Chinese, and Muslim neighbours far from the Mongolian heartland, took in a great many words from Tibetan and from Chinese, above all in the terms of religion, which came with the Tibetan Buddhism the Tu embraced, and in the words of daily life and trade. It kept its Mongolic grammar and core while clothing itself in the words of its new world.

The language is divided into dialects across the valleys where the Tu live, and it was for most of its history unwritten, carried in speech alone, while Tibetan served as the language of religion and learning and Chinese as the language of the wider world. The great body of Tu song, legend, and lore lived in the spoken and the sung word.

In the modern age standard Chinese has spread through schooling and daily life, and most Tu are bilingual or more, using Chinese for the wider world and their own Mongolic tongue at home, with Tibetan for the affairs of religion. The Monguor language, unwritten and pressed by Chinese, is among the more fragile of the Mongolic tongues, and its keeping among the young is a matter of concern.

The Valleys of Eastern Qinghai

The homeland of the Tu is the valleys of eastern Qinghai, where the province meets Gansu on the northeastern edge of the Tibetan plateau, above all the fertile lands about the Datong and Huangshui rivers. The greater number live in the autonomous counties of Huzhu and Minhe and the neighbouring districts, in a country of green river valleys set among loess hills and, beyond, the high plateau.

This is high country, more than a mile and often two above the sea, cold in its long winters and cool in its short summers, watered by the rivers that run down from the plateau. The Tu settled the fertile valley floors and the lower slopes, where they cleared and terraced the land for the wheat, barley, and other hardy crops that the cool highland will bear, in a land of herders and monasteries.

Around the Tu valleys rise the loess hills and, beyond them, the great mountains and the plateau, and among the settlements stand the monasteries of the Tibetan Buddhism the Tu follow, above all the famous Youning monastery and, not far off, the great Kumbum. These monasteries are the spiritual centres of the region, and the Tu villages cluster in their shadow.

Rooted to the fertile valleys and their terraced fields, and gathered in the autonomous counties of eastern Qinghai, the Tu made their homeland on the marches of the plateau. It is a land of green valley and loess hill, of river and monastery, where a settled Mongol-rooted people kept their tongue, their bright dress, and their Buddhist faith among the herders and monks of the northwest.

The Villages, the Tusi, and the Old Order

In the days before the reach of the modern state, the Tu lived in their valley villages as settled farmers, under the sway of custom, the guidance of elders, and, above them, the tusi, the hereditary native chiefs through whom the Chinese empire ruled the frontier. Several Tu chiefly houses held their districts for centuries, confirmed by the throne, guiding and defending the people and answering to the empire.

Life turned on the tilling of the valley fields, the growing of wheat, barley, peas, and potatoes on the terraced land, and the keeping of stock, for the Tu were farmers in a land where many were herders. Wealth was reckoned in land, in animals, and in the standing of the family and the chiefly house, and the round of the highland farming year set the rhythm of life.

The Tibetan Buddhism of the great monasteries ordered much of the spiritual life of the people, and it was common for a family to send a son to the monastery to become a monk, a source of honour and of ties to the great religious houses. The monasteries were centres of learning, of art, and of power, and the Tu were bound to them by faith and by kinship.

Governed by custom, by elders, and by the native chiefs, and ruled from afar by the empire, the Tu lived as settled farmers of the Qinghai valleys, bound to the monasteries by their faith. A Mongol-rooted people on the marches of the plateau, they kept their tongue, their dress, and their Buddhist faith through the long centuries, tilling the valleys in the shadow of the great religious houses.

The Household, the Village, and the Bonds of the Tu

Tu society rests on the household, the clan, and the village, the ties of descent that bind families across the valleys. Descent is reckoned through the father’s line, and members of a clan share a common ancestor, honour the same forebears, and owe one another the duties of kin, while the village, a settled community of farming households, was the everyday frame of life under the eye of the native chief.

Above the village stood the tusi, the hereditary native chief, and the family and the clan below, and over all the ties to the monastery, for the sending of a son to become a monk bound the household to the great religious houses. The chief, the elders, and the monastery together ordered the life of the people, for the Tu built no wide state of their own but lived under the native chiefs and the empire.

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 households and clans of a district together. The Tu were known for a rich and lively wedding custom, carried on with much song, and the bright dress of the bride was the pride of the occasion.

Women held an honoured place, working beside the men in the fields and, above all, as the makers of the famous Tu embroidery and the bright rainbow dress for which the people are known. A woman’s skill with the needle was a measure of her worth, and the sleeves of the Tu women’s dress, banded in the colours of the rainbow, were a mark of the people and a labour of care and art.

Tibetan Buddhism, the Ancestors, and the Monasteries

The faith of the Tu is above all the Tibetan Buddhism of the great monasteries about their homeland, which they embraced long ago and which orders much of their spiritual life. The famous Youning monastery, founded in their own country, and the great Kumbum not far off are centres of the faith, and it was common and honoured for a Tu family to send a son to become a monk.

The monasteries were the spiritual and cultural heart of the Tu world, houses of learning, of art, and of ritual, and the round of the Buddhist year, its festivals, its prayers, and its great ceremonies, shaped the life of the people. The Tu revered the lamas and the incarnate teachers, and the ties of family to the monastery were close and honoured.

Alongside the Buddhism of the monasteries the Tu kept the worship of their ancestors and a belief in the spirits of the mountains, the rivers, and the land, an older layer of faith that blended with the Buddhist. Offerings and rites at the household and the sacred places honoured the forebears and the spirits, and secured their blessing on the crop and the family.

Through the centuries the Buddhism of the plateau and the older worship of the ancestors and the spirits lived side by side in the Tu world, the one in the great monasteries and the festivals, the other in the household and the sacred places. This blend of the Tibetan Buddhist and the older faith remains at the heart of the Tu sense of themselves, a people of the valleys bound to the monasteries of the plateau.

The Rainbow Dress, the Nadun, and the Ways of the Tu

The most famous mark of the Tu is the rainbow dress of their women, whose sleeves are banded in bright stripes of red, yellow, green, and other colours, likened to the rainbow, so that the people are sometimes called the rainbow nation. This bright dress, made and embroidered by the women, is the pride of the Tu and their most striking emblem among the peoples of the northwest.

The great festival of the Tu is the Nadun, held in the valleys about Minhe in the late summer and autumn when the harvest is gathered, a long festival that moves from village to village over many weeks, the longest such festival in the region. It brings dancing, the wearing of masks, the honouring of the gods and the ancestors, and the giving of thanks for the crop, and it is the fullest expression of Tu tradition.

The wheel dance and the other dances of the Tu, the songs of courtship and festival, and the lively wedding customs, carried on with much singing, run through the life of the people. The Tu are known for their songs and their dances, and the great occasions of life and the year are marked with music and movement in the bright dress of the people.

Around these run the customs of the year and of life, the rites of the Buddhist faith, the honouring of the ancestors, and the passages of birth, marriage, and death. Through the rainbow dress, the Nadun festival, and the songs and dances, the Tu mark the turning of the year and the stages of life in ways carried down from their forebears in the valleys of Qinghai.

The Embroiderers, the Farmers, and the Makers of Cloth

The chief craft of the Tu is the embroidery of the women, and above all the making of the bright rainbow dress for which the people are famed. Working in coloured thread, the women band the sleeves of the dress in the stripes of the rainbow and cover the collars, the aprons, and the shoes with fine embroidered patterns, an art learned young and carried on through life, and a measure of a woman’s skill.

The Tu embroidery, with its bold colours and its figured patterns, is among the treasures of the folk art of the northwest, and the making of a girl’s dress and of the goods for her marriage was a labour of years. The banded sleeves, the embroidered aprons, and the ornaments of the festival dress marked the people among their neighbours and adorned the great occasions of life.

Beyond embroidery the Tu practise the crafts of a settled valley people, the building of houses of earth, timber, and stone about walled courtyards, the working of wool and leather from their stock, the plaiting of baskets, and the carving of tools. The building and adorning of the monasteries, with their art and their images, drew on the skills of the Tibetan Buddhist world.

The tending of the valley fields, the terracing of the slopes, and the growing of the highland grains were the great skills of the Tu, a farming people of the plateau’s edge. Yet it is for the rainbow dress and the fine embroidery of the women above all that the crafts of the Tu are known, an art of colour and skill that clothed the people and marked them among the peoples of Qinghai.

Wheat, Barley, and the Table of the Valleys

The food of the Tu is the food of the highland valleys, built on the wheat, barley, and other hardy grains that the cool country will bear. Wheat is ground into flour and made into the noodles, the flatbreads, and the steamed breads of the northwest, and barley, well suited to the highland, is parched and ground into the meal that, mixed with tea and butter, is eaten in the manner of the plateau.

To the grain are added the vegetables of the garden, the peas and potatoes of the fields, and the mutton and beef of the stock, for meat has a good place at the Tu table in a land of herds. Mutton above all is the meat of festivals and welcome, and the dairy of the herds, the milk, the butter, and the cheese, gives food in the manner of the plateau peoples.

The Tu share in the food ways of the highland northwest, fond of the hearty and the warming against the cold, and the drinking of tea, at times the buttered and salted tea of the plateau, is a mark of daily life and of hospitality. The offering of tea and bread to a guest is the first duty, and the hospitality of the Tu is warm and generous.

Barley and grain wine, brewed in the household, is the drink of hospitality and of the festivals, poured for guests and shared at the great occasions, and it flows freely at the Nadun and the weddings for which the Tu are known. From the wheat and barley of the valleys to the mutton and the buttered tea, the food of the Tu is that of a settled people on the marches of the plateau.

The Nadun, the Wheel Dance, and the Feasts

The greatest festival of the Tu is the Nadun, held in the valleys about Minhe in the late summer and autumn when the harvest is gathered, a festival so long that it moves from village to village over some two months, and is said to be the longest festival in the world. It gives thanks for the crop, honours the gods and the ancestors, and fills the valleys with dance, drama, and rejoicing.

At the Nadun the villagers dance the great group dances, wear masks and perform the old ritual dramas that tell of the gods and the heroes, and honour the deities of the harvest with offerings and prayer. As the festival moves from village to village, each in turn holds its days of celebration, so that the whole season becomes a long thanksgiving for the gathered crop.

The festivals of the Tibetan Buddhist year, kept at the monasteries with their great ceremonies, prayers, and dances, are also observed by the Tu, who go to the monasteries for the holy days and share in the round of the Buddhist calendar. The wheel dance and the other dances of the people, and the lively weddings with their songs, bring their own occasions of festivity.

The passages of life, birth, marriage, and death, gather the kin for ceremony, the wedding above all celebrated with much song and the wearing of the bright dress. At all these occasions the rainbow dress and the embroidery, the masked dances of the Nadun, the songs, and the barley wine bring colour and sound, so that the Tu meet the great moments of the year and of life with feast, dance, and thanksgiving.

From the Tuyuhun and the Mongols to Modern China

The origin of the Tu reaches back into the tangled history of the marches of the plateau, where Mongol, Tibetan, and other peoples met and mingled. Some trace the Tu in part to the ancient Tuyuhun, a people of Xianbei root who ruled the region for centuries before the Tang, while their Mongolic tongue and their own traditions point to a large Mongol element from the soldiers and settlers of the age of the Mongol empire.

From this mingling, in the fertile valleys of eastern Qinghai, grew the settled farming people of the Tu, distinct from the herding Mongols and the Tibetans of the plateau. Through the age of the later empire they lived under their native chiefs, the tusi, several houses of which held their districts for centuries, confirmed by the throne and guiding the people on the frontier.

The Tibetan Buddhism of the great monasteries struck deep among the Tu, and their homeland lay near famous religious houses, above all the Youning monastery in their own country and the great Kumbum nearby, which bound the people to the faith and the culture of the plateau. The monasteries were centres of power and learning, and the Tu were tied to them by faith and by kinship.

After the founding of the People’s Republic the Tu were recognised as one of the official nationalities of China, and the autonomous counties of Huzhu and Minhe were established in their homeland. The modern age has brought roads, schools, and the reach of the state to the Qinghai valleys, drawing the Tu into the wider life of the country, while the Nadun and the rainbow dress remain the marks of their heritage.

The Tu in Modern China

Today the Tu number some three hundred thousand, living still chiefly in the valleys of eastern Qinghai, above all in the autonomous counties of Huzhu and Minhe, with communities in the neighbouring parts of Gansu. A settled farming people of Mongol root, they remain rooted in the green valleys on the marches of the plateau where their forebears settled, bound to the monasteries of their region.

Modern life has come to the Tu valleys in the shape of roads, railways, schools, and the reach of the market, and a growing trade in tourism, for the rainbow dress, the Nadun festival, and the monasteries draw visitors to the Tu country. Huzhu has become known as a centre of Tu culture, and the bright dress and the long festival are shown to the many who come.

The same forces bring change and strain, for the pull of the cities and of migrant labour draws the young away, and standard Chinese and modern schooling spread among them, pressing upon the Monguor tongue, which, unwritten and set among larger languages, is among the more fragile parts of the Tu heritage. The keeping of the old language among the young is a matter of concern.

Yet the Tu carry their heritage with pride. The rainbow dress and the fine embroidery, the long Nadun festival with its masked dances, the Tibetan Buddhist faith and the ties to the monasteries, and the songs and customs of the valleys endure as marks of who they are. A settled people of Mongol root on the edge of the plateau, the Tu keep their dress and their festival alive in modern China.