THE MAN-TZE, I-REN, OR SHAN-SHANG-REN
In this chapter I put together such information as I was able to gather
about the people to whom I have introduced my readers. I only give such
statements as at least four persons were agreed upon, and confine my
remarks to the four tribes of the Somo territory, estimated at 20,000
souls, which are unified under the rule of the _Tu-tze_ of Somo.[50] The
designation Man-tze or I-ren, which is simply Chinese for “barbarian,”
is perforce accepted by these people from their conquerors. When
questioned, however, they divided themselves into Somo, Cho-ko-ki,
He-shui, and other tribes, and on being pressed further, they declared
themselves Shan-shang-ren, or mountain people. They said that they had
heard that in ancient times their fathers came from the setting sun, but
they knew of no days when they and the Chinese did not live among each
other. The tribal spirit is completely extinct among those tribes, who
have accepted one ruler; but the Somo people hate the Sifans to the
north-east and the Cho-ko-ki men to the south.
The head of one or more tribes is called a _Tu-tze_. He is appointed
directly by the Emperor of China, and for life; but a long-established
custom has made the office practically hereditary, and in the absence of
a son a daughter may be invested with it, as in the case of Somo, where
in recent years, and for a considerable time, a woman sustained the
dignity of the position. It is only in a case of flagrant misconduct
that the Emperor would exercise his right of removing a Man-tze ruler.
The _Tu-tze_ has absolute authority over his own tribesmen, including
the power of life and death. The land is his, and the cultivator pays a
tax of thirty per cent, of the produce, out of which the ruler
contributes the annual tribute to China. The tribesmen are free to build
anywhere without paying ground rent. Chinese under Man-tze rule have to
obtain permission to build, are not allowed to make charcoal, and pay
ground rent. In the case of the murder of a Chinese, the murderer may be
taken into Chinese territory to be tried by a mandarin, but actually he
is rarely caught, and the crime is usually compromised by the payment of
blood-money by his relations. If a Chinese wishes for a Man-tze wife he
must pay the _Tu-tze_ thirty taels (about £4 10_s._) for the privilege.
[Illustration: A MAN-TZE VILLAGE.]
Under the _Tu-tze_, and appointed by him, are village headmen or
_T’ou-jen_, who usually hold office for life, and are frequently
succeeded by their sons. They collect taxes, settle disputes, try small
cases by tribal law, and meet the _Tu-tze_ once a month at his castle to
report what has been going on, and to discuss what has to be done, and
once a year to choose the tribal representatives who are to carry the
tribute to Peking. China has done wisely in fringing her borders with
quasi-independent tribes whose autonomy is guaranteed by custom, and
whose love of the freedom they enjoy would convert men and women into a
respectable guerilla force in case of invasion.
The religion of the Man-tze is Buddhism or Lamaism of the Tibetan type.
Except in Western Tibet I have never seen a country in which the
externals of religion are so prominent. Nearly all the larger villages
have lama-serais on heights above them; rock Buddhas, and Buddhas in
relief on tablets are numerous; poles twenty feet long, with narrow
prayer-flags of nearly the same length, flutter from every house-roof;
groups of prayer-flags in memory of the dead are planted beside every
village; a temple is prominent on the roof of every well-to-do house;
and prayer-cylinders turned by water power or hand are common near the
roads. Daily offerings are made in all dwellings; every second son is a
lama; the formula, “_Om mani padme hun_,” is everywhere heard; the
presence of lamas is essential for every act in the round of social and
agricultural life; and literature is wholly confined to Buddhist
classics. Prayer-wheels revolved by the wind are common in windows; and
when people grow old, and dread such an unfortunate re-birth as a
reappearance in the body of a horse, dog, or mule, a prayer-cylinder,
revolved by swinging it, is constantly in their hands.
The lamas receive large sums for prayers, and for such ceremonies, in
cases of illness, as the reading of the Buddhist scriptures in the
house, accompanied by chanting, blowing of great horns, and beating of
drums. A death is their chief harvest, for, besides the fees paid to
them for the services customary at death and burial, any good clothing
which the deceased person has possessed is their perquisite, as well as
the silver and coral head-ornaments of the women, which go to help to
pay the expense of opening a passage for the soul into the other world.
If the family wishes for these it must redeem them from the lamas.
According to the wealth of the deceased is the time occupied in this
arrangement. It may be three months or longer. In the case of the poor
three days is the limit. A re-birth into the Western Heaven is reserved
for lamas.
They dispose of bodies after death by rules of their own. In a few very
rare cases, where the horoscope of life, death, and the future is
favourable, the corpse is buried “earth to earth” without coffin or
clothing. Throwing the body into the river, or exposing it on a
mountain-side to the fowls of the air, are also practised at their
bidding; but cremation, accompanied by the recitation or chanting of the
scriptures, is the usual method. Afterwards the ashes are placed in an
earthen pot, which is buried, a prayer-flag or flags being erected on
the spot. On the days of death and burial, as well as during the
interval, there is weeping, but it is not prolonged or repeated, and
ancestral worship is not practised. The clothing of a corpse is always
removed immediately after death, and it remains naked until it is
disposed of by one of these three methods.
Among the noteworthy characteristics of Man-tze life is the position of
women. They are not only on an equality with men, but receive
considerable attention from them, and they share their interests and
amusements everywhere. Men and women are always seen together. A woman
can be anything, from a muleteer to a _Tu-tze_. Social intercourse
between the sexes is absolutely unfettered. Boys and girls, youths and
maidens, mix freely. Love-matches are the rule, and I saw many a
handsome young face illuminated by a genuine love-light. The young
people choose each other, and either of them may take the initiative.
When they have settled the preliminaries, the prospective bridegroom
sends a friend to the prospective bride’s parents, informing them of his
wish to marry their daughter. Consent follows almost as a matter of
course, the bridegroom sends a present of a bottle of wine to the
bride’s father, and the courtship is fully recognised.
[Illustration: SOMO CASTLE (BACK VIEW).]
Next the lamas are consulted, to ascertain if the horoscopes of the
youth and maiden fit. If not, the difficulty may be overcome by
prolonged, vicarious chanting of the scriptures, and liberal fees. The
lamas also choose an auspicious day for the marriage. The marriage
ceremony consists in the bride and groom publicly joining hands,
drinking wine from a double-spouted bowl, and accepting each other as
husband and wife, after which there is a three days’ feast in the
bride’s home. She and her husband then go to their own house, and there
is another three days’ feast. There are no contracts of marriages for a
limited period, as in Western Tibet. Whether the choice has been for
good or ill, it is for life, divorce being permissible only in the case
of childlessness, and the contract can only be cancelled by the
_Tu-tze_. It would not be correct to infer from this that the Man-tze
are a moral people. Their standard of morality is low, and the lives of
the lamas have no tendency to raise it. Plurality of wives is an
appendage of the position of the _Tu-tze_, and is, I think, the practice
of rich men, but monogamy is the rule, and polyandry, though said to be
the custom of the Sifans to the north, does not exist. No presents,
except the bottle of wine previously mentioned, are made by the
bridegroom to the bride’s father; but her parents, according to their
wealth, endow her with cattle, horses, and fields, the last of which, to
use our own phraseology, are “settled upon her.” A widow does not wear
mourning, and is at liberty to make a second marriage. On the death of
her husband, unless she remarries, she assumes complete control over his
property, and at her death it is divided among the sons, who frequently,
however, agree to live together and keep it intact. If there is trouble
concerning property, the _T’ou-jen_ usually settles the matter, and if
he fails to make an amicable arrangement, it is referred to the
_Tu-tze_, whose decision is final.
Good health is the patrimony of these people. There are a few lepers
among them, and rheumatism is rather prevalent, but few maladies are
known, and measles appears to be the only epidemic which affects
children. I did not see one case of skin disease or deformity on the
whole journey. They spoke of old age and what they call “exhaustion” as
the usual causes of death. Goitre, however, is frightfully prevalent in
many of the villages. In some, _seventy-five per cent._ of the people
are afflicted by it, and it often begins in childhood. It does not seem
to affect either the health or spirits. The people think that it comes
from drinking snow-water, but it was specially common in some villages
where the sources of the water supply are far below the snow. The lamas
virtually prohibit all medicines not supplied by themselves, and it is
only those Man-tze who have been corrupted by contact with Chinese
civilisation who use any others. They incline to fatalism regarding
illness, relying chiefly on amulets, charms, and religious ceremonies.
“If a man is very ill he dies,” they say, “and when he is not he gets
better.”
They have a language of their own, but it is written in Tibetan
characters, and all notices and inscriptions on tablets and signposts
are in the same. In the villages nearest to China proper, many of the
people speak Chinese as well as Man-tze, and the _T’ou-jen_ in all
villages, but further west very few even of the elders understand it,
and the _Tu-tze_ himself is unable to read the Chinese characters.
The products of the Somo territory, so far as export goes, are _nil_.
The magnificent timber is useless, as the rivers, from their abrupt
bends and enormous boulders, in addition to their turbulence, do not
admit of its being rafted down. So far as I could learn, there are no
golden sands to tempt even the Chinese adventurer. Sulphur and nitrate
of soda abound. The Man-tze grow wheat, barley, oats, maize, buckwheat,
lentils, and a little hemp. In good years they raise enough for their
requirements, but more frequently have to barter their cattle and coarse
woollen cloth for food. Their transactions consist of barter only,
silver being known solely for its use in personal adornment. There is no
prospect for Manchester in that quarter. Pieces of red and green cloth
for the decoration of boots are brought from Russia through Tibet, and
these and the brass buttons on clothing are their only imports. Both
sexes dress in woollen materials, spun, woven, and dyed by themselves,
and sewn with their own hempen fibre.
Their views are narrow, their ideas conservative, and their knowledge
barely elementary. England is not a name to conjure with in their
valleys. They know of China and Tibet, and have heard of Russia, but
never of Britain. Of the war and the _wojen_ they were in complete
ignorance. I found them hospitable, friendly, and polite, not
extravagant in their curiosity, of easy morals, full of frolic and
merriment, singularly affectionate to each other, taking this life
easily and enjoying it, and trusting the next to the lamas.
In the regrettable absence of photographs it is difficult to give any
idea of their appearance. There are few under-sized men. They were a
little taller than my coolies, who were the average height of Chinese.
They are deep chested, as becomes mountaineers; their build is robust,
and their muscular limbs betoken strength and agility. Their walk is
firm and springy, and in wrestling and putting the stone—favourite
amusements—the display of muscle is superb. The tribes vary as to good
looks, though not as to physique, especially the women, some of whom
have the oval face, regular features, and beauty of the brunette type
which we associate with the Madonna, while others are plain, and
resemble Neapolitans. The complexion is as dark as that of the natives
of Southern Europe, but a trifle redder; the large dark eyes and
eyebrows are level, the nose straight, the mouth usually small and
thin-lipped, the foreheads high but not broad, and the ears large, and
rendered unshapely by the weight of the earrings. The cheek-bones are
not in any way remarkable. The characteristic of the Man-tze face is
that it is European in feature and expression, and recalls the Latin
races. Owing to a sort of timidity, and to the fashion of hair-dressing
of both sexes, it was unfortunately impossible to procure any head
measurements.
The men shave their heads and wear cloth or fur caps, but some of the
elders said that in former days all the hair was gathered above the
forehead, and twisted into a horn wrapped up in a cotton cloth, and
often “as long as a hand.” A similar style is mentioned by Mr. Baber as
characteristic of the Lolos of Yunnan. The _coiffure_ of the women is
most elaborate. The front hair is divided, and plaited into from twenty
to thirty plaits not wider than a watchguard, and waxed down each side,
considerably reducing the forehead. The back hair, with considerable
additions, is divided and brought round the head in two massive coils
over a folded blue cloth, which hangs a little over the brow. Strings of
large coral beads are twisted round these coils, but at the sides only.
The circumstances of a family are indicated by the size and beauty of
the coral and silver of the headgear. Jewellery is largely worn by both
sexes—earrings, necklets, chains of alternate coral and silver filigree
beads, and bracelets set with large turquoise or red coral. The
ornaments are often really beautiful and of fine workmanship. When I
asked by whom they were made, they invariably replied, “By the Arabs.”
The women wear woollen under-garments, short loose jackets with wide
sleeves, and skirts reaching a few inches below the knees, as closely
pleated as the kilt of a Highlander, sometimes exchanged indoors for a
long, loose robe. Dark brown and madder-red predominate in apparel. They
wear long leather boots, upon which are stitched up the front and sides
decorative strips of scarlet and bright green cloth.
The men wear a gabardine and girdle of native cloth, frequently dark
red, over a woollen under-garment; leggings, and decorated leather boots
or hempen shoes. The cloth or fur cap is often varied by the SZE CHUAN
turban. They have no soap, and never wash. A corpse is designated as the
“twice washed.” In the rarefied air of the high altitudes which they
inhabit, some of the most unpleasant consequences of dirt are not
apparent. I must add that every house in which I received hospitality
was tolerably clean, and that I was not aware of the presence of vermin.
There is a singular absence of bird-life in the Somo territory. A
species of francolin and ringed pheasants were seen, the blue jay, the
crow, and the ubiquitous magpie. The men said that there are boars,
small bears, and deer in the forests, but that the trade in hartshorn
and horns in the velvet for Chinese medicines had driven the latter
back, “they knew not where.” There are also at least two species of
monkeys, both large, and one with thick, long hair. The brown bear, the
yellow wolf, the musk deer, the badger, and the otter are also found,
but the Man-tze are not scientific in their descriptions.
The _Tu-tze’s_ rule only extends for forty _li_ to the south of Somo. He
is proud of his practically independent position, and when my servant
interpreter presented my Chinese passport, and a letter from the Viceroy
of SZE CHUAN, he said that he did not read Chinese, and that passports
and Viceroys’ letters were of no use there!
Somo castle, on its eastern side, is a most striking building, built
into the rock of the spur on which it stands. It has a number of windows
with decorative stone mullions, the lowest over twenty feet from the
ground. Its many roofs are planted thick with prayer-flags, and
projecting rooms and balconies of brown wood, with lattice-work fronts,
hang from its eastern side over the precipice. The castle yard is
spacious and singularly clean; the entrance is handsome, and is faced by
a huge dragon, boldly and skilfully painted on a plastered stone screen.
Poles with crowns from which yaks’ tails depend, and the trident, as in
Western Tibet, surmount the entrance. The whole is most substantially
built of stone, and I looked in vain for any trace of decay or
disrepair. The altitude is about 7518 feet.
[Illustration: ENTRANCE AND JUDGMENT-SEAT. SOMO CASTLE.]