Jingpo

族About this people

The Jingpo people of China are concentrated in the Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture in western Yunnan, close to the Myanmar border. They are closely related to the Kachin people of Myanmar, and the Jingpo (Jinghpaw) language — of the Tibeto-Burman Sal sub-group — is the same language spoken by the majority Kachin sub-group in Myanmar.

Traditional Jingpo society was organised around village chieftains and hereditary lineages. Agriculture centred on slash-and-burn cultivation of upland rice, supplemented by hunting and gathering in the mountain forests. The western Yunnan borderlands where the Jingpo live receive monsoon rainfall and are densely forested, supporting a rich material culture based on bamboo, rattan, and timber.

The Munao Zongge festival is the centrepiece of Jingpo cultural life. Held in the first or second lunar month, it brings together thousands of participants who dance in great spiralling circles around decorated Munao poles — tall bamboo or wood structures painted with geometric patterns representing the paths of the sun and ancestral heroes. The festival originated as a ceremony marking the return from hunting or war and has evolved into the principal communal event of the year, with competitions, feasting, and the wearing of elaborate traditional dress including silver-decorated jackets and woven skirts for women, and crossed red and black checked clothing for men.