Tribasia Blog

We follow on the previous entry with our exploration of the Drung valley...
There are different possible reasons for the face-tattoing custom of Drung women:
1) The Dulong wanted to avoid slavers - such as the neighbouring Tibetans and Yi kingdoms of the time.
2) The Dulong were animists and women believed that their souls would be reincarnated as butterflies if they tattooed their face with the design of a butterfly spreading its wings.
3) The Dulong women would be considered ugly without a tattoo, i.e. a tattooed face was beautiful. However, to this day, no one -not even the Drung- knows exactly how this custom started.

After three days in the Dulongjiang area, we started to despair. We still had not met any tattooed-face woman. Finally, we met one by chance. She was walking on the dirt road in the valley. One led to another and in the next three days, we managed to meet five of them and heard about two more -beyond our reach unfortunately.

Most of these women are well in their eighties and nineties. Despite their age, some are still strong enough to go working in the fields.
We also met one who just seemed to await death by staying all day close to the fire in her hut.
Unfortunately, as days pass, more and more of these women will pass away and the facial tattoo custom of the Drung will be confined to history books.

We left the valley and arrived after a 30-hour journey back to touristy Dali for a rest.
Tomorrow, we are back on the road. Our next destination is Xixuangbanna...

Labels: China, Drung, Dulong, Dulongjiang, tattoo, Yunnan