It is now generally accepted that the Nanchao kingdom which dominated most of Yunnan between the eighth to thirteenth centuries AD was a Tibeto-Burman, rather than a Tai kingdom (Backus, 1981). During this period the ancestors of contemporary Hani and Akha inhabited southern Nanchao - that is the southern part of Yunnan, where the majority still live today - and border areas of contemporary Burma, Laos, and northern Vietnam. Yi/Lolo and related groups, namely southern Yi/Lolo, including Hani/Akha ancestors, had been in the area since at the latest Ch'in (221-207 BC) and Han (206 BC - 220 AD) times. Nanchao, as a confederation of tribal chiefdoms or petty states, emerged under the leadership of Ko-lo-feng in the eighth century AD, starting from the chiefdom of Meng-she, or Nanchao, on the Red River, which was already a Yi/Hani area (Backus, 1981: 51; Luce, 1961). Some have speculated that the distant origin of Yi/Hani may have been in eastern Tibet; others have argued that the Szechuan plains would have been a more likely original habitat (Wiens, 1967; Bradley, 1979; Boucherie 1995, Vol. 1). In southern Yunnan these groups had met and partly merged with a Mon-Khmer speaking population. From the beginning of the modern era Han Chinese have considered Hani/Akha ancestors or Heni and Yi/Lolo, in Szechuan, eastern and southern Yunnan, and adjacent parts of Kweichow, as one of the main indigenous groups. They were not limited to the Talian Shan and Ailao Shan mountains, but also cultivated rice in the Red River, Black River, and probably also the Mekong river valleys. They were also identified as Ts'uan (Wiens, 1967: 93; Boucherie, 1995, Vol. 1).
Mon-Khmer language related groups lived to the South of the Tibeto-Burman groups which dominated Yunnan. Tai, as a distinct, valley-based small warrior-state group are not mentioned under that name until the twelfth century AD, just before the Buddhist Mongol invasion, under Kublai Khan, reached southern Yunnan and ended the Nanchao kingdom. By this time most Hani and Akha groups were living in close contact with Tai language groups in nearby valleys. Akha mythologies are in agreement that Tai warrior groups and city states (muang) were 'late-comers', and either absorbed them or marginalized them into higher mountain areas (Shi Junchao, 1988a, 1991; Mao Youquan, 1989). They were 'late' in the sense that by the twelfth and thirteenth centuries they were able to develop from a 'tribal minority' into a dominant, quickly expanding proto-state system, based in valleys with irrigated rice cultivation. This seems correct historically, as the first twelve Tai muang of Sipsongpanna (Xixuangbanna) originated in the twelfth century. Yunnanese records tell of the conquest of the lowland areas by the Tai Lue warrior Ba Zhen in 1180 AD, driving Hani/Akha, Palaung, and others higher into the mountains. This was not long before the Mongol invasions (Li Fuyi, 1946: 7).
Han Chinese were also 'late-comers' in Yunnan, in the sense of colonial administrators. This was largely due to the inability of Han Chinese armies to subdue the rebellious Yi peoples in the Ailao Shan mountains. However the first invasions of Han Chinese certainly pre-date the Christian era. They established tribute obligations, and set up a network of fortified colonial trading centres on trade routes to the south-western border areas. The latter consisted of large walled quadrangular cities, with a core of trading gentry, surrounded by irrigated fields. Irrigation canals were controlled by the rulers or 'owners', those able to dominate the surrounding territory. Fields were tilled by a class of soldier/agriculturists, preferably local tribal peoples. Han Chinese were also appointed to these agricultural garrison cities, but they seem to have 'gone tribal', and were later be called 'Yunnanese Chinese' (Haw) (Backus, 1981: 8; Wiens, 1967: 302).
The Chinese established the tu'ssu (vassal) system, of 'faithful' tribal chiefs, who had to re-write their genealogies to fit the Imperial/Confucian system. The local Tibeto-Burman (Yi/Hani/Akha) name for such a tu'ssu was 'Dze-ma', 'Dze-maw', or 'Dzoe-ma' (ruler) signifying that the Chief or his ancestor had received the feudal 'clay tablet' with the Imperial Chinese Seal, conveying the authority to rule. The office was hereditary. The Han Chinese learned that the Barbarians in the frontier areas were better ruled by the Barbarians themselves (Wiens, 1967: 201 ff.; Boucherie, 1995, Vol. 1: 257 ff.). As in the case of the Tai states, these vassal states could easily develop into oppressive hierarchically structured mini-states or chiefdoms, such as the He-man/Hani chiefdoms in Yunnan (Huang Shirong, 1991).
The Chinese annals relate that when the armies of Kublai Khan invaded, several tribal tu'ssu, in particular the Hani or He-man, offered prolonged resistance. In this context the walled city of Mojiang or Ta-lang (Akha: Tm-lang) is mentioned (Mojiang Editorial Committee, 1983). Full occupation of Yunnan and submission of the Wu-man, He-man, and Yung Barbarians was achieved slowly in bloody wars between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries. This culminated in the Yunnan war between 1855-1873 in which the tribal peoples of the south-western border areas joined a rebellion of the Islamic Haw Chinese against Manchu rule. The rebellion was also triggered by the danger of infiltration by Western colonial powers through China's 'back-door', Yunnan, and its fabulous resources. This is confirmed by French and British sources. The British had occupied Burma. The French had brought the miracles of French 'civilization' to Cochin China in the form of a rigid system of taxation and forced labour. In Yunnan they found an impoverished and desperate population, oppressed by Hani, or Tai tu'ssu and Chinese administrators (Scott and Hardiman, 1900; Bonifacy, 1904; Henry, 1903; Madrolle, 1908; Vial, 1917).
Over many centuries, therefore, the more inaccessible parts of mountainous southern Yunnan, and neighbouring Vietnam, Laos, and Burma became the 'zonas de refugio' for tribal groups marginalized by the smaller vassal states which occupied the lowland areas. In this process of marginalization, tribal groups such as the Hani and Akha also selected and constructed their habitats - in terms of altitude and surrounding forestation - in such a way that they would not be easily accessible to soldiers, bandits, and tax-collectors. Such processes have been termed 'encapsulation' (Douglas, 1966). They led in this case to differentiation in dialect and forms of dress. In parallel, however, they developed a distinctive unifying social and political structure, which I have called an 'ethnic alliance system'.
This is frequently used, especially at funerals, as the souls of the deceased have to return by the same road to the original ancestral village. The final parts are thus specific to each village and group, but the roads taken long ago are often similar (Dzoedang, 1979a: 116; Shida and Ahai, 1992; Shi Junchao, 1988a; Dzoebaw, 1982). In the distant past, ancestors came from very high up, moving down and settling in several places. They had conflicts with oppressive Yi/Lolo or related rulers, one of whom was Jabioelang, who initiated the yearly census (jatjitjieu). They settled there in Dzadeh Mikh'an, the land of the Hani, near the Red and Black rivers, with the Hani rulers (Abaw Dzadeh) and the Chinese. They grew rice there. It became the Akha's real homeland. Wars, oppression, and the arrival of the Tai forced them to move away from Tm-lang and the Red and Black river areas into south-western Yunnan, crossing the Mekong into Sipsongpanna. There they were driven into the mountains by Tai warriors. From there each group took a different Road.
These describe the history of Dzjawbang, the shamanic, tyrannical Akha ruler of Tm-lang, his death (tyrannicide at the hands of Akha themselves), his succession by two further generations, and the 'loss of the power to rule' (see also Lewis, 1969, Vol. 1: 42 ff.). Because this story describes the violent death of an Akha killed by Akha, it cannot be mentioned in the ritual Phima texts (Dzoebaw, 1982).
The period of the Dzjawbang dynasty about 30 generations ago, is described as a time when the chiefs of the principal older clans, led by the head of Majeu (Mazeu) clan, formed an alliance. It is suggested that Akha customary law (zang/jang), specifying detailed rules and regulations for all areas of life, was systematised at this time (Lewis, 1969, Vol. 1: 46).
This recounts the (male) ancestor names, from their origin at M-ma (Heaven) through Sm-io, the founder, and apical ancestor of all Akha. Genealogical names are the actual names of Akha today who may trace as many as 58-60 generations from Sm-io. Some genealogies are closer to the founder. This genealogical system is like an archive of Akha history. It is used in funeral ceremonies, but also in daily life, to work out the distance between people. The main repository of the genealogies of village clans is the Phima, as they have to be recited at funerals, but most older males know their own genealogy.
The genealogy contains the names of the founding fathers of Akha sub-groups, and affirms their contemporaneity with Dzjawbang. It shows that several originally non-Akha groups entered the Akha 'ethnic alliance system' less than 600 years ago, after they had been marginalized into the mountains. These included poorer marginalized Tai and Chinese, 'mountain people' such as the Lahu, and 'forest people' such as the Wa. These had to become Akha by attaching themselves to the ancestor system and accepting Akha customary law. The Akha call this padaweu, or 'adoption' of a group or person into the Akha alliance system by inter-marriage or, in the past, as jakh'a (bonded servant). This did not happen in a 'class' context however, but in a 'family' context, leading to integration. There are particular places in the genealogical system where a group or person can attach themselves, and several such groups are aware of this. In the past this led to a ranking of clans and lineage groups, with related marriage prohibitions (Mao Youquan, 1996). I return to this later.
Loss of lowland, in particular to the Tai, is a recurring theme in Akha and Hani texts.
These songs accompany the yearly Akha swinging ceremony, held at the end of August, which the Akha say they learnt from Abaw Dzjadeh, a Hani leader, before the splitting of Akha from Hani. Swinging songs, explain, among other things, the loss of lowland in Sipsongpanna to the Tai, and thus Akha 'non-territoriality' (Geusau, 1987: 1-2; Lewis, 1969, Vol. 1: 54; Kammerer, 1988: 277 ff.).
This is the offering to the 'owners of the land, the mountains, and the water' (the specific locality of the village). The ceremony is performed in a Tai way, by bowing with clasped hands (wai) - not an Akha gesture - in the four directions of the winds. The ceremony is performed in both Akha and Hani areas, with some variations. In Thailand today it implies the supreme 'Lord of the Land' HM the King of Thailand; in former times other local Tai, Shan, and Tai Lue princes. A related text Jasang laweu, is sung in the fields and refers to the 'owner' of that particular field. Many things, besides land, mountains, rivers, and fields, have an 'owner', or jawsang. The ceremony is performed outside the village. Akha villages in Thailand do not have a shrine for an ancestral village owner inside the village, indicating that they do not consider themselves owners of territory (cf. Condominas, 1980: 181; Lehman, 1963, 1980).
This is a ceremony to drive out neh or 'invisible evil forces' from the village, by which the lowland majority Tai are intended. It may be noted again here that translating neh or jawsang as 'spirits' or 'spirit owners' gives a seriously misleading interpretation Dzoebaw, 1982; Geusau, 1989)
Lakhoetoeu, Lanyitoeu, Ladubeu
These are psycho-somatic sickness rituals and their texts intended to retrieve
the sala ('soul', 'energy parts') of the patient, from the 'under-world'.
A journey to this world, with nine layers, is described as a descent from
the mountain into the lowlands, where the person's soul has been captured
in the 'labyrinth of the dragon' and condemned to perform corvée or
slave labour for life. In order to recover the person's soul and strength,
they have to offer a pig or other large animal, such as a buffalo (in the
case of a family with able-bodied people), in exactly the manner that was
usual in the slave-trade (Dzoedang, 1979a; Dzoebaw, 1982; Geusau, 1990).
The lack of food, especially meat, is a recurrent theme, particularly in love-songs, in which the singer is a poor man. Poverty, hunger, loneliness, losing husbands and boyfriends are also expressed in the many forms of Kajehtsjaeu, or what we could call Akha 'blues', which are nowadays sung mainly by women (Geusau, 1981).
Akha in northern Thailand have been mostly 'swiddeners'. Most have tried to combine this form of agriculture when possible with irrigated rice-agriculture. In contemporary Thailand we have seen how Akha villages, while trying to occupy lower, irrigable land, have been 'pushed uphill' by Thai lowlanders, and so into swiddening. This seems to be history repeating itself. A striking theme in archaic Phima texts (in particular Gadzang ghaeu) is that the Hani and Akha started irrigated wet-terrace agriculture (dehja) long ago. Most texts mention three types of rice-fields (Tooker, 1996a; Geusau, 1993; Dzoedang, 1979a):
These too are numerous, and like the previously mentioned stories, are partly veiled, humorous accounts, in which Akha ridicule powerful others. Two examples of older texts and one more recent are offered here.
The Akha believe (gadzang ghaeu) that in the distant past they were part of a warring group or state system which recognised military leaders, at least until the time of Dzjawbang. They had or participated in dzoeza power to rule derived from Heaven, M-ma, through the Chinese. This power is also conceived as a tangible clay tablet, probably with the seal of the Emperor or possibly coming through the Nanchao kings. They lost this after the fall of Tm-lang, during the rule of Dzjui-im, grandson of Dzjawbang. Following this epoch they became 'born losers', committed to non-violence by their customary law (Lewis, 1969). This collapse of power is also the beginning of the marginalization process in which they are dispersed among several other ethnic groups. The texts relate the different roles played by these various groups.
In many archaic texts and ceremonies, Tai Yai (Shan), Tai Lue, and Tai Dam, called Bitsm or Atsm, are mentioned as the main immediate cause of marginalization into the mountains. Gadzang ghaeu texts mention that the Akha inhabited fertile land with streams, but the Bitsm came up-stream (meaning also 'from the South'). They liked the land, and they put chips of wood or leaves with messages in the stream, telling their brothers to come up and occupy the land. This led to armed confrontations (they say 'the Tai invented war'). A contest was proposed to settle the matter. The Tai won by a ruse.
A second ethnic group with which the Akha seem clearly to have been in conflict are the Mon-Khmer-speaking peoples of the area. Burmese Akha texts tell us that the Akha, moving up-hill, eventually arriving in Tangla meu, literally Donkey City, in Mon-Khmer territory. Mon-Khmer groups are referred to in these texts as Aboe or Kh'aboe by Akha. Particular Mon-Khmer sub-groups are hard to identify since those on the present-day Burmese border (Wa, Palaung or Bulang) are not the same as those on the Lao side of the border (Khmu, Hok). Some texts suggest an initial violent conflict, followed by a victory for the Akha using a ruse which exploited the Aboe's reputed fear of spirits (Lewis, 1969, Vol. 1:55 ff.; Roux, 1924: 380; Boucherie, 1995, Vol. 1: 87). Texts of origin also indicate that the Akha took over several cultural traits from the Aboe (Mon-Khmer) mountain peoples.
Thus, having lost power the Akha become relatively stabilised, relatively impoverished, in the mountains. They become, in their own terms, 'people of the middle', situated between a number of other ethnicities (see Geusau, 1981). It is in this situation that a great many of the Phima and Dzoema texts originated.
Higher up the mountains from the Akha are the Mon-Khmer speaking Wa, Palaung (Bulang), and Khamu. They were feared as head-hunters by Akha until well into the twentieth century. For this reason the principal protective village gate faces up-mountain. The naked standing couple, carved in wood, are intended to frighten away the up-hill people as the village gate foundation text indicates (Dzoebaw, 1981). These people are also described in the texts as dirty, not well dressed, and primitive. Another up-hill people, described in more positive terms, are the (Tibeto-Burman-speaking) Araw or Aghaw (probably Lahu) who are described as a hunting people who have decorated spears.
Lower down the mountain slope are the Sjhehlo, among whom the women wear trousers, and the Lawbi or 'dry Tai', a Tai-related group, possessing elephants, with whom relations seem to have been good (Dzoedang, 1979a: 38, 57-8, 73, 120, 123). The lowland scene is represented as a large river which has to be crossed, a valley, and a market or markets, where the Akha go to buy and sell. The lowland is dominated by the Bitsm or Atsm (Tai) peoples. Several archaic texts recount how poor Akha go to these markets (lehang ieu) to buy scrap iron for their blacksmith, a buffalo for a ceremony, or just to look around. On their journey they pass through several different ethnic areas (Majeu Takh'ang, 1979; Dzoedang, 1979a: 54, 154 ff.).
If we try to see how Akha 'internal' history, or mnemesis, matches up to or fits with the 'external' history of the region, there seems to be no contradiction. In a distant, somewhat mythical past the ancestors of the oldest Akha clans came down from a high mountain area. We have to think in terms of 2,000-3,000 years ago, as these ancestors were part of a Yi-Chai, or Lolo group. The ancestral homeland of the older clans, however, is the Black and Red River area of South-East Yunnan, North of contemporary Vietnam and Laos. There they lived near or were perhaps part of various groups, now called Hani, and belonged to the southern branches of the Yi, in the southern parts of the Nanchao kingdom (Boucherie, 1995, Vol. 1: 82; Wiens, 1967: 95 ff.).
It may be hypothesised that some older Akha clans were originally part of the so-called 'black bone' Yi/Lolo, and were redistributed by the Nanchao rulers to more southerly parts of the kingdom to produce rice (Backus, 1981: 66 ff.). In the story of Jabioelang, or Aiheholo, assigning Akha ancestors to produce rice in the South (Lewis, 1969, Vol. 1:33). This seems to be confirmed by the fact that among both the 'black bone' Yi, or Muso, of the Szechuan/Yunnan border areas, and the Akha, some older clan names such as Majeu/Mazeu are identical (Vial, 1917: 45; Boucherie, 1995, Vol. 1: 88 ff.). It is clear too that the Akha belong to the 'Wu-man' groups (independent, non-sinicizing Yi groups), while others, corresponding to contemporary Hani, tended to be 'Pai-man', or more assimilated and intermarried with the Chinese.
In the south-western areas Hani and Akha seem to have been part of the Chinese tu'ssu vassal system, in which Han Chinese appointed local tribal chiefs. This is indicated in genealogies which claim descent from Heaven (Wiens, 1976: 208-66; Bai Yu, 1989). As for the Akha, it can be confirmed historically, that a short-lived shamanic Akha chiefdom endured for three generations in Tm-lang, also called Ta-lang, a fortified city close to the watersheds of the Black River. These are Tibeto-Burman names which were later changed to the current Mojiang (Liu Qibyuan, 1989; Huang Shirong, 1991).
We have the impression that in a power vacuum in the south-western area between a weakened Nanchao and the Han Chinese during the Sung Dynasty (960-1279 AD) several local vassal states sought greater autonomy (Backus, 1981: 163). In that context we can see the origin of what is here called the Akha 'genealogical and alliance system', and the formative period of a unified Akha customary law system, as we know it now. From ancient Phima texts it is not clear if the name Akha was then already in use, but probably not (Lewis, 1969, Vol. 1: 42 ff.).
What exactly gave rise to this alliance system is not clear. Stories give the impression that Dzjawbang tried to unite the Akha chiefs of several clans in order to gain military power. He married a daughter of Abaw Mazeu, leader of the older Akha clans. He and his son systematise Akha-zang/jang, or customary law. He claims a shamanic type of seizure of power, together with claims of direct orders from Heaven. His son Bang Dzjui rides the shamanic horse to Heaven every night. It is a kind of charismatic leadership, looking for direct justification from Heaven; a war-lord phenomenon of a type which still frequently occurs in the region. It was short-lived however, and never lead to state-formation. Dzjawbang was killed by his own people. Bang Dzjui perishes, as his shamanic horse (one broken wing mended with beeswax) fell to the ground, the wax melted by his flying too high, as in the Hellenic story of Icarus. The third generation of Dzjui Im sees the collapse of Tm-lang/Mojiang as the result of wars (Mojiang Editorial Committee, 1983).
The way the story is told, in a 'flowery', exaggerated way, clearly shows an aversion to hierarchical chiefdom and state-formation. The moral is clear, though there is a contradiction between boasting that an Akha once achieved this kind of power, and rejection of unequal division of power. It leads us to conclude that the Akha never had a regular Akha state system. On the contrary, it seems to justify: (i) the fact that Akha live in a diaspora; and (ii) the origin of a non-state-based Akha alliance system.
The Akha have no doubt about the historical basis of the short-lived Dzjawbang dynasty. External history confirms a strong Wuoni/Hani leadership at Mojiang in that period and its fall to the Mongols (Boucherie, 1995, Vol. 1: 86-90). It is confirmed by Dzjawbang's position in the genealogical 'archive', at about 30 generations ago. It led to the formation of the 'Adzjhaw' Akha clan, as part of the Akha alliance system. This Akha group still has considerable differences of language and customary law from other groups descended from the Dzeugh'oe and Boesoeleh clans. Akha of Thailand think that Adzjhaw Akha is more closely related to Hani languages than to Akha. We could speculate that Dzjawbang and his group were originally more closely related to the Hani lords of the area, who were already well established in the Honghe and Red River terraced highlands. There is an interpretation that the Akha name derives from their being 'refugees of war' in a Hani dominated, class-based corvée system. Being rice-growing agriculturists in and around Mojiang city certainly meant that many would have been both agriculturists and soldiers at some point (Boucherie, 1995, Vol. 1: .87).
The rise and fall of Tm-lang/Mojiang was the beginning of a new stage in the centuries-old process of marginalization. Its fall is described as a war, with the burning of everything, including the 'power to rule' (dzoe-za) clay tablet, signifying a total loss of power. Hani and Akha archaic texts agree that loss of power over the (low)land and its irrigation systems, was mostly to the Tai (Tai Lue and/or Black Tai) peoples, coming up through the Black, Red, and later Mekong river valleys. Again this seems correct in terms of external history, since no major Chinese incursions are recorded in the Sung Dynasty (Wiens, 1976: 180-86; Backus, 1981: 159-64).
Tai warriors appear to have laid siege to Tm-lang/Mojiang, cutting off the water supply, and causing the inhabitants to flee. The Tai assumption of power in the valleys of southern Yunnan involved armed conflicts with Hani and Akha and seems to have been a gradual process at first, in which the Hani clearly resisted longer. From Akha texts we know that Akha clans left the Tm-lang/Mojiang area one after another, going into the mountains and adjacent areas.
Another tradition explains the breaking away of the Akha from the Hani as due to earthquakes in the Red River area, which destroyed Akha rice terraces (Tooker, 1996a). But Akha traditions in all areas agree that the migrations happened gradually, clan by clan, and over a long period. This notion is expressed in the story of migrants leaving traces in their path, by cutting banana leaves and scattering the carcasses of crabs, in order to indicate the road to be followed by the next party of Akha (Roux, 1924: 381; Dzoebaw, 1981; Boucherie, 1995, Vol. 1: 87). The intervals were too long however, and the traces disappeared, thus providing an explanation for the migration of the Akha in different directions.
Most of them moved South West crossing the Mekong just North of Jinghong (Chengrung), now the capital of the Autonomous Dai (Tai) Prefecture of Xixuangbanna (Sipsongpanna). Some went South, but no further than the East bank of the Mekong, in or near contemporary northern Laos. Local records and Akha seem to agree that this was about 700-800 years ago. Several Akha and some Hani groups can still be found on this migration route, near Puer and Simao. Akha first settled in the more fertile Mekong valley lowlands, but were forced to move into the mountains. They thus spread in the direction of Menghai (southern Sipsongpanna), Menglang (Lancang), and Mengla (Ahai and Liuqia, 1989; Cun Wen Xue, 1996; Gao Wenying, 1986). Akha stories and local records can also be reconciled at a village level. In the mountainous Menghai district of Sipsongpanna there is an old conglomeration of Akha villages known as 'Guilanghui Pu' or 'the village of good fortune'. This has a population of about 10,000 persons living in several villages. The houses are made of brick, and older inhabitants are sure in their knowledge that the principal villages were built 25 generations or some 650 years ago.
The main area in which Akha culture - as we and they know it, as distinct from Hani culture - flourished over the last six or seven centuries, has been south-western Yunnan and its mountainous border areas. Wherever possible Akha groups followed the example of Hani source-fed rice terraces of the Honghe area. Depending on availability of water we see the same patterns, as for example with the Karen in Thailand: source-fed terraces near villages, surrounded by well-tended forests which are managed for forest food, hunting, medicine, and animal fodder. In less well irrigated terraced areas, Akha, like the Hani, have been growing tea, sesame, and cotton as cash-crops in great quantity and over many centuries (Hinton, 1996; Tooker, 1996a; Li Qibo, 1996).
The region has long been and still is inhabited by a large number of ethnicities, increasingly scattered and interspersed. Most of the archaic Akha texts, of those which we know, seem to reflect the Akha as 'encapsulated' mid-slope, and in a multi-ethnic situation. This situation is structured, however, in an inverse way to a Thai 'sakdina' type of hierarchy, with the lowest in the class system highest up (Mon-Khmer groups such as Wa, Bulang, Khmu, Htin, and Dulong) and the socially highest situated lowest, in the valleys and plains.
© Leo Alting von Geusau, based on Geusau (2000)