The Hani/Akha are a trans-national people, who are concentrated in drainage
areas of the Mekong and Red (Honghe) Rivers, including mountainous areas in
S.W.China ,E. Burma, N. Laos, N. Thailand and N.Vietnam. They often are intersparsed
with other minority peoples. The Hani/Akha have an estimated population of
2 to 2,5 million peoples of which the Hani in S.W. Yunnan , China account
for more than 1,300,000 and the Akha S.E. Yunnan and related border areas
for more than 1,000,000. International meetings between Hani and Akha started
with the First International Conferences on Hani/Akha Culture with Hani/Akha
villagers and researchers as main participants started in Gejiu, China, in
February/March 1993. The Second Conference was held in Chiang Mai/Chiang
Rai, Thailand, in May 1996 and the Third Conference in Jinghong, Xishuangbanna,
China, from 28 December 1999 to 7 January 2000. They offered opportunities
for intercommunication among Hani /Akha leaders, cultural specialists,
native and foreign researchers, representatives of other mountain minorities
besides others interested in old and rich cultures of the Hani/Akha. These
Conferences also tried to be festive occasions for making acquaintance
with each other and the enhancement of friendship. At the Third conference,
it was decided to hold the Fourth International Conference on Hani/Ahka Culture
in Honghe or Red River Prefecture, Yunnan, China, in 2002. This decision was
approved and supported supported by the Honghe Prefecture Government and the
Conference will be held in the beautiful Hani areas
of Yuanyang and Honghe counties, of the Honghe Prefecture.
Under authorization of the Ministry of Culture of the Peopleâs Republic of China, the Fourth International Conference on Hani/Ahka Culture will be held as scheduled at various locations in Yuanyang and Honghe counties, Honghe Prefecture, Yunnan Province.
Schedule. The conference will take place from December 3-9, 2002.
December
1: Conference attendants from abroad arrive in Kunming, Yunnan Province.
A Welcoming Committee will meet attendants at the Kunming airport and conduct
them to the Honghe Hotel, Kunming for board and lodging.
December 2: Travel from Kunming to Yuanyang. There will be a banquet and a performance of Hani folk songs and dances in the evening.
December 3: Opening ceremony, and first presentations. Division of attendants in workgroups.
December 4: Folk-custom investigation in the spot. Sites: villages in Yuanyang County. A Hani meal will be prepared in the village at noon.
December 5: Presentations and discussions in work group meetings.
December 6: Morning: travel from Yuanyang to Honghe; a banquet at noon; Afternoon: Work group presentations and discussions; Evening: a party-performance of Hani folk songs and dances.
December7: Folk-custom investigation on the spot. Evening: a Hani new yearâs festival÷ a Long Street Feast of hundreds of tables. Site: Jiaying, Honghe County.
December 8: morning: Work group presentations and discussions; afternoon: a discussion on the site of the next, 5th Conference on Hani/Akha Culture.
December 9: morning: discussion; afternoon: closing ceremony; evening: a party between members of The Honghe Prefecture Hani Studies Association and attendees of the conference.
December 10: conference adjourns and participants depart for Kunming.
Folk-custom ãinvestigation on the spotä. During the conference, two attractive activities of different folk-custom investigation on the spot will be offered in Yuanyang and Honghe counties. Attendants may expect to see the beautiful scene of Hani terraced fields, houses, folk customs and activities of cultivation, spinning, weaving and cloth-dying, and savor the Hani diet by joining the famous Hani multi table Long Street Feast.
Conference Thesis Subjects. Theses should be selected by reference to the six subject areas listed below. The organizing committee will review thesis proposals and send a formal invitation to you for participation in October. Please submit your thesis summary (in English or Chinese) not later than July30, 2002 and the finished thesis when attending the meeting on December 1.
Fee. Cost of conference is 500 US$ per participant--presenter or observer (Including the fees for room and board in Kunming, Dec.1; for transportation, room and board from Kunming to Yuanyang on December, 2; for room, board, transportation and material during the meeting; for souvenir and organization costs; and for transportation and a meal on the way to Kunming on December, 10 as well.).
Undertaking Agencies.
The Honghe Research Institute of Nationalities
The Honghe Prefecture Hani Studies Association
Contact addresses:
The Honghe Research Institute of Nationalities,
Jianshui, 654300, Yunnan, China.
Tel: 0873-7613015 Fax: 0873-7616545
Organizer: Li Qibo
Website: http://nomabei.yeah.net
E-mail: hhhnxh@yahoo.com.cn
or MPCD/SEAMP Highland Research Institute
137/3 Nantharam,Chiang Mai, 50100 Thailand
Coordinator: Dr. Leo A. von Geusau.
Tel: 66-53276194 Fax 66-53274947 :
e-mail seamptri@loxinfo.co.th
After being placed into the preparatory list of World Heritage in China, the Application of Honghe Hani Terraced Fields for World Heritage has been committed to the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization by Chinese Government in January, 2002. The Honghe Prefecture Government has been working hard on it and all Hani people are expecting the good news of success.
The Hani are a mountain people. They are born, raised, and live in steep mountain ridges and deep village, and identify themselves with the mountains. They love the cool temperatures and dislike the heat, so most of the villages are established halfway or more up the mountainsides between 1000 and 1500 meters above sea level. The traditional Hani village generally has a basic format with a dense forest as its cap; a bamboo filled hollow beside it with water flowing the year round; and terraced fields at its foot, stretching to the river banks. The mountain forest, village, and terraced fields form a single unit with the mountain ridge. Hani terraced fields distribute on hillsides and banks of mountainous streams south of Honghe River. From generation to generation, Hani people have been making use of the natural condition, which be said as ãhowever the mountains high, however the water highä, to open up more than ten thousand hectares of terraced fields to plant rice. Which is not only a historical site and a beautiful natural landscape÷a great statue on the face of the earth, but also a fruit of ingenious integrating of Hani culture and natural resources as well, a Hani cultural museum in the open.
Honghe Hani terraced fields have a long history. From the data in Chinese characters, they have already had a history of for more than 1,300 years. An agronomist of the Ming Dynasty, Xu Guangqi, listed Hani terraced fields as one of the seven farmland-systems. It would be a record after a long existence of Hani terraced fields.
Hani terraced fields distribute in Yuanyang, Honghe, Luchun and Jinping Counties, in where Hani People inhabit in compact community, and connecting terraced fields are seen from mountain to mountain with great momentum. The area of terraced fields amount to more than 11,000 hectares just in Yuanyang County, where is the core district of the Application for World Heritage, and for more than 3,000 steps of which stretch from the foot of a hill up to the top.
Honghe Hani is famous for cultivating terraced fields and he has created an environmental wonder in mountain area. Hani culture is a terraced-field-agricultural civilization, which has a perfect agriculture system and an agro-worship system as well, the concept of worship is built on the basis that man and nature are in harmony, countless terraced fields are an evidence of this belief
Updated 24 May 2002