Bo people (China)

Cave tombs of Bo people in Yibin, Sichuan.

The Bo people (Chinese: 僰人; pinyin: Bó rén) are an ancient extinct people from the Yunnan and Sichuan provinces of Southwestern China. They are famous for their hanging coffins.[1] They were one of the various now extinct peoples from Southern China known collectively in Chinese records as the Baipu.

History

The Bo people were native to southeastern Sichuan. By the Zhou dynasty, they were called Pu (濮) (Old Chinese (B-S): *pˤok) and mentioned among allies of Zhou against Shang.[2] The Pu or Hundred Pu (百濮) was a designation of different peoples living in the upper Yangtze river area, similar to the Hundred Yue of south Yangtze. The Hundred Pu was eventually conquered by the Ba state. The Qin dynasty invaded the Ba state in 316 BC and absorbed into its empire.

The Bo fortress of Lingxiao (凌霄城) on Bowangshan Mountain in Xingwen County were the last hold out in China against the Mongol conquest. It fell to the Mongols in 1288, more than 11 years after the end of the Song dynasty. In 1573, Lingxiao and Gong County was besieged by Ming imperial troops, the Bo were massacred and have disappeared since then.[3] Some descendants of the Bo were reportedly found in 2005 in Xingwen County, Sichuan.[4][5][6][7]

Culture

Hanging coffins carved from a single log and bronze drums are widely found in the areas once inhabited by Bo people.[1][8][9]

Possible descendants

The Lachi people of Vietnam and China may be descended from the Bo, based on the archaic exonym Labo (喇僰) in Chinese records.[10] The Lachi language belongs to the Kra subgroup of the Kra-Dai language family. Today, the Lachi refer to themselves as qu31 te341, with qu31 meaning 'people' (from Proto-Kra *khraC1 'people').[10]

The Ku of Qiubei County currently speak a Loloish language, and still practice hanging coffin traditions. According to their own records, the Ku people's ancestors had migrated from Yibin, Sichuan province a few centuries ago in order to escape wars.

Possible languages

Languages spoken by the Bo people(s) may have included:

Words of Bo origin that still exist in the local dialect (tuhua 土话) of Gong County, Sichuan include máng máng 牤牤 or alternatively niōng niōng ('pig 猪'), and gà gà 尬尬 ('meat 肉').[11]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b "Suspended Coffins of the Bo People". China Culture. Archived from the original on 2008-08-30. Retrieved 2008-12-13.
  2. ^ Book of Documents "Speech at Mu"
  3. ^ Tapp 2003, pp. 69–70.
  4. ^ "Bo Descendants Found in Xingwen" (in Chinese). Chinacourt.org. 2005-04-05. Retrieved 2008-12-13.
  5. ^ 悬棺之谜 Archived July 7, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
  6. ^ 珙县僰人悬棺[permanent dead link]
  7. ^ 僰人后裔有新说 Archived July 7, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
  8. ^ 僰为越论 [Bo Weiyue Theory]. 法律版. YUXI network. 2000–2001. Archived from the original on 2011-07-07.
  9. ^ 兴文县境内民族 [Nationalities in Xingwen County]. Sichuan Provincial Rural Economic Comprehensive Information Center. Sichuan Provincial People's Government. 2008-09-02. Archived from the original on 2009-09-27.
  10. ^ a b Edmondson & Li 2003, p. 165.
  11. ^ Huang & Li 2006, p. 25.
  • Huang, Hualiang [黄华良]; Li, Shiwen [李诗文] (2006). 悬崖上的民族：珙县僰人及悬棺 [Ethnic groups on the cliff: Bo people and hanging coffins in Gong County]. Chengdu: 巴蜀书社 [Ba-Shu Publishing]. ISBN 7-80659-916-9.
  • Edmondson, Jerold A.; Li, Shaoni (2003). "Review of Lajiyu Yanjiu by Li Yunbing" (PDF). Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area. 26 (1): 163–181.
  • Tapp, Nicholas (2003). The Hmong of China: Context, Agency, and the Imaginary. Leiden: Brill. ISBN 9004121277.
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