Creolization on the Tibetan Plateau

Gerald Roche. 2012. Zones of Creolization on the Tibetan Plateau. Guest lecture for Société Française d’Etudes du Monde Tibétain, Paris. 5 October 2012.

Zones of Creolization on the Tibetan Plateau

My presentation today is part of a broad project exploring several questions about

cultural diversity on the pre-modern Tibetan Plateau. Firstly – just how diverse was the

Tibetan Plateau? Then – how did the diversity of the region originate? How was it

patterned? How was it maintained? My purpose in seeking answers to these questions is

to understand the extent and nature of the present cultural change and loss in the region.

I was first exposed to the issues I will discuss today one morning on the

21st of December, 2008. At that time, my co-researcher and I were in Guojia Village, on

the western edge of a region known as Sanchuan – the Three Rivers or Valleys – in

northeast Qinghai Province, on the northeastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau.

Figure 1. The Sanchuan Region.

Sanchuan is an ethnically diverse region, with the main populations being Mangghuer

(Tu), Tibetans, and Han Chinese. My co-researcher and I were interviewing a huala, a

medium who embodies local tutelary deities during healing and other rituals. My


collaborator carried out the interview in the Mangghuer language, an archaic Mongolic

dialect. The huala was describing healing rituals that he had conducted, when he

provided the following account:

Once I went to treat a man in a neighboring county. His whole body was swollen.

He'd been sick like that for eleven or twelve years, and had spent more than

100,000 RMB trying to cure his illness. Doctors, Muslim clerics, lamas – nobody

could help him. In the end, only I was able to cure him. He was sick because he'd

taken something from a Tibetan family.

Over the next three years, as we continued conducting research in Sanchuan, we

heard similar stories about members of other ethnic groups – Han and Mangghuer –

falling seriously ill because they had taken things from Tibetan families. Though the

work of da Col (2012) and others (e.g. Leach 1954) on poisoning in Tibet and south-east

Asia are obviously relevant to such cases, my initial reaction to these anecdotes was to

turn to the work of Diamond (1988) and her assertion that inter-ethnic accusations of

poisoning in southwest China were primarily a form of 'othering' – a way reifying ethnic

boundaries by appeal to stereotypes that inverted the self. However, the argument I will

make today is that what appears to be evidence for a decisive cultural break between

Tibetan and non-Tibetan populations, when examined more carefully, actually

demonstrates the existence of a broadly shared, trans-ethnic cultural logic in which

Tibetan, Han, and Mangghuer participate. This, in turn, I take as evidence for a preceding

process of creolization in the region.


Creolization is one of just several clustered concepts, often used interchangeably,

to describe processes of cultural change. In addition to creolization, this cluster of

concepts includes syncretism, hybridization, and transculturation (see Kraidy 2005 for a

review). So, before proceeding, I will clarify what I mean by 'creolization'. The word has

its roots in Spanish and Portuguese terms that arose following the colonization of the

Americas. The term criollo was originally applied to people of Iberian descent who were

born in the Americas (Stewart 2007, Chauderson 2001, Baron and Cara 2011). Such

people were though to be inherently transformed by their alien natal environment,

typically in degenerate ways. The term was later picked up by the French, in the late

1500s, and used in much the same way. However, the word gradually lost the

implications of creoles as inferior, degenerate people, and took on the meaning of 'local'

or 'provincial' and was applied to anyone living in the colonies, regardless of their

ancestry (Chauderson 2001). During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the word

began to take on its contemporary meaning of, roughly, 'mixed', with the study of the

languages of creole populations in the Caribbean and the French colonies of the Indian

Ocean. My usage of the terms creole and creolization carries all three senses of the word:

someone born outside their native land, and who is part of a localized population that

shares cultural features derived from multiple historical sources. Creolization, in this

sense, is not a process of mixture, but more like cultural drift or convergence – the

emergence of novel, localized cultural forms in situations where people from diverse

ancestries live in intimate contact over long periods of time.

So, what I will argue today is that the phenomenon of 'disease-causing Tibetans'

arises largely from a shared, trans-ethnic logic that emerged as a result of creolization in


the Sanchuan region. This, in turn, suggests that creolization – the emergence of

localized, convergent, transethnic cultural forms – played a role in structuring the cultural

diversity of the pre-modern Tibetan Plateau. Rather than discussing the process of

creolization, a topic I have addressed elsewhere (Roche, forthcoming), today I will focus

on the result of creolization, using a case study that is particularly illustrative for the way

in which it enables ethnic and transethnic factors to be teased out.

In the following, I outline the local logic of 'disease-causing Tibetans' in

Sanchuan, taking special care to delineate the ethnic and transethnic factors involved. In

terms of transethnic factors, I begin by looking at the house as a transethnic structure, and

also discuss efficacy as a transethnic religious logic. I finally outline where ethnic

distinction comes into the causative chain by examining the differing styles of faith

pursued by various ethnic groups in the region. I will begin my discussion by talking

about the house in Sanchuan.

Levi-Strauss (1983) originally proposed the concept of the 'house' and 'house

societies' as modes of social organization. In her discussion of Levi-Strauss's house

concept, Hsu (1998) characterized 'the house' according to the following three features.

Firstly, houses are maintained by diverse and flexible kinship practices that focus on

territory more than descent. Secondly, houses are corporate units consisting of human and

non-human beings and material and immaterial wealth. And thirdly, houses are also

enduring social units construed as moral persons. Carston and Hugh-Jones (1995),

recommended that Levi-Strauss's criteria, and the concepts of 'house' and 'house

societies', rather than being typological devices, are best viewed as analytical tools that

allow us to access the interplay between social, symbolic, and physical/ aesthetic domains


frequently provided in 'native' discourses. The 'house', in this sense, is good to think with.

My aim in applying the 'house' concept to Sanchuan is not to classify Sanchuan as a

'house society' – we may note, for example, the absence of inter-generationally stable

house names, inheritable titles, and heirlooms. Rather, in the following, I use 'the house'

to think about transethnic culture in Sanchuan, in much the same way that Mueggler

(2001) and Wellens (2010) have used 'the house' to think about ethnic specificities among

the Yi and Prmi, respectively.

Regarding the first of Levi-Strauss's criteria – diverse and flexible kinship

practices – we may first note that both patrilocal and matrilocal post-marital residence

were traditionally practiced among all local ethnic groups. Polyandry and polygny were

practiced in addition to monogamy. Adoption was a widely employed strategy for

maintaining the house. Though lineages did exist among all three ethnic groups, they

were typically shallow in generational depth and weak in social power. These diverse

marriage and kinship practices, along with the weak lineage structures, suggest that the

house was a significant social unit for all three ethnic groups, and that its continuity was a

major concern.

Secondly, the house existed as a unit incorporating human and non-human beings

as well as material and immaterial wealth. This can be seen most clearly in local disease

etiologies whereby a house member angers, for example, the soil deity, who then

retaliates by first sickening and killing livestock, and then family members, at random.

The collective, trans-personal and trans-species nature of the house can also be seen in

notions of collective fortune, such as the Tibetan concept of g.yang and Mangghuer


concept of diandiar whereby individuals and the house reciprocally influence each others'

fortunes.

Finally, we may also note that the house was an enduring social unit construed as

a moral person. This was particularly made evident by the fact that for domestic life-

cycle rituals, such as weddings and funerals, and in community rituals, for example the

annual Sanchuan harvest festivals, participation was mandatory at the level of the house,

i.e., each house was required to send a representative. The community was therefore

made up of houses, rather than persons. Houses also had corporate repute that extended

across generations. Within the community, houses therefore had enduring social roles and

identities.

In addition to this transethnic social organization based on the house as the

fundamental unit of social organization, Mangghuer, Tibetans, and local Han in Sanchuan

also shared a transethnic religious logic centered on the concept of efficacy. This concept

has been best described in the literature on popular Chinese religion, as in the following

quote from Chau (2006): "At the core of Chinese popular religion is the concept of

magical efficacy (ling), which is conceived of as a particular deity's miraculous response

(lingying) to the worshiper's request for divine assistance..." Overmyer (2009: 153-154)

describes the focus of such requests as: "… for peace and good fortune, sons, good

husbands or wives, healing, travel safety, good business, promotion in school, safe

driving and success in law suits … [and in another context for,] long life, the birth of

sons, good health, good relationships with neighbors, making money, passing

examinations, promotions, finding wives, peace, good harvests, rain during droughts and

similar practical goals." In Sanchuan, requests for divine assistance typically focus on the


following, as expressed by a deity through a huala, "… gentle breezes, gentle rain

showers, and much grass. Livestock will fill your yard. Evil winds and storms will be

kept away. I will give you a peaceful life." The focus of such requests is not for ethical

advice, cosmological insights into the nature of reality, divine retribution, or spiritual

empowerment, but rather for the deity to intervene in worldly affairs related to the

supplicant's peace and prosperity.

In the Han and Mangghuer contexts, miaoshen – temple deities – typically

possess divine efficacy, whereas among Tibetans, worldly, efficacious deities are

typically yul lha and gzhi bdag – 'mountain deities'. The logics of these deities' efficacy

overlap to the extent that Mangghuer venerate Tibetan mountain deities as temple deities,

and vice versa. In addition to temple and mountain deities, however, other classes of

deities may also possess divine efficacy. Of particular significance for the present case

are house deities, in Mangghuer called jiashen and in Tibetan called srung ma. These

deities are associated exclusively with particular houses, in the sense outlined above, as

enduring territorial, corporate groups that encompass both material and immaterial

property. House deities ensure prosperity for the house that venerates them, rather than

for individuals or for the larger community. However, house deities are often regarded

with ambiguity because, firstly, they require intense maintenance through offerings to

ensure their continued service to their host house, and secondly, because they often assist

a house at the expense of other houses, or at the expense of the wider community.

In fact, the cult of house deities is the basis for the syndrome of disease-causing

Tibetans. It is not the Tibetans that are believed to cause illness, but rather the house

deities they venerate. This is because house deities protect the house, in part, by


maintaining and containing its corporate integrity, including human and non-human

beings, material as well as immaterial wealth. House deities therefore punish anyone who

diminishes this integrity, even if only by borrowing a kitchen utensil. Importantly, this

logic has no ethnic basis – illness may occur when a Tibetan borrows from a Tibetan, or a

Mangghuer from a Mangghuer. As a Tibetan consultant stated, "We shouldn't take even

one bowl from others. If someone takes a bowl from other families then we should break

it. If it is clothes, we burn them."

Another significant aspect of the transethnic cult of efficacy is that the efficacy of

deities – house deities, temple deities, mountain deities – is seen to rest not only on their

inherent power, but also in people's faith in those deities. Faith is seen as a tendon linking

divinity to humanity; it is the fulcrum that gives leverage to divine efficacy. The more

faith people have in a deity, the more efficacious a deity can be. And it is here, at this

critical pivot linking the house, divine efficacy, and individual attitudes, that truly ethnic

distinction comes into play in the etiology of 'disease-causing Tibetans'. And so I now

turn to a discussion of different modalities of faith in Sanchuan.

Faith is perhaps not the best term to use. As Needham (1972: 3-4) notes for the

term 'belief', 'faith' "… has been taken for granted as a common psychological category

denoting a human capacity that can immediately be ascribed to all men…" A more

adequate term might be 'dispositions towards divinity', as this focus on 'disposition'

covers the divergent presuppositions that different ethnic groups in Sanchuan adhere to.

Nonetheless, I will continue to use the term 'faith' as a sort of shorthand for 'dispositions

towards divinity' in the following examination of different modalities of faith in

Sanchuan.


Local Han and Mangghuer in Sanchuan espouse what has been called 'practical

belief'. Chau (2006), Bruun (2003), and Overmeyer (2009) all contain helpful discussions

of this disposition. Although all these scholars work on the Han Chinese community, I do

not mean to suggest that this 'practical belief' is an exclusively Han phenomenon or that

all Han necessarily espouse it, but rather than 'practical belief' is the predominant

disposition towards the divine among certain communities, in this case, local Han and

Mangghuer. This disenchanted, cognitive style of faith focuses on the extent of deities'

efficacy rather than the existence of deities per se. It rests on spectacular displays of

divine capacity – what Chau calls 'miraculous response'. This is most palpably manifested

in Sanchuan through the acts of violence and self-harm carried out by mediums who

embody deities. These mediums – the huala – pierce themselves with skewers, beat

themselves with iron flails, lick hot swords, and walk on coals. Such displays are

intended to invoke awe and fear in observers. For the person who is possessed, their

experience is one of total unconsciousness, as their self is completely replaced with a

more powerful being. However, in the absence of such displays of divine awesomeness,

locals intellectualize their dispositions towards divine efficacy to the point of irony. Even

trance mediums who incarnate temple deities can claim to not have much faith in deities.

In the logic of 'practical belief', one's disposition towards the divine is typically reliant on

external stimulus that is constantly weighed and judged. Local discourse is rife with

concerns over fakes –fake huala, fake possession, fake miracles, and so on.

In contrast, Tibetans seem to be able to deploy another disposition towards the

divine. This mode of faith is overwhelmingly emotive rather than intellectual and based

on internal cultivation rather than external evidence. Ekvall (1964: 57-59) defines the


Tibetan term for religious faith, dad pa, as: "…a once-and-for-all attitude… The circle

which delimits the semantic content of dad pa is a much larger one than the circle which

delimits the semantic content of the English word 'faith'. The terms which cluster around

dad pa express aspects of faith, belief, trust, confidence, acceptance, devotion, reverence,

and adoration." This complex attitude is exemplified in two case studies where Tibetan

devotees were observed to be carried into ecstatic trances due to their deep faith in

particular lamas or deities. Meriam (2012), in her discussion of the lha babs rituals she

observed in Khri 'du County, stated that people who appeared to become possessed,

described themselves as being in a state of heightened consciousness, one that was deeply

emotional, driving many of them to tears. Similarly, Dpa' mo rgyal (2012), in her study of

ecstatic trances among Bon devotees in Reb gong, emphasizes that those in trance

experience heightened consciousness, and simultaneously, strong emotional states. In

both cases, these ecstatic, emotional trances were brought on by a deepened feeling of

faith that was internally generated by the believer. This practice of self-cultivated,

conscious, emotional ecstasy differs drastically from the spectacular, unconscious, violent

possessions that predominate among local Han and Mangghuer.

This difference in faith styles – cognitive and reliant on display versus emotional

and reliant on internal cultivation – gives rise to stereotypes among Han and Mangghuer

that portray Tibetans as devout to the point of fanaticism. One example of such

stereotypes is seen in the annual harvest festivals in Sanchuan, in depictions of two

Tibetans running around, prostrating haphazardly in every direction, and even on top of

one another. Such stereotypes of Tibetan dispositions towards divinity then feed into the

logic of house deities and their efficacy. The local logic runs that if Tibetans are


fanatically faithful, then their deities must be fantastically powerful, as deities' efficacy is

directly dependent on believers' faith in them. So, though all house deities are attributed

with causing illness within and between ethnic groups, Tibetan house deities are

construed as causing particularly chronic and resilient illness by Han and Mangghuer.

The underlying logic as to why borrowing from Tibetan households causes illness

for members of other ethnic groups is fundamentally transethnic. It is based firstly in a

logic of social organization centered on the house. Secondly, it is rooted in a religious

logic focused on the efficacy of deities, particularly house deities. These deities send

sickness between houses, regardless of ethnicity. However, their ability to send illness is

dependent on the faith of the house deity's host. It is only in differing styles of faith –

cognitive versus emotive – that the syndrome's etiology takes on ethnic dimensions. It is

precisely because Han and Mangghuer are so like Tibetans that this etiology is possible,

not because of any divisive cultural cleft between the groups. I believe that such a

broadly shared transethnic cultural logic most likely results from a long process of

creolization – the convergence of local cultural forms. The distinctiveness of this

localized form can be highlighted by contrasting the present case with the poisoning

described by da Col (2012) in Dechen. In Dechen, 'poisoning' is caused by a 'poison god',

rather than a 'house god'. In Dechen, poison is administered in food, and grows as a

parasite inside the person who eats the food, whereas no physical contact is necessary for

'house deities' to cause sickness in Sanchuan. Women are the main human agents of

poisoning in Dechen, whereas sickness is caused by corporate households in Sanchuan.

Finally, poisoning in Dechen is culturally derived from idioms of hospitality and fortune,

whereas I have argued today that idioms of house and efficacy lay at the root of the


cultural logic of 'disease-causing Tibetans'. Though superficially similar, the 'disease-

causing Tibetans' of Sanchuan and the poisoners of Dechen are remarkably unalike.

Despite the temptation to identify a pervasive, homogenous poisoning culture across the

Tibetan Plateau, broad patterns of difference and discrete patches of similarity are

identifiable.

I argue that such patterns are caused by creolization and therefore refer to areas of

cultural similarity as zones of creolization. Such zones were non-bounded, overlapping

spaces within which peoples of diverse ancestry engaged in intimate interactions over

prolonged periods of time stretching across generations. Creolization came about as a

result of numerous processes – micro-migrations, agro-pastoral transhumance,

pilgrimage, small-scale trade, intermarriage – that were dependent on the spatial

limitations of neighborly intimacy. Rather than creating a fused, hybrid culture, the

peoples involved in these interactions co-created a shared and highly localized culture

that gradually saw them drift towards each other and away from the traditions of their

root populations. Despite maintaining distinct identities, whether ethnic, clanic,

territorial, cultic, or denominational, the populations came to share a common cultural

logic that involved them in a shared syndrome, but also produced a common vernacular

architecture, interrelated musical forms, common styles of dress, similar life-cycle rituals,

overlapping lexical profiles and grammatical structures, mutually understood gestures,

common work practices, similar ambitions, and a shared pool of folk heroes and

narratives.

I argue that a large part of the cultural diversity on the Tibetan Plateau was

produced in this way. In the same way that the northeast Tibetan Plateau formed a single


zone of creolization, there were numerous other such zones that produced their own

unique vernaculars. We may note, for example, the Rgyal rong region, with its mixture of

Qiang, Qiangic, and Tibetan populations. This region has a distinctive architectural style,

unique women's clothing, and forms of sociality and communalism. The practice of

'walking marriage' in the Lavrung and Zhaba regions also suggests locally distinct social

structures. Another zone of creolization existed in the 'Na' region where Sichuan and

Yunnan provinces meet. Despite the differences described by Wellens (2010), we may

note similarities in dress and architecture among the Prmi, Naxi, Tibetan, Yi, Namuyi,

and Moso populations. We can also note the importance of pork as not only a food but

also as a ritual substance. All groups in the area practice similar New Year and funerary

rites, and sing songs using the vocable madami. Even the Tibetan heartlands contained

distinctive populations that gave rise to local creolized vernaculars, for example, the

Kashmiri influenced musical traditions of Lhasa. The recognition of these zones of

creolization and their unique vernaculars requires, I believe, a redrawing of the map of

Tibet, one that breaks out of the tripartite mold of Amdo, Khams, and U-Tsang, and

which also fully recognizes the contribution of the non-Bodic populations to the cultural

makeup of the Tibetan Plateau. It is only such a novel cartography that will allow us to

fully understand the complete extent of the sweeping social and cultural changes

currently taking place in the region.


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Creolization on the Tibetan Plateau

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