Lapei Nani of the Derung ethnic group shows her tattooed face in Drung-Nu Autonomous County of Gongshan, southwest China's Yunnan Province, Nov. 27, 2007. The women of the Derung ethnic group used to have their faces tattooed when they turned 12 or 13 as a sign of maturity. The custom began hundreds of years ago. The Dulong people were often attacked by other ethnic groups and women were taken as slaves. To avoid being raped, the Dulong women had their faces tattooed to make themselves less attractive. However, the old custom began disappearing after the founding of the People's Republic of China and today tattooed women faces can only be seen among some aged people of the group. (Xinhua Photo)_________________________________________________________________
KUNMING, China (Xinhua), December 25, 2007:
At 98, Lape Nannie worries that her own death would erase from the memory of the living a mysterious image: the dark blue tattoo pricked on her face when she was a child.
She was one of 38 women who still bore the mark in the Dulong ethnic group, traditionally known as the "facial tattoo tribe".
Experts said the group in the Dulong River Valley of southwestern Yunnan Province was rapidly shrinking from the more than 60 reported last year.
"I do hope others will still remember the butterflies on our faces after we die," Lape Nannie said through an interpreter in her home county of Gongshan.
A close look at her tattoo showed that her cheeks looked like the wings of a butterfly, her nose its body, and her forehead its antennae.
The tiny lady, about 150 centimeters tall and no more than 35 kilograms, had six children, the youngest of whom is 48.
A lifetime of hard work in the field had caused constant aches in her back and stomach, but her eyesight and hearing were still good for her age.
Lape Nannie did not remember when, or why, she had her face tattooed. All she could remember was the acute pain. "I was there with two other girls from the village. We all cried in agony."
The other two women died over the last two years.
Peng Yiliang, an ethnic culture expert at the county's cultural bureau, said Dulong women used to have their face tattooed at 12 or 13. "It was said to mark the puberty of young girls and serve as an ID because the patterns vary in different clans."
It was still controversial on whether the tattoos were considered beautiful in the old days. "Some say it was an adornment to make women more beautiful. Others say it was meant to make them less attractive so the women wouldn't be abducted," Pengsaid.
The tattoo, often the image of a butterfly because the souls of the dead were said to turn into butterflies, was pricked on the girls' faces using bamboo needles and an ink made out of ashes on the bottoms of pans.
"The process lasted for seven or eight hours, and the girls were not to wash their faces for at least five days after the ordeal in order to keep the pattern intact."
Peng, who speaks six ethnic dialects including that of Dulong, has kept files on 61 tattooed women since last year hoping to preserve the unique culture. Many of those documented have died and the oldest still living was over 100.
Born in 1953, Dong Cuilian was among the youngest of the women with facial tattoos. Unlike others who were locked in the valley, she moved to the provincial capital, Kunming, to show more people about Dulong culture. She attended the Ethnic Expo held in Taiwan in 2000, and also visited Japan.
Peng said the tattoo, abolished since 1967, was a "living fossil" to study the origins of the Dulong ethnic community and its unique culture. "It should not disappear from human history. We should use modern devices and technologies to preserve their images."
Dulong was one of the least populous of China's 56 ethnic groups. The latest national census, conducted in 2000, showed that about 7,200 Dulong people were living across China. Of them, more than 5,800 were in Yunnan.
Their major habitat in the Dulong River Valley, flanked by two mountains 4,000 meters above sea level, was usually cut off from the rest of the world for at least six months annually by heavy snow.
Until the 1950s, the locals followed a primitive slash-and-burn method of agricultural production and worshipped gods and ghosts in case of diseases, natural disasters and on important occasions.
Jiasong of Derung ethnic group shows her tattooed face in Drung-Nu Autonomous County of Gongshan, southwest China's Yunnan Province, Feb. 26, 2006.
Jiasong, the last tattooed woman of Derung ethnic group, was forced to got tattoos in 1966.
The old custom which brought much pain to Derung girls was abolished in 1967
Photo: People's Daily.
In the past 20 years, visitors had come from every corner of the globe for sightseeing tours in the primitive valley where dense forests and winding rivers nurtured rare birds, animals and herbs. With them, they had brought in elements of modern life.
Modern Dulong girl Yang Ping shrugged off the tattoo tradition with a laugh. "What's the point of marring your face like that? It's both painful and ugly. Besides, I doubt if there are any more tattoo artists today."
The 22-year-old said she left her Dulong community in Gongshan County to work in Kunming shortly after she finished junior high school at 15.
By Zhou Yan, Li Huaiyan and Liu Juan, Xinhua writers
Editor: Wang Hongjiang
Copyright ©2003 Xinhua News Agency.
