CHAPTER XIII 



THE CHIARUNG TRIBES 



Their History, Manners, and Customs 



WITHIN the limits of the Chino-Thibetan borderland, 

 as defined in Chapter XII, from Simgpan Ting south- 

 wards to Yachou Fu, and west to the valley of the 

 Upper Tung or Tachin (Great Gold) River, the territory is divided 

 amongst numerous cognate tribes collectively spoken of by 

 Chinese as " Chiarung." These people are essentially agricul- 

 turists, making their homes in the upland valleys. They are all, 

 though tributaiy to China, ruled by their own hereditary 

 chiefs ; each tribe occupies a properly defined area, with its 

 own capital town, the political centre of the entire region being 

 Monkong Ting. These tribes are non-Chinese and are not 

 indigenous to this region. They are also distinct from the 

 people found in anterior Thibet. They speak a difficult and 

 at first sound unpronounceable jargon, which, if it be the mother 

 of Thibetan dialects, is widely different from that spoken in 

 Thibet to-day. But Thibetan letters have, without difficulty, 

 been applied to it, and scholars, priests, officials, and merchants 

 both read and speak the Lhassa-Thibetan language with greater 

 or less fluency. 



The origin of these people is obscure, yet there is good reason 

 to believe they come originally from the region around the 

 head-waters of the Tsang-po (Upper Brahmaputra River), 

 and probably have common origin with the people of Nepal 

 and Bhutan. Personally, I am of the opinion that they came 

 over with Genghis Khan, or his sonOk-Ko-Dai, at the commence- 

 ment of the thirteenth century, and assisted in the conquest of 

 western Szechuan. As a reward for military services rendered 



