The Qiang People

The Qiang (羌族), one of China's minority groups, celebrate their new year on the first day of the 10th month of the lunar calendar. The celebration lasts three to five days and includes specific rituals to honor ancestors, drive away evil spirits, and welcome a good harvest. The Qiang are known for their elaborate dress as well as their folk songs and dances and traditional musical instruments.

These photos were taken near Heishui (黑水) in northwestern Sichuan's Aba prefecture, one of the areas with a high concentration of Qiang people. The Qiang civilization dates back thousands of years, and today there are around 300,000 people in the ethnic group. Settled mostly in the north part of the province, including Wenchuan and Beichuan counties, the Qiang population was significantly impacted by the May 12 earthquake.

Photos by Leo Chen

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Comments

• • alexinchengdu
    February 18, 2012

  • do they have monasteries like the Tibetans do?

• • soledad
    March 4, 2012

  • Mostly not. But they have special ceremony for religion.

• • 3li4s
    March 9, 2012

  • Beautiful photos!

    In 2009 I had a short piece in Chengdoo Citylife on Qiang culture.

    If you are interested in the impacts the 2008 earthquake had on Qiang culture, you might like the article I published on infoshop and cultural survival quarterly:

    http://news.infoshop.org/[...]

• • Nate Sims
    April 6, 2012

  • I am an American who grew up in Chengdu (12 years) and got interested in Qiang culture due to the earthquake. I am now a linguistics major at Indiana university

    I have a blog i am started dedicated to helping preserve Qiang culture. please follow or check it out.

    saveqiangculture.wordpress.com

• • nate sims
    April 16, 2012

  • hey again,

    i was wondering if anyone could tell me the specific village or county where these pictures were taken?

    Thanks

• • invisible
    April 16, 2012

  • Says right in the second paragraph:

    "These photos were taken near Heishui (黑水) in northwestern Sichuan's Aba prefecture"

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