The Monba People 门巴族

Overview

Chinese Name: 门巴族
English Name: The Monba people
Languages: Monba language 门巴语, Chinese 汉语
Total population: 1.0*10⁴(China mainland 2022)
Distribution: Medog, Nyingch and Cona counties in the southeastern part of the Tibet Autonomous Region

Brief introduction

The Monba people 门巴族 are one of the ethnic groups with a long history and culture in China, and their national language is the Monba language. The characters they usually write are usually in Tibetan 藏文. The Monba people are mainly distributed in the Medog, Nyingch and Cona counties in the southeastern part of the Tibet Autonomous Region 西藏自治区.

The Monba and Tibetans have long-term friendly exchanges, mutual marriages, and have very close relations in politics, economy, culture, religious beliefs, and living customs. In 1964, the Monba was officially recognized as a single ethnic group.

The history of the Monba people

In the 7th century AD, the Menyu area 门隅地区 was under the control of the local government of Tibetan Empire 吐蕃, and the Monba nationality became the subjects of Tibetan Empire. In the middle of the 13th century, Menyu was brought under the governance of the local Tibetan regime and became an administrative region of the Yuan Dynasty 元朝.

At the beginning of the 18th century, on the basis of the original management measures, the local government of Tibet further improved the administrative management system for the Menyu area.

In the 8th century, the rule of feudal serfdom in Menyu was relatively complete. On the one hand, the local regime in Tibet strengthened the governance of Menyu, guaranteed the stability of the southwestern border, and consolidated the integrity and unity of the territory of the motherland.

Tibet was peacefully liberated in 1951, and Tibet underwent democratic reform in 1959, which completely abolished the feudal serf system. Together with the people of all ethnic groups in Tibet, the Monba people achieved a historic leap in social development and gained a new national life.

The religion of the Monba people

In the traditional religious beliefs of the Monba people, the symbiosis and coexistence of primitive religious beliefs, local religious beliefs and Tibetan Buddhism 藏传佛教 beliefs are a distinctive feature of the religious beliefs of the Monba nationality.

The Monba people believe in Tibetan Buddhism 藏传佛教 as well as primitive religions and basic religions. With the introduction of various sects of Tibetan Buddhism, Buddhist monasteries have been established one after another in the Monba area, and batches of monks have emerged from time to time.

The Cultures of the Monba people

The eating habits of the Monba people 门巴族的饮食习惯

In daily life, the main staple foods of the Monba people are buckwheat cakes, corn rice and rice. Corn rice is the staple food of the Monba people. In the diet structure of the Monba nationality, common vegetable varieties include cabbage, radish, root root, potato, cucumber, etc.

There are two categories of beverages in the daily life of the Monba people: wine and tea. Wines include rice wine and barley wine, and teas include butter tea and clear tea. The living area of the Monba people is mostly bamboo and wood, and the tableware is mainly made of bamboo and wood.

Architectural features of the Monba people 门巴族的建筑特点

There are two main types of dwellings of the Monba ethnic group: the stone buildings of the Diaofang style and the wooden houses of the dry fence. Most of the stone building bases are rectangular, and the walls are vertical and towering. The Menba Stone Building is generally divided into three floors. The bottom floor is used for captive livestock, the middle floor is the living room for people, and the upper floor is used to store grain and sundries.

The building of the Monba wooden house is a bamboo and wood structure, generally three floors. There is no wall on the ground floor, which is used for tethering livestock, and the second floor is the living room for people. There is a large outer corridor on the outside of the living room, which doubles as a drying platform. It is a place for people to weave bamboo and do woodwork.

Monba nationality clothing 门巴族民族服装

Monba women’s clothing is colourful. Women in the Dawang area 达旺地区 of Menyu wear floral tops embroidered with colourful patterns of people, cows, the sun and various flowers. The colours are matched with white, blue, yellow and red.

Monba men’s clothing includes coats, underwear and trousers. The long coat is made of phru (A woolen fabric produced by hand by the Tibetan people) made of wool. The coat is knee-length, with a slanted placket on the right side, a stand-up collar and long sleeves, without buttons and pockets, with blue piping. The coat is mainly red, and it is worn with a red phru belt.