PRESENTING THE CHASHAN

In the southwestern end of the province of Yunnan are the mounts Gaoligang. There, in a narrow stripe of frontier ground with Burma practically covered completely by tropical forest, there is the county of Piangugang, where there inhabit them little more than 1000 persons that Chashan considers.

One believes that the Chashan are the original inhabitants of these abrupt grounds, since most of the names of his geographical features are a translation of the original that they gave to him, reflecting the activities of the historical personages who led them in his migrations up to this region. In the chronicles of the dynasty Ming (XVth century) there appear already the Chashan as original inhabitants of these grounds.

In the 50s, when the first works of ethnic identification were realized in China, they were considered to be a branch of the Jingpo (called Kachin in Burma), but the information arisen from new investigations makes to think that, in fact, there can be considered to be an independent ethnic entity.

The proper Chashan are not considered to be related to the Jingpo. They are named themselves Ochang, but the nearby peoples call them Chashan. Possibly the denomination Ochang comes from the name that was receiving this region in times of the dynasty Ming, which the settlers of the same one will have adopted later.

Not too much far from the region that the Chashan inhabit, he lives for centuries through another village that is autonamed Achang. This makes to think that this so similar denomination should denote the same origin, or that the Chashan should be, in fact, a branch of the Achang. The linguistic studies, on the other hand, show big resemblances between the language of the Chashan and that of the Achang.

A detailed study of the legends and the ceremonies with which they accompany to the souls of the dead persons to the hearth of the ancestors, leads to thinking that the Chashan separated of the ancestors of the Achang about the XIIIth or XIVth century, and crossing the mountains Gaoligang they were established in the grounds where they live at present.

This explains the resemblances that they support with them in story to language and denomination, and his immediate recognition as ethnic group becomes necessary to be able to preserve his language and culture only ones, which given his scarce population are in danger of getting lost forever.

Copyright © 2004 www.wuhancom.net