Derung

The Derung, also spelt Drung, are a Tibeto-Burman people of the steep Derung Valley in Gongshan on the upper Salween in north-western Yunnan. Their society was organized into patriarchal clans called nile, each divided into communal longhouse settlements, and their own Derung language was unwritten, so records were kept by notching wooden logs.

Under the Tang dynasty of 618 to 907 their lands fell within the domains of Nanzhao and then the Dali Kingdom; under the Yuan and Qing, from the late thirteenth century onward, local Tibetan and Nakhi chiefs ruled them, and they sent yearly tribute to the Chinese court.

Most Derung kept their animist beliefs, served by shamans who oversaw animal sacrifices. Women traditionally tattooed their faces on reaching adulthood.