Tujia

The Tujia, endonym Bizika meaning 'native dwellers', are people of the Wuling Mountains where Hunan, Hubei, Guizhou and Sichuan meet. Their Chinese name means 'local families', and many scholars trace their roots to the ancient Ba people, whose kingdom Qin swallowed in 316 BCE.

The name Tujia appears in records from the fourteenth century, when hereditary tusi chieftains ruled them under loose imperial oversight. In 1337 their lands ran from the hills of northwestern Hunan to Youyang in eastern Sichuan, home of the Yongshun Peng chieftains, whose seat Laosicheng dated from 1135 to 1724. Under the Ming the chieftains reached their height, famed for troops sent against the coastal wokou raiders in the sixteenth century.

The Qing imposed direct rule in 1728–1735, abolishing the chiefdoms and imposing Chinese customs. Their language is often treated as an isolate within Sino-Tibetan, while Tujia culture found expression in the Baishou dance and the xilankapu brocade once delivered as tribute.