Tunbao

The Tunbao (or Tunpu) (Simplified Chinese: 屯堡) are an officially unrecognized ethnic group of Guizhou province, China.^[1] The Tunbao are descended from ethnic Han people who were part of an army sent on an expedition to Guizhou during the Hongwu reign of the Ming Dynasty.^[2] Long thought to have been a non-Han ethnic minority, their Han origins were proved by Japanese anthropologist Torii Ryuzo in 1896. The Tunbao have preserved much of their culture, costumes, and language from the Ming era.^[3]

The Tianlong Tunbao town, located near Anshun^[4] is a historic site where Tunbao homes and customs have been preserved, including the traditional Dixi opera or "ground opera" performances.^[5]

References

1. James Stuart Olson (1 January 1998). An Ethnohistorical Dictionary of China. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 340–. ISBN 978-0-313-28853-1. Retrieved 19 July 2013. The Tunbao people are one of the more curious ethnic groups who live today in the People's Republic of China (PRC), although PRC government demographers have not awarded formal recognition to the Tunbao as a minority ...
2. Beijing Review. January 1997. p. 32. Retrieved 19 July 2013. In the vicinity of Anshun, Guizhou Province in southwest China, are dozens of mystic villages where the Tunbao people still preserve China's Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) folklore.
3. Reader's Digest (26 June 2005). China, its most scenic places : a photographic journey through 50 of its most unspoiled villages and towns. Reader's Digest Association. p. 210. ISBN 978-0-7621-0620-2. Retrieved 19 July 2013. Also found in the area are some three hundred Tunbao communities, literally the garrison fortress villages, with a population of approximately 300,000. The Tunbao inhabitants live in fortlike stone-and-wood houses on ...
4. "Tunpu culture in Anshun". Retrieved 8 August 2013.
5. "Tianlong Tunbao Ming Dynasty City". Retrieved 2013-07-19.