Reindeer-Breeding Ewinki People in the North

In her novel “The Right Bank of Argun River” which won her a Mao Dun Literature Prize in 2008， the preeminent novelist Chi Zijian portrays an ethnic minority group and its ancient history. Those who have an inkling of the history of Heilongjiang Province in northeast China know that the novel is not pure fabrication. Her novel pays respect to the Reindeer-Breeding Ewinki， an ethnic minority living in forests.

A long time ago I went with a group of writers to visit an Ewinki tribe deep in the Greater Khingan Mountains in Heilongjiang Province. At that time， the tribe still lived in mountains. Ewinki is a name the ethnic people call themselves， meaning the people living in mountains. This group of people call themselves “Reindeer-Breeding Ewinkis”. Reindeer-Breeding Ewinki people are a subgroup of the Ewinkis. They have lived in the upstream areas of the Heilongjiang River. As forests here allow no grass to grow on the ground， the ground is thickly covered by a thick layer of lichen. Reindeers feed on it. The creatures are the livestock of the Ewinkis.

Our coach trundled and zigzagged along a mountain road through thick forests. Then we stopped at the end of the road and walked all the way up to the camp of the tribe. Looking around， I though I was in Shangri-La. Reindeers wandered around， some browsing lichen and some sipping at a stream. They were peaceful and beautiful creatures. They did not panic at the sight of us intruders.

In the center of an open space in the forest were a few tents， propped up by a few tall pine timber poles and covered by plastic sheets. They had few possessions. Winds went through the tent. At night， one could see stars through the top-opening. The Ewinkis used to be nomads because their reindeers love fresh lichen and they had to move to a new ground every 15 days or so.

The Ewinkis were a hospitable people. They invited us to have a sip of tea with them. Tea was made in a simple jar sitting smugly on three stones. It was black tea mixed with reindeer milk. The Ewinki diet was mainly composed of dried reindeer meat， bread and milk tea. The Ewinkis have roamed around Heilongjiang River in history and the tribe very probably picked up the art of bread making from the Russians. In the dialect of the Ewinkis， the pronunciation of bread resembles that in the Russian language.

This tribe had a shaman who lived to her nineties. And she later became the prototype of the protagonist in Chi Zijian’s prize-winning novel. Shamanism is a religion adopted by some ethnic minorities living in this part of the world. Usually worshipers do not follow a unified practice. The old woman was the last shaman of the tribe. She was seen as a messenger of gods and she helped people to heal. The shaman had seven sons， but they died one by one every time their mother brought someone back from death. All the men including her sons and sons-in-law died as if they were the prices the old shaman paid for saving her tribe members. In the end the family was left with a few women.

The old shaman’s grand daughter Liuba was someone the tribe was very proud of. She was the first college student of the tribe. Liuba enrolled herself at the Fine Arts Department of the Central Academy of National Minorities. After graduation， she had a city job， but she could not find herself in the madding life of the city. She came back to the tribe and lived peacefully in the traditional way. She helped her mother take care of reindeer and helped her grandmother count stars in the sky at night. She created artworks out of animal furs and leather. I saw her working on a piece of artwork during our visit to the camp. But in August， 2008， she was found drowned in the river where she washed cloths. Nobody knew how she died. I was saddened after leaning about her unexpected death.

The Ewinkis prefer wind funeral. In such a funeral， a magic reindeer and a body are placed firmly on a high branch of a tree. They are left there to be taken care of the sun， the moon， the stars， wind， rain and snow. The people believed it was the top ritual for the dead. I saw a magic deer high in the tree. People looked up admiringly when they passed the tree.

The government has been helping the Ewinkis over the past decades. In the first government campaign， free housing and production tools were provided. Free education was provided for children. Liuba’s mother was one of the first educated of the Ewinki minority people. But many Ewinkis did not like the modern habitats created by the government. They did not want to settle down. They returned to forests and returned to their primitive way of life. But the outside world kept attempting the young. Young people often went away to try modern life. In the past， traders came all the way to the camps of the Ewinki and purchased reindeer antlers and other precious things from the tribe. Now， some young people of the tribe traveled to the outside world and sold their goods for big money. They no longer stayed put in forests. When we ended our visit and were about to leave， a few young men wanted a lift out of the mountain to the nearest town. The coach stopped at the exit to the town， they took off， singing loudly and making big and exciting noise on their way to the town where lights were already on. Watching them vanishing into dusk， I felt I was dreaming. Were they really reindeer tamers? They had traveled the tens of kilometers. How would they get back? I still don’t know.

The Ewinkis officially went out of the mountains in 2003. CCTV， China’s largest television network， covered the event in its primetime news program for a few consecutive days. On August 10th， 2003， the last batch of the Ewinkis moved out of the forests. Four hundred and ninety-eight Ewinkis moved into rows of houses in white and red in a settlement in Aoruguya， an Ewinkis autonomous township. Aoruguya in the ancient dialect of the Ewinki people refers to a place full of poplar trees. The houses were built by a Dutch business. The new settlement， including all the everyday household appliances， cost 12 million yuan.

Only the last shaman stayed in the mountain. And still， many Ewinkis now live in mountains in summer and come back to their settlement in winter， for they need to go back to take care of their reindeers. It is their constant concern. After all， they are still Reindeer-Breeding Ewinki people.□