To preserve the cultural heritage of China's Mongolian ethnic group, museologists and anthropologists are helping to build a living "eco-museum in the autonomous region. They are now seeking help from international foundations.

In the living "museums, residents will be encouraged to retain traditions handed down by their ancestors and develop the economy at the same time, said Su Donghai, renowned Chinese museologist and researcher with the Museum of Chinese Revolutionary History in Beijing.

The museum will be the first of its kind for the ethnic group.

Mongolian Traditions

In Inner Mongolia, Su and Zhou Yongming, professor of anthropology at Wisconsin University in the United States, chose the community of herdsmen in the Darhan-Muminggan Banner (County).

The county lies remote in the remote grasslands at the border between China and Mongolia.

The community, which consists of 15 households, lives on the ruins of the 1,000-year-old city of Zhaowang.

The city, capital of Zhaowang State in the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368), was a most important communications hub on the Silk Road, which linked the East with the West. It fell into oblivion about 800 years ago and now only a few city walls are left on the grassland.

Thirty kilometers away from the community is the well-known Lark Lamasery (Bailing Temple). The lamasery, built in 1703, was called Lark because larks on the grassland often gather at the site.

The community, which had little communication with the outside world, retained the traditional Mongolian dances, songs, food and wine, according to Wang Dafang, researcher of museology with the autonomous region's cultural bureau.

"They still offer sacrifices to the aobao (a pile of stones, earth or grass used by Mongolians as religious sites or road signs) on the 13th day of the fifth lunar month, and hold traditional horse racing, wrestling and arrow-shooting contests after the ceremony, said Wang.

"Today, many communities in Inner Mongolia preserve their cultural heritage mainly for tourists to watch, but this one has the tradition as a natural part of their life.

However, this tradition has started to disappear as young people in the community accept mainstream culture through education. Brick houses have also started to appear.

"From the stance of anthropology, we shouldn't block the development of an ethnic community and keep it as a museum piece to visit and study, said Su Donghai. "But we can help them record their culture.

The herdsmen are now learning to use videos to record their everyday life. They are also writing down their legends, and collecting examples of their special benches, pots and saddles.

Although the local government is short of funds, the scholars and local experts are helping to build a community information center to preserve the heritage, to dig wells and to improve the deteriorated grassland.

"The first step to build eco-museums in China is always to get the local residents out of poverty, said Su.

Once the eco-museums are opened and visitors arrive, said Su, the young people of the community will be eager to enter the outside world and the traditional arts will become tourism products.

But in no more than 10 years the local residents would realize it was their tradition that has brought them a better life, and the appreciation from tourists would make them feel proud of their cultural heritage.

As their basic needs are met they will start to voluntarily preserve their heritage.

"But in this process some of the heritage will either disappear or lose its original flavor, said Su.

The Suojia Eco-museum of the Miaos in Southwest China's Guizhou Province, the first eco-museum in China, has experienced this process.

Miao Community

The branch of the Miaos in the eco-museum, who wear ox horns on their head, were driven to the barren mountains by enemies more than 200 years ago.

They could only eke out a meagre existence on the little farmland they had. They had no water for three months a year. In the inaccessible mountain village they preserved their embroidery, wax printing, music and marital and funeral customs.

They believed in several gods, often made sacrifices to trees and water, and danced together in the moonlight during festivals.

The social structure of their village was a pyramid system, with the three most powerful figures acting as governors.

The three figures are zhailao (village lord), zhaizhu (village master) and guishi (wizard). The zhailao recorded the history as he cut the bamboos to make marks.

The scholars helped build the village into an eco-museum and trained the villagers in Norway on concepts of eco-museums and modern techniques to record their history and lifestyle.

When the eco-museum first opened, the young of the village, who have seen a new world, felt inferior, thinking that theirs was a "primitive culture.

"When visitors asked a young villager what he wanted most, he said, 'I want to go out of the village, said Su.

The villagers’ lives have been improved, but their artistic talents are vanishing in the face of modernization. Their embroidery has become another tourism product and young people travel long distances to go to discos in towns.

"It is natural. The visitors have challenged the Miaos with modern life, but they've also brought the Miaos confidence and pride in their ethnic culture, he noted.

Today the young are leaving to continue their education and find work, but the social system is now being preserved along with the music and marital and funeral customs.

"The Miaos preserve these voluntarily, as a mark of the identity of their ethnic group, said Su.

"I believe, as the Miaos cherish their ethnic culture more and more, their wax embroidery prints will become delicate again.

This process is unavoidable for eco-museums in developing countries like China, said Su.

Museum's Origins

According to Su, the eco-museum, which originated in France in 1972, was a departure from the traditional concept of museums, where collections are kept in a building waiting for experts to study and visitors to view the exhibits.

In an eco-museum, which is often a community, the natural environment and the cultural heritage are preserved as a whole at the site, by the residents themselves and without stopping the community's development.

For instance, in a typical eco-museum in Norway, residents retain the lifestyle which was prevalent in villages of a traditional agricultural society.

They volunteer to do so as they believe their traditions are precious, and they keep records of their environment, ancestors and families in a local information center, said Su.

Today, there are more than 300 eco-museums in the world, mostly in Europe, Latin America and North America.

Four eco-museums have been built in China since 1992, respectively for the people of Miao, Dong, Bouyei and Han, all in the mountains of Guizhou. Su and the late renowned Norwegian museologist John Gjestrum promoted the four projects with assistance from a Norwegian fund.

"We chose remote, inaccessible villages because the ethnic cultures there had maintained their original flavor, said Su.

"If their cultures are not preserved now, they will die out in no time once the villages are linked with the outside world.

"Residents in European and US eco-museums are rich enough. They do not depend on tourism income, and they choose the life style simply because they like it. But here villagers choose the life style because it can get them out of poverty.

"That's why we put so much emphasis on the information center. Some cultural heritage will be lost, but at least we can preserve this heritage in document form.

Wang Dafang, the museologist of the Mongolian ethnic group, believed, through training, herdsman of the Mongolian community in Darhan-Muminggan Banner will voluntarily record and preserve their traditions.

"The eco-museum is a modern concept. We have to instill it in the residents’ minds and make them aware of the value of their ethnic culture, he said.

(China Daily March 3, 2003)