In order to understand local sense of identity and understandings of religion, it is essential to know the nature, characteristics and particularities of Jiuzhaigou National Park.
Jiuzhaigou National Park is a part of Jiuzhaigou County which sits in the north-eastern region of Aba Prefecture in Sichuan Province. In Jiuzhaigou National Park, there are four Tibetan villages and one Bon monastery (Zharu monastery), and these are my main
research areas. At the moment, there are two main routes for tourists to get into Jiuzhaigou: one involves a 6 to 8 hour drive from Chengdu to Jiuzhaigou; the other one, a 40-minute flight from Chengdu airport to Jiuzhaigou-Huanglong Airport and about a 2 hour drive from the airport to Jiuzhaigou.
Jiuzhaigou National Park covers 720 square kilometres. According to the official web site for the park: “It is best known for its fabled blue and green lakes, spectacular waterfalls, narrow conic karst land forms and its unique wildlife” (Jiuzhaigou National Park, 2014). Jiuzhaigou was named a UNESCO World Natural Heritage Site in 1992 and joined the Man and Biosphere Conservation Network in 1997. Figures 3.2 – 3.5 from the official website of Jiuzhaigou National Park illustrate the magnificent and beautiful scenery in Jiuzhaigou which are the main attractions.
Jiuzhaigou in Chinese means Nine Village Valley, so named because it was home to nine Tibetan villages (see Fig. 3.6-3.8 for the images of the villages). Although nine villages had been recomposed into four villages, the name is still kept. There are 1189 residents and 334 families in the park, 95% of who are Tibetans (Jiuzhaigou Administration Bureau, 2012a). They were living a farming and herding life before the start of tourism.
Tourism started in Jiuzhaigou in 1984. Since then, Jiuzhaigou has become a mature tourist destination. Local residents (including laypeople and monks) have been involved in tourism to a greater and greater extent. Tourism could be considered Jiuzhaigou’s sole means of living creating huge fortune for them. According to data provided by the Jiuzhaigou Administration Bureau (local level government specifically managing the Jiuzhaigou; abbreviated as JAB), apart from young people who are studying, almost all local people directly or indirectly work in tourism. The majority of locals let Tibetan costumes out to, take instant photos for, and sell souvenirs to tourists. In addition, some run family inns and hotels. Some local people are working in the JAB. Both women and men at different ages have taken part in these various forms of tourism business. For those who are not formally employed in public sectors, as a dividend they can split the total amount of 7 CNY from each ticket sold (the ticket price is 220 CNY in peak season; 80 CNY in off-season). According to statistics from the JAB, in 2005 every qualified Jiuzhaigou resident6 got 14,000 CNY dividend (Jiuzhaigou Administration Bureau, 2012a). In comparison with the whole Aba, in 2005 the average annual income of urban and rural residents were respectively 7,830 CNY and 1,881 CNY (Aba Statistics Bureau,
6 Qualified Jiuzhaigou residents are people with their hukou registered in Jiuzhaigou National Park.
2006). The income from the tourism dividend only in Jiuzhaigou is far more than other areas in Aba Prefecture, not to mention the income from the tourism business. According to the latest statistics (Abazhou.gov.cn, 2010), in 2010 the average annual income of urban and rural residents in Aba rose to 15,939 CNY and 3,741 CNY. But according to an estimate provided by a government official, the annual income of a Jiuzhaigou resident was at least 50,000 to 60,000 CNY.
Apart from their economic status, their hukou status has changed as well. In 1992, their
hukou was changed from agricultural to non-agricultural. In 2000, in order to protect the
environment and sustain tourism, the central and local government required local people to convert their farm land into forest. In 2003, Jiuzhaigou people were forced to get rid of nearly 2000 livestock, which signified that their traditional ways of production were to be completely abandoned. They turned from farmers and herders into ‘urban’ residents, even though they still live in the four ‘villages’. Some local people complained to me that they do not feel secure without their fields by saying “We are now turned into urban residents without any welfare… I would rather be a farmer”; and “Now we lost our land, tourism is our only choice”. They felt confused about their role as urban hukou holders because they can enjoy neither privileges of those who hold urban hukou nor those who hold rural hukou.
The number of tourists has rapidly increased with local people’s increasing wealth. Since 2001, Jiuzhaigou has had more than 1 million tourists every year. In 2011 and 2012, there were about 2,830,000 (Aba Tourism Bureau, 2012) and 3,860,000 tourists visiting Jiuzhaigou respectively (Jiuzhai.com.cn, 2013). The gross revenue from ticket sales reached 539,000,000 CNY and 654,000,000 CNY. From 1984 to 2011, Jiuzhaigou received about 223.9 million visitors in total. Jiuzhaigou tourism has become the leading industry of Aba Prefecture. Mass tourism is the main type of tourism in Jiuzhaigou and tourists are mostly Han Chinese. Tourists come to Jiuzhaigou mainly to view the beautiful natural sites. Most of them just stay in Jiuzhaigou for one day (Jiuzhaigou National Park is open from 07:00 to 18:00) rushing between the waters, forests and Tibetan villages. Most tourists are on package tours run by tourist agencies which leave only one day for Jiuzhaigou National Park. The ticket price is comparatively high, 310 CNY including gate ticket and shuttle bus ticket. This also prevents tourists from staying longer than one day in the park. Tourists stay outside the park as accommodation is not permitted inside. Tourists and residents do not have abundant contact between each other. Their encounters are superficial, limited to the ‘businesses’ of tourism.
In the following paragraphs, four prominent characteristics of Jiuzhaigou, namely its nature as a gated, economically constricted, socially inward-looking and religiously confined space, will be examined.
3.4.2.1 A gated park
In order to preserve the natural environment and to manage tourism effectively, Jiuzhaigou as well as local people are enclosed into a 62-square-kilometre area. Both for tourists and local residents, there is only one entrance into the Jiuzhaigou Valley. The gate regulations are very strict not only for tourists, but also for the local residents. According to the gate policies, the park opens from 7:00 to 18:00 to tourists. Except for this period, tourists are not allowed to stay in the park. As to the local residents in Jiuzhaigou, a tourist shuttle in the park is their only means of public transportation and this only runs in the daytime (7:00-18:00). They are only allowed to use their own vehicles in the tourist off-peak time (12:00-14:00) and at night and early morning (from 18:00 to 7:00 on the following day) to move around in the park or drive out of it. For the non-tourist outsiders, it is extremely hard and complicated to go into the park. Anyone including relatives and friends of the local residents who visit the park, needs to buy a ticket or get a permit from the Administration Bureau in order to get in. Every resident has a quota of people they can invite each year. At the moment, it is 3 persons a year.
These gate regulations cause inconvenience for the life of people living in Jiuzhaigou. They are not free to go back home. Some young people who come back only in summer and winter holidays are often stopped at the entrance because they are not be recognised by the guards. Friends and relatives of local people are not easily invited home. At the same time, tourism development as well as the gate regulations, make the park feel as if it is endowed with exclusive social and economic characteristics.
3.4.2.2 An economically-constricted park
Tourism is the only economy which local people in Jiuzhaigou can be directly or indirectly involved in. Almost all of the locals are working inside the park and could be economically self-sufficient with little connection to the outside.
Not only are the older and middle generations deeply enmeshed in Jiuzhaigou tourism, the younger generation is also attracted back home by tourism after graduation from college or university. For young people, working in the tourism business back home is a comparatively good and easy career choice from which they can get a decent income
and flexible working hours. Like their parents, they are running tourist souvenir shops, photographing for tourists, renting Tibetan costumes to tourists, working in the Jiuzhaigou Administration Bureau, and so on. Contrary to the description of “lazy” and “spoiled” Tibetans in Lhasa in Yeh’s (2007b) study, most Tibetans in Jiuzhaigou are working hard in tourism.
In order to efficiently preserve the environment and manage tourism, the JAB has adopted a series of strategies of regulating the types of economies in the park. The traditional economic activities that were considered damaging environment and causing disorders were forbidden, such as food-stalls and yak-photographing. There are fixed jobs within the tourism business which are allowed by the JAB. A quota is given to each family in the park for renting Tibetan costumes and taking photos for tourists every day. Even though working opportunities are exclusively for Jiuzhaigou hukou holders, there are some exceptions; for example, local people can rent out their shops or stalls to outsiders; the monastery was once leased out (see Chapter 5 for full story).
In 2013, JAB undertook a project identifying people who could get the Basic Living Allowance. For locals, this is a way of officially identifying Jiuzhaigou people. This project originated in complaints from Jiuzhaigou people about the current dividend policy. As I mentioned earlier, the dividend is the gross of 7 CNY from each ticket sold at Jiuzhaigou. In 2012, this dividend was called the Basic Living Allowance to make it clear it was meant to help Jiuzhaigou people7 who have no official job and stable monthly salary, such as self-employed couriers in the tourism business, students, and the unemployed. Workers in public or private organizations like the government sector, national corporations and the public sector JAB are not qualified to receive the allowance. Some complain that their salary is far lower than that of many self-employed people working in the tourism business and saying that they should be given the allowance. People who married an outside woman/man tend to think that their spouse and children are Jiuzhaigou people as well and it is unfair that they cannot be enlisted in the Basic Living Allowance system. In these ways, the current way of identifying and treating Jiuzhaigou people is challenged and questioned by local residents. The economic benefit becomes one of the elements constituting local people’s sense of their identity. Furthermore, whether or not you hold a Jiuzhaigou hukou in Jiuzhaigou has a series of consequences. In Jiuzhaigou there are some collective investments which only allow official Jiuzhaigou
hukou holders to take part in. For example, one of the main issues around the newest
hotel development project in Jiuzhaigou is to decide who is qualified to buy shares in this
7 Here Jiuzhaigou people mean people with hukou registered in Jiuzhaigou National Park.
project and how many shares each person can buy. This raised difficult questions about who a ‘proper’ Jiuzhaigou person is. This project was carried out among four villages. The main stakeholder, who is a current allowance receiver, had conducted a poll regarding the main question of who could receive the Basic Living Allowance attached to this project. They decided that their own and relatives’ families should benefit. They asked, for example, if people agreed that their daughters-in-law, sons-in-law and their grandchildren should obtain the allowance and if they are happy to see residents with official jobs getting the allowance. Getting a hukou in Jiuzhaigou turns out to be like obtaining citizenship in another country. They even designed a question in the poll asking after how many years of marriage the spouse could start to enjoy the allowance.
The enclosure of Jiuzhaigou National Park changed the form and nature of the economy in Jiuzhaigou. Moreover, the significance of a specific Jiuzhaigou identity has been significantly enhanced.
3.4.2.3 A socially-inward-looking park
As stated before, tourism provides locals opportunities and privileges. These factors greatly influence local people’s decisions on marriage. They prefer to marry someone inside so that the couple can enjoy the working opportunities and dividends in Jiuzhaigou. At the same time, their families can help each other in various ways inside Jiuzhaigou. Women are not very willing to marry a husband from outside. Even when they do marry a man from outside, they still keep their hukou registration in the park and come back inside to do business. In these ways, Jiuzhaigou people share a lot of communal relatives. The hukou of an outside woman who marries an inside man cannot be moved to the park.
3.4.2.4 A religiously-confined space
In Jiuzhaigou, there are two important sacred sites with regional religious appeal, Zharu monastery and Zhayizhaga sacred mountain. Zharu monastery provides religious services to laypeople in Jiuzhaigou National Park as well as in some other towns and villages nearby. However, the gate of Jiuzhaigou National Park sets an invisible barrier between the outside laypeople and the religious sites in Jiuzhaigou. People from nearby places do not have easy access to the Zharu Monastery and Mount Zhayizhaga. They are only allowed to get into Jiuzhaigou freely on important religious days, such as the fifteenth day of every lunar month. The inconveniences caused by the gate regulations affect the religious involvement and enthusiasm of outside people for Zharu monastery.
Some chooses other monasteries or sacred mountains to which to make pilgrimages and devotions instead.