Ethnobotany of Hongyuan nomads
Xiangqiu Duoji (Dept Tibetology, SW Nationalities Institute,
Chengdu)
Holger Blasum (Dept Biotechnology, Sichuan Union University,
Chengdu 610064)
Zhao Zuocheng (Biology Institute, Academia Sinica, Chengdu
610041)
0. Preface: Having done some work on legumes in Xiaman, Ruoergai, NW Sichuan (Eastern Edge of the Qinghai-Tibet plateau) we asked local nomads on what they knew of and thought on indigenous legumes, grasses and forbs.
1. Materials and methods
1.1. Origin of plant specimen: 16 specimen came from the herbarium of Sichuan Union University.
1.2. Persons interviewed: In Hongyuan we asked 30 nomads (thereof 1/2 in Longrang village, the others from differing locations in the county) using Tibetan, in the Tangke/Xiaman area we asked 4 nomads (using Chinese), and in the Ruoergai area we asked 10 officials working on grasslands (using Chinese). Interviews were held in July and August 1996.
1.3. Questions chosen: Asked for were sex, age, which kind of cattle was raised, changes in grassland quality. For each specimen, we asked its name, distribution, whether sheep, horses and yaks eat it, whether it is poisonous for them, if it was used as winter forage, if the plant had other uses (for example: food, pharmaceutical, religious instruments etc). We noted time and location of the visit. The sequence in which specimen were presented to the interviewees was randomized. For questionnaire design see DIAOCHA.JUA.
1.4. Data processing: Tibetan was transcribed according to Wylie (1962). Data were quantified on a 0-100 scale and entered into DATASET.NOM (FOX/DBASE) can also be read be ASCII processors.
2. Results
2.1. Changes in grassland quality: Asked "You think that in the last 10 years the overall grassland quality has...", in Longrang 8 nomads answered "improved", 3 answered "no change", 5 answered "deteriorated". Nomads in other location answered (3/7/1) and Hongyuan officials answered (0/7/3).
2.2. Naming of different plants
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rt Herbar Fm Latin Chinese(book) Ch(oral) Tibetan(oral) Tibetan(book) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Grasses: 90 348864 Po Elymus nutans Griseb. 垂穗披碱草 rtsva[11];'jag.ma[3];glas.rtsva[3];yug.go[2] rtsva=grass glas=ubiquitous 88 348863 Po Trisetum clarkei 三毛草(禾本) 洽草 gu.sha[15];'jag.ma[3] ku.sha=holy grass 82 348862 Po Deschampsia caespitosa Beauv. 发草(禾本) rgyu.rtsva[6];'jag.ma[4] 'jag.ma=crude grass Forbs: 94 348868 As Leontopodium longifolium Ling 长叶火绒草(菊)窄叶火绒花 hpa[14];hpa.thog[14] 88 Ro Potentilla anserina L. 鹅绒委陵菜(蔷巍) 委陵菜 gyo.lo[23];gyo.yus[4] gro.ma/gro.lo=plant name 77 348870 Li Allium cyaneum Regel. 天蓝韭(兰) sgog[20];khyu.sgog[6] rgyu.sgog=wild garlic 77 348869 La Morina kokonorica Hao 青海刺参 tsher.ma[24];rta.tsher[2] tsher.ma=thorn rta=horse 71 178891 Th Stellera chamaejasme L. 狼毒(蕊香) ras.tsag[10];rva.ma.ras.tsag[9] re.lcag.ba=plant name 46 348871 Ra Delphinium coeruleum Jacq.et C 翠雀花(毛茛) dug.ta[6];pho.rog.dug.ta[2] dug=poison pho.rog=raven Legumes: 23 123652 Fa Hedysarum sikkimense Benth. 锡金岩黄芪(豆) khyong.lo/chong.lo[5/not in Longr.]khyung.sded=Garuda claw root medicine 18 119566 Fa Astragalus polycladus Bur.et Fra多枝黄芪(豆) 蓝花黄芪 khyung.lo[3/Longr.];rva.rhag.pa[1] 16 124787 Fa Trigonella archiducis-nicolai Si胡芦巴(豆) btsod[1] 15 119026 Fa Gueldenstaedtia diversifolia Max异叶米口袋(豆) chu.sran[2/Longrang] cf sran.ma=bean 13 126972 Fa Thermopsis lanceolata R.Br. 披针叶黄桦(豆) 黄桦 sran.ma.nag.ra[1] 13 125873 Fa Oxytropis kansuensis Bunge 甘肃棘豆(豆) 00 127410 Fa Vicia sativa L. 救荒野豌豆(豆) 碱舌豌豆 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Rt"is the percentage of nomads (0-100) which gave any name to the
plant (regardless which name). "Herbar" refers to the numbers in
the Sichuan Union University Herbarium. "Fm" refers to the plant
family, "Po" are Poaceae (grasses), "Fa" are Fabaceae (legumes),
all other designations to forbs. "Chinese (book)" is the Chinese
scientific name. "Ch(oral)" is the naming by Ruoergai officials.
"Tibetan (book)" is the name by Rerikh (1984). "Tibetan(oral)"
refers to the name(s) used by local nomads.
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The ability to name a plant implies a certain awareness. It is
quite obvious that the naming ratios are high for the grasses and
rather high for conspicous forbs, but rather low for the legumes.
The differentiation power of intraframiliar names is sometimes low
("'jag.ma", "khyung"). Names for legumes proposed by the "Alpine
Medicine Handbook" (1971) based on bean ("sran.ma") for Oxytropis
("sran.ser"), Hedysarum ("sram.tamr") and Thermopis ("srad.nag")
weren't very common.
2.3. Ecology and distribution: Among the 16 plants, the grasses (ranks 1,3 and 6) and control forbs were chosen as "common", and legumes as rather scarce (7 of the 8 last ranks; the plants considered most seldom were Hedysarum, following Morina). The overwhelming majority of the above-mentioned plants are not considered to be swamp plants, but two persons put Potentilla and Allium into this category. 4-5 persons answered that Deschampsia occurred in both dry and wet habitats. In areas with much grazing, Potentilla(80; 100 is tolerant, 0 is sensible to grazing), Elymus (73), Thibetia (71), Leontopodium (63), Deschampsia(62) and Allium (61) are considered common, whereas in areas with little grazing Delphinium(39), Stellera(38), Astragalus(31), Morina(24), Oxytropis(12) and Hedysarum(6) seem more typical.
2.4. Nutritive value: Scores range from 0-100. As far as taste for yaks is concerned, Deschampsia (89), Elymus (86) and Trisetum (79) scored high (100="yaks like to eat eat it"), Allium (58), Potentilla (55) and Trigonella (56) are in the medium ranks, and Delphinium (48), Leontopodium (43), Astragalus (42), Hedysarum (33), Thermopsis (25), Thibetia (11) and Morina (10) scored low (0="yaks don't eat it"). The answers given for sheep are similar to those for yaks, only Hedysarum (77) and Thermopsis (67) score higher. The only significant difference between yaks and horses is Morina (41), notably a Tibetan name used for it is "rta.cer"("horsethorn"). Asked for palatibility and toxicity, except for Stellera (whose Chinese name is "wolf's poison") few people directly affirmed that a certain species was poisonous, but instead abstained from assigning it a good palatibility score (0-100). Thus on the top ranks of the palatibility scala Elymus (96), Deschampsia (88) and Trisetum (88) are found; following are Leontopodium and Potentilla. Only the three grasses were named as overwintering forage by more than half of the interviewees, all other plants were named by less than 25%.
2.5. Other uses: food for man: Allium is often used as spice [27 persons mentioning], and Potentilla root can be used as food [25]. Some people designated the roots of legumes as edible (Hedysarum [4], Astragalus [3]; people uniformly calling both plants "khyong"). Among the forbs only Morina and Delphinium ware rarely proposed [2 each]. Pharmaceutical use: Most people mentioned Leontopodium [23], followed by Delphinium [15], Stellera [6] and Morina, only few legumes were proposed (Oxytropis[3], Astragalus [2]). Delphinium is put on the head of small children to keep off flies [2], which is also common in Rolwaling (Sacherer 1979). Stellera is used as adhesive [2] or for paper-making [1]. Trisetum is used for religious purposes [11]. Leontopodium is used for fire-making [15] and as rabbit food [5]. In Longrang, Morina is used for pig feeding [4], and one person [1] said it was used in milk fermentation.
2.6. Attitudes of different groups: The cadres had a higher opinion of legumes than the nomads, and a lower opinion of the forbs than the nomads. Of course, officials are more familiar with the fodder crop Vicia (vetch). Officials are more pessimistic about recent changes in grassland quality. However, in most aspects answers do not differ very much.
3. Discussion
3.1. Ethnobotanical awareness: The history of Tibetan medicine is very old (Luo 1985) and much literature exists on written records (Aschoff 1996). However there are few field investigations (except Yunnan University). In our study, the answers given in table 2 on naming and in 2.3 on plant distribution and ecology show that local nomads have a deep understanding of their environment and that the methods we employed in our investigation were adequate. As it is by no means easy to identify wild plants for somebody the first time seeing herbarium specimens collected years ago, this finding is non-trivial. Among the two plants occasionally misclassified as swamp plants, one was rather hydrophilous (Potentilla). Grazing resistance is indeed strongest in Elymus (Miller 1990) for the grasses and Thibetia for the legumes (Blasum 1997).
3.2. Attitudes about different plant groups: The opinion of nomads about grasses is rather high and that of local legumes rather low (lower than most other forbs). This possibly coincides with reports about the toxicity of some common Qinghai-Tibet plateau legumes (for Oxytropis and some Astragali see Lu 1993). Yaks are perceived as more legume-tolerant than other cattle.
3.3. Practical use of our data: Before indigenous legumes are to be employed, their toxicity must be analyzed. If other legumes are to be introduced, one must be aware that the reputation of this family is not high among the nomads. On the other hand, the high awareness of other forbs and grasses indicates that if linguistic and cultural barriers can be overcome, the potential for nomad participation in scientific activities might be higher than hitherto assumed. As far as other plants are concerned, the findings in 2.5 might be interesting for further investigations.
4. References:
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medicine(1789-1995),Ulm;www.uni-ulm.de/~jaschoff/
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eastern edge of Qinghai-Tibet plateau, MS Thesis, Dept. of
Biotechnology, Sichuan Union University
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12(3)159-163
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Ruoergai revolution committee(Ed.)若尔盖县革委员会生产指挥部(编)
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'Dzam-Gling-Rgyas-Bshad,Istituto Italiano por il Medio ed Estremo
Oriente,Roma