ABSTRACT
Based on my preliminary research in the summer of 1996, I intend to discuss the social, political and economic changes in Jiuzhaigou, a Tibetan Bon-po village community in northwest Sichuan Province, PRC, and the impact of these changes on local Tibetan pilgrimage practices since the 1950s. Social transformations in Jiuzhaigou have been profound and unprecedented in history, as they have been in other parts of Tibet. Successive campaigns launched by the present Chinese regime, such as Democratic Reform, Collectivization, and the Cultural Revolution, brought about changes in all aspects of local Tibetans’ traditional way of life. Religious activities, including the practice of pilgrimage, were banned from 1957 after an uprising took place here. It was not until the early 1980s – with the implementation of Deng Xiaoping’s reformed religious policy – that Jiuzhaigou began to witness a revival of public religious activities. Local pilgrimage to Rdza-zhig Brag-dkar (hereafter Mt. Rdza-dkar), a sacred mountain located in Jiuzhaigou, gained momentum in the mid-1980s.
