Tusi Sites
Distributed around the mountainous areas of southwest China are the remains of tribal domains whose leaders were appointed by the Central Government as “Tusi,” hereditary rulers of their regions between the 13th and 20th century. This system of administrative government was aimed at unifying national administration while simultaneously allowing ethnic minorities to retain their customs and way of life. The three sites of Laosicheng, Tangya and the Hailongtun Fortress combine as a serial property to represent this system of governance. The archaeological sites and standing remains of Laosicheng Tusi Domain and Hailongtun Fortress represent domains of highest ranking Tusi; the memorial archway and remains of the administration area, boundary walls, drainage ditches and tombs at Tangya Tusi Domain represent the domain of a lower ranked Tusi. Their combinations of local ethnic and Han traditional features testify to imperial Chinese administrative methods, while retaining their association with the living cultural traditions of the ethnic minority groups represented by the cultural traditions and practices of the Tujia people at Laosicheng.
Tusi sites of Laosicheng, Tangya and the Hailongtun Fortress clearly exhibit the interchange of human values between local ethnic cultures of southwest China, and national identity expressed through the structures of the central government. In addition, they are evidence of the Tusi system of governance in the southwest region of China and thus bear exceptional testimony to this form of governance, which derived from earlier systems of ethnic minority administration in China, and to the Chinese civilization in the Yuan, Ming and Qing periods (1279-1911).