Tusi relics recognised as World Heritage Sites

CHANGSHA: Tusi sites, which offer a glimpse into the ancient chieftain system that governed ethnic minorities in southwest China for eight centuries, have entered Unesco’s world heritage list.

Three Tusi sites – the ruins of Hailongtun castle in Guizhou Province; the Tangya Tusi city in Hubei Province; and the Yongshun old Tusi city in Hunan Province – were added to the World Cultural Heritage List on Saturday during the 39th session of the World Heritage Committee in Bonn, Germany.

Tusi was a tribal leader appointed as an imperial official by the central government in ancient China. The Tusi system was a political system adopted by feudal Chinese emperors to govern ethnic minority regions.

“The three sites are in areas where different ethnic groups and cultures coexisted,” said Fu Jing, an expert with the China Architecture Design and Research Group.

The chieftains ruled Tangya Tusi city in Hubei Province, central China, for 460 years. Statues, a cemetery and an ornately decorated memorial archway are still standing.

Yongshun Tusi city in central Hunan Province has a history dating back more than 600 years.

Lying on the bank of a river, it has a temple, ancestral house, cemeteries and a memorial archway. Even its complicated sewage network still works.

Lots of Tujia (a local ethnic group) in Yongshun flocked to the streets on Saturday afternoon wearing their traditional attire to celebrate the inscription.

Experts said the Yongshun old Tusi city can provide important evidence for research on Tujia culture, and relations between the ancient central government and the local minority groups.

Zhu Changxiang, 74, a resident of the village where Yongshun old Tusi city is located, said that she was proud of her hometown. The inscription of Tusi sites will help expose the world to the Tujia, she said.

To better protect the old Tusi city and let more people understand the local culture, the local government is building a park and museum, which will open in September. — Xinhua

— Xinhua r d herita e A photo showing a stone torii at the Tangya Tusi site in central China’s Hubei Province. Tusi sites were inscribed in the World Heritage list recently.