pa̠ʔa̠ɯ̠ʔ (巴尔克): Wa exonym for the Bulang of Cangyuan
Puman (濮曼, 蒲满): Han Chinese exonym for the Bulang
In Thailand, they are known as Plang. According to the database of ethnicities in Thailand by Sirindhorn Anthropology Center, names of the Plangs include:
Hka Plang: an endonym meaning "upper" or "upper", referring to their habitats in higher altitude, akin to a word for "hill tribe"
Pang Chung
Lua: more commonly used by the official records of Thailand, combining Plangs with Lua people, and also sometimes used as an endonym by Plangs
Palong (ปะหล่อง), a mistaken name formerly used to refer to Plangs in Chiang Rai province
Chinese ethnographers identify the Blang as descendants of an ancient tribe known as the "Bo people (China)" (濮), who lived in the Lancang river valley during ancient times. It is believed that these people were one branch of a number of peoples that were collectively known to the ancient Chinese as the Bǎipú (百濮, literally Hundred Pu).
Plangs are believed to have arrived in Thailand in the 1970s, in seeking of job opportunities and escaping oppression from Myanmar.
Traditionally, the Blang considered teeth blackened by chewing betel nuts a beauty characteristic.
The women usually dress in jackets with black skirts. The men had tattoos in the torso and the stomach. They dressed in wide black trousers and jackets buttoned to the front. Often, they would wear turbans of either white or black fabric.
The houses of the Blang are made out of bamboo and usually consist of two floors. The first floor is designed as a warehouse for food and a stable for livestock animals, such as chickens, whereas the second is designed to house the family. The chimney is located in the center of the house.
The Blang are traditionally divided into small clans, with each clan owning its own land. Every Blang town has its own cemeteries, which are divided by clans. The deceased are buried, with the exception of those who perished due to unnatural causes. In this case, they are cremated.
A Buddhist pulpit made of paper from Plang community at Wat Chantharam temple in Thailand, used for monk to sit and preach Vessantara Jataka
The Blang are traditionally associated with animism, ancestor worship, and Theravada Buddhism. Writing in 2011, James Miller described these overlapping traditions as follows:
The Blang, like many nationalities in southwest China, are Theravada Buddhists, but their highly complex religious life is also informed by local beliefs and customs that relate to the traditional ecology, with special attention being paid to rice, water, bees, beeswax, and the various local spirits that are associated with them.
A Christian missionary source describes them as "ardent followers of Theravada Buddhism", and offers as an estimate that 80% of the Bulang are "professing Buddhists", with a lower estimate of 35% being "practicing Buddhists".
In Thailand exists a community of Christian Plangs, who in 2008 founded their own church building in Nakhon Pathom province.
Distribution
China
The Bulang are distributed in the following villages of Yunnan province (Tao 2012:16-18). Except for the Bulang of Xishuangbanna, the Bulang of most of these counties speak the U language (Svantesson 1991). Locations from Wang & Zhao (2013:173-179) are also included.
Menghai County (pop. 30,678; 33% of all ethnic Bulang in China)
12Yan Qixiang [颜其香] & Zhou Zhizhi [周植志] (2012). Mon-Khmer languages of China and the Austroasiatic family [中国孟高棉语族语言与南亚语系]. Beijing: Social Sciences Academy Press Social Sciences Literature Press.
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