Warriors of Ancient Ba Tribe

According to historical records, the Ba ethnic group extremely worshipped witchcraft. Before they fought a battle, they held a grand and complicated prayer ceremony. They believed that they could gain superhuman strength and divine protection. Could the deities really protect their bodies?

These are some scenes of the TV play 鈥淭he Romance of the Three Kingdoms鈥produced in the 1990s. They featured a war between Zhuge Liang, Prime Minister of the state of Shu, and ethnic minorities in southwest China. Because the enemy troops wore firm and supple coats of rattan, Zhuge Liang could not defeat them time and again. They were scenes of a war over a thousand years ago. The powerful state of Ba had disappeared long before.

Luo Erhu (Professor, Archaeology Department, School of Historical Culture, Sichuan University):

We found bronze helmets of the Ba people, but didn鈥檛 find coats of mail. We can鈥檛 say there were no so such things in those days. Probably they were made of materials that rotted easily, so they haven鈥檛 been preserved. According to a study of other ethnic groups in ancient times, aside from metal suits of armour, they often wore leather, cane or rattan suits of armour. In the light of the Ba people鈥檚 environment, they probably used rattan.

In the novel 鈥淭he Romance of the Three Kingdoms鈥 the author described the making of coats of rattan. The complicated process lasted a few years.

Herbaceous and woody rattans grow in most continents of the earth. They usually climb up rocks or other plants. Woody rattans have a lot of supple stem fibres.

In the Daba Mountains today, we still can see people carrying things with rattan baskets. A survey shows that a rattan as thick as a little finger can support the pulling force of several hundred kilograms.

Today craftsmen make gorgeous furniture and handicrafts with rattans, but we cannot find any trace of coats of rattan. Through the cracks of rattans and the nimble fingers, we may visualize other stories about them.

During the Warring States Period, metal armour was in wide use in the big states like Qin and Chu. When Qin and Chu soldiers in heavy armour were driving war chariots and fighting on the plains, Ba soldiers were trekking across gorges and streams with their strong limbs. Because of their different surroundings, they made another kind of mail. In 鈥淭he Romance of the Three Kingdoms鈥 Zhuge Liang defeated the enemy troops in rattan coats of mail with the help of fire. So we can visualize Ba warriors in rattan coats of mail. Today we can no longer find any trace of those rattan coats of mail.

Images of the Ba people are incomplete. Guo Zehong, a postgraduate of the Sculpture Department, Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts, began his creation of the 鈥淏a People鈥 He drew on archaeological objects, historical documents and data concerning ethnology and anthropology. Artistic imagination was also necessary.