More than 30 well-armed soldiers returning from their post in Tibet to the inner land ran into around 200 knife-wielding robbers mounted on horseback. They immediately dispersed, each ran for life, leaving behind canons and guns. Not a single bullet was fired.  

It happened in 1744, the prime time of Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). The robbers were from Zhandui, one of the Tibetan tribes in Southwest China's Sichuan province. They would often cut off the road between Sichuan and Tibet - making the plateau completely inaccessible.  

Emperor Qianlong (reigned 1736-1795) ordered a 15,000-strong army to surround the tribe and capture robbers. Soldiers sent across by the central government joined the army of the Tibetan prince in Lhasa. Other tribes in Sichuan also joined in. The war lasted more than a year. The emperor won, and the tribal leader retreated.  

This was the second war the dynasty waged on the tribe. The first happened 16 years ago. An army of the same size had to retreat after a long standoff.  

Altogether the Qing Dynasty waged seven wars on the tribe, which had a total population of 30,000. In the early 20th century, armies from Sichuan and the Tibetan administration in Lhasa were constantly fighting and negotiating with the tribe, according to a recent book.  

A Lai, a Tibetan born in Sichuan, spent a decade researching and writing a non-fiction book on the tribe, Zhandui, a Kang-pa Legend of 200 Years. The 307-page book was published by Sichuan Literature and Arts Publishing House in May 2014, and has gone into 10 reprints by March this year.  

The author's novel, Red Poppies, also about Tibetans in Sichuan, won the Mao Dun Literature Prize, the highest prize for novelists, in 2000. At 41, he was the youngest author to receive the prize. He was editor-in-chief of one of China's best-selling magazines, Science Fiction World, until becoming a full-time writer in 2006.  

Tibetan tribes in Sichuan are called Kang-pa. Their men are famous for being strong and fierce. Zhandui is allegedly the fiercest Kang-pa, its name meaning "iron knot" in Tibetan. The tribe is allegedly descended from the family of a Buddhist monk, who twisted a sword into an iron knot when he met the Kublai Khan (1215-1294) in Beijing.  

The around 30,000 farmers and shepherds of the tribe inhabited a barren land. Robbery was, for a long time, a necessary side occupation to keep the home fires burning. Robbers called themselves "wandering swordsmen" and sang songs defying the wealthy and powerful.  

The author has traced the complicated relationship between the Kang-pa in Sichuan, the theocratic administration of the Dalai Lama in Lhasa and the central government in Beijing, from the 18th to the early 20th century. He also recounted the impact of British invaders on Tibetan regions and the growth of sentiments like "Tibetan independence" in the 19th century.  

The central government relied on influential local families when it ruled the Tibetan region in Sichuan, as it did in other ethnic minority regions, according to the author. The practice of giving titles to top families began during Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). A lord from each family was in charge of a certain area. The succeeding Qing Dynasty inherited the policy.  

Agricultural output was limited, and there was little commerce. The only way for a lord to increase wealth was to fight with other lords, grab land and people, or send robbers on his payroll to loot and plunder. The central government usually looked the other way. When Zhandui or another tribe caused too much unrest, it would send across the army and put a new lord at the helm. The cycle repeated throughout the Qing Dynasty.  

Tibetans in Sichuan did not necessarily recognize ethnic and religious leaders in Lhasa. In mid-19th century, a Zhandui lord conquered the larger part of the Tibetan region in Sichuan and even posed a serious threat to the administration in Lhasa.  

According to the book, he famously said: "Many of our Zhandui people climbed high mountains for pilgrimage to the Buddhist shrine in Tibet. Why can't we just move the Buddha statue in Lhasa's Jokhang Temple to our native place?" The statue was one of the most sacred in Lhasa. He was later driven away by a combined army of the Lhasa administration and the central government.  

Zhandui corresponds to today's Xinlong county in Sichuan's Ganzi Tibetan autonomous prefecture. The author described many layers in the lifestyle practices of the tribe. Studying this book could be the first steps in understanding the relationship between the two large ethnic groups of Han and Tibetan.

                                                                                                                                  Editor: Lily Li