Xie Luo Fort

Xie Luo Fort

Xie Luo Fort is a national AAA-level tourist attraction.

Xie Luo Fort is located in Group 5 of Jiangba Village, Xie Luo Tibetan Township, Shimian County, Ya’an City, Sichuan Province. Jiangba Village is a settlement area for the Ersu Tibetans in Xie Luo Tibetan Township, rich in Ersu Tibetan cultural heritage. The Ersu-Muya Tibetan culture has been included in the provincial intangible cultural heritage protection list. The fort currently has 78 households and 254 residents, including 206 Ersu Tibetans.

Xie Luo Fort in Xie Luo Tibetan Township is situated at the unique crossroads of the “Tibetan-Yi Corridor” and the Southern Silk Road. Amidst the harmonious coexistence of Han, Tibetan, and Yi peoples, the fort has developed a highly distinctive indigenous Tibetan culture with its own pictographic script, language, and customs. To this day, the local production and lifestyle, as well as traditions and beliefs, continue to follow ancestral legacies, and the culture has been preserved relatively intact.

The Tibetan village of Xie Luo Fort was built in the late Qing Dynasty, featuring contiguous stone-and-timber watchtower-style buildings scattered along the high mountain valleys. The residents here belong to the Ersu Tibetans, also known as the Ersu people, a small sub-group within the Tibetan ethnicity. Their history of inhabiting this land for generations stretches back so far that it is difficult to trace. To this day, the traditional architecture still covers an area of about 1 hectare, and the area continues to be inhabited by original residents, maintaining the traditional way of life.

On a steep slope near a cliff stands a watchtower over 10 meters tall—twice the height of surrounding towers.

This is the iconic watchtower of Xie Luo Fort. It has four floors in total and is estimated to be over 300 years old.

This watchtower is a typical example of historical Ersu residential architecture. Its distinctive feature lies in its walls, which are built from natural flagstones and are over 1 meter thick. The clay layer on top still bears the handprints of the builders. Except for the wall facing the courtyard, the other three sides have no windows. Upon closer inspection, you can see trapezoidal gunports embedded in the walls, each about one foot high and half a foot wide. The wall facing the courtyard has its doorway on the second floor, and access to the tower requires a wooden ladder.

This watchtower served as a defensive structure in wartime and as residential housing in peacetime. It stores a wealth of historical, military, and cultural information. Having endured the passage of time, it still stands on the hillside, quietly safeguarding the people who live here.

Other typical residential watchtowers are divided into upper and lower sections: the upper part includes the main hall, bedrooms, and kitchen, with a hearth and a hearth altar (zuotang) in the main hall serving as a living room; the lower floor functions as a livestock pen or storage space. The rooftops are often covered with earth and adorned with white stones. The Ersu Tibetans worship white stones, believing them to be sacred objects capable of communicating with spirits, ghosts, and humans, discerning truth from falsehood, good from evil, and driving away evil while attracting good fortune.

In the first half of 2013, Xie Luo Fort was included in the first batch of China’s Traditional Villages list.