Gyadrul

The Gyadrul were feared warriors, settling much of upland Duran.

The Gyadrul (Namkha: བརྒྱསྦྲུལ), Hundred Drul, or sometimes Drul, were an assortment of ethnic groups which invaded and settled Duran during the period of the Namrong dynasty, the first major Nampa Valley state. Believed to be uncivilised by the Namrong due to their unsedentary lifestyles, artefacts have been recovered which instead attest to skilful metalworking and their skill at weaving is attested in many historical records.

Though viewed as related or confederated peoples by the Namrong, recent genealogical and historiographic research into Gyadrul typesites has revealed that they were likely successive waves of migrations of peoples displaced by the expansion of the Shangean state to the south which violently assimilated other ethnic groups. The Gyadrul migrations occured over a period of roughly 700 years, with varying degrees of violence between the Namrong state, migrating peoples, and established people groups in the Duranian highlands. The mountainous regions of the South Coian Massif functioned as a shatter zone, absorbing large and diverse populations of refugee groups. For much of the Namrong dynasty, the Gyadrul were seen to be the major existential threat to the state's existence. As the Xiang dynasty emerged as a larger existential threat, Gyadrul groups were settled in border regions more frequently and the terminology was eventually phased out.

Many of the modern day hill tribes are descended from the Gyadrul, as while some tribes would be wiped out others were able to successfully settle the highland regions. This has affected the usage of Gyadrul as a term, as it is viewed as highly derogatory in the modern context.

Naming

The word "Gyadrul" (Namkha: བརྒྱསྦྲུལ) first appeared in classical court annals around 650 BCE, coinciding with the early expansions of the Xiang dynasty in Shangea. The term is formed from the words བརྒྱ gya, meaning hundred, and སྦྲུལ drul, meaning dog. The word drul was used to designate the way that the Gyadrul "fled northwards like stray dogs driven away, and now scrap amongst themselves and with civilised peoples for their leavings". The Shangean term used for such peoples was 北狄 Běidí, meaning "Northern Barbarians". In modern times the term Drul is often seen to be a slur against tribal peoples in Duran.

Culture

A reproduced Gyadrul animist mask, at the Chenpodrang Museum of Ethnic Minorities.

Little is known about the cultural practices of the Gyadrul, as they did not use a written language and much of the Namrong writings upon their society is dismissive and of doubtful reliability. Given the diversity of people groups to which the label was applied to, the Gyadrul were undeniably heterogenous and would have had a variety of social organisations and heirarchies. Much of the current knowledge of Gyadrul culture has been obtained through corroboration of archaeological findings with the oral history and folklore of modern hill tribes which claim ancestry from this period. It is known that most of the migratory groups were composed of clans or former states, and that methods of pastoralism and slash-and-burn agriculture were either their traditional means of subsistence or had been adopted during their transit. Slave raiding was prominent, suggesting that slavery was a widespread institution. The religious rites of the Gyadrul are also unknown, but masks have been found which suggest that they followed various forms of animism.

Legacy

The impact of the Gyadrul invasions upon Duran has been very significant. Though the Namrong dynasty survived the successive migrations, it was forced to eventually permit their settlement in much of the upland reaches of Duran. This resulted in a loss of land, while the successive wars and slave raids were taxing on manpower which weakened the Namrong state and contributed to its defeat by the Xiang dynasty. The settlement of tribal populations contributed to the major cultural diversity of the modern Duranian state, with these peoples sharing cultural practices and other facets of life. An estimated 31% of Duran's population is composed of hill peoples, while intermixing of communities and assimilation means that this total is likely far higher.