What is it about?

The Loplyk (also written Loplik; endonym Loptuq) formed a small group previously settled at the Lop Lake (Lop Nor) in the Tarim River Basin. With an economy based on fishing and reeds, this semi-nomadic Turkic group adapted to the arid conditions and scarce biological resources at the fringe of the Taklamakan desert. Up to the 1950s, when they were resettled by the Chinese authorities, they could fulfil most of their food and material needs through fishing, foraging and hunting. The article discusses the history, origins, customs, local knowledge, subsistence, lifestyle and adaptation strategies of the Loptuq from an ethnobiological viewpoint, using travellers’ narratives and scarce sources on this now extinct group.

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Why is it important?

Only historical sources can now provide information about how this people managed the difficult conditions they lived in, and although the sources are scarce, interesting data can be extracted. Today, the descendants of the Loplyk/Loptuq fishermen live in villages and small towns, having lost their language, culture and traditions. Their unique culture as marsh and desert dwellers has been destroyed, and knowledge about how to subsist in the desert is also forgotten. Their local knowledge is valuable, however, because of the rapidly expanding desert due to climate change, and drying up of central Eurasia.

Perspectives

Deserts are complex ecosystems and we need far more information than is available today about them, how they function and how humans have survived in arid areas around the world. The example of the Loplyk/Loptuq is unique, and from an area which today is practically impossible to visit due to the fact that the Lop Nor, previously a thriving lake at the end of the Tarim River, has been used by PR China for nuclear tests until a few decades ago.

Dr. Sabira Ståhlberg
Independent Scholar

Read the Original

This page is a summary of: Loplyk Fishermen. Ecological Adaptation in the Taklamakan Desert, Anthropos, January 2010, Nomos Verlag,
DOI: 10.5771/0257-9774-2010-2-423.
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