Identity and Boundary: A Research on the “Holy-Secular” Cultural Landscape of “Na-Panmu” Settlements of Di-Qiang Ethnic Group in Tibetan-Yi Corridor

The “Holy-Secular” cultural landscape in ethnic settlements is the externalization of religious forms, religious cultural psychology, and sacred space production modes that have been accumulated and merged over a long period of time in history. It is the most complete visual expression of the collective identity of an ethnic group. This research takes the settlements of the “Na-Panmu” an ethnic group and its branches in the Tibetan-Yi Corridor as the objects, ranging from the settlements and buildings caused by population migration, differences in the living space, historical politics, and religious cultural implantation. Starting from the cultural landscape morphological differences, it points out that different ethnic groups establish their own ethnic identities and boundaries through the construction of the “sacred mountain-settlement” relationship, the “sacred landscape-settlement” relationship, and the deduction of the sacred path. The concept of “residence in ancestors” reproduces the concept of “sacred-vulgarity” in the settlements we summarize as the “Holy-Secular” cultural landscape models, such as the “sacred center”, “man and Nature spirits” and “multiple integration”, and deepens the understanding of the development history and evolution law of the “homeomorphous-different” cultural landscape in the multi-ethnic settlements of the Tibetan-Yi Corridor, and the understanding of the diversity and ecological civilization of the “harmonious and yet different” cultural landscapes among ethnic groups.